Sleep

Good news and bad news:

Lately it feels like I am tired all the time.  When Elizabeth was born she had her days and nights mixed up.  She slept great during the day and was awake most of the night.  After a couple of weeks when she finally turned things around, she would only sleep for more than a half an hour if someone held her.  It was so exhausting!  Finally around 2 months she started sleeping through the night, or only waking up once.  It was great!  I got lots of sleep and actually felt well rested most days.  Then she learned how to roll over.

She first learned to roll from her back to her stomach.  She would roll onto her stomach during the night, get stuck, get angry, and throw up.  Back to waking up 3 times a night.  Finally, she learned how to roll both ways; consequently she never stops moving.  Still waking up 3 times a night.

I was so excited to start Elizabeth on solid foods once she turned 6 months old because I thought, hoped, that the solid food would keep her fuller longer so that we could go back to decent sleep.  Nope.  She is still waking up 3 times a night.  Occasionally she only wakes up twice and occasionally she wakes up every 2 1/2 hours.

I am so tired!  I've tried to let her cry it out, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.  Now even getting her to sleep is a pain.  She used to go down pretty easy, but now it takes her 45 minutes to go to sleep, even when she is tired.  I have to let her cry pretty hard for about 10 minutes and then go back in and nurse her.  She is so exhausted at that point that she usually falls asleep.

Ethan has always been a great sleeper, even as a baby.  However, lately he has been getting up 1 or 2 times a night and climbing into bed with us.  Sometimes we take him back to bed right away and other times I am so tired that I just let him stay there so I can get some sleep.  Sometimes he sleeps, other times he just lays there until finally he asks to go back to his bed.

Ethan has also gotten to the point where he is basically done with naps.  Sad, sad day for me.  If he takes a nap he won't go to sleep until 10:30, but if he doesn't take a nap we usually have an emotional breakdown in the afternoon.  So instead of putting him down for a nap, he goes in his room for "Quiet Time."  He has to stay in his room (play, read books) by himself for an hour.  So far, this has worked pretty well.  I miss the 2-3 hour break the nap gave, but this at least gives me a little break and sometimes he is asleep when I go check on him at the end of the hour.


Now for some good news: Sam and I finally got a new bed!  Our bed frame was pretty old (I think it has belonged to my family for as long as I have) and it broke a couple of years ago when we were moving it.  We propped the broken corner up on wood blocks, but it still felt like you were sleeping on a slide.  Finally last week, after years and years of idea dropping (nagging) we bought a new bed.  I love it!  Not only does it look nice, it is way more supportive and it doesn't squeak whenever someone rolls over.  I will post pictures as soon as my computer and camera decide to get along.

I may not be getting any more sleep, but at least the sleep I get is a bit more comfortable.

August

Oh, what do you do in the summer-time, when all the world is green (or brown if you live in Utah)?  Play inside!

Normally I love to play outside and soak up the sun, but it has just been too hot and there's not much I can do while taking care of Elizabeth, plus looking at Pinterest makes me feel guilty that I never do anything fun or pre-school-ish with Ethan, so we have put our indoor time to good, at least better, use.  What have we done?

Homemade play-dough out of baking soda and corn starch.  Ethan doesn't really like to "play" with it, he prefers to roll it out and cut out shapes.

 

You got me, we also watch TV.  Ethan's favorite shows on Netflix are Yo Gabba Gabba, Blues Clues, The Cat in the Hat, and anything Thomas.  He also loves Tangled, Shark Tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Lorax.  This boy has crazy energy, but he loves to watch TV.  Sometimes when I'm going crazy or I want to run on the treadmill, I'll put something on for him to watch so I can have a little break.  I would feel guilty about this, but it's probably the only reason why I have any sanity left.

We also find all sorts of things to play with.  Sam pulled out his baseball glove and heard me call it a "mitt," he immediately ran to his room so that he could wear his mittens like Daddy.

We hit bubbles with the baseball bat.  No good pictures of the action, too hard to blow bubbles and take a non fuzzy picture at the same time.

We are still working on the bicycle.  He has a hard time with the peddling so Sam or I have to push his feet, it gets exhausting so we don't do this as often as we should.

Painting!

Finger Painting!

Moon Sand (flour and baby oil).

You may be wondering where Elizabeth is during all the fun.  Usually we do these type of activities during one of her naps.

And occasionally we play with our bazillions of toys.

Also during the month of August, Elizabeth turned 6 months old.  It's hard to believe that she is already that old.  She is almost crawling and is very good at rolling, pivoting, and scooting herself around to get where she wants.