Let the rolling begin!

I feel like so much has happened since my last post, and yet I'm sure that when I write it down, it won't seem like that much.

Let's start with Adam. He rolled over from his tummy to his back last week! One day I went to get him from his nap and he was on his back (he's a tummy sleeper), and since then, he rolls over in his crib all the time. I started putting him closer to the edge that he rolls to so he can't roll over, but that is just making him mad, I think. Sleep-wise he was doing much better again, but the rolling was a bit of a setback. In general, things continue to get better all the time, but we still have some pretty bad nights thrown in. I usually end up feeding him some time between 4:30 and 6, depending on when he wakes up, which isn't too bad. He'll then go back to sleep until 7 or 7:30 most days which is alright. 8 would be better, but I have to be patient!

Just at the end of last week, I decided to put him on a four bottle schedule for the day, plus the one breast feeding in the early morning. This means I am now dipping into my breast milk store in the freezer, since I am only pumping about two bottles a day and he only gets the one formula bottle before bed. This quite likely means breast feeding will be over in about a month or so, but I am still really trying to make it to 6 months. Pumping is a huge pain, but I'm determined that he will get the breast milk until then! The four bottle schedule seems to be working just fine (I thought since he was drinking 8 ounces at a time, he should be able to go 4 hours between feedings!), especially since he now gets cereal in the morning and at supper time. We started putting him in his high chair for cereal which he likes a lot better than when we hold him. He used to just cry and cry when we were feeding him, but now he seems to like it a lot better.

I have been trying to put him on a napping schedule, and having limited success - the morning nap is the hardest because we are rarely home all morning. I have an active toddler that needs to get out to playdates and the park and I just can't get him to have a good nap in the morning. He gets his sleep when he can, though - this morning, he fell asleep in his baby boat in the pool! The afternoon is getting better, though - there is starting to be a bit of a pattern to his sleep times in the afternoon which is really helping. He still struggles to stay up until 8pm, but I am not putting him to bed any earlier than that until he sleeps at least 12 hours at night!

As for his play, he still doesn't care a lot about toys, but his kicking is getting a lot stronger and he moves himself around quite a bit when he's on his tummy. Who knows - maybe he'll be an early crawler! He is starting to like Lynsey more, which is a big relief. I was getting so tired of telling her to leave him be all the time! She actually made him laugh the other day which was so precious!

Onto Lynsey now - she is becoming so independent in the pool! We have gone swimming quite a bit in the last few weeks, and she gets braver every time! I bought her some arm floats, and this morning, she was jumping into a chest deep pool all by herself (she actually ordered Brian to stay away from her and not catch her:)), not panicking when she went under water, just standing up again. I am so proud of her! I'm so glad she is getting so comfortable in the water and that she will never have the fear of water that I had growing up. It's exciting to watch! Her memory continues to amaze me, as she remembers the words from countless books and songs.

As for me, I feel pretty worn out these days. We've been so busy the last few weeks with outings and having friends over, all of which have been really fun (except one major meltdown at the zoo), but it has also been a bit exhausting. I struggle with trying to give Lynsey as many opportunities to get out as possible, but also balancing that with some more relaxing home time. We are always home in the afternoon which is nice, but until I start getting consistently more sleep at night (like the 8 hours I used to know and love), I will probably feel a bit overwhelmed a lot of days. I'm still functioning, but I continue to look forward to being back to my more energetic self! I feel like consistent good sleep is just around the corner . . . please let me be right!

If it's not one thing, it's another

As soon as things start looking up for my prospect of some day getting a good nights sleep again, something always happens. Last time, it was a cold. This time, it was a fever due to immunizations. Lynsey never had this reaction, and Adam didn't the first time, so I was surprised when I noticed that he was a bit cranky and feeling quite warm on Wednesday evening. He slept TERRIBLY that night - he had one good stretch at the beginning of the night, but at like 2 or 3 he woke up and misery overtook him (and us coincidentally). Tylenol seemed to help a bit, but for the next 3 days, he just wanted to be held all the time. We went to Edmonton on Friday and he was miserable there for the first day or so - not fun. He did get a bit better on Saturday and slept a bit better that night, but it was still not very good. This week has been much better since the fever is gone, but we now have a new problem - he is starting to fight sleep now! He used to fall asleep whenever he was tired without much issue, and now when he gets tired, he cries and fights. Very unfortunate. We are starting to conquer the hunger at night with the cereal and with him just getting older, but now this?!

We weren't really 100% sure he was ready to start crying it out yet, but over the last week we've decided that we're going to try it. Not fun during the night, but we don't know what else to do - he actually doesn't even really calm down when we hold him! He just needs to sleep and doesn't know how, so hopefully he can learn over the next little while. Falling asleep for naps isn't a big deal, he cries for a few minutes, I go give him his soother and he's done. However, staying asleep is a different story. After half an hour he thinks he's done - just like Lynsey always did! I don't pick him up if he wakes up after half an hour - I just give him his soother, rub his back, and leave. After 10 minutes or so I go back and repeat. He does eventually fall back asleep, so I'm really hoping that like with Lynsey, the time he cries will just keep decreasing until he stops waking up and crying when he just needs to go back to sleep. I'm working on getting him on a schedule, but it will probably take some time. One thing after another with this little dude! Oh, well - he's a healthy 19 lb and 26 inches, so I guess I shouldn't complain:). My little tubbo! I put him in his exersaucer today for the first time and he liked it - hopefully it will help me know how to entertain him at this in-between age!

I say this with caution, but I THINK we might FINALLY be getting over the final hurdle in the potty training! Since my last post, she has started just going pee on her own and hasn't had an accident in over a week. It seems like she is finally starting to recognize the sensation, and also (and possibly most importantly) cares enough to go to the toilet instead of just peeing in her pants. I know she can regress at any time, but I am so relieved that at least for now, there is not a lot of stress in this area. She has been wearing panties at night for the last little while and our suspicions were confirmed the other morning - she peed on the bathroom floor in the morning. She continues to want to wear panties at night so I'm letting her, since we've been catching her when she's been waking up and hence preventing accidents. I am hopeful that soon she will just make it to the potty in the morning on her own and, dare I say it, we would be DONE WITH TRAINING!

It's been a bit of a busy week and the lack of good sleep over the last 4 and a half months has really worn on me this week. I feel like I just haven't been myself for so long! I'm functioning, and some days are better than others, but I really notice it on a full week like this with a lot of playdates and going out a lot. We took Lynsey to Brian's softball game on Wednesday and it was very stressful. She got bored after about half an hour and started whining for Daddy when he was in the outfield, and wouldn't listen to me when I asked her to do or not do something. She is usually so well behaved when we're out that I don't know how to deal with this very well. I hate it when I am constantly scolding her - "Lynsey, don't do that. Lynsey come here! Lynsey, are you listening? Lynsey Lynsey Lynsey!". Argh I feel like people must think I'm way too uptight, and the truth is, lately I think it's probably true! I just need Adam to start sleeping better - consistently. I want to be able to deal with a bit of toddler disobedience without getting all exasperated. I want to deal with a potty accident without practically going into a depression! Soon, hopefully . . . :).

Lynsey's 2 and a half, Adam's 4 months . . . where is time going!

I can't believe it's May already - the last 4 months seems like just a blur in a lot of ways! We decided last Wednesday to give Adam some rice cereal. We had planned all along to give him cereal at 4 months, so this was just a few days earlier than planned. I had really high hopes that cereal would solve all our night problems, and it really has helped. Things aren't perfect yet, but on Friday night, he slept through the night for the first time! YAY! He went to bed at 9 and didn't wake up again until 6:40 - what a relief to know that he could sleep through the night under the right conditions! He hasn't repeated that performance, but the last few nights he has slept at least 7.5 hours in a row, and before cereal, 7 hours in a row was his best night and that only happened once. Last night was a bit discouraging because he was hungry again at 4:30 (his last night feeding is between 8 and 8:30 so it was still almost 8 hours, but still . . . ) so I'm debating giving him cereal in the morning as well. I really would rather not do that yet because that's just one more thing in his schedule to work around, but we'll see how this week goes. In any case, the improved sleep has been excellent for everyone!

Adam started grabbing one of the hanging toys in his gym yesterday! He's still not very interested in toys or jumping in the jolly jumper, but I can see a steady improvement. He shows no sign of rolling over, but he is very strong, has been from the beginning. It will be interesting to see how quickly things will progress once he becomes more interested in moving around. We took him swimming this morning! He really liked it! He didn't flail around like Lynsey did the first time I took her, but I could tell he liked it. He is also a bit younger than Lynsey was, to be fair.

Lynsey is now 2 and a half, and we have officially been potty training her for 2 months now. Every time I think we're out of the woods, she regresses a bit, causing a bit of discouragement. I never in a million years would have thought it would take her this long to catch on - how can she not JUST GET IT ALREADY! We are 99% sure she is peeing in her pullup after she wakes up in the morning, which is a bit discouraging, but not my biggest issue right now. She still just doesn't seem to recognize the need to pee until it is almost too late, so if we don't take her regularly, she is still quite likely to have accidents. Some days she pees voluntarily whenever she feels like it, but some days we have to force her to go after 4 hours. Oh, the joys of parenting a toddler! I am surprisingly becoming less stressed about it as time goes on, which I think is a step in the right direction - the last thing she needs is to see how much it bothers me that she still doesn't have this thing nailed. I have just released it to God at this point - I was doing a terrible job of handling it, so He can take it from here:).