Fun Weekend

We had a fun weekend. Not that our weekends aren't always fun, haha, but this one was just relaxed and full of family time. Hannah's love language is "quality time spent", and she must have felt lots of love this weekend, especially from Daddy.

On Friday, Nana came to eat dinner with us and she and Hannah snuggled up on the couch covered in blankets and watched Cinderella together while Hayden slept (for part of it). While they watched and slept, I went on a 30 minute walk in the neighborhood, BY MYSELF. It was a wonderful mommy moment :)

Hayden's concert attire

Saturday morning we ate our normal pancakes and then had a Vitters rock band. Hannah doled everyone out instruments and conducted us. Hayden loved the tambourine and got upset when Hannah wanted to rotate instruments. He did like the egg shaker and monkey maracas, but the tambourine was his favorite. Hannah's favorite to play was her drum, made out of a stool and toy princess wands. I got some of the "concert" on video, and will try to post it at some point. After the concert Justin and Hannah snuggled on the couch and watched Lion King. Daddy protected Hannah during the scary parts and she ate it up. Very rarely does Justin play (concert) and sit down with her for hours at a time. I actually got the kitchen cleaned up before noon. It was amazing. Then despite the chilly air, Hannah had to jump on her trampoline and swing. Luckily, Hayden has discovered that he loves to swing as much as his big sis. We swung for quite a while, while Daddy worked in the yard. Hannah is somewhat trying to work on pumping. It's not going so well...:)

We then drove to Irmo to help Aunt Llora celebrate her birthday. It was a great meal (thanks Mom!) and a very relaxed evening. Hannah missed her "very best friend" Aunt Jess who was in Vegas, but had fun with her buddy Amelia.

Just like Daddy!

Sunday we made it to church and weren't as late as usual. We were still late, but earlier than we are most of the time. We listed to USC's baseball coach speak and really enjoyed it. I was able to feed Hayden at the beginning of the service and then actually made it into the service to hear the sermon. It is the first sermon (other than Christmas Eve) that I've heard since Hayden's been born. He always manages to be hungry during the second half of the service. Our little family of four headed to Moes, one of our favorite places. Hannah accidentally took a sip of Justin's soda (it was in a kids cup too). It was her first drink of soda (that I'm aware of at least) and she didn't realize it. She thought it was her diluted cherry lemonade. She drank and said. That is "easy breezy". I asked her what she meant and she said, "it just rolls on my tongue so yummy". Haha. We didn't realize until Justin took a big swig of her drink, that she was really drinking Dr. Pepper. She only had one sip, but Justin and and I are still laughing about her reaction.

Sunday afternoon was another outside play time. More swings and trampoline (although not quite as chilly) and we played with our neighbors in their backyard for a while, and then they came over to our backyard for a while. Mimi and Papa showed up to help Justin work and watch the kids while I went to a circle meeting at church.

I hope we have more weekend like this in the future. Justin of course "got nothing done". But, I keep reminding him that they are only going to be this little once and he needs to enjoy it! Enjoy it we did :)

Yay Hayden!

We have finally made some progress with sleep. As I type this, I am very well aware that I am jinxing it and we will have a bad night tonight, but I wanted to brag on my baby. For almost two months now he's been taking (short) naps in his crib. He was still sleeping in the rock and play at night, but it was quickly getting too small and not so safe for him. He has to be swaddled to sleep so we couldn't buckle him in. On January 1 I removed the rock and play from his room so we wouldn't be tempted to use it out of desperation. It was amazing. You'd think we were laying him on hot coals. Even if we put him to sleep by rocking/bouncing (which we did for naps as well) he would immediately open his eyes when we approached the crib. So...we began "crying it out". It has been a loooooong (11 days now) process but so worth it. The first week he would scream for the 2 hours we committed ourselves to, and he still didn't sleep well at night. After the two hours he'd sleep for 10-30 minutes (which was typically before crying it out), we'd feed him and start the process all over. This week he cut it to an hour of screaming and then would actually sleep for 5-6 hours without waking up! That was a record. The past two nights have been great. Thursday night he cried for 12 minutes and then slept for 7 hours, and after eating put himself right back to sleep for another few hours. Then last night, I kicked Mimi out (Mimi and I both knew she couldn't handle the crying) and put him to bed. He fussed/complained for less than 5 minutes and then fell asleep. It was so quiet, you couldn't hear it on the monitor! He then slept for 8 hours, ate and put himself back to sleep right away and slept for another 2 hours. Wow. This may not seem like much to those of you lucky enough to have good sleepers (or reflux free babies) but for us this is HUGE.

Naps are a different story. He won't let us put him to sleep anymore so he's been crying it out for naps as well. He sometimes cries for longer than he actually sleeps, but today cried for 9 minutes and has now been asleep for almost 40. Another huge "wow" for us.

I guess all the crying (on my part and his part), consistency, persistence, and questioning ourselves has been worth it. Hopefully he'll continue to sleep well so I can have a chance to get some sleep too (pumping and getting up to give him a bottle doesn't allow me to have a lot of consecutive sleep). Yay Hayden! Keep it up buddy!

I should also mention that we changed formulas and reflux meds during this time, as well as added lots of veggies to his diet. Who knows what actually did the trick :).

enjoying his bouncer (Christmas present from Mimi and Papa) and letting Mommy get some stuff done in the kitchen

First bite of butternut squash - he kept the smile the entire time and has continued to smile through the rest of the veggies he's tried so far...

Oops, I think I put my hands in my mouth a few too many times!

5 months old

I can't believe Hayden is already 5 months old, and I have already missed half of a school year! The time has just flown by. My house is dirty, the laundry sits in baskets (clean) for days sometimes before they are folded, dishes sit in the sink overnight, my scrapbooks haven't been touched since July, pictures still need to be hung, but we are finally getting into a routine and hopefully all of that will eventually come. Hopefully some good nights of sleep will be in our future as well.

Considering the amount of sleep he gets, Hayden really is a sweet, good natured baby. Every is always amazed at how good he is. I know I'm not as good with my lack of sleep :).

• weighs 13 pounds, 13 ounces
• jumped from 1st% to 5th% for weight
• has 7 bottles in a 24 hours period
• drinks a "mixed drink" before bed and formula during the night
• we are trying our second formula, and it seems to be working better for the refux than the first one
• eats solid food twice a day (lots of it, he loves to eat) and grunts when he wants more
• loves to smile
• adores his sister and the dog and can't take his eyes off either if they come close
• likes to listen to music
• almost out of a size 1 diaper
• still wears 3 month clothes, and some 0-3 month clothes
• starting to get into a daily routine (took long enough), although naps are not always consistent still
• sleeps 30 minutes at a time, (even at night sometimes)
• sleeps in his crib for naps and is working on it for bedtime, with lots of screaming and crying
• on a good night he'll sleep for 5 hours - we've had many nights with only 10 minute intervals
• "crys it out" for over two hours - it isn't very effective yet!
• can finally ride in the car 90% of the time without crying (unless it's dark, or Daddy is driving, haha)
• poops only every few days and it always results in laundry being done, and an immediate bath
• loves bathtime
• rolls (front and back) around to get around
• loves to stand and "walk" his feet forward
• bears weight on his legs for a long period of time
• loves to jump 
• reaches for his toys
• puts anything and everything in his mouth.
• has discovered his tongue, and sticks it out all the time