Sleep Training Begins

I didn't want to do it. I LOVED holding my baby while he slept for naps. I LOVED sleeping next to him at night. The only bad part was that my baby loved my company so much that he wasn't sleeping. He would only sleep in 20-30 minutes stretches around the clock for the last couple of weeks. His doctor said we should let him cry. I had to start gradual, so we started with naps. The picture below shows him in his crib for a nap for the first day of sleep training. It actually was a lot easier than I thought. He NEEDED to sleep. His naps were still only 20-30 minutes, but at least they were in his own bed. I can't even begin to explain how liberating it was to have those 20-30 minutes several times a day to spend with Oliver, or do whatever I needed to do. And bonus, I was actually happier to hold him when he awoke!

We started night training the following Saturday, four days after starting the naps. The first night there was two hours of crying, and more crying throughout the night. The third night was the absolute worst: It seemed like a success when he went to sleep after only a few minutes of fussing, then I fed him around 1:00 and put him back to sleep. He woke up only a few minutes later and cried for three hours! Staying out of his room was the HARDEST thing I have ever done. I have spent almost every minute of my babies life with him and believe me, having him cry it out was something I never wanted to do. But he NEEDED sleep, and we were desperate. So I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby and did our best. Tonight is night six. I bought some bigger sized swaddling sleep sacks tried them out for naps today. He slept for one hour for the first nap, and two hours for the second nap; both naps were records! I was hesitant to swaddle him for night time, because I assume he has been sucking on his hands to comfort himself through his crying at night, but we decided to try it anyway. So I placed him in the swaddled sleepsack and nursed him and put him in his bed like we have been for the last six nights and he has been asleep for four hours with absolutely NO crying, no whimpering, no disturbed sleep. There have been a lot of tears from both me and my baby this past week, but we finally have SUCCESS!!!! I LOVE the Halo Sleepsack!

My new fall wreath

We went for a walk at the park yesterday and collected fall leaves along the way. Today Oliver made me this wreath. It now hangs on the inside of my front door. I LOVE it!

Oliver & Daddy Hang Out

Clayton needed to do some shopping after work, so he invited Oliver to hang out at the mall that night. Oliver was SOOO excited all day, he could hardly wait!

Clayton was a few minutes later than we thought he would be and Oliver just HAD to call him to see where he was...he came home as he was leaving a message.

Oliver all ready to go posing with his hair like Daddy's (it's been a while since we have had a hair cut).

can't really keep that kind of excitement bottled up!

Even more excited!

Here is a cute one!

Love

Oliver LOVES playing with Miles!

And Miles LOVES holding his own bottle!

Poor baby, he is SOOO tired here. Don't worry, he went to bed right after this.

My "not a baby" and my baby

I wanted Oliver to be closer to me in the kitchen while I did some dishes, so I gave him this tray for the travel high chair and brought him close to me. He was sure to say several times: "I'm not a baby, I'm not a baby". Yes Oliver, as hard as it is for me to admit, you are not a baby any longer.

Speaking of babies, my baby is doing SO well with eating. He LOVES food and has liked everything he has tried. Check out the video to see how wide he opens up for food.

Story time and my CUTE baby

This is how you'll find us at least two times per day. Fortunately I have been able to instill a love of books in Oliver; I'm hoping to do the same with Miles. I love how Oliver's face when Miles grabbed his hand. So cute!

Have you ever wanted an additional pair of eyes???

Oliver's got it figured out how to get more eyes. You just use stickers, silly! :)

These boys LOVE this toy

I brought out Miles' high chair toy for the first time today. He REALLY liked it and instantly grabbed the turtle and started turning. He can't quite reach the spinning toy on top, but all in good time.

I wrote "these boys" because, I think Oliver might love it even more than Miles. Often he forgets to eat if Miles is sitting next to him with this toy during a meal because he wants to play with it too. Too cute!

Cute Pictures I found on my camera...

Clayton watched Miles for me while I took Oliver to a doctor appointment with me and later that day I found these on the camera. I thought they were pretty cute!

Happy Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween. Clayton took the baby for me because I wasn't feeling well, and also so I could spend more time with Oliver. We made pumpkin muffins (Oliver's favorite) and carved pumpkins and went trick-o-treating that night. What fun!

Clayton holding Miles for his nap

The cutest little baby giraffe ever!

My adorable Mail Man and Baby Giraffe

I love how Oliver is turned into Miles!

Had to post another, he is too cute!

LOVE this one!

My little guy trick-o-treating

The only downer to our night was that I lost my keys as we were trick-o-treating. I realized it about eight houses away after it was already dark. Instead of continuing to trick-o-treat like we had planned, we came back to the house, got a flash light and retraced our steps. Oliver was a great sport, and was willing to do whatever I needed. We unfortunately didn't find my keys anywhere, so we decided to go to a few more houses. Oliver got PLENTY of candy and was very happy with his loot! :) We had gymnastics the next morning and we were planning to look for the keys when we returned, only we only have one electronic opener for the Bumpy Rider and it was on my key ring, and the alarm continued to go off even with the key in the ignition. So out of desperation, I went out to the front yard and started searching. Fortunately, I only had to go three houses away and I found them in the grass next to the side walk. Right where I leaned down to rub the spot where an ant had just bit me. I was SOOO happy to find them! We hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Our Saturday...

The Saturday before Halloween was a cold morning, so we bundled up the baby to head to Oliver's soccer class.

Look at this adorable baby!

Oliver had fun practicing soccer

and posing for pictures

Miles chewed on his toy

And when we got home, we took these pictures. I LOVE my boys!

Maybe I shouldn't admit this to anyone but Clayton...

but seeing these two together like this was the first time Miles actually felt like part of the family, instead of just this cute little baby we just bring along with us everywhere. :)

A fun, but very sad day

Clayton graciously watched Miles for me today so I could attend Oliver's Halloween party at school. It was so much fun to get to know so many of the other mothers. There were plenty of goodies like doughnut holes, brownies, cupcakes, pretzels, fruit, etc. There were games like roll the pumpkin around the cone and even a dance party. It was very, very cute!

lining up for pumkin rolling

Oliver's pumpkin is in the back, the white one with the turquoise ghost (spookable)

more of the pumpkin patch

this little guys still LOVES construction and was more than thrilled to have his picture taken with a cone! :)

Look how much fun they are having at the dance party!

Some of the class for a picture

Oliver's friend Sara with an eye patch -- now she is a hippie pirate! :)

And now to the sad part of the day. Clayton and I had to make the very difficult decision to pull Oliver out of Spanish School House for the time being and today was his last day. Oliver has caught six colds since he started SSH in August, the poor little guy can't catch a break. We didn't want to chance him bringing home something very serious to Miles this winter and also, since we will be spending some extra time in SLC with my family this holiday season, we wanted to give Oliver a chance to recover from his illnesses before we head out. Everyone was sad to say goodbye to Oliver. I actually think I am more torn up about it than Oliver!

I was able to sneak this picture of Snta. Ingrid saying goodbye to Oliver. So sweet!

His teacher Snta. Ingrid

And his other teacher, Snta. Josefina

His teachers made him a card to say goodbye with a picture of his class.

Goodbye for now Spanish Schoolhouse, we'll miss you but we'll be back in the spring.