She did it!

I know it's been forever but since this seems to be my way of keeping track of my babies' milestones, I squeezed in time for a quick post.

She did it---she sttn for the first time!! We had some long random stretches when she was little and her sleep had no pattern but all night ladies and gents. All Night! I think it was the combination of starting to add two meals of baby food at daycare, some for dinner (along with all of her regular daily bottles) and an extra ounce in the bedtime bottle.  BAM.

If only it was the weekend and I could sleep until she wakes up and see how long she would actually go!

Other things to note:

• PS can "almost" sit up on her own...she'll stay up if you get her there for a bit, but tips easily. But, it's changed a lot in the last week or so, so I think we're close.
• No teeth yet.
• She's a talker...cooing, vocalizing, screaming etc. 
• She adores her brother--grabbing at him whenever he's near. Trying to play with him. I can tell they'll have a lot of fun once she can chase after him.
• In one week, we managed to sell our house and buy another--they both close a month from yesterday. Yikes.
• 20 days left of school!!!

No one mentioned...

that after 17months of wishing for LM to sleep longer, more, earlier, at all---that I'd be sad that he's tired so early these days and I get so little time with him after work. Last year, he stayed up until 830ish each night (and yes, slept crappy) and now he's down for the count by 715 (and sleeping better). And I miss him!!!

Who would've thought I'd be sad about sleep?? Somewhere an exhausted new mama thinks I'm nutso!

Here, mostly.

Sorry for being so MIA.

LM is still not sleeping well at night....our best night in the last two weeks was him only waking up 2x. Well...last night he sttn but that has been the crazy fluke---and he didn't get an afternoon nap. I'm not sure what made it happen, but he slept 12 hours through. I'm hoping that it doesn't have to do with sleeping in until 830 the morning before...because we've got five more weeks of work before that can happen on a regular basis. And by then, I may have to be committed. The ever-so-anticipated 2nd tri energy boost has yet to arrive....I'm 15wk+1....surely it will get here soon! So, in the long-winded manner in which I arrived here, I've been exhausted and crashing to bed right after LM so I've been spending very little special time with my laptop. I've been keeping up with all of you on google reader...but it SUCKS to comment on. Unless there's a special way I haven't figured out besides opening each blog in the browser.  So, I'm here...and I'm keeping up with you :-) I promise.

Things are about the same here...LM is oh so close to walking (sleep regression?). He loves to monkey crawl to where he's going and stop a few feet short, stand up and wobble a few steps to his destination. He's strung together about 5 steps before toppling over. He's got the drive--just not the balance! He's got two new teeth (front, bottoms) and has been imitating a lot of words. He'll say "ot" (hot) and "dngr" (danger) while climbing the stove, he says "doki" (doggie) and crawls to his high chair when he wants to eat. He's also started crawling over to the kitchen cabinets where his bottles are kept and banging/crying when he wants his bedtime bottle. We've dropped his bottles down to 2 5oz'ers (one right before the am nap and bedtime). He did unexpectedly well at dropping the post-lunchtime bottle this past week so I'm hoping the early one goes well too. I'm just hesitant about dropping it as he doesn't really eat much for breakfast---mostly fruit and cheerios. Sometimes he'll do a thing of yogurt but overall, he's not much in to protein for breakfast---a few bites of eggs etc before refusing. So, I'm not sure if it's good to drop it yet. Any experiences with this? He's still hitting/biting etc for no real reason...and of course everything I read talks about what to do when they're doing it out of frustration (either because they don't get their way or can't express themselves) and that doesn't seem to be our case. He's really big on our reactions right now to LOTS of things but it's hard to just ignore things like hitting to get them to stop. All these things aside though...he's still this amazing little creature who amazes me daily with his actions---you should see him rolling a ball with his feet/hands up in the air--all the balance of a seal, my boy!! He's recently discovered his fine motor abilities and is rocking his gear toys and trying out a couple of puzzles.

Pumpkin Seed is still with us and growing well (well...based off my growing bump!). At my Ob appt this week, there was a strong heartbeat (quickly found too...phew!) and my blood pressure was good. I've lost pound...even though I'm eating like crazy. But, I tend to have this little person who likes to eat off my plate so perhaps my portions aren't what I think they are. That and running after him and a class of children may be having me burn more calories than expected. Either way--she told me to eat more....yes ma'am!! I went in to the appointment ready to beg for a 20wk u/s appointment for the "big" u/s since my next two appts. are 18wks and 22wks. Since I'll be out of town on vacation (oh please go better than last years) during week 22, I really was hoping she'd let me come in earlier (around 20wks) so I didn't have to wait until 23wks. But--because she rocks, as soon as she looked at the calendar (ok...I assume she looked at the calendar. It's all on her laptop but I imagine it was a calendar), she said ooh next appointment is u/s time! Yay!!! I'm super excited for getting to find out what we're having in just 4weeks!!!! I really thought I'd end up waiting until the end of May or worse, June. Though I haven't really given it too much thought yet--I need to research some more old wives tales in my ample free time to see how things are going compared to LM's---I'm going boy. This pregnancy has just seemed really really similar to LM's, except for a couple of things. But--that's another post :-)

That's all for now....I've got 5weeks left of school (the kiddos and I are both ready for summer vacation) and a ton to do. So, I better go get going while LM is napping.

Thanks for still reading!

Any day now....

LM must be about to walk any day now....at least that's what I'm telling myself is the cause of this sleep regression.....I'm basically a zombie. I feel like I'm getting dumber as the days go by...between mom brain and pregnancy brain, I'm one step away from needing a caretaker. Tonight I almost took teething tabs instead of my vitamins...EEK.

And to think, for spring break he slept like an angel....always messing with my head this kid :-)

Gumballs and stuff

I've got several bits of things that I want to share with you all, and I've been trying to find time to get them all in their own posts....but.....it's not happening. So, I will be giving you a bit of a "gumballs in a machine" post. A little variety to spice up your Thursday night.

• Aggressive Much?

Little Monkey has always had a bit of a temper. But, it's usually housed itself in the form of opinions and squawks when he doesn't get what he wants at the correct speed. However, lately, he's started hitting. He does it for various reasons---when he's mad, tired, just because. There seems to be no rhyme or reason. Usually it's TH or myself that are the recipients of it...and it's usually when he's on our laps or being held. He doesn't seek us out just to hit, but rather does it as a reaction to something.

We've tried saying "no" "no hits" etc in our firm teacher voices. We've tried putting him down immediately after saying it. We've also tried ignoring it. However, the result of most of these is him smiling and laughing at us. I've got no idea on how to work this out....I lack the proper time for research. At least he's not really doing it at daycare. (knock on wood!).

Oh...and he's also started biting. Not out of anger, just crawling up and biting various body parts. But, he's also doing it to furniture, his fingers, toys etc so I assume it's related to teething. Though, our efforts to share with him that this isn't ok aren't any more successful than the hitting.

Is he just too young to get it? Or has he already decided he doesn't respect us and will be "that kid" in society?

• Climbing

LM has taken to climbing. Now--our house is pretty much as baby-proofed as we can make it (with the exception of a couple corner guards and drawer latches in rooms he doesn't go in). However, it appears that the little man loves to climb. He's been trying to climb his baby gates--finding minute success with the cheap one we've been throwing up in the back sliding door to let in fresh air in this AWESOME March weather. I hadn't really worried much about it since he isn't tall enough to climb up on the furniture and the stairs are gated at top and bottom.
But then...because he loves to mess with me....he started doing this...


yeah....he uses the cooktop as a drum.

• Dreams

The pregnancy dreams are out of control.....why didn't someone remind me about these??? I had forgotten what it's like to dream constantly ALL NIGHT LONG. It's exhausting. But--worse than that, I'm starting to wake up mid-dream and not realize it. I've woken TH up twice this week talking about things in my dream....including telling him to turn on the light because LM's hands were sticky and I needed to clean them off. I also whacked him good during one dream because I was dreaming he was falling off a cliff and I was "saving him". Yeah....he didn't appreciate my efforts :-) I've also been dreaming about work a lot---my favorite was parents calling to yell at me about RIDICULOUS things (although...that does happen in real life). My goodness...so tired. Luckily, LM is sleeping better at night, most nights not waking up (once he goes to sleep!).  I can't remember if this gets better or did I just get used to the dreams?

• Coming out

We've come out about the pregnancy to our parents (ok..not my dad yet but I've got this master plan about a Big Brother shirt but LM WILL NOT smile/look at the camera/not move suddenly while wearing the shirt). But--after spring break next week, it's time to come out at work. I'll be 12 weeks this weekend and I'm ready (though I'll probably make sure I can hear the HB on the doppler). I'm not as excited about sharing the news at work this time....I'm not sure that my maternity leave has faded from their minds (there was some drama because my team is a bit dysfunctional without me there...no..seriously...I mean it. They just had a convo in front of me this week about I can't have another baby because there's too much drama when I'm not around to keep people in line....awkward.)

So....we'll see how it goes. Part of my lack of excitement probably stems from the emotional disconnect that I'm still feeling with PS. I'm hoping this gets better...I feel a bit in a funk about it. Pre-Post Partum Depression anyone? Maybe I'm just burnt out about work and need a break to just relax.


So, those are my updates. I swear I'm going to work on posting more. I just can't seem to find the time/energy after LM goes to bed. I read everything on my phone...it's just a POS and going from Google Reader to the browser to comment screws up too much. I wish I could do it directly. Someday. Someday.