I'm Back....From Outer Space

As it turns out, I scared the majority of my friends and family with my last post. :-) I did not mean to freak everyone out! I just felt bad that it had been over a week since my last post and I thought I should tell my readers that I was just too busy to blog. Colin started screaming bloody murder as I was typing, so I had to cut it off. I should have elaborated!! There is absolutely nothing wrong with me that some sleep and a live-in nanny could not take care of. ;-)

The majority of the problem is that Colin is not sleeping. When Colin won't nap or go to bed, I don't have a chance to post. I am frankly tired of writing about sleep issues...I feel like I have written about it to the point that it is tedious. I will just leave it with the fact that I am slow to post when we are not sleeping around here.


I took Colin for a haircut today and decided on a whim to try a super short cut. The stylist spiked his hair at the end and he looked like a little man!!!! He looked so extremely grown up that I doubt I will be spiking his hair again in the near future! He is my baby, for heavens sake! :-) Here are some pictures of his awesome big dude hair:

In other news, our pools are open again!! We took Colin this evening for his inaugural 2009 swim and he had a blast. The water was frigid and it was pretty windy, but he still managed to have a blast. Afterwards we stopped for snow cones and a pizza from Papa Murphy's. The snow cones were also the first of the season and SO YUMMY! Colin shared with us and thought they were pretty great. Colin had his bath and washed all the pomade out of his hair and he once again looks like my boy. I like the short cut and think it will be perfect for summer. Check him out in the pictures from the pool...my little fishy! (and no more spikes!)

I am so glad the pools are open again! This gives us something to do that we both love...yea!! Colin has gone through some major changes lately (which I think contribute to his sleep patterns changing). He will no longer allow a bottle to come near him, when a week ago, he was still taking one at night. He talks up a storm now, with probably 50 words exploding over a week. Tonight, for example, Blue's Clue's was going off the air and Colin announced, "BYE BYE, BOOSE KOOSE!" That is not one of the shows we watch normally and it was just on in the background. But Colin said it as clear as day. It was crazy adorable. He says all kinds of things now that amaze me and notices tidbits to point out. If he sees anything that could possibly be used in a kitchen, he yells, "COOK!". If he sees a broom, vacuum, mop, or any cleaning tool, he yells, "CLEAN MESS!" It was so cute today as he was getting his hair cut....hair was falling all around and he starts yelling (loudly!) "OOOOHHHHH, MESSSSSS!!!!". So sweet!

We have also run headlong into the terrible two's. I swear we are going to be forced to stay away from society until this runs it course. It is time for bed, so I will save that part for another post. Let me just say that if your child skipped the terrible part, I don't want to hear it. :-)

HAIL!

We had a storm last night that was absolute insanity. I quickly realized at around 10:30pm last night that I had never been in a serious hail storm...until that moment. The thunderstorm kicked in right as we were heading to bed at 10pm. We did not give it a second thought at first...but then the hail started. They were golf ball and SOFTBALL sized!!! It honestly sounded like we were being bombed. I have never heard anything so scary in my life! It was so insane that Jer and I looked at each other and literally took off running for Colin's room. I was in a complete panic. It sounded so horrible that I thought he was going to be scarred for life. Okay, so I am being slightly melodramatic. It WAS insane, though. Colin stirred, but quickly put himself back to sleep. Luckily it was over rather quickly, but it left a lot of damage in our neighborhood. Jer and I keep both of our cars in the garage and it was quite obvious this morning who does not. There are car windows out all over the neighborhood as well as a lot of roof damage. Our roof looks okay, thank goodness! Our grill took a major beating; both side tables got shattered (!) and we had to pick up the remains of it this morning. I am very thankful that the grill seems to be our only loss from the storm.


Colin has not taken a nap or gone to bed without a fight since Jer got home. He even woke up last night at 2:00am needing to be rocked, which has not happened in months and months. It seems that he is afraid that Jer is going to leave again. Poor baby!!! He gets very upset and reaches for Jer every single time we move to put him to bed. It is breaking Jer's heart a bit, but I think he should shake it off soon.


Here is the adorable Colin shot of the day...Jer was using the Swiffer and Colin decided to "help". Precious little boy!!

The End

I finished Twilight. I am FORCING myself not to go to Target right now and get the next one. This way I can actually sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I buy it. HA! :-)

Colin slept until 7am this morning, breaking his week long run of 4:30 wake-up times. I sure hope that he does it again tonight. I am worried it was a fluke simply because he had exhausted himself. Jer was so sweet this morning....I shot out of bed to the sound of Colin crying and immediately felt too rested. I looked at the clock and saw it was almost 7:00. The room was dark and Jer was already gone. He got ready for work in the dark, skipped coffee and breakfast, and even left without getting his lunch out of the fridge...all in the hopes that Colin and I would stay asleep and get much needed rest. I have a wonderful husband!

I will not go to Target, I will not go to Target, I will not go to Target.... hehehehe!

Chuck E Cheese!

We decided to treat Colin to lunch at Chuck E. Cheese today and he had a great time. He had more fun with the cup of coins than anything else, but that is okay! :-) We were mainly trying to wear him out...he woke up last night at 2am and I was up with him until 5:30am. NOT GOOD. Hopefully he will sleep well tonight!

We are now up to date with Dexter and I am very sad about it. Now I have to wait for Showtime to release season 3. I told Jer that we are not starting any new series dvd's unless the whole show is OVER so that I can finish the WHOLE THING. I have zero patience and having no idea when I will be able to find out what's next is driving me crazy. Yes, I am a little nutty. :-)

The Blah's

Things are pretty messy over here at the moment! Colin has been having some serious sleep regression issues ever since his cold started and things went from bad to worse last night. He woke up at 12:00am and I was unable to get him back down until 4:00am. That includes a couple of very long cry it out sessions and then the two of us watching the middle of the night shows on Noggin. I really can't tell if the problem is his cold or maybe just internal changes that are messing with his body clock. He had finally made the official switch to one nap, and while it still varies in length, he seemed to be doing good and was even sleeping later in the morning. That good spell is apparently over at the moment and I am feeling much like exhausted newborn mama again.

I am feeling particularly sad this week because Jer is going out of town on Friday and will be gone for over a month. He has been offered the most amazing promotion at work that requires a month of training in London. I have never been away from him for even close to that length of time before and I am honestly trying not to think about it. Colin and I are going to miss him so much!!

Exhausted and Rambling...

Colin woke up again at 4:00am. I spent one hour trying to get him back to sleep (read: letting him holler) and gave up at 5:09am. Minutes are rather important these days and I am starting to track my days by the exact time. I think the hardest part about this stage is not being able to just fix it. My friends and even books warned me that this stage would happen and that sleep patterns would disrupt, but I still find myself looking for a way to make it stop and help him. I know he needed to get more sleep, but could find no way to give it to him. Today I tried something new and went in to him. Without talking or turning on lights, I went in and changed him and gave him a warm bottle while rocking him. I thought it might soothe him the way it used to and he would go back to sleep. Nope....I still had to let him cry and he still did not go back to sleep. So we have been playing since five and I am trying to shake off the extreme fatigue. I am ready for things to settle down and him to get back in his groove. This is me....hanging in there. He is in a great mood and very chirpy and happy this morning as usual, so I know he is not sick. I am thankful for that!

In other news, I have been trying to do little bits of Christmas decorating this week as I get a free moment. Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and it is a family tradition to do the official kick-off to Christmas that night by firing up all the lights and decorations for the first time. I want to have all the big stuff done so that we can have fun and put up the finishing touches together like decorating the tree. I hope this will be one of the traditions that Colin remembers and loves the most...spending Thanksgiving weekend drinking hot cider and putting out all the cherished decorations. I have the mantle just about done with the garland and decorations, as well as lighted garland above the kitchen cabinets and entertainment center. Since I am so nervous about the tree with a toddler, I wanted to have some fun stuff up high where Colin can't reach, but we can all enjoy. It will be Christmas central in here, but I love it! I plan to display some of my favorite cherished ornaments on the mantle nestled in the garland rather than on the tree where Colin can get them. I also purchased the replacement bulbs for the outdoor lights and I am all set up to force Jer outside to hang lights on Sunday. I really want them to go up this weekend so that we can do the official lighting on Thursday night. I know he is thrilled at the prospect. hehe! This is going to be a very busy weekend with Thanksgiving prep and getting everything taken care of for Meredith's wedding coming in only two weeks! I hope Colin sleeps so that I can get some rest, but I am doubting that. :-)

To finish my random post, does anyone know who sells socks with rubber grips on the bottom? I have found lots at Target, Wal-Mart, and Children's Place that have rubber words on the bottom, like "2 -3 years", but that is not enough grip for us. I want the kind that look like socks but have almost a complete rubber bottom! I can't find them anywhere and it is too cold now for Colin to be barefoot in the mornings. He runs a lot and slips all the time. I need grippers! If anyone knows where to get some, let me know! I hope everyone has a great Friday.

OH NO!

Colin woke up at 3:48am this morning. I spent a solid hour trying to get him back to sleep and gave up. This is one rough week! I wish I knew what was keeping the poor little guy from sleeping, but my instinct tells me that his body is just growing and going through changes that are disrupting him at the moment. I feel like a zombie, but trying to just tie a knot in my rope and hang on (to quote my mama's favorite saying).

We went to Marshall's today to mill around and look at Christmas plates. As we were in line to check out, Colin decided that he needed to talk to the woman in front of us. He yelled out to her and she turned around to look at him in the cart. He then starts grinning from ear to ear, both dimples of full display, and does his move where he ducks his head and looks up through his eyelashes. This move is getting so practiced that it makes me laugh out loud at his audacity! This woman was older and not very "welcoming" in her demeanor, but I saw her smile slightly despite herself and turn back around. Colin then leans out and grabs her arm! I quickly said, "Colin...no no!" as she turned around to look at him again. He grins and yells, "OH NO!!" at her as loud as he can. This takes her by surprise and she says, "Oh no!" right back to him...to which he responds with, "OKAY!". Now he is laughing loudly and bouncing up and down alternating between "OH NO" and "OKAY!". By now he has her eating out of the palm of his hand. He offers her his juice and bear. She starts cooing to him about his dimples and hair and then looks up at me and says, "Is he for real?". I laughed and told her that he was indeed! She launches into how happy and adorable and well behaved he is. She continues to gush about what a precious angel he is and I was forced to jump in and say, "He is indeed the most adorable boy on the planet, but I do need to point out that I have been awake since 3:48am." Colin picked that moment to yell "OH NO!". Exactly. :-)

I guess now would be a good time to point out that Colin has new words. That would be OH NO and OKAY in case you had not figured that out. :-) He throws things on the floor just so he can say "OH NO!". It is really the cutest thing ever. I think he will have a lot more to say any day now...he seems to be moving forward full steam ahead!

Sleeping In!

Today was a rather interesting day for Colin. He woke up at 8:15 am. It was insane. I was so worried that I went in twice to make sure he was breathing! He had his shots at the doctor yesterday and I knew he was extremely worn out from the traumatic experience, although that is really worn out! It worked out well because after such a late sleep, he only needed one afternoon nap which he took at noon. He went to bed this evening at his normal time and was not too fussy at all. It would be awesome if he would start to reset his clock and wake up a bit later in the mornings to help get rid of the early nap, but who knows. He has been waking up later for about the past week, making it at least until 7:00am every day. Considering the fact that Colin has woken up at 6:00am like clockwork since May, that is quite a change. I can sense that he is going through a lot of internal changes right now, so I am just watching and waiting!

Tonight as Colin was having his bath, I started pointing out all his bath toys by name to him. I was asking him for his dog and he would hand it to me and so on. So at one point I said, "Colin, can you say DUCK? DUCK?" and Colin looks at me and says, "DU - ck" just like that. I had to laugh to myself...I have talked to so many of my friends in the last 24 hours about Colin talking and everyone has said that he would do it when he was ready. You are all right...Colin may not have 5 words right now, but he is obviously just fine and will talk when he is good and ready. My friend April said it best...being a first time mom is SO TIRING sometimes!!!!! Seriously, does the constant worry ever get easier?!? I doubt it. :-)

Naps and Fall Fun

Things are interesting around here at the moment. Colin is on the road to losing his second nap for sure now and I feel like I am just along for the ride at the moment. We have been having all sorts of nap battles for at least the last month. Some days are great and he takes two naps like always, but then lots of days are not so good and he takes one nap and battles the other one. The last 4 days have seen Colin skipping the morning nap. Before that, it was the afternoon nap that he would skip. If Colin is going to one nap now, I need to start helping him move that nap to the middle of the day. When he wakes up from a nap at 11:00am, it is far too long a stretch to be awake until 7:00pm and he gets really upset for the last two hours of the day. We have been experiencing a lot of fussy baby evenings around here lately. I am going to keep trying to follow my instinct and put him in bed if he is showing signs of being tired. He is fighting these naps tooth and nail, but I know he still needs them if he is getting that fussy by 5pm. I think my only option at this point is to hang on for the ride and keep trying to get him sleep. I can certainly see the difference switching up his schedule is making. He has woken up twice this week in the middle of the night, which he has not done since May. Colin is textbook....when sleep schedules get messed with, he starts night waking.

Yesterday Colin and I went on another picnic in the park and it was actually chilly in the shade!! I had us sitting at our usual table under the trees and ended up having to move into direct sunlight because it was too cool for Colin in his shorts!! How great is that?!?! Last night I made dinner with all the windows in the kitchen and living room open and Colin played on the patio with Jer with I cooked. It was so wonderful. Last night we even slept without the air on! I found a local farm that is tucked away behind our neighborhood (I can't believe this place exists and I just now found out!) and I plan to take Colin over to check it out today or tomorrow. This weekend we are taking him to the Pumpkin Patch (if the rain holds off), so we have a lot of fun outdoor activities to do in the next few days. I love fall!!!

Doctors and Bedtime Changes

You will all be proud to know that I made it through my visit with Dr. White today without crying. I am obviously a pillar of strength. Both of the nurses that I loved so much were there and since I brought pictures of Colin, I got to show him off to everyone. Dr. White was his usual wonderful self. He walked into the exam room and exclaimed that I looked fantastic and had lost weight. That is complete hogwash...I most certainly have not lost weight, but rather than point this out, I did my best "aw shucks" expression and then stuck my pictures of Colin under his nose and said, "LOOK!!! I BROUGHT PICTURES!". Yes, being this big of a dork is hard work. He looked through all my pictures, declared Colin beautiful, pointed out his dimples (this kid is going to get whatever he wants with those dimples. I think I should be worried) and asked if I was ready for round two. I told him I needed just a bit more time. :-) It was great to see him and the exam went well. Apparently I am the picture of health. Thank goodness!

There has been a major change in the world of Colin and to be honest, I am both elated and sad about it at the same time. In what can best be described as flipping a switch, Colin has stopped letting me rock him to sleep. I have always put Colin to sleep using motion...either walking around holding him while singing to him, or rocking him. He would always cry if I put him in the crib awake, so I would just rock him to sleep first. About a month ago, he started changing slightly. He would let me rock him for several minutes with his head down on my shoulder but then as I laid him in his crib, I would notice he was still awake. He did not cry, so I would just leave him in the crib awake and he started putting himself to sleep the rest of the way. I was so pleased with this change and happy that he had started this on his own rather than me forcing him into it. So great! Well, about a week ago, he snapped! He will not let me rock him at all! This includes naps and bedtime! We go into his room after our routine and I sit in the chair with him and sing to him while he drinks his bottle, which is still the same as always. But after the bottle is done, so is Colin! He kicks his legs out and pushes against me with all his toddler might! So, I just get up and deposit him into his bed where he rolls over onto his blankets and snuggles down all by himself. What just happened here?!? I have been waiting for him to snap out of it and want to be rocked again, but I decided tonight that it is pretty much officially done. My little man goes to sleep all by himself now. He snuggles with "Peanut" and "Bear Bear" and his blanket and just goes to sleep on his own. He can't be bothered with being rocked by Mama anymore. I know this is a good thing, but I sure did love rocking him. Tomorrow he is going to be driving and bringing home some girl that I already don't like. :-)

A Rough Night

Colin woke up crying just before 11pm last night. He was screaming bloody murder. I laid in bed for about 15 minutes, watching the monitor and waiting for him to put himself back to sleep. This did not happen and the crying continued at a fever pitch, so I got up and went in to him. We were then awake together until about 2am. He was exhausted, but he simply would not go back down. I tried every single trick in the book and nothing worked, including letting him cry. He would fall asleep in my arms, but as soon as I would lean over the crib, he would start screaming again. I could feel the tension in his body even as his eyes were closed...I could tell that he was keyed up and was just waiting to scream when I attempted to move him. He had no fever, nothing was wrong, he just wanted to be held. And rocked. And that was that. The problem with this whole scenario is trying to figure out when to go to him and when not to. I knew immediately after I went to get him that I had made the wrong decision. I was worried that he was ill or something was wrong, so I went in. Had I stayed out, he would have finally put himself back to sleep. It would have taken about 45 minutes since he was so worked up, but he would have. Colin is the kind of baby that sees me and then he will NOT go back down. This has been our problem all along. Once I enter the picture, the night is a loss. It always takes hours to get him back down at that point. But I am a mother! I don't want to take the chance that something is really wrong! Now that he sleeps through the night 95% of the time, when he does wake up screaming, I assume he actually needs me. This is not always the case, but I can't know! Anyway, I just had to vent. After a night like that, I am a waste the next day. I just wish that I had magical powers. ;-)

A New Woman

I am starting to heal. Colin slept from 7:30pm to 7:00am last night. I actually woke up on my own today for the first time since Colin was born. I am slowly starting to feel like a human being again and it feels amazing. I am starting to feel like I can actually get active, take Colin for walks, start the workouts that I wanted to start months ago, stop watching the clock with baited breath for nap time so that I can collapse into some sleep. I am so thankful that Colin is getting the sleep he needs. I was a good mother before, but now that I am getting rest, I can see that I will be an even better mom. I waited too long to get us help. I can see that now!!

The Nap

Colin slept through the night again last night and let me tell you, I am one happy camper. I am slowly starting to become a normal woman again...it is amazing what a few consecutive nights of sleep will do for you. I am embarrassed to say that I went almost 10 months without more than 3 hours of sleep. So I am really glad that things are finally coming around. My new problems is naps. Everything I read says they are critical and super important. The good nap is the cornerstone of a well rested, happy, smart child. Now that Colin is getting such good sleep at night, he is really confused about nap time. I now see that he was taking such great naps during the day because he was getting horrible sleep at night! His naps this week have been all over the place...some 20 minutes long, others 2 hours. He took a two hour nap this morning and is currently crying in his crib rather than take his afternoon nap. After I finish this post, I will go to him and I guess this nap just ain't happening! We will keep at it....I know I can somehow get this all figured out. Is sleep this hard for anyone else?!

Don't get me wrong...I will take nap problems over night sleep problems any day of the week!! THANK GOODNESS!! :-)

Turning a Corner!!

It has been a rough week here, but things are turning around in a big way. After reading all the material on infant sleep (from the "no cry" Dr. Sears book, to the "some crying" Kim West book, to the "let cry" of Dr. Weissbluth) and I made up my own plan using all the knowledge that I gained. I liked the Kim West plan best on paper...she advocates putting a chair beside the bed while the baby goes to sleep. Every few days you move the chair further from the bed until you are out of the room. I really liked that one...Colin would cry, but I would be right beside him and he would know I was there. That is until I tried it in practice. Colin freaked out, and I mean freaked out, to see me sitting there right beside him but not picking him up. I tried for three days and he would stick him arms out of the bars and scream like you would not believe. I decided this method was torturing him, but it helped me see what would work. Dr. Weissbluth said that it was fine to keep using the soothing method that I had been using to put Colin down as long as I was consistent and did not pick Colin up every single time he cried during the night. This is where I was confused...I was walking, rocking, and singing Colin back to sleep each time he stirred during the night. The book said that I had basically trained him to do this. He had also still been eating once during the night and the way to tell if he needed that food was if he fell right back to sleep after he ate it. The answer to that was no...the feeding no longer put him back to sleep. He just kept crying and was always awake for an hour at least with each night waking. So last weekend I started to cut it all out. I have been rocking, walking, and singing him to sleep just like he loves, but I have not been responding to every single whimper he makes during the night. And it is working! For the past few nights, I would just listen to him every time he got up and he has gradually been going from all out screaming for me to lightly crying to little whimpers to no crying at all last night! He went to bed at 7pm, woke up screaming at 8pm (I had forgotten Motrin and immediately went to him and gave him some) and then he slept until 5:30am!!! Without waking up once!!! It has been a nightmarish few days, but I have been keeping a sleep log and you can clearly see the changes in the right direction. Dr. Weissbluth's preferred method is to put the child in their crib, shut the door, and not go back in the room until 6am. That doesn't work for us either, so I have really just modified everything into the plan that works best for us. So Colin still gets the rocking and loving to sleep that he enjoys, yet I am still teaching him to put himself back to sleep during the night. I am now also paying attention to what the cries actually sound like. When he started screaming last night about an hour after I put him down, I could hear the pain in the cry and could tell it was not just him stirring. I won't promise not to go to him in the night, but I can now see that if I just wait 10 minutes or so, he will go back to sleep on his own and does not need me most of the time. I used to run to him as soon as I heard a peep, thinking if I caught him soon enough, I could get him to stay asleep. What I had really been doing was waking him up at times when he was just stirring and would have naturally gone back to sleep!! I think what really helped me to move forward with this was all the reading about how important it was for Colin to get good sleep and that I had actually been harming him with all the picking up at night. He needed a lot more sleep than he was getting and I am helping him get it now, rather than hindering it. He is so happy today...he finally woke up smiling! His naps are still a complete disaster area...I guess he was taking such awesome naps before because he was getting horrible sleep at night. So now I am dealing wtih that, but it is okay. This is so hard on me...to embark on this mission when I am already so sleep deprived has not been easy, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Runny Noses and Sleep Books

Well, Colin still has his cold that started back on 5/3. It has not gotten worse, but he is still so snotty! Yesterday he was grabbing at his right ear all day, so I decided to take him to the pedi just to be sure it had not escalated into an ear infection. We just got home and I am glad to report that he is just fine with no infection. Our clear record of no ear infections remains! I feel very lucky that Colin has been so well...so many of my friends babies are battling ear infections and six of them (including my nephew) have gotten tubes put in within the last few months!! I feel so badly for them! Colin is a very healthy baby...he weighed 23 lbs, 2 oz this morning! The pedi had him open his mouth and his exact response was, "WOW...here is your problem!". Apparently my little man is still in teething hell...not only is he cutting those top two teeth, but his gums are bright red and swollen all the way around his mouth. The poor guy is getting all of them at the same time!! He thinks this explains why Colin has been so upset and needy the last few weeks and it certainly makes sense. I wish I could take the pain away for him!

The main reason that I wanted to check with the doctor is because it looks like Colin is going to have to do some crying at night and I wanted to be sure that he was not in pain from an infection before I began. I am going to give the cold another couple of nights to go away...I tried to start our sleep plan, but with Colin's cold in full swing, after a minute or two of crying, he is covered in snot and can't breathe. I can't start this when the little guy is sick...it just won't work. So I am hanging in there for a few more days. I am about half way through with the Weissbluth book and let me tell you, I am learning A LOT. I had no idea how much I had to learn about sleep...I am not only learning about Colin, but myself also. I can't tell you how much I recommend this book to all of my mommy friends...even if your child is sleeping through the night, it is well worth the read!!! I was way WAY off in a lot of my perceptions about sleep and I am so glad that Dana told me to get this. Almost immediately, I learned that I have been putting Colin to bed too late. He has been going down at 8:00 or 8:30 and that is far too late. I had no clue!!! The doctor suggests that babies should be going to bed by 6:30 or 7:00!! That hour difference seems like no big deal, but just that short amount apparently changes a lot. He suggested that night wakings and early risings can result from a too late bedtime. So last night I put Colin to bed at 6:45 with no problem (I thought he would not go for it)...and he slept until 6:00am as usual. He really did need that extra hour!!! He woke up briefly at 11:00 and he put himself back to sleep and then he woke up crying at 1:00. I fed and rocked him (since he is sick) and put him back to bed and he slept until 6:00. That is a really good night for Colin....no fighting me at all. So the good doctor is apparently right about something! I am going to keep reading and try to soak up all the information that I can. Hopefully Colin will be much better soon and we can really start our plan of getting him more sleep!!

Growing Up!

Well, it is time to make note...more changes from the little man! As you will notice in the first photograph, he loves to drink out of his sippy cup now. He has been drinking from it for about a month now as long as someone holds it for him, but last week he took the cup out of Jer's hands and has been on his own ever since. It is the cutest thing. As you will notice in the second picture, Colin now wants to "walk" all the time. He would have me bending over and breaking my back like that all day. As for his interesting "outfit", we had just finished dinner and were heading to our bath. His new hat was sitting on the kitchen table, so I stuck it on his head to be funny. I am sure that will be one of the pictures that I will bring out for a girlfriend and he will put his head in his hands and ask God why I am torturing him. I love it. ;-)

I have been spending every available second today reading about baby sleep and I have my new game plan all ready to go. I am going to start on Sunday night and I am ready to go. I have read the whole book that Melanie suggested to me and started the one Dana suggested this afternoon. I feel pretty silly...I now see that a lot of the things that I have been doing for Colin have actually prevented him from learning to put himself to sleep. I knew from reading all my baby books that after 6 months, Colin was old enough to put himself to sleep, but at that point I just did not know what to do. I thought that Colin would just start sleeping through the night when he was ready...I see now that I am going to have to help him. I actually feel better knowing that I have a plan and it does not involve letting Colin scream all night by himself. I can actually do this!

A New Day!

Colin must have felt all the sleepy vibes everyone has been sending us because he slept through the night for literally the very first time last night. He woke up once at 2:30 briefly and put himself back to sleep. He woke up for the day at 6:20. I know this is because he was exhausted after this week of being sick and not sleeping at all. He is in good spirits this morning and I, of course, feel like a new woman after getting an actual night of sleep. When he wakes up from his nap we are going to make a trip to Barnes and Noble to purchase the books that my friends suggested. It is time to get some real help for Colin...I know he needs more sleep than he is getting and it is my job to figure out how to make that happen. I have read the Dr. Sears Baby Sleep book (it was a shower gift), but it does not offer any real help for babies that have serious trouble sleeping. I love the ideas behind the attachment parenting that the Sears family promotes and fall in step with a lot of their practices. However, they have not helped much when it comes to sleep. They advocate responding to your child when he cries, but they don't offer much help for the baby that will not put himself back to sleep. So I am getting ready to try the methods that worked for Dana and Melanie and see what happens. Since both of them have happy babies who sleep, I am getting on board!! :-)

Now I have a question for my wonderful mommy friends...did any of you start letting your babies drink milk before the one year mark? I know that after a year Colin will transition to whole milk (I can't wait!), but I am thinking that maybe since he is about to be 10 months old, he should start trying some in a sippy cup every now and then. Right now he drinks water in his sippy cup when we eat...should I give him some milk then? I was wondering if you started to get them used to the taste early or if you held off....

Night Battles

I have not been posting much this week because it has not been a very good week in general. I also know that all I seem to write about these days is Colin's trouble with sleeping, but that is my life right now. I try to remind myself that this is my journal as well as something other people read so that I won't feel so bad about writing the most boring stuff in the world. :-)

Colin's cold this week has caused a bad sleeping situation to go to worse. Now instead of waking up two or three times a night to pat his back and gently whisper him back to sleep, I have to comfort a child that is literally screaming bloody murder. He won't go back to sleep and it takes an hour to get him back down. An hour of me rocking him, walking with him, singing to him...all while he is screaming. He is not running a fever, but he is stuffy and I think the rough breathing is the culprit this time. I have the humidifier going, the vapo steam going, but to no avail. His cold is getting better and I really thought he might get better sleep last night, but no. On top of his middle of the night issues, he has woken up for the day at 4am all week long. I spent a solid hour each morning trying to get him back down and finally ended up watching TV and making coffee. I am actually starting to feel sick at this point and I know it is exhaustion. Jer got up with him yesterday morning so that I could get a couple of hours of sleep before he had to go to work, which was very helpful. I decided last night that with Colin's cold being better, I was going to attempt to let Colin cry it out if he tried to wake up at 4am again. So, sure enough, at 3:45 Colin woke up and started to cry. I had given him a full bottle at midnight, so I know he did not need food. I went in, made sure his diaper had not leaked, put his pacifier back in, and kissed him goodnight. I closed the door, turned off the monitor, and put ear plugs in. And Colin cried for 45 minutes straight. Full on screaming. I could hear him through the ear plugs, but at least it slightly muted the sound. I laid awake listening the whole time and after 45 minutes he passed out. I do not consider this a victory at all because he then woke up at 5:22. Yep, all that screaming for 45 minutes of sleep. I thought that I might be helping him by letting him cry...I thought maybe he needed to just get it out if meant he could get much needed sleep. But it did not work at all. I just can't let Colin scream like that every time he wakes up. I don't know what to do....I am honestly not worried about me, I am worried about Colin. I want him to get enough good sleep and I just don't know how to help him do that. Hopefully this, too, shall pass.

Other than the sleeping issues, things are going very well. My new short hair is a snap to get ready, which is a god send!! I am so glad that I cut it!! Colin is as happy as ever...he is always smiling at people when we are out and about. Everyone that meets him always comments on how happy he is. I think that is the best compliment I could ever get about Colin. If he is happy, then I am doing my job! I hesitate to write about the hard times on occasion because I don't ever want Colin to read this blog and think that he was a burden to me. I would stay up all night for the rest of my life for that little boy. He is literally the air that I breathe.

Just A Swingin'

Today was back to the regular grind...all the guests are gone and Jer had to go back to work. Colin went back to his 2 hour morning nap today and I was beyond thrilled. He also took a good hour and fifteen minute nap this afternoon, so he was in great spirits all day. I am pretty sure that Colin was probably not taking good naps last week because he wanted to hang out with his grandparents instead! :-) After an afternoon excursion to Central Market with the little man, I made chicken with mushroom cream sauce for dinner and it turned out really nicely. Afterwards we decided to take a walk with Colin over to our neighborhood park. Last week they installed a new swing set and we were excited to let Colin try it out. He LOVED it!! We got some really cute pictures to boot! How awesome are those?!?! I swear I could just eat him up!!

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

It is 4:30 in the morning and I am sitting here in front of the computer like a zombie. Colin has had a bad night...I have been making great headway in getting him to sleep longer at a time, but tonight has been a complete reversal. I am sure it probably has something to do with teething, but I am too tired to really think straight at this point. He has been up just about every two hours since he first got up at 10:45 (he goes to sleep at 7:30 sharp). Our home office is right beside his bedroom, so I here I sit waiting to see if he will possibly fall back asleep. Since he is talking loudly to himself right now, I doubt it. Colin has a very hard time sleeping...he falls asleep at night like clockwork, but he wakes frequently during the night. I am a very bad sleeper myself...my mom says I was even worse than Colin was as an infant and I still have issues to this day. It seems like I may have passed this trait down to my son, and I hate that! The poor little guy!