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....

Sitting up!

My little man is now sitting on his own (for longer stretches that before). He can't get there on his own-- I have to sit up him, but he will stay that way for quite a while now! Sweet thing....

Rice Cereal

eating like a big kid:

what is this stuff???

uhhhh, not so sure about this, Grandma...

yummmmmmmmy! (when do I get to try the good stuff?)

We were going to wait to try rice cereal until after our trip because it would be one less thing to take with us, and we didn't want my milk supply to start dropping.

Cal had a reallllly bad night where he was up 4 different times, and my mom said he was probably not getting enough milk, and needed something else to satisfy him over. I believe everything my mom tells me, so I started rice cereal the next day.

For Cal's first feeding, I did it right after swim class this past Tuesday night. He was hungry from all of the energy used in class and chowed it down! It was too funny to watch him! He would grab my hand and shove it into his mouth with the spoon if I wasn't going fast enough. He had a little bit of a better night Tuesday night, but he was still up several times.

We tried again with the cereal on Wednesday. I couldn't get the consistency quite right and it was too runny, I think. He wanted nothing to do with it! He was spitting it out and shuddering as I was trying to get it in his mouth! Too funny....

Thursday and Friday, he had 2 servings of it and loved it both times, again, grabbing my hand to hurry it up. We are all getting the hang of it now. You know, I think this whole baby learning to eat thing is a difficult thing to figure out. When to introduce foods, how long to try things, etc, etc....

But Cal is loving his cereal and we will be taking it to Costa Rica with us! Guess that means I will have to feed him on the airplane....? sheesh.... hadn't thought of that obstacle yet! Right now, Cal wakes up and nurses, plays and goes down for his morning nap. Wakes up, nurses, plays for a while, and then after about an hour, has some rice cereal and then he gets changed out of his jammies and plays for a little bit then goes back down for another nap (the full tummy does him in!). He has his second serving of rice cereal while we eat dinner, then he has a bath, plays for a while, then nurses and goes to bed! He is still waking up in the night, but hopefully that will stop soon! (someone tell me that will stop soon.....)

Crest White Strips

Okay, this is just too weird not to comment on....

After Eddie and I got married, a stock photography company approached our photographer (and us) about purchasing the rights to some of our wedding pictures. We signed releases and were done with it. We honestly did not think anyone would actually buy our pictures, and we were sure we would never see them pop up. Uhhh.... we were wrong.

A year after we were married, I got a call that someone saw my face in Town and Country magazine in an advertisement for Amatokin Skin Cream. I have never heard of it. My mom and I went out and bought the magazine, and sure enough, there was a FULL page picture of my face--yikes! The as then showed up in O, Vogue, and a few other magazines. I thought it was hilarious, and that we wouldn't see any more pictures pop up.

About a year after that, we had a friend from Atlanta call and say she was just at Phipps Plaza and in the Bloomingdales there was a display for Amatokin and my face was the back drop--!!!!! WHAT?

Two month ago, my mom's friend in Indiana called to tell her that on the back page of the hometown newspaper there was a full page picture of me in my wedding dress advertising a bridal fair they were having the following weekend-- ha!

And now, I got an email on Monday night from a friend that said she saw me on TheKnot.com in a Crest White Strips ad. I didn't really believe her, but in the back of my mind I wondered if there was a chance it was one of my bridal pics. She took a screen shot and sent me the pic... yup, it's me! The next day, my sister-in-law called me and said she saw the ad on people.com! haha

Here is the ad:

caaaaaa-raaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!! Who would have thought?? Makes me wonder where else these pictures are that we don't know about..... hopefully not on an ad for a leaky bladder or anything like that-ha!

New Tricks!

This has been a fun-filled, busy week for Mr. Cal! I have been trying to take lots of videos of all of the new "tricks" that Cal is doing.

He is trying reallllly hard to crawl. He is still a ways off, but he lays on the floor face down and pushes up and starts moving his legs like crazy. You can just see the wheels turning like he is trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B. There's a lot of that on the video! He will reach for something and then lose his balance and roll over to his back (usually cracking up as he goes).

On Monday, I sat him up on a blanket on the floor and then backed away. He stayed sitting up for at least 30 seconds! I was so excited! On Tuesday, I sat him down and then ran to get the camera. When I came back, he was still sitting and playing with a toy! I was very impressed! When he toppled over, he didn't even freak out; just rolled to his belly and started playing with another toy! Guess that's why we have carpeting!

Cal's last trick is in the swimming pool. At swim class on Tuesday, we had the babies go under water. It was SO much fun! Cal loved it! Eddie came to the class with the video camera and got some great footage of Cal swimming.

I pieced the whole week (okay, the past 2 days!) together into this video:

http://gallery.mac.com/cewilliamson#100296

it's only Wednesday and it's already been a busy week :)

PS- Stephanie, if you are reading this, I had the BEST time at lunch with you and sweet Reagan today. Can't wait to do it again.....next month??? xoxo

Cal and Jackson in the bath

My nephew turned 2 in January. He is super sweet, and I just adore him. He is also the epitome of a two year old! While at the beach this past weekend, we tried to bathe the boys together.... this was the result.... yikes!

http://gallery.mac.com/cewilliamson#100291

HILARIOUS! :)

Check up!

We had Cal's 5 month check up last week (still can't believe he is already 5 months!). We got off with our doctor appointments since we had to push up one so he could get shots before we flew to Arizona. It was a great visit and I just LOVE our doctor.

Here are some of the stats:

weight: 17 pounds, 5 ounces (my arm muscles are beginning to show this!) (63rd percentile)

height: 25.5 inches (they had a really hard time with his height since he was jumping all over the place as they were measuring him, so the doctor doesn't think this number is accurate....)

head circumference: a whopping 45.1 cm (93rd percentile)-- he's got a big noggin!

We were given the green light to start with rice cereal, but it was suggested we wait until we get back from Costa Rica as that might slow my milk production (if he is eating less milk and more cereal), and we don't want to have to take rice cereal on our trip. We are keeping it as easy as possible traveling with him-- the last thing we want is a baby with an upset tummy in a foreign country! So, we will hold off on this until we get back!

That's about it for the check up! Little man is growing like crazy and is so curious to his surroundings. He reallllly wants to crawl. I took a video of him trying earlier today and will try to post later on....