He's Learning!!

Austin is 5 months old now, and has never consistently slept through the night. Here and there, he's had longer stretches of sleep, but the past couple of weeks he's been waking up as often as a newborn. Needless to say, it's EXHAUSTING!!!!! I didn't have this problem with Aubrey. She slept 12 hours a night from 3 months on. Although, around 10 months old she did start waking up in the night, and we did 4 nights of crying it out, and that solved that problem. I've been hoping that Austin would solve his own sleep problems (haha) since I don't want to let him cry it out before 6 months. But, that's not happening. Boo!

So, I've come up with a new plan. I've been working hard to get Austin on a consistent bed time routine. We do bath, jammies, book, then he nurses. He always falls asleep while he nurses, so now I've started waking him up after he eats, and then putting him in bed awake. I know....sounds counter-intuitive, but it's helping him learn to soothe himself to sleep. If he fusses while he's trying to fall asleep in his crib, I'll hold his hand or stand by his bed, but I DON'T pick him up or cuddle him. He has to go to sleep in his bed, not my arms. His problem is, he wakes up in the night and usually wants to nurse to fall back asleep. Sometimes a binky or cuddling works, but either way we have to wake up with him. Anyway, after a few nights of putting him to bed drowsy, but still awake, he's already doing better in the night. Last night I heard him wake up at 2 am and 5am, and then he went back to sleep on his own both times!!! That's like unheard of for him!!!! So we are slowly working on teaching him to self-soothe. I think it will take longer than crying it out, but I like having a gentler solution for a younger baby. I'm just working on keeping his whole day very structured and consistent, so nap times generally fall at the same time every day, and he gets enough rest during the day, so he's not overly tired at bedtime. Man, babies sure are a lot of work. :) Anyway, I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel! I'm REALLY hoping that I can get Austin to sleep through the night, and then maybe I won't have to be a zombie mom all day! Wish me luck!!!

I like pictures with most of my posts, so here are a few :)

Aubrey's Blogging Debut!

Last time I blogged, Aubrey kept asking what I was doing, and she decided she wanted to write a blog herself.  So, she dictated this blog to me.  As most of you know, she's quite talkative, and kind of random sometimes, hehe.  So here's word for word what she said for her first blog:

"This is Aubrey, and I like to ride my bike, and go on little trips to school.  I love my daddy.  I like to give kisses and hugs, and I like to eat popcorn at bedtime.  I like to write names.  I like to learn my letters, and I like to recycle.  I like to eat food and I like to paint. 

      Here's a little story:  Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Aubrey.  She was pulling a lasso, and she got a spell by a bad witch.  Then she was a statue in a tower and Austin saved her.  And when she found the scissors, she found the baking powder and waved her wand and threw the magic powder on the witch.  And Austin and Aubrey lived happily ever afters.  And they got married and danced.  The End." 

    

We Have a Preschooler!

Here's some pictures of Aubrey getting ready to go to her first day of preschool!  She loves her new backpack and, of course, had to pose for every picture I took of her.  She makes me laugh!  

So, Aubrey is at school right now, and Austin has been asleep the whole time.  It's so quiet around here!  I love it!  

Oh no!

So, a couple days ago, Aubrey got the bright idea to cut her hair!  I was upstairs with Austin, and I heard Mathis say, "Aubrey...did you cut you hair?"   When I got downstairs, this is what I found all over the floor:

Luckily, we didn't have to chop her hair off.  I would have cried!  :)  Aubrey's hair is pretty thick, so you really can't tell that she cut a few chunks out, but she definitely gave her mom a scare. :)  I even had the scissors put away in a drawer.  She uses scissors almost every day, since we do crafts so much and normally she does great with the scissors.  Oh well, guess we'll have to be more careful with her.  Little stinker!

Oh, and I almost forgot... After she cut her hair, I was telling her that was not a good thing to do.  She poked her little bottom lip out, looked down at the ground, and asked in a timid voice, "Mom (pause), am I still your daughter?"  I REALLY wasn't expected her to say that, and I immediately hugged her and said, "of course!"  Well, guess she knows how to get herself out of trouble, lol. :)