Swingless: Day One

We have given up the swing. I mean it. We are done with it.

Yesterday was the first day:

Cal struggled to go down for a morning nap. I could feel myself getting frustrated because he was SO tired, but he just wouldn't give it up. I was rocking him to sleep and I should have just let him cry it out. At any rate, I rocked him to sleep and he slept for 45 minutes.

I talked with a good friend in the afternoon who told me about getting her twin boys back into a routine/retraining them and she said her nanny/nurse told her that they have to cry it out and learn that you aren't going to go in and pick them up every time they cry. Soooo...

For the afternoon nap, I put home boy down in his crib and he screamed for 22 minutes and then was sound asleep for over 2 hours. It was great!

Cal went down for bed around 8:30 ish and I sat him up in the crib (I have found that he likes to sit up and then lay down where he's comfortable, as opposed to me laying him down in a spot). He cried for about 10 minutes and then.... HE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! We didn't hear a peep from him until 6:30! YAY!

If that lamb swing is the cause of him not sleeping through the night until now, I might scream..... but I love that swing so much......

here's hoping day 2 goes as well as day 1!

Easter at the beach! (and a sleep update...)

Happy Easter to everyone!

Last Wednesday, I drove down to the beach with Cal and my mom. Eddie was staying back to work (and play golf on Friday morning!), and was driving down later. On the way to the beach, I was talking with my mom about Cal's sleeping and she was convinced that she would be able to "break" him of his sleep habits while we were gone.....

Wednesday night, my mom said she would get up with Cal. He woke up at midnight (right on time!), and I got up with him, but my mom came running in. She shooed me away and said she had it under control. I went back to bed and listened to Cal scream at the top of his lungs until about 12:30. I walked out into the family room and my mom (who NEVER gets flustered) was blown away! She said she had never seen a baby fight sleep like that! She wanted to try for another 30 minutes, so I waited until 1:00 and then went out to get him. My mom was dumbstruck. She thought FOR SURE she would be able to get him down. Now she knows what I have been going through! He went down finally and was up again at 5...

Thursday at the beach was super busy....and Cal did NOT NAP! Everyone tried rocking him to sleep, but he never napped for longer than a few minutes. I think every nap totaled 45 minutes. The crazy thing is, he was happy as could be the entire day! No crying, no fussing, just laughing and smiling at everyone! Go figure! Thursday night, I gave Cal some Tylenol because I really think he is teething like crazy. We fed him dinner, and I also switched and gave him 2 veggies earlier in the day and then for dinner gave him a fruit and some oatmeal. After dinner, he had a bath and then played and played and played. Once he rubbed his eyes, I took him and had him down by 9:00 (later than I would like, but at least he was down!). he stayed down until 6:00! We all celebrated on Friday!

There was a repeat performance Friday and Saturday nights-- it was AWESOME! I thought, are we over this horrible hump?? Saturday night was so good-- he woke up at 5:15, but I fed him and he went back to sleep until 8:45! And we were supposed to go to church at 9! OPPS!

We got home last night (Sunday) and Cal went down without a problem.... but he woke up at 11:30, 2:00, and 5......sigh.

I did have a revelation though: the lamb swing has GOT to go. I am too tempted to use it for naps, and it is not smart of me. We travel too much, this kid has GOT to learn to nap in his crib! That's all there is to it!

This morning, I worked for about 25 minutes to get him down (he was sooooo tired), and he slept for 40 minutes. This afternoon, I put him down and let him cry it out (it took 25 minutes to cry it out), and he's been asleep for 40 minutes now.....we'll see how long it lasts! BUT he is in the crib! PHEW!

And finally, here are some pictures from Easter weekend at the beach:

Cal with his Easter basket!

My two boys

Love my sweet little guy

With a new hat from the Easter Bunny!

An update (again), this time with pictures!

Let's see.... last night was....interesting. I read an article in a magazine yesterday about sleep "retraining" so I was determined last night to "get 'er done!" Cal did not nap yesterday at ALL, so I knew he was going to be tired around bed time.

At 6:45, we bathed him, read him a book and I nursed him-- time for bed. Well, at least, that's what we thought. Cal had a totally different plan. I put him down at 7:00 and he screamed. I went in and sat next to his crib (as the article said to do) and he screamed even more. He screamed for a solid hour and a half straight. When I went in to check on him, he would grin ear to ear and start this little move that can only be described as jumping up and down while lying on his back..... he was WIDE awake and not ready for bed! So, I gave in (a big no-no, I know), and let him get into his jumper-oo. That is one way for sure to wear the little guy out. At 9:15, I carried him upstairs and nursed him. He fell sound asleep immediately. THEN, I smelled the poo. He pooped while in his jumperoo and I didn't realize it until I was nursing him and he was already asleep. ACK! I carried him into the nursery and changed his diaper as quickly as I could....would you believe the little monster slept through the changing????

I put him down and he was out like a light.....until 1:00. He woke up then and as I was feeding him, the huge storms hit our area. Hank is terrified of lightning an thunder and he had a fit! He was crying and howling non-stop.... not good! I finally got Cal down, but Hank was up for another 2 hours. When he is scared, he bangs his head on my side of the bed over and over and over again while crying. I finally got him asleep (thank you, Benadryl!) at 3:30 and then Cal woke back up at 4:45.

If you take Hank out of the equation, it would have been an okay night.... (how sad is it that I am rationalizing like that?)

Thinking back on all of the issues.... we had daylight savings time and then we had the 2 hour difference in Costa Rica. When we were trying to get him to bed last night at 7, that was 5 in Costa Rica....no wonder he wasn't going down. We just have to work to get him back on NC time. We will get there.... I know we will.

Here are some pictures from lately:

What do you mean I have to go to bed after this? Nah, I'd rather stay up alllll night long....thanks!

Staying up all night is fun! Look at this smile....this is when I was supposed to be napping! (note from momma: it's hard to get too frustrated when he acts like this ALL the time...)

Going to visit the Easter Bunny!!!

Update on my lost mind....

Okay, I might have been a bit dramatic in my last post.... maybe not. It's been a rough few nights here in the Williamson household!

Yesterday (Saturday), Cal took a wonderful afternoon nap in his crib. He was down for several hours, so I was thrilled. Perfect time to get things done! Eddie came home while he was sleeping so I even got to take a walk with just Hank.

He went down around 7:30 last night without too much of a fight....well, we started getting him down at 7:30 and he was asleep just after 8: not too bad!

Cal woke up at 12:00 SCREAMING. I went in to check on him and he was soaked. Not just a little damp, but 100% drenched. His jammies were stuck to him, he was so wet. yikes. So I quickly changed his diaper and his outfit, which got him allllll kinds of fired up. He went from screaming to laughing to screaming again every 5 seconds. I fed him and got him back down again. He woke back up at 1, but I put the paci in and he was back asleep again right away.

At 5, he started screaming again (I am not exaggerating when I say screaming-- it is LOUD!). When I went in to get him, he had peed through another outfit, and this time was even wetter than before! He was soaked AGAIN! I had to peel the jammies off of him and this time, the crib was completely soaked.

The kicker is: HE IS WEARING 12 HOUR DIAPERS! HA! I laugh at those diapers.

I brought him in bed with me because I wasn't about to change his crib sheet at 5 in the morning, and he slept until about 6 ish. At 8, I tried to put him down for a nap and he wasn't having it! He was super happy and "talking" like crazy, but he would not take a nap! Finally at 11:00, after no nap, I took him over to my mom's house to play for a while. Momma is exhausted and needs a little relief! My mom took him as soon as I walked in the door and sent me on my way. She told me to go home and sleep (so what have I been doing? Grocery store, cooked dinner, changed Cal's crib sheet, 2 loads of laundry, and now blogging--ha!). I am missing him like crazy so I am going to go get him in about 20 minutes.

I forgot to buy some new diapers at the store-- I heard Huggies has an overnight brand that works well for little boys..... I am going to go get those before I pick him up! We need them!

Thanks for the help you all offered. I have been giving him some Tylenol, and that seems to help calm him down at night. Now if only he would just sleep from 7-7. Will that ever happen?????????

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! I will try to take some pictures to post soon! :)

Losing my mind: need help!

Dear blog readers,

Realllllllly need some help here.....

While we were in Costa Rica, Cal wouldn't sleep in the pack-n-play. Normally, he would have just cried it out, but in the hotel, we couldn't do that with other guests around, SO, Cal slept in the bed with me. Now that we are home, Cal will NOT sleep in his crib. AT ALL...

The past few nights have been as follows:

7:30 Cal goes down to bed

8:30 Cal is still screaming

9:30 Cal is finally asleep in his crin

11:00-12:00 range Cal wakes up and starts screaming-- he gets diaper changed, fed and then WILL NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP!

Two night ago, he woke up at 11 and I didn't get him back in his crib until 1:00. I will rocking him, swaying him, etc etc, and he would fall sound asleep in my arms, and then wake up again as soon as I put him down. Last night, he woke up at 12 and at 2:00, Eddie and I were at the end of our ropes so we brought him in bed with us and he crashed.

WHAT DO WE DO??? I am literally at my wit's end. He may be teething??? Although I do not feel anything on his gums. He has been eating more, so I would think it would hold him through the night, but he is still waking up (and then not going right back down).

He has been napping in his swing, mainly because I am about to lose my mind and I need that peace and quiet time, and I think that is part of the problem. I just put him down for his afternoon nap in his crib and he has been s-c-r-e-a-m-i-n-g for about 20 minutes now.

Honestly, I think he is training us, when we should be training him....you know? I am beyond frustrated because it is like we are taking huge steps backwards after we were doing so well. I guess that's what travel will do to you.

Any tips y'all can offer on "retraining" a baby would be most appreciated! Right now, I am typing this to keep my mind off of the screaming that is coming from upstairs. And who likes to hear their baby cry??

love,

Momma is going crazy :)

Pura Vida!

(Pura Vida means good life, and it is what everyone says in Costa Rica!)

We made it! It was a great trip, and we had a wonderful time, but I am sooooo glad to be back in the US!

We flew to Houston and spent the night in a hotel, and got up early on Tuesday morning to get to the airport and head south for Costa Rica! Cal was great on the flights and slept most of it and played quietly when he was awake. It has gotten MUCH harder to fly with him though because he now likes to sit up and look around, or stand by holding on the seat in front of him while jumping up and down :) He also has discovered his wonderful voice, and when he's excited, he screams at the top of his lungs! As you can see from some pictures I have posted in the past, he is excited a LOT, so he was screaming (happy screams) a lot on the plane! At least they were screams of anger!

I am very thankful that we had Eddie's parents there with us to help. It would have not have been a relaxing vacation at all if we didn't have them. They would take Cal to the shade and sit with him while he napped or played so that I could get in the pool and read my book and relax. Eddie's dad also enjoyed an afternoon nap, so he would take Cal up to the room in the air conditioning so they could cool off and rest together.

One thing that was tough was Cal napping/sleeping there.... he would snooze out on the lawn chair for about an hour in the morning, but he rarely took an afternoon nap, no matter where he was. He would be exhausted at night and we would try to put him down in the hotel provided pack-n-play, but he wasn't having it at all. He would scream and scream and scream (not the happy kind....). If we were home, we could let him cry it out a little bit to get him to fall asleep, but we couldn't do that in a hotel. SO, we had two beds in our room.... Eddie slept in one and Cal and I slept in the other. How romantic, right??? :)

One last story: the first day there, I could tell Cal was starving, so I fed him some sweet potatoes. He devoured an entire container of it along with some rice cereal. We went down to the pool and he was so excited to be in the water, and was splashing and playing hard. next thing we know, projectile orange comes out INTO THE POOL! He kept going and going and going.....all the while smiling ear to ear! He felt much better afterwards! hahaha We just quickly got out of the pool and walked away. It all dissolved quickly..... opps!

Here are a few pics, but they are all up on the mobile me site! It was a great trip and I am so glad we made it home safe and sound!

LOVES to try to walk!

Sitting in the sun sporting some super cool shades!

The three of us playing in the pool (no orange puke here!)

Sitting with Poppy

Sitting with Grammy

I'm leaving, on a jet plane!

Tomorrow is the big day! I have spent most of today running around like crazy and packing.... a LOT is going into this trip!

Going through my mind non-stop are the following thoughts:

--which stroller to take?

--take a car seat or not?

--how many suitcases should we take?

--if eddie has one bag, I have one bag, Cal has one bag, and we have a roll on carry on (4 bags), -how are we going to push the stroller and drag all of the bags?

--do I bother to take baby food through security? or just feed him once we land?

--how many changes of clothes do I need to pack in a carry on, since Cal seems to go through outfits like I go through a box of cookies.

--should I take rice cereal for the plane ride? what if we have a layover....?

--how much food should I take for Cal for a week?

okay, the list goes on and on. I am SUPER excited about the trip, but a LOT of planning goes into this to make sure everything is where it should be. And it just dawned on me that I don't have a backup outfit packed in the carry on for Cal..... must go do that now!

We fly tomorrow afternoon to Houston, collect our bags (all 83 of them!), then spend the night in Houston (ugh), and on Tuesday morning, we are Costa Rica bound! I am most worried about the transitions from airport to hotel, but it is what it is and we will make it all work.... we have to! :)

I have a J. Hilburn appointment tomorrow afternoon and then we are good to go!

We will have lots of pictures to post when we return! :)

6 months old!

Cal will be turning 6 months old on the 16th, but we will be on a plane, so today we went and got 6 month pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. They have a great deal where you pick one picture and you get a TON of pictures from it, but then they talk you into purchasing a bunch of others too..... I am a total sucker and couldn't pick. AND my mom stopped by the studio and she picked out some of her favorites too. The best part was we were given a CD of every single one of the pictures. Some of them are cheesy, but I think they are pretty fun....

All of the pictures are up on the mobileme gallery, if you are so inclined to view them.... can't believe my little man is already 6 months old! Time is FLYING!

PS-- he is eating like there is no tomorrow..... LOVES sweet peas! Screams at me if I am not feeding him fast enough! haha-- sooooo not like his father!

doing a little shopping

I caught a picture of Cal "shopping" in J. Crew....We leave Monday for Costa Rica.....SOOOOOO much to do before then!!! ACK! (and yet, here I sit blogging..... seriously??)

My little sweet potato....

Cal is now eating sweet potatoes like a champ and just had his first taste of sweet peas and loved them too! Here is a pic of him devouring sweet potatoes....