Bye Bye Swaddle!!

It was a long week with lots of tears and screams (from Brayden, not me) and me having to explain to Tucker that "baby" as he calls B, was just learning how to fall asleep.  But we did it!  Brayden is not finally falling asleep, and for the most part, staying asleep through his naps without a swaddle.  There must be something wrong with me but my kids don't just "grow out" of their swaddle habits.  I wish I knew how to make that happen, but so far I'm 2 for 2 with having to break their habit.  Brayden started rolling over a few weeks ago so I felt like we really needed to stop the swaddle so he didn't get stuck (odds are small that would happen, but still). My first attempt was fruitless.  After 2 days and many naps of him screaming for a long time without every falling back to sleep, we were at his 4 month appointment and I couldn't bring myself to let him cry it out on a day he'd had shots.  Then the next day my parents were babysitting all day so I didn't think it was fair to have them do that.  After getting through a few minor feeding issues we finally tackled it again last Tuesday.  On Monday afternoon he took a 2 hour nap and barely cried falling asleep! Then yesterday he didn't cry for any of his naps and took naps that were all over an hour! VICTORY! It feels so good to know that the cry it out ordeal works in the end-it only took a week! So pumped!

Oh my DD!

Tucker is totally in to mimicing what we do and say lately. He loves to do things over and over again that he thinks/we think are funny. For example, he loves to say "Oh My DD" (DD is what he calls my sister). I've noticed he uses it when we are asking him to do something over and over again that he doesn't want to do.  He also does a pretend conversation on a phone and then says "bye-bye" very forcefully and then slams the phone down.  Credit my brother's girlfriend's daughter for that one! It is very funny though.  Typical almost 2 year old stuff.  So we really have to watch what we say and do around him.  Today he spilled some milk out of his cup onto the floor, just a few drops.  I know that the floors are going to be mopped tomorrow so I told him just to use his sock to wipe up the drops.  He proceeds to do so, then looks at the bottom of his sock to see where it went, because it had to go somewhere.  Then he walked into the other room.  I look around the corner and I see him making his milk spill drops of milk on the floor again and then wiping them up with his socks! I guess I better be careful what I "teach" him to do:)  I had to write this one down so I can remember it in the future!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Little leprechaun!

I'm starting to embrace this little guy's orange hair! He is really cute:)

Lately...

This little guys is getting more and more adorable by the minute!  He looks so much like Tucker when he sleeps:)

He has been a busy guy lately...

Smiling:)

Having fun with baths!

 More smiling...and sitting in the Bumbo!

Playing on his mat

He is trying SO hard to roll from back to front! Front to back is doable, although not frequently, but he gets so frustrated that he can't go from back to front yet!

And more smiles!

Tucker is always entertaining and smily and laughing and keeping us on our toes while we're running/chasing him around!

The whole transition to a toddler bed has been going surprisingly well! WE kinda figured he'd try to escape more! Tucker has overall been very good about staying in his bed and calling for us instead of getting out.  He did get out twice (the first day and another day a week later) and thankfully he can't open his door yet-although he does manage to lock it...only a minor inconvenience:)

He's had a couple funny things happen though the past week.  The first, and funniest, I blogged about after we first switched him. Last week I woke up in the middle of the night to some noise and when I looked in the monitor I couldn't see T.  When I went upstairs to check on him, he was sleeping on the floor at the base of his bed! He must have been looking for something!  Then another night I heard another noise and I looked in the monitor and I see him standing up off the floor (he must have gotten out/fallen out and he was picking up his lovies.  Then he walked to the other side of the bed and got back in!  On Sunday, when we changed the clocks, I put him down at normal time for his nap (totally forgetting about the time change). I checked the monitor and I saw T sitting there with a book (which I did not leave in his bed) and he is rubbing it on his face! He had gotten out of bed and gone to get one of the touch and feel books that tells you to "rub the pigs nose with your nose!"

The last and scariest thing to happen so far happened last night.  I was lying in bed reading (thank God I wasn't asleep yet or I would have totally gotten freaked-Max was away!) and there was a HUGE LOUD thud and noise.  I looked in the monitor and saw that Tucker had fallen out of bed!  I ran upstairs and got to his room just as he was running for the door.  Poor kid fell out of bed and hit his head and totally freaked himself out. I'm still not really sure how he fell out of a bed that's only a foot off the ground and has bed rails half-way down the long side.  It made for some nice cuddle time after though:)

With all his sleepy friends before a nap...he decided he wanted some dogs in bed with him today!

Not to be outdone by his little brother...he had to sit in the Bumbo too!

We are SO ready for Spring!

We spent the rainy day playing with beans and making homemade shakers with awesomely colored Ducktape!

And we watched Nemo-and ate goldfish:)

Tucker is such a good big brother. He put a hat on Brayden before we went out last week. He was very proud of helping:)

They like to play together...just staring at burp cloths apparently!

Sometimes Tucker gets a little close...

...he dove over him onto the mat yesterday. I was not a fan of that move!

Out for a nice walk today! We want more of this weather!!!

 We had a fun visit from Matt and Kristen Scott as Matt began his month-long tour to promote his new album, Poets and Saints! (Check it out on itunes...good stuff!)

Our kids love playing with them! And they brought their awesome dog Stella, a silver lab.  And miraculously she didn't even bother my allergies! Tucker LOVED having her here:)

He was chatting it up with Stella before they left...he didn't want her to leave!

Big day!!!

Today was a big day! Tucker started to sleep in his toddler bed! We picked it up yesterday (it was my cousins which is kinda fun!) and tucker was SO EXCITED when max brought it in. We wanted his first time using it to be for a nap so we waited until today. He was very excited and went to sleep without getting out of his bed. Then when he woke up from his nap he proceeded to lie there for 5 minutes and then he got up. He turned on the light next to his bed, put his lovie, etc down and walked to the door (which he locked, I found out later when I went to get him). After I didn't come to get him, he grabbed a book and got back in bed to read-I was laughing so hard as I was watching in the monitor. He did get up again to to change the sound on his sound machine, but then he got back in bed and just hung out until I went up to get him. Hopefully he will sleep well to tonight! He went down great when max put him to sleep so we will see how the night goes. He was sprawled horizontally across the end of the bed with his legs hanging off when I went to check on him before I went to sleep, but whatever works!!

The pictures are of how I found him hen I walked upstairs at one point this morning, tucker all ready for his nap, and how I found him when I went to check on him tonight.

hahaha! This is how he liked to sleep in his crib too...hugging the "short-side" of the crib!

4 months!

Well we made it to 4 months! I am not one who dislikes the first 4 months, but I can't say it's my favorite stage.  Thankfully, Brayden has been much easier than Tucker was during those first four months.  He has become VERY interactive with both Max and I and Tucker.  It is so cute:) He smiles and giggles and he has really started to screech-those are my favorite noises.  He is quite the squealer!

He is a big fan of playing on his playmat.  He doesn't mind being on his belly, but is more content being on his back.  He can sit on his bumbo and play with toys on his tray, and he doesn't mind his bouncy seat either.  

Brayden had a great check up! He is 13.13 pounds and 25.25 inches, up from 23.75 inches last month.  He did drop from the 50th to just above the 25th for weight so I just have to be sure he's actually eating really well.  Tucker was actually a bit bigger at this age (14.4 lbs).  He has moved into 3-6 month clothes too:) 

He is such a joy and we LOVE him so much!

He can push himself up onto his elbows and he is half way there to rolling over from back to belly.  He gets stuck on his side-his arm is int he way:)  He definitely wants to get over though-he usually screeches when he gets stuck!

He started to sleep really well at night (11-12) hours a few weeks ago, which has been awesome!  His naps started to get better too-he wouldn't wake up 45 min in, and if he did, the binky would put him right back to sleep! Then a week ago hit....and all hell broke loose!  Night sleep was still great, but he was waking up after 40-45 min and it was almost impossible to get him back to sleep.

So we made the decision to do cry it out (CIO) with him to teach him to go back to sleep on his own. He will fall asleep awake in his crib but for some reason could not fall back to sleep if he woke up half way through.  We figured we'd break his swaddle habit at the same time.  Well after 2 days of him sleeping for the first 30-40 min max, and then SCREAMING the rest of the time, and never falling back to sleep, we put it on hold.  He had his 4 month check up on Friday and Saturday we were going to a wedding so he was with my mom all day.  Shockingly, back in his swaddle, he took AMAZING naps today, and slept most of the night with one arm out of his swaddle.  He's an anomaly! So we will tackle that again in a week or so.

He also suddenly refused to take a bottle Friday night, and then again on Saturday, and on Sunday! Saturday I fed him at 9:30 and then he didn't eat again until 3:30ish.  My mom called me to tell me that he refused his 12:30 bottle (he slept great though!) and then he ultimately downed his 3:30 bottle, thankfully.  But Sunday I had an event all morning and he refused to eat.  Not sure what's going on but I'm hoping it works itself out soon because I leave him with a babysitter once a week at least, and I'm going back to work in two months!

He's a little more flexible with his schedule than T was because we are out an about a lot more.  Typically he eats at 7:15, 10:15, 1:15, 4:15, 6:15 and then goes to bed around 8.  He is up for 75-90 minutes and then will sleep for about 90 minutes.  He still takes a 30-45 min catnap between his 4 and 6 feedings.  He usually wakes up between 7 & 730 (although today he was up at 8!) and then we go from there.