LOVE

I thought I knew what love was when I told my parents and my brother I loved them. Then I met my husband and found a new love, it wasn't more or less but it was different. Then I had my son and I now know the true meaning of unconditional love...the most intense love a human can feel is the love they have for their children.


My son has made me realize so much about myself...I am incredibly strong, I can survive with very little sleep for weeks at a time, I can go without eating a hot meal and not even mind it, I don't mind making a fool of myself as long as I make him smile, I don't mind smelly baby feet I will even kiss them, I don't mind pee, poop, or spit up as long as it is his, I don't worry about little the things as much because he is my top priority, I would do anything for him. 

*My Sweet Little Boy*

He lights up my life with his smiles and fills my heart with joy and happiness...he is my son!!!

* Huxley *

what happened?

I thought we had a good routine going with Huxley and then last night he threw us a curve ball. We got him down for his evening nap around 7pm and apparently he was ready to sleep b/c we had to wake him up at 8:30 to try and do our night routine but he barely got a bottle down and diaper changed then he was out again. So instead of trying to wake him again I put him down in his bassinet. Since his schedule was all messed up he decided to wake up at 1:30am and was wide awake he didn't fall asleep until 3am then a half hr later he was awake and crying. Since I knew he didn't need a diaper change and didn't need food I let him cry for about a half hr. Then I let him suck on my finger and he was out again. This time he slept until 6am. So now we don't know what we should do. I am thinking we will try and put him down for a bed a little earlier, maybe around 7:30 or 8pm. We will just try and follow his sleepy signs I guess.

In other exciting Huxley knew he almost laughed yesterday, I was blowing on his tummy after changing his diaper and he got super smiley and made some weird noises similar to an almost laugh. It was damn cute and now I can't wait until he starts laughing.  He is just waking up from a nap right now so I better go play with him and feed him.

Let me know when your baby started laughing.

Great Night with Huxley!!!

Last night was the best night so far, Huxley did so well! He went down for bedtime pretty easy around 9pm and didn't wake up until 3am then after a quick change and feeding he was back asleep in his bassinet by 3:30am and didn't wake up again until 6:15am. It was amazing!!! Also yesturday he did great taking his naps, it only took about 10 minutes to get him down and he slept great. He is a happy, well rested little stinker and I am loving it!!!!

I am now a firm believer in helping your child create better sleep habits by following their drowsey signs and getting them down for a nap and bed before they become overtired and then create a sleep schedule based on this. It is working great for us so far.

Cry it out? or Answer to every cry? What do you think?

  I thought I would give you all an update on how things have been going with Huxley and our sleeping routine. So far things are going betterr, we still have a long ways to go but they are definately better. He is sleeping in his bassinet at night and during naps so that is a huge improvement. He is doing good with sleeping 5 or 6 hours straight but then after I feed him and get him back down he thinks w/i the next 45 minutes to hour he needs to wake up to play which is cute and all but not so fun at 4 or 5 in the morning. So after reading Dr. Weissbluth's book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child  we decided that we would let him "cry it out" so he would learn to self- soothe himself back to sleep and not reinforce 4am play time. It wasn't too bad, he woke up at 2:30am to eat then fell asleep quick and was back in the bassinet by 3am then at 3:50am he started fussing a little, we ignored him after 10 min he calmed down for a few minutes then started crying again never getting too worked up but definatley not really happy. After another 20 minutes I decided to do a quick diaper change just to make sure that wasn't the problem. I didn't make eye contact or talk to him it was all business, he tried to get my attention by smiling and cooing so I knew he just wanted to play. I hugged him, gave him a kiss, told him I loved him and put him down to cry some more. Finally at 4:55am I fed him again while still in the bassinet and afterwards pure silence, he was out until 7:30am when he woke up happy and rested like nothing happened. I knew this was the key to teaching him how to sleep better. I know some don't agree with this strategy and think it is cruel or heartless but it really seemed to work and he actually for the first time fell asleep in his bassinet and stayed asleep w/o needing to be rocked and shushed. So I am going to continue to follow this strategy to help Huxley learn to sleep better and to get the rest he needs. This morning I started to rock him and soothe him to put him down for his morning nap but he was fighting it so I put him down and let him cry for about 10 minutes then picked him up consoled him, rocked him for a couple minutes and then put him down while he was drowsy but not fully deep asleep he layed there for about 5 or 10 minutes then cried for about 30 seconds and was out. This was a great improvement b/c usually we go through a struggle of holding and rocking util he is asleep, putting him down then he wakes up and I do it again and we do this about 3 or 4 times. One quick last thing I want to say before any one judges this method is please do some research b/c there are many child Psychologists that say it does not harm your child in any way to let them cry so they learn to self-soothe themselves to sleep, however with that said never allow your baby to cry when sick, soiled, hungry, or for extreme prolonged amounts of time. I judge by his cry how serious things are and then decide when enough is enough. So I hope this works for us, let me know what you think? What did/do you do to help your kids go to sleep and stay asleep? Have any of you tried the "cry it out" method?

When is your kids bedtime??

Ok so I am reading a wonderfully informational book that my dear friend Crystal is letting me borrow it's called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child I am only about 1/3 of the way through it but it got me wondering when is a good bed time for an infant? I know each child is different and the bedtime changes with age however, in this book the author, Marc Weissbluth, M.D. recommends an earlier bedtime to ensure a rested child that is happy and healthy and I mean early like between 6ish and 7ish for most infants (4 to 11 mo) and young children (1-3 or 4 years old). I think this is very early and if I was to start doing this I would not see my son in the evenings at all b/c I don't get home from work until 6:30 or 7:30pm. So I was curious as to when you all put your children to bed and how it has changed with their age, what struggles you went through, and how you started setting up a nap/bedtime routine??