Recent News....

Emerson has been doing FABULOUS at sleeping lately! As I aid before, we started the "sleep training" on Monday night. Both Tuesday & Wednesday nights have been E.A.S.Y! Tuesday I put her down, she cried for maybe 5 minutes and then was out like a light until 5:30am. Only then did she wake up because I woke her. I HAD to feed here before I exploded. Last night, same thing. Aaron put her down. She fussed for a few minutes and then slept for 9 hours before I woke her again at 5:30am. She is the best baby! Love her!

Here is her First Day of School picture:
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Sunday we went to the Oil Ranch. This was our first time and we were very impressed with it. Jackson had a blast! Emme, of course was oblivious to most of it, but she just enjoys being outside. There was tons of stuff to do & look at, so much so that we learned this is more of a spend-the-day-there type place instead of a couple of hours like we did. There was a pumpkin patch, hay rides (didn't get to do this), a train, an Indian village with teepees and some sort of swing thing that my kids were too young for, bouncy houses (didn't do this either), petting zoo, pony rides & cow milking. It was super-fun! Jackson was so excited to see the cow until we actually got to it and then I think he was intimidated by it's size and just buried his head in Aaron's shoulder the whole time. He did say "Bye bye cow. Moo. Bye Bye" as we walked away. He cried on the pony ride too. Last year, he loved the pony ride at his school - this year, not so much. All in all, we had a wonderful time with Gabby & Papa!

Well Hello Scarecrow!

Jackson kept throwing the pumpkins down. I was so afraid he was going to smash them.

Aaron caught a piglet - it was pretty tough & I have never heard squeals like that before! Yikes!

And, here's how he was on the pony. ????

No mo' papi

I did it!

So I had totally intended to give Jackson his papi (with a hole cut in it) last night after his bedtime book. I had heard of lots of people doing this and our doctor even suggested it, but on a whim as I was kissing him goodnight and he asked for it, I said "no, you're a big boy and besides you have your nini (blanket), elephant and puppy, so you don't need your papi." I laid him down, fully expecting a meltdown, and turned out the light. To my utter delight, he didn't even let out one single wimper! He slept soundly through the night. He did wake up earlier than normal, but it still was only about 7:30, so I'll take it! He immediately wanted to play trains & watch the farm animal video, so that is what we are doing now. Maybe cold turkey is the way to go??? I can only pray naptime will go as smoothly, but I'm not that disillusioned! Go Jackson...we are SO proud of you!

In other news, Emme did NOT sleep through the night - only about 4 hours before waking. You win some & you lose some. We'll get 'em next time!

Sleep Update

Emerson is still sleeping, what I consider, through the night. For the past 4 nights she has slept anywhere from 6 to 7 1/2 hours. For the past two nights she has done this in HER bed instead of the cradle in our room. She does wake up from the long siestas at about 5:30 or 6am, so I feed her and then usually put her back down in the cradle until we're ready to get up or until she forces the issue. So things are going pretty smoothly on that front....

but based on inspiration from my friends Julie & Wendy, I think I'm going to start weaning Jackson from his beloved papi. Ugh! I'm not excited about this, but I'm hoping it will only take a week, just in time for his school to start back. He is UBER attached so I know this is going to be interesting. I'm afraid I'll just be exchanging lack of sleep with one child for that of another, but we'll see. He has become very attached to his blanket recently and his stuffed puppy & elephant, so maybe with all of that he will not need the papi. Wish us luck!

whooo hoo!

Emerson slept through the night! I know, I know...it was probably a fluke, but maybe she'll repeat this wonderful behavior tonight too! She slept for 7 and a half hours without waking. Of course, I had to get up to pump, but it was still glorious! The only thing we did differently was that we gave her 1/2 an ounce of pear juice to help her poop. I don't know if that helped her sleep longer or not. I do know that it did NOT help her poop. The doctor doesn't seem concerned - he says breastfed babies sometime use all of the milk, which eliminates the waste, but I just don't think not pooping for 3 days is normal or healthy. Anyway, here's to hoping she continues to sleep through the night!

Tough Love

Aaron & I have had to practice tough love the last 2 nights. When Jackson got sick, well off & on since Ike really, we would always attempt to put Jackson down in his bed, but when he would wake up we'd bring him back to our bed. Many nights he would wake up within an hour of going down and we were soft -- he was sick or there was a hurricane. ;) But lately it has progressed & Jackson has been so restless at night that he crawls around in his sleep and ends up waking himself up -- usually after banging his head into the headboard or something.

So Tuesday night I decided enough was enough and after an hour of trying to rock him to sleep, I decided to just put him in his crib and let him cry it out. And cry it out he did. For 45 minutes, which I must admit killed me, but I knew it had to be done so I turned the monitor down (not off, but down) and waited. He fell asleep after the 45 minute fit and slept PEACEFULLY the remainder of the night -- I even had to wake him up the next morning. It worked so well, Aaron did the same thing last night. This time he only screamed for 30 minutes off & on and off to slumbertown he went. We again had to wake him this morning, so I figure he must be resting better now also. We will do it again tonight & hopefully it will only be 15 minutes of torture for me!