Football Weather!

I walked outside this morning to put some pop cans in our recycling bin on our back deck.. it was CHILLY (we're talking 45-50). I told Matt of my observation when I got back inside and he simply replied "Its football weather!"




Football season in this house is a season of focus... on any and all football games! My husband might be a little obsessed. I don't know that I can really blame him since he played in high school (and was really good from the rumors I've heard!). Thursday evening was the first Ohio State Buckeye game of the season... and boy, was he excited! I do find it cute how excited he is to share football seasons with Jack. Here's a picture from Thursday evening:

Jack looks exhausted... that's because he is! The boy has not been going to bed very easily lately... and he's been a decent sleeper for most of his life. I don't know if its the age (toddler temper tantrums), teething (I can see a 5th tooth through the gums), or if we need to change his bedtime routine. We have been reading to him before bed since he was younger than 6 months old... now when we start reading a book he screams at us, fights to slam the book closed, and wants to run away. He still love books during waking hours (always has), but when its before bed, he freaks! I'm hoping it is a phase... but it makes me sad to have to fight at bedtime.

Back to "football weather"... I must admit I am excited for the weather to change! It has been HOT this year and I'm ready for it to be cool in the evenings & mornings. Not to mention, little boy clothes are SO much cuter in the fall and winter months than in the summer. Summer wardrobe options consisted of t-shirts, shorts, and onsies.... snooze-fest (and it makes me jealous of all the options for cute little girl clothes out there for that spring/summer!) Fall brings cuter "boy" (and by boy, I mean colors that manufacturers in which boy clothes are made) colors like deep reds, oranges, navy blue, etc.; as well as sweaters that can be more interesting by having different textures & patterns, not just varying the color! We've got quite a good stash of fall clothes washed & ready to go... and I'm excited!

Things I Thought I'd Never Do as a Mom...

10. Take drugs during labor... I hate needles and didn't think I'd want any drugs. While I only had Nubain in my IV (it was already in), I requested an epidural but after I had fully dilated. (Super fast apparently).

9. Have the desire to temporarily walk away from my son... its true, there are going to be situations where you have to put down and walk away from the crying/screaming baby! I thought I could never get enough of the cuddly little man.

8. I really thought I'd keep Jack in the recovery room after L&D over night. I ended up being so exhausted I asked them to take him to the nursery for a couple of hours. Probably from the excitement of L&D, our new bundle of joy and visiting family all in < 10 hours. I think Matt struggled with that decision more that I did, but I was more physically exhausted then he was.

7. Not put Jack in a crib/bassinet from the first day home from the hospital. Believe me, we tried... but the frequency of waking and the amount of (what I thought was blood-curdling) crying broke me quickly. He slept on my chest or in someone's arms for the first week of life.

6. Give birth to an 8 lb. 2 oz. baby boy... I'm not even 5 foot and didn't weigh much more than 14o at full term = PETITE. Guess this is what happens when your husband is almost 6 foot.

5. Call the pediatrician the 2nd day/night home from the hospital. I feel really silly now, but I didn't notice that newborn diapers have a little line that changes color when it absorbs pee so I was really worried about urine output and that he was getting dehydrated.

4. Be so attached to breastfeeding. My theory before was that I'd do it if it worked out and if not, not stress too much about it. Well, my supply has waxed and waned throughout my breastfeeding experience but I have not brought myself to weaning Jack when times got tough or discouraging and its purely an emotional thing for me. I love the mother-son time!

3. I thought it'd be easy to nap when people came over to hold Jack to let me get some sleep. I found myself wanting to visit and get adult time, which led to a very tired Mommy, until I finally gave in to Mommy nap time.

2. Get frustrated when Jack didn't do things on a schedule/timeline. This is where baby books and websites have gotten the best of me... I'm always trying to find out what he "should" be doing and constantly trying to remind myself that there are ranges for developmental milestones.

1. Bed-share. I never wanted to, but I can honestly say that it helped with the exhaustion that can come with nursing through the nights. It may not be for every family, but Matt was very supportive because he knew how much easier it was on my recovering body. I know people are worried about rolling over on baby or dangers like that, but when you're only sleeping for 1.5-2 at a time you never really go into that deep of sleep. Personally, I felt like I slept better than when he was in a cradle in our room because instead of getting up to see what every movement he made was, feeling his little movements next to me were almost comforting. We eventually moved to Jack starting the evening in his crib , then coming into bed with us for the last 2 feedings of the night. At 6 months he was still wanting to nurse through the night and at the recommendation of our pediatrician tried the cry-it-out method. Jack has happily been sleeping in his own bed (and THROUGH THE NIGHT) since then... sure that may all change when teeth decide they want to start popping out!

I'm sure throughout my journey of motherhood there will be MANY more to add to this list! Makes me more understanding of different choices that parents make for their families and what works best for raising their children.

After All the Crying...

Comes sleep for all involved! That's my conclusion for all the "crying-it-out" we went through. In fact, Jack is feeling stuffy and yucky the past couple of days but tonight it didn't even take 7 or 8 minutes before he was sound asleep! Yes, it is normally not that long but since he's feeling stuffy again that is much better than the twenty minutes of screaming [every 45 minutes to an hour] when he was sick earlier.

I feel so much better after getting a lot of sleep for over a week now! I don't know that I've slept this good since before the 4th month of pregnancy, or maybe even before then (sleeping with 1st trimester nausea was not so much fun either).

Holiday Outings!

This weekend has been busy already! Just wanted to post a couple of pictures from out trip to the Columbus Zoo last night to see the Wildlights and from visiting Santa this morning! Enjoy!

Jack and Daddy in Santa's Holiday House at the zoo... taking a break from walking around in the cold to see the lights. His "snowsuit" says "Dad's Team" on it and Matt is really excited about it!

Jack and Santa at the Scott's children's holiday party! Its also a sneak peak of his Christmas outfit, but I don't think you can see it very well in this picture. I'll try and post a better picture after he wears it again.

In other happenings, the cry-it-out method has been going pretty well. Last night we had a bit of regression. I don't know if it was all of the excitement with going to the zoo or what, but it took over the initial 15 minutes to go to sleep and then he woke up again at 4:30 a.m.! We brought him to bed with us because we were both sleepy, but he did get 7 hours of sleep straight. Tonight has been successful though, he fell asleep in 3 minutes. Even through he woke up not too long ago, it didn't take any longer than 5 minutes before he was back asleep. Naps today were not good, he wouldn't sleep in his crib but slept on the couch while we did things around the house.

Crying it Out Update

So far, crying-it-out has been working for us! Last night, Jack was asleep in only 12 minutes, tonight after only 8 minutes. In fact, tonight he actually woke up after about 30 minutes and I realized I hadn't given him tonight's dose of antibiotics. We got him out of bed, gave him his meds and put him down again with kisses from Mommy & Daddy. He cried for less than 5 minutes before falling asleep. Last night Jack slept for about 10 1/2 hours

Now, I believe that every baby and every family is different. Which is why I don't have any issues with someone wanting to formula feed, or someone who has their baby in their own crib from the night they come home from the hospital, or someone who does not let their baby cry-it-out. What works for us, may not work for someone else or even our next baby! We try to remain open-minded to trying different techniques to determine what is best for our son and our family.

I am really looking forward to this weekend! Friday evening we're taking Jack to see the Wildlights at Columbus Zoo... we got free tickets through work so it was an easy decision! We won't stay long because it is supposed to be very cold. I need to go and get Jack's winter "coat"/bunting so we can put him in the stroller. Saturday morning we're taking Jack to see Santa at the children's Christmas party at work. That afternoon we get to see our friends Brooke & Greg and their little girls Abby & Izzy, maybe some other friends will join us! I hope that in between visiting Santa and our friends coming over to see the house we can get our house decorated for Christmas finally! (I'm glad we didn't do anything outside before today because we had terrible winds all day today.) I will post pictures soon, I promise!!

Night 2 of Cry-it-Out

Let me put it this way... for the past 5+ months we've essentially been bed-sharing at night, not for lack of trying to get him to sleep in his bed. It has been extremely beneficial to me as a nursing mother having him in bed with us. Especially since I've been back to work and not had the energy to be waking up at all hours of the night to nurse him. There was a span of a few weeks where we were actually able to put him down in his crib asleep (around 10:30 or 11 p.m.) and he'd stay asleep until about 2:30 when he would end up in bed with me after eating.

Well, night one was relatively successful... we put him down right around 9:30 p.m. and by 10 p.m. he was asleep. He slept until 3:30 a.m., almost 6 hours straight! We were kind of caught off guard at that early hour that we ended up bring him to bed with us. Tonight we're determined to stick to it, even if he does wake up in the middle of the night.

We're ten minutes in to the first fifteen minutes and Matt went to go get pizza for us. This is a little bit tougher without keeping each other in check... I am practically staring at the clock so I can run in there and pat him and tell him how much I love him.

We will stay strong... We will stay strong... We will stay strong!

Night 1 of Cry-it-Out

Well, its been a rough week in the Chilicki household... Jack has had his first double ear-infection. He's feeling much much better the past couple nights, but he's been on antibiotics for 4 days now. The first night was rough... we're talking waking up screaming as often as a 1-week old, crying so hard he threw-up... twice. It is heart breaking to not be able to help your baby while he's in pain.

Since he's feeling much better and nearing his 6-month "birthday" we've decided to work on self-soothing. As I type this my son is crying in the other room trying to go to sleep. Our pediatrician said if he wasn't sleeping through the night at 6 months we'd have to work on it for his emotional development. The way she said to do it was each night for a week give him an hour and fifteen minutes allowing him to cry-it out. After the first fifteen minutes, we are allowed to go in and comfort him, without picking him up, by patting him and telling him that we'll come and get him in the morning. She mentioned that he will get louder after hearing our voices but that we can leave the room for the remaining hour. This is repeated for 7 nights, but our doctor advised that usually within 2 or 3 days he'll be able to go to sleep on his own and if he wakes in the middle of the night he should be able to get back to sleep.

As terrible as it is to listen to your baby cry after our first fifteen minutes we realized that he's just mad, not scared or hurt. We know that he is fed, clean, and safe... and very sleepy. After going through the ear-infection, when he had to cry himself to sleep because we couldn't do anything for him, that he can do it.

This night it took just under 20 minutes before he was asleep.

I'll try and update every night on our progress... since I'll have roughly an hour and fifteen minutes each night.