Friday, July 22, 2011

Summer Vacation Part 2 - The Beach

The second part of our summer vacation was spent heading over to the beach house on Amelia Island for 3 days with Grandmommy, Jenni, and Tilden.  Grandmommy had not gotten to meet Colin yet so it was a very exciting trip for her and for my sister and I because we hadn't been to the beach together in YEARS (much less with our own children)!  Colin enjoyed his time at the beach.  We went down and I let him put his hands in the sand... which immediately went to his mouth.  He didn't quite know what to do once he got sand in his mouth as you can see in the picture below.


We went to the beach, played (well Colin slept) at the park, took long afternoon naps, and most importantly, Colin learned to roll over!  Our last day at the beach, I was about to go down to the water for a quick swim after Colin and I had been on a long walk and he was going to stay with Grandmommy for a few minutes.  He had been trying so hard to roll from him back to his stomach for the previous few weeks so I knew it was coming soon.  That morning, he finally did it.  He arched his back and got his shoulder underneath him and ended up on his belly.  He's been going belly to back since he was 6 weeks old but he definitely took a while to get back to belly (which from what I have been told is easier than the other way around... I guess he just doesn't do it the easy way!).  He only rolled twice that day and none the next day (who can blame him, we were traveling all day) but on my first day back to work the nanny told me he rolled from one end of the blanket to the other all morning long.  Since then, he has been rolling plenty but I think it also may be contributing to our sleep problems - despite the fact that he knows how to go from back to belly, he won't do it in his crib.





Jenni with her hands full

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Sleep - my new nemesis

When Colin was first born, he didn't cry.  While his Apgars were 8 and 9, Mike, the delivery nurse, and myself have no idea how he actually got such numbers because he wasn't much of a crier.  When we came home from the hospital, it was probably well in to his second week of life before he actually screamed - he was just always a mellow little boy.  He woke up every two hours to eat but I was okay with that because he would wake up, I would feed him, cuddle him, and have him back in bed in about 15 minutes.  I felt like his sleeping was going well because he was up for such a short amount of time at night and (after the first few weeks at least) I was feeling somewhat rested.  I knew how lucky I was and I wasn't counting any chickens before they hatched, but at the time I thought things were going along quite well.

Around 4 months, I realized that Colin was waking up more for habit than for hunger every 3-4 hours every night.  He'd want to eat around 10 PM (after falling asleep around 6:30 or 7:00), then again between 1 AM and 2 AM, again at 4 AM, then again between 5:30 and 7:30.  In talking to other friends with infants and doing a little bit of reading, I realized he wasn't necessarily hungry, just used to getting up at those times every night.

Napping was another struggle.  No matter what I seemed to do, he would only sleep for 40 minutes at the most.  It wasn't such a problem until he was between 3 and 4 months old so I just kind of went with the flow.

Just prior to going on vacation, I had gotten Colin sleeping 7 hours from when he went down until his first wake up - making it around 2 AM.  I had tried feeding him around 10 PM before I went to bed but he still woke up at around 2 AM so I just went with it.  That had him waking up at 2 AM and then again between 4 AM and 5 AM, but I was excited to be getting 7 hours of continuous sleep on his part (not for me of course because I wouldn't go to bed until 10ish).  Then we went on vacation - which is the downfall of all sleep schedules.

Upon returning home from vacation, Colin was getting up every 2-3 hours every night.  I was at my wit's end and had no idea what to do about it.  I tried calming him down with soothing but always seemed to give in and just feed him because I knew he would fall back asleep that way.  Nights I had to work the next day I would just give up around 12:30 or 1 AM because I knew I couldn't be getting up that much so I'd just bring him to bed with me because it's really easy to nurse a baby who is lying right next to you.  But after being in a complete brain fog all the time, I realized I had to do something.  I'm not one for sleep training, per se, and I really don't like the idea of cry it out, but I knew that somehow, Colin needed to relearn how to put himself to sleep (did I mention he started it for the first time around 5 weeks old so I knew he was capable of it).

I won't go in to all the books I read, all the websites I visited, all the Baby Center community boards I read, and all I personally processed here and now but I will add some thoughts through posts here and there as to what worked for us and the process I went through to get where we are.  As with everything, I know that all is evolving and just when I think I get it that he'll change it, but as of right now, Colin is putting himself to sleep at the beginning of the night and in the middle of the night if he wakes up (which for the past two nights has been around two times between 1 AM and 3 AM that he puts himself back to sleep from and another wake up at 4ish when I do feed him then since it's been usually at least 6 hours since he's eaten last).... all in time to go on vacation again.  Let's hope that somehow I keep his sleep moving in the right direction this time. . . yeah right.

And naps have been a whole other story that I definitely don't have time to tell right now because I'm going to bed.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Summer Vacation Part 1 - Family Reunion

Colin and I took the red-eye to Atlanta on a Thursday to meet my sister at the airport and head to Mom and Mike's house for a family reunion.  I hadn't been to Fairhope since I had moved to Denver and they had done a lot to the house so it was nice to see that.  We both promptly took a nap once we got there (although Colin stayed up with Deedee and Papa since he had slept the majority of the way to their house) and then we headed out to Beckwith Retreat Center for the start of the Williams cousins family reunion.  The retreat center was very nice and right on the bay.  There was a swimming pool so Colin did get to swim for the first time (although my aunt has those pictures, I don't) and got to spend time with the family, many of whom hadn't met him yet.  There were plenty of pictures taken, but here are a few of my favorites.
First night on the bay - photo courtesy of my sister
Tilden helping Colin with his bottle - so sweet!!
Flying Colin - night #2 on the bay
When did my nephew change from a toddler to a little boy??
All the attendees

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Lots of firsts

Colin has been having some "firsts" lately that I have captured on my phone.  You'll have to forgive the quality of the pictures but it seems to be the only thing handy most times.  I always have the camera with me but it's in the diaper bag and infants don't stay in one place long enough to run to get the camera; alas, phone pictures...
Stuck in Target in a rain storm... first time in a shopping cart (propped up by bags)

5 month birthday - first time in a restaurant high chair

His high chair at home - he seems to love it
Really intent on picking up the animals from the picture on the tray

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Father's Day

Luckily Mike had a trip home scheduled for his first Father's Day.  We didn't do much but hang out as a family - and we even had a date night for the first time in ages!  It was the first time Colin had been with a sitter other than a family member, but we didn't go too far out of our comfort zone since he stayed with a good friend of ours.  Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures but here are a couple.

Colin's new "lovey" - the whale Daddy brought from his visit to the GA Aquarium

Happy Father's Day!  Brunch at El Rancho