The smile that lights up my life

Just climbing the slide

Cousins from Syracuse

We had some fun times with my Godfather/cousin and his girlfriend from Syracuse. One day we'll make it out there to see all my family on my mom's side. Caleb was excited to wear the Syracuse sweater they brought him. Orange, his fav color!

Nap Land

And we're back to the happy nap land. Caleb is once again taking those beautiful 1.5 hour naps two times a day. I'd like to think it's because he isn't teething anymore and his cold is gone. But, I think I know the real reason. It just so happens that I've been rocking Caleb to sleep since he was a newborn for his naps. I wait until his head is nestled and his eyes are fluttered shut, the binky hardly moving. I take in his breathing and baby scent. I wrap it up and hold on for a good 10 to 20 minutes. It's hard to stop rocking and place him into his crib. I don't want the moment to pass me by. And so one thing lead to another and 11 months later, still rocking. And much of the time he managed to sleep on his own for a good long while. But much of the time he also awoke after 30 minutes calling for his ma'ma. So I finally decided after a lot of advice from those around me to try and just put him in the crib instead of rocking him so long; and of course he slept for almost two hours twice that day! And then it happened again. And again. I laugh. For all those 30 min. frustration naps. It was worth it. But I'm glad I think I finally figured out the 30 minute problem! Well actually everyone else figured it out for me.
Tonight Dave put Caleb in his crib wide awake and he didn't even make a peep. It's hard letting go of all our rocking, but that doesn't mean we've stopped the cuddles. It's just a bit shorter. And even though I miss those moments, I also am so happy that Caleb is getting the sleep he needs without me.

It's a Happy Friday Because...

1. Caleb slept through the night again and seems to be back on track since his cold has left!

2. Finally took a good nap after a couple weeks of terrible ones that I had to save.

3. and because he took a good nap I had 1.5 hours to get stuff done for this weekend!

4. We get to see my cousins and Godfather from Syracuse this weekend! SO excited. They get to meet Caleb for the first time too.

5. It happens to be Friday which is always a good thing because that means we get Dad to ourselves for 2.5 days!

Happy Friday everyone!

Peek-a-boo

Sleep Again.

Just look at that little bum in the air. Priceless.

I feel like I always blog about Caleb's sleep but that's probably because I feel like sleep is such a big deal in our lives right now. So here goes my sleep rant. Caleb was doing so great after our second round of sleep training. Finally for the first time in 10 months Caleb was sleeping all night long in 11/12 hour stretches without making much more than a peep and required no assistance from us. We were in heaven!For about 2 or 3 weeks that is...
Then along came cold. Just when we were finally getting in some decent sleep. I felt so bad for my baby boy with drip drops coming out of his nose that I comforted and nursed him back to sleep. This only lasted a couple nights and then Caleb started sleeping through the night again. And then, I'm not sure what happened, more teeth? more cold? Caleb started waking up a couple times a night again and not going back to sleep for about an hour. Ug. Of course the chosen time of party time was 5 am till 6 am. And of course Dave wakes up at 6:40. Yuck. So anyway. This brings me to the point. We're on round 3? I've almost lost count. Of letting Caleb CIO with check-ins. Last night he only woke once and cried for 40 min. Tear for me. Let's hope tonight is better and by night 3 he'll remember his good ol' sleeping days.

As for the naps. That's an entire sleep nightmare I hate to even think about. Since those two top pearly whites made their appearance three weeks ago, I've had one 3 hour stretch all to myself. Every other day, Caleb has awoken after 30 minutes (his fav) and come a calling for mama. Most I've been able to save and Caleb will sleep for a couple hours. Some not. I try and remind myself that he has taken good naps in the past (without my 30 minute nap save) so there is hope for the future!

Let's just say I do not consider myself a very patient person. I give the 'patient' gene to Dave. So my greatest challenge of motherhood so far has been patience. I know God blesses men and women with the Grace to become more patient when we become parents. I am thankful for that! Caleb's naps have by far given me the biggest run for my patience and have been my biggest challenge yet. I know compared to other things it's not much. But I wanted to write this so that when Caleb is older and giving me other things to gather patience for, I can look back and reflect on this time and laugh.