Oyster Fest 2010

This was my first year to attend Oyster Fest. It was a blast, the sun was shining for the most part and the people watching was great. Over the past years I have started to like Oysters, as long as they are the baby ones and I don't have to chew! There are so many different ones to choose from, but I think my favorite one was a cucumber lime salsa Oyster. Here are some pictures from that weekend.

A new start-Day 2

So again last night I tried to figure out Bowdy's sleep issue! He did great all day taking all his naps and eating good. Last night he did much better than the night before, but I guess anything wold be an improvement from waking up every hour or so.... Last night went a little like this:

• 8 pm to bed
• 12 woke up crying, I gave him his paci and he fell asleep
• 1 am he woke up again and I went in there to comfort him after 5 minutes of crying and then 10 minutes later he was still crying so I gave him a pillow, wrapped him up and he went straight to bed till 6:30 this morning.
• At 630 I went in and gave him his paci, he slept till I woke him up at 7:30

Over all I felt like last night was much better than Wednesday night so I know we are on a good start. Hopefully tonight gets better not worse:)

A new start

So last week I was talking to Janelle and telling her that I couldn't believe how much easier Bowdy was now and that I didn't think it would ever get to this point. I was raving about how I felt I could take him anywhere and knew he wouldn't be too difficult for me to handle. This shouldn't have come as a surprise to me since I had taken him out and about since we came home from the hospital, 4lbs and all, but I think it finally hit me that I could do anything with him. Bowdy has been great during the day, taking 3 -2 1/2 hour naps and usually a evening cat nap that last from 30 minutes to 1 hour. He had been sleeping through the night with his last feeding at 8 or 8:30. I would only have to get up and give him is paci around 3 or 4 and then wake him up at 7:30. I often would complain that I felt like he should have "sleeping at night" down since he was almost 6 months and I believed he should be "perfect" Well I guess that was pretty much a perfect night compared to what I have been going through this last week. He is definitely pushing my patience each night. He has all of a sudden started waking up every two hours through-out the night and I was at my wits end on Monday night so I decided I wasn't going to give in to his screaming, but around 4:30 when Clay left for work he demanded that I do something for the kid since he had been whaling for the last 30 minutes! I cracked and ended up wrapping him in his Indian basket and what do you know... he was fast asleep until I woke him at 7:30. What is going on with him? I cried yesterday to Janelle because I just don't understand what his deal is. Yes it could be an upset stomach, or he is teething, or something hurts, or he is just being spoiled.... Too many unknowns. I tried to think if I was doing anything different these last couple weeks with him and I realized that I just started feeding him banannas, so maybe they upset his belly? None of these questions make it easier for me because I refuse to be another mom who makes excuses for her child because they have sleeping issues.
I was pondering this all day and trying to figure out what I was going to do different so that Bowdy, Clay, and I can survive the nights without an ounce of resentment. I read through the Babywise blog and searched for answers. I came across a few sugesstions that might help us! I think we are going to try to be more consistent at night time and establish a bed time routine. Until Tuesday night, we had just been giving him a bath somewhere between 7 and 8 and fed him between 8 and 8:30, which just might be a little to inconsistent for him. I hope that is the answer!
Last night is the first night I really implemented CIO as described in babywise. Night one of the implementation went a lot better than I had planned. Here is what happened:

• Laid him down for bed at 8pm, he immediately fell asleep
• He woke up at 12:00 so I waited 3 minutes, went into his room touched his belly and covered him back up, when I left the room 30 seconds later he was still crying.
• I waited another 5 minutes and he was still crying so I went in there and did the same routine as the first time, left the room.
• after another 8 minutes he was still crying so I repeated the routine, left the room and he was still crying.
• I was going to give him 11 minutes this time to calm down, but after two minutes he was silent!
• I laid in bed trying to fall asleep and it seemed like at least an hour of peace.... but what do you know after 8 minutes of silence Bowdy started crying again...
• I repeated my routine two times and he soothed himself to sleep. By this time is was about 1 am and he fell asleep till 2:30 am.
• I again repeated the routine, but only had to go in there once before he fell sleep
• Then at 4:15 he woke again, I went in there once and he sleep till 7.
• my goal is to have him sleep to 7:30 so I went in there, gave him is paci and then woke him at 7:30 to feed.

I know that this is a long and boring post, but I'm hoping this night process keeps getting easier. We are leaving for the lake on Sunday and will be gone almost 3 weeks, I hope he is a little better by then so he doesn't bother anyone. We have changed his daily schedule and I plan on being less flexible with is until he masters his night sleeping. He is perfect for me during the day so I know he can be perfect at night!

Here is our new schedule:

7:30- bottle and solids

8:45- nap

11:00 bottle

12:15-nap

2:00- bottle and solids

3:15- nap

5:30-bottle

7:45-bath

8:00 -bottle and solids and bed.

If anyone has any helpful suggestions let me know I am totally open to any ideas... I know babywise works because I see the kids that are raised on it and they are a pleasure to be around, but maybe I'm doing something wrong:(

6 months

Wow has time really flown by! I still find myself in disbelief that I have a baby, much less a 6 month old baby! Where does the time go? I guess when you work almost full time you don't realize how fast time is really going when all you seem to think about is getting the week over and enjoying the weekend. Sometimes I wish I could be a stay at home mom for the simple fact that I wouldn't have to get up early and get dressed every morning and rush to the office. I dream that only having to find things to entertain my child and getting tons of play time with him were things that consumed my day. Every time I get this "I don't want to work" feeling I take the day off and once I finish all my chores, I just sit there and realize I couldn't do this everyday, week vacations are nice, but I don't think being a stay at home mom is for me, unless I had a billion kids. Besides working for my Dad isn't half bad, I get to bring Bowdy to work and get to be will Janelle, Connor and Lucas. I bet if Danielle worked here, Janelle and I would work lots of hours because we would love just being with eachother.

Bowdy is doing great, we had his six month check up on Monday and he weighed 14lbs(3%), 25.75" long(24%) and was 9% in head. The doctor said he was progressing just great, but wanted him to start gaining more weight, hopefully he will move into a higher percent at his 9 month check up. I can't believe that in another 6 months he will be 1 year, it seems like he will always be small, not crawling or talking. but I guess I need to savor this time because before I know it he will be into everything!

6 month stats:

• Sleeps 12 hours at night
• Feeds every 3 1/2 hours
• Eats 6 oz of formula
• Eats 3 meals a day
• Still very smiley
• Rolls over immediately when placed on the floor
• Puts everything in his mouth including both feet
• Starting to do mini push ups(I think he will be crawling soon)
• Loves his cousins to talk to him
• Doesn't spit up as much as before(I think the meds are working)
• Has a cough that will not go away