Sleep training Noah

I've avoided doing this til now because ... Well I'm basically weak and totally whipped by my little 9 month old man. I don't know if its because I know he's my last, or because I look at the girls and how grown up they've gotten and I just want to cherish every moment with this baby while he's still a baby, but I hate it when he cries. So I try to avoid it at all costs.

We have had a few nights when I could not get him to go to sleep and he's cried. And then proceeded to bang his head on the crib slats and hurt himself, or later pull himself up and not know how to get down. And we have let him cry for over an hour. He never showed a sign of stopping.

I let the girls cry it out at 7 months. It was awful but I was working full time and we had to get some sleep. I'm not working now so I haven't minded going to him at night, or him sleeping in our bed if he woke up in the wee hours.

Lately though he's been waking up more often and earlier. So I have resolved to not let him sleep In our bed (I loathe the chair in his room so normally I'd just bring him back to the comfy bed, nurse him or rock him until he fell asleep with all intention of putting him back in his crib... But then it's 3am and he's already asleep and happy laying next to me so it's easier to just go to sleep too!).

Ill still go to him if he wakes and try to get him back down (in the crib) but if I spend too much time or nothing I'm doing is working he is going to have to cry.

Night 1 was last night. He went down easily at 8 but wAs so tired he barely ate. He woke up at 930. I nursed him for 10 min and he went back down.
Then he woke up at 1030.

I went in and tried for a while to get him to go to sleep. I failed so I let him cry. He was strong for a while but finally dozed. Standing up. I had to go in and lay him down right. I got in bed at 1 and he slept til 7. Ill take it.

This is not easy to listen to for a while

and this is just pitiful

Not easy but hopefully worth it!!

Here Comes the Sun

And we were sooooo very thankful!  After 2 weeks of sickness and rain we were all in need of some vitamin D and exercise.  Amazing what a little time on a bike, riding around in the neighbors' Cady, or being strolled in the wagon will do for a kid.  Or their momma.  And this was the first time Noah was old enough to enjoy said activities and he was all smiles.

Funny how just the day before there was snow everywhere, then the next day it was 60 degrees and sunny.  No wonder everyone keeps getting sick.

January Snow Day

Once the pool closed in September and the air turned crisp, the girls have been waiting for the snow.  I do not know where they get the idea that every winter it will snow, since I don't remember any snow at all last year, and we do live in Alabama but I have been hearing about it.  They have been adamant that it does in fact snow in  the winter, and they wanted to know why it had not come yet.

So on this mid January day when we got maybe 1/2 inch in the grass they were very excited.  

It was the big fat kind of snow flakes that soaked upon contact, but it made the girls happy and it was pretty to see it fall.  We do not have winter gear so they were soaked after 5 minutes outside, but they ran around in it, ate some snowflakes, and got some good outside time.  

Then they came inside and took a hot bath and enjoyed watching it from the warmth.  

I was just as excited to see the sun a few hours later as I had been to see the snow.  After 2 weeks of rain I think that's reasonable.  

Noahs first tooth

FINALLY

I only say finally because he is apparently a not so great teether.  I also think he has been sick on top of it but either way it hasn't been the best week.  

His first tooth poked through on Jan 15, and it was the one NEXT to the one I have been eyeing for month.  The one I have been eyeing has been swollen and miserable looking.  But, it was his bottom left that came through, not the right.  

So I am still eyeing this next one.  And hoping his sinus stuff gets better.  Then maybe, MAYBE I can walk more than 2 feet away from him without him freaking out.  I said maybe...

I can get up...but I can't get down

This phase in the baby milestones is no fun.  Ok, it has its moments, but the fact that Noah pulls up everywhere and doesn't quite know what to do after that is annoying (and kind of funny).  If I walk 2 feet away he takes that time to pull up on something (normally something mobile like a stool that can move out from under him) and then he freaks out because he cannot get down.  This is also convenient in the middle of the night because I cannot let him cry or he stands up, then eventually just falls down and face plants in the crib slats.  Not that I want to move him through the milestones any faster, but I would not mind if he could learn to ease himself back down gently soon.



this is typical...

The girl's new room

One day after Christmas the girls and I were talking about cleaning up their room.  I told them that one day they would move downstairs and they would have more room.  I was thinking it would be in about 5 years.  They responded "well we can try it out!"

So they slept downstairs for the next week.  And then declared their old room their "baby room" and did not want to sleep down there.

Honestly I am thrilled they have more room and they are not being loud right next to Noahs room, but moving their things out of the nursery we lovingly made for our first babies was a bit sad to me.  Now I love their new room.  I just go down there and lay with them to relax in the awesome space.

We ripped up the old carpet... it was disgusting, laid new flooring,  and painted it the color of their choosing. I even painted the crown molding.  Ouch to the neck. They wanted a tinkerbell room.  It now has potential to be a tinkerbell room, but I have yet to buy all Tinkerbell things, or hang anything.

No before/afters.  I dont know why.  But it is quite a transformation.

proof that Matt has painted something (He hates it)


Everything is purple in some shade, including the ceiling and the fan.


room is painted and the floor is going down


much more room!


closet wasnt cleaned out yet


room to pull out the trundle!


TV is hung and shelves are organized

God and Police Cars

I love my Leahisms :)

Hannah upon seeing a police car: I guess they are getting a ticket.
Leah: no, their car just broke down and they are taking it away and putting it on a trailer. 
Hannah: is that right daddy?
Matt: yes that's right 
Hannah: how does Leah always know these things!?
Leah: I guess God just wanted to make me smarter than you.