Another post on sleep

So as some of you know, Kieran has taking over an hour to go to sleep every night for the past month or more, despite mommy's efforts to nurse and comfort him to sleep- he seemed to need to cry in his crib (to keep him from getting off our bed to play!- we co-sleep) in order to wind down enough to nurse asleep. This hour plus ritual was frustrating us both and Kieran has been getting less and less sleep during this time.

Well yesterday was an all time low for sleep- he took an hour and a half to fall asleep the night before and then tossed and turned all night- nursing every hour or so and then woke at 5:15- grouchy and tired! He was a crabby mess by 8 (and of course we had plans to have breakfast with friends). He slept a while in the car before breakfast at 9:30 and then was crabby and hard to control all morning. After lunch I lay down with him and nursed and then put him in the crib when he refused to lay still and after over an hour and a half of repeating the nurse/crib he fell asleep only to wake a 1/2  hour later! He was fussy all afternoon and evening and I finally decided something had to give.

Soooo... we shook up the bedtime routine a little. We gave him a bath early (5 instead of 6) and then I nursed him in our glider rather than in bed until he was done and of course, despite rubbing his eyes and being obviously exhausted, he wanted to play! I passed him off to dad at this point and took a walk with the dogs because I just knew he would cry and be inconsolable without me there.

When I got back a half hour later the house was silent... hmmm where's the crying? I tip toed upstairs and peeked in the nursery/bedroom to find my sweet baby boy passed out cold in our bed and my husband watching a netflix on the laptop with his earphones in! "How?!" "What did you do?!" My husband informed me (rather smugly I might add) that he patted his back and held him on the bed so he couldn't get down and play and he cried for ten minutes and then fell asleep. "Go..." he told me "We'll be fine without you" So I went out... bought a book, had a quiet dinner by myself and read (which was such a delicious treat- and yet of course the guilt...)

When I got home around 9- he was still passed out cold. "Didn't make a peep" my DH informed me- again with that smug smile ;) He woke twice in the night (midnight and 5) to nurse but it was quick and he didn't stir otherwise- no tossing, no turning, no crawling around and fussing- just blissful sleep until nearly 7 this morning!!!

A part of me feels a little sad it could happen without me and that it went better with dad than it has been with me there. A part of me feels guilty about the 10 minutes of crying without his mommy. But another part of me- is soooo relieved that he finally got the sleep he so obviously needed. And a selfish part of me was a little happy to have some time to myself- out in the world again in the evening rather than in bed at 7 with a exhausted baby who fights sleep till the bitter end. Maybe it's a fluke and maybe it won't last- but after a restful night (for both myself and Kieran) I have awoken this morning hopeful and excited by the possibility of a more "normal" and abbreviated bedtime routine in our future.

Just wanted to share

Grandma's and Grandpa's place

Kieran loves to be outside and so does grandpa so they both really loved the weather we had a couple weekends ago- warm and sunny! Luckily for us, Kieran isn't too keen on crawling in grass so he mostly stays put on the blankets we lay on the ground.

Kieran helped grandma prune the lilac bushes... one of mommy's favorite flowers- they smell soooo good!

Grandpa seems to think Kieran likes sitting on stumps but I think he only does it to humor grandpa ;)

Kieran thought grandpa's tractor was pretty cool until grandpa tried pushing it... then Kieran wanted OFF!

However, Kieran did really like the super-cool car and brand-spankin-new, bright red radio flyer grandma got for him and Presley. If hadn't been raining all weekend, Kieran would have loved to go for a ride or two!

Kieran is still taking a bottle and as you can see he has gotten pretty got at it- he even multi-tasks! He uses a sippy cup at meals but still really loves his bottle of milk three times a day. We are going to work on transitioning solely to cups this summer... soon it will be time to say bye-bye to ba-ba!

Looooong time no see!

It's been awhile since last I blogged and I have some catching up to do! But first, an excuse... perhaps flimsy but at least a reason for the big delay in this post. Our computer was in the shop- something to do with a fan and so it was sent off to the place where computers are fixed and we were without my blogging laptop for a couple weeks. But it's back now and so I am going to combine what would have been three or four posts in to one big one and then try to keep up from now on!
So first on today's post- Presely's 1 year birthday party at my parents. It was a lot of fun- sort of a replay of Kieran's what with the pizza, cake and family/friends... but with lots and lots of PINK! Presley was a little doll in her spotted sun dress and later her pink tutu. Kieran and she had lots of fun playing with all her gifts- in fact Kieran wasn't completely convinced that some of the things didn't belong to him ;) Presley loved her cake- who doesn't love sugar- especially pink sugar?! Thanks to grandma and grandpa for putting together another fun and memorable birthday for the grandkids!
The outside pics are from Kieran's 13 month birthday. KP LOVES to be outside, playing in the dirt with grandpa or blowing bubbles with mom and dad- doesn't matter to him- he just wants to be out! As you can see he is growing again- he seems taller and a bit leaner, more and more like the little boy he is destined to become. He still isn't walking unassisted yet but he takes a lot of steps holding hands and cruising around furniture and walls. He stands from a seated position by himself pretty well now- but those first independent steps have yet to come- however I am sure they are just around the corner!
Kieran hasn't added any new words recently to his vocabulary- I think he is too busy concentrating on this walking thing. In fact most things are now "da" or "dada"- much to Rick's delight ;) He is eating more and more finger foods as mommy eases up on her terrible fear of choking-just a little ;)
We have spent the past few weekends with family a lot and some with friends. We visit grandma/grandpa every weekend and love to play outside- grandpa has even let Kieran ride in the wheel barrel which he isn't too sure he likes but it's cute anyway. This past weekend grandpa was working in his flower bed and when Kieran came out to see what he was up to, grandpa put KP's feet in the dirt and buried them! Kieran thought this was great fun and proceeded to kick the dirt everywhere- too cute!

A couple weekends ago we had a garage sale, which kept us busy all spring break as we prepared. Lori and Jesse were nice enough to host the sale in their yard. We sold a ton of stuff- it was great to get the basement and closets cleaned out. All of this of course is in preparation for our eventual move. Rick has been busy working in the yard- getting it in better shape for curb appeal. We have also begun packing away things like books and frames to make the house seem larger, less cluttered and more like a "hotel room" as has been suggested to us to increase our chances of selling. It's been strange packing away things that I know we won't see for a year or more but it's also nice to open up the house a little and declutter as well.
I have been busy looking for day care for Kieran for next fall as Sheila is retiring. No luck yet but we have our name on a few wait lists and I have seen a couple in homes as well. I think finding care for Kieran has been one of the hardest choices we have had to make so far. It is such a big deal- letting someone else care for and basically raise your child while you are at work. Talk about guilt. And when we finally get comfortable with someone, we have to change and do it all over. We are taking suggestions, so if anyone knows anyone or can recommend an in-home or center, we would love the advice.

Rhythm and rhyme time!

We took Kieran to the Daniel Boone Library in Columbia today for his first "class"... rhythm and rhyme time! First off I would like to say that despite the rather horrid exterior, Columbia's public library is pretty awesome on the inside! We particularly love the strange, green tiled, dome-shaped room in which the children's classes are held... very Oz-esque! I think our teacher's name was Emily and she was full of energy and excitement and that helped put us stiff and anxious parents at ease- of course the babies were ready to rock right away! And speaking of babies- there were a lot there and some pretty darned cute ones too- we really loved Itzel- a little blond haired elf like girl- very cute! Kieran didn't notice the other kiddos too much- he was too interested in crawling around, dancing to the tunes and mouthing anything and everything he could get his little hands on! Today's theme was rain- so of course we all sang the itsy bitsy spider and Kieran thought that was pretty cool. He also liked the bubbles at the end and the chance to just "jam" and play with some plastic food. After our time at the library we headed over for some Indian food downtown and then stopped by Triathletics for some new kicks for mommy- time to get back into that whole running thing again (hopefully!). A good time was had by all... next on the spring break agenda... the Youzeum...

First marks made...

Wow... this has been a momentous day for Kieran... first "thank you" and waving good bye caught on tape and now his very first scribbles go down in the history book as well! What a great March evening! We are so proud of you KP- you are such a smart, beautiful and amazing little boy! (oh and Kieran says his name now too- "Kay-Kay"!)

A messy "thank you"

Here is proof positive that Kieran can indeed say "thank you". Also this is visual evidence that we do try to feed him "healthy" food- avocado, spinach, lentils and sweet potatoes are all over his face!

This and that...

There are a few changes going on in Kieran's life right now or coming up so I thought I would share.

First off, on the language front... our PAT Alla visited last night and wants us to keep track of Kieran's vocabulary so here goes...
Dog, kitty cat, hello, thank you, mama, dada, baba, car, choo-choo, mmmm (a stretch but he uses it when he's eating so I think it counts!)
So far I think that's it. Of course none of these words sound very clear but he says them none the less. We don't hear baba, car or choo-choo very often but he can say them. We are going to work on parts of the body, simple every day objects and animals this month and see what we can accomplish. KP for sure understands a lot more than he can say, which is so cool that he knows what we are telling him some of the times now and can respond.

Moving on to well... moving on! Kieran stood up unassisted Tuesday night, twice. We were standing around watching the baby (a favorite past time) and suddenly, without warning or provocation, Kieran just stood up without holding on to anything! He held it for mere moments but all the same, he did it! It's like some light went off in his giant baby head and suddenly realized that he could stand on two legs, just like all the big people in his life. He is also crusing a lot more now and crawls less and less to get places. I think we will be seeing walking within the next month or so... will keep you posted!

Now on to how Kieran spends his days... I had mentioned in an earlier post that KP had friends at Sheila's- well that didn't last long as they have transferred to a different daycare so Kieran is on his own again and I think he is just fine with that! Sadly though, we were informed this week that our beloved Sheila is retiring and will not be caring for Kieran next year... uh oh... now what?! Back to the childcare trenches trying to sleuth out the best possible fit for our little man.

So we are stuck again between center and home. I am sooooo glad we went with an in-home for Kieran's first year- he was barely sick and he had so much one on one love and nurturing. Ideally, we would have liked to have kept him with Sheila for another year (sigh). But I am not sure we want to go with a new in home now that he is becoming more interactive and mobile, he might like having friends around and more structure... so that leads me to think a center may be in our future. But then I still worry about the germs and the sleeping situation... We are really interested in a local Montessori school here but they don't accept children before they are 2 1/2 so that's not an option this year. We will keep you up-to-date on what we decide and if anyone has good references or suggestions we would love to hear about them!

That was a rather long post... lot's going on in the life of Kieran Rother. Spring break is coming up so we will be out and about more with the little man- look for lots of undoubtedly adorable pics to come! BTW- the pics in this post were taken at nana/papa's house- Kieran is enjoying one of his new blocks- he just loves to stack!