You Rock Mom

I seriously love the extra time I get to spend with Kylee now that I'm only working part time. I try to make the most of our days together. Today we did a fun Mother's Day craft... Kylee made a rock for her mom and her grandmas, and she wanted to make one for me too :-) Each rock comes with a handwritten note by Kylee that says "You Rock" (we found the idea here).

It was pretty sweet - a few hours after we finished the rocks she came up to me, with her hands behind her back. She smiled big as she proudly handed me my rock and told me "you rock". She acted like I hadn't just helped her make it earlier in the day. Kylee helped me figure out a good place to put my rock - in the office next to my computer. I will gladly keep it there to brighten my days!

Tyler's First Haircut

A couple months ago, Kylee saw a little boy in church who is a month older than Tyler. She exclaimed, "Mom, that baby doesn't have any hair! Did his mom and dad shave his head?" Haha. She was comparing him to Tyler who was born with a good head of hair... and Tyler's hair just keeps growing!

I think someone told me that Tyler needed a haircut the week we brought him home from the NICU, and several other people have mentioned it since. I didn't want to cut his hair! He just seems so little for a haircut, and besides, I kinda loved his long hair. Finally I agreed that it was starting to look shaggy and decided to bite the bullet. I set up an appointment with Matt's mom to cut Tyler's hair the next day, and then spent the evening looking up videos on YouTube of babies getting their hair cut. You know what I found? Everyone gave tips on how to distract your "baby" from the hair cut - sit your baby down in a chair with his favorite snack, turn on his favorite show, etc. That's great... the only problem is my baby is only five months and can't sit on his own, strictly eats breast milk, and the only tv he has "watched" is on the Food Network and HGTV while I feed him!

We decided to cut Tyler's hair during nap time - Cindy cut Tyler's hair as he slept in my lap. 

I know I'm his mom, but I think Tyler looks quite handsome with his new short hair. He looks so grown up, but then again, I think he's always looked older than he really is.

Easter Toys

Easter was a little different this year... Matt worked both Saturday and Sunday nights, and Kylee was with her mom on Easter, so Tyler and I went to church on our own. Church was really nice - beautiful messages through both word and music. It was a bit weird not to have any Easter morning festivities at our house though! We did get to spend some nice time with my family earlier in the week and with Matt's family Sunday evening.

Tyler got a fun new activity mat for Easter. He loves the mirror and enjoys pulling on the different animals hanging from the bars.

We "celebrated" both Easter (and Matt's birthday) on Monday morning. Kylee had a scavenger hunt leading her to a brand new bike. She LOVES it and wants to go on rides pretty much every day. I think she's ready to take the training wheels off... thinking we'll try that here in the next few weeks!

Sleep Training - Days 3 Through 12

Well, just like the first couple days of sleep training, we've had good and bad days. But honestly, they've mostly been good. We haven't had a single day where Tyler has cried as much as the first night. After crying for 50 minutes on day 3, Tyler had a pretty good rest of the night. Day 4 was better than day 3 - I didn't have to check on him once!

7:35 - 8:05 - diaper change, pajamas, bottle, story, lullaby
8:07 - put Tyler in his crib (no crying!)
8:13-8:16 - crying
8:17 - silence
8:21-8:24 - crying
8:25 - silence

Since then, I think the longest Tyler has cried has been about 25 minutes. I've had several nights where I've only gone into his room once after 5 minutes to calm him down (he fell asleep before my 15 minute check) and even a couple nights where he's cried for less than 5 minutes so I haven't had to go in at all. I've had a few nights where Tyler has fallen asleep while eating during his bedtime routine (oops - maybe I should have started earlier). And then there was the one night my parents babysat so Matt and I could go on a date for Matt's birthday... they tell me Tyler went to bed all smiley and didn't make a peep after they laid him down. They went and checked on him several times thinking maybe the baby monitor wasn't working. I think I'll call them the baby whisperers. I guess I know who to call if Tyler won't go to sleep!

For the most part, I think I have Tyler's sleep schedule figured out:

• Wake up around 1:00 am (only about half of the nights) - He usually isn't awake long at this time and falls asleep on his own without any checking after just a few minutes of intermittent whines.
• Wake up around 3:15 am - I have been feeding him when he wakes up at this time.
• Wake up around 4:45 am (about three quarters of the nights) - I have been feeding him at this time too, thinking maybe he didn't really get enough at 3:15. I think starting later this week I might try to get Tyler to fall back asleep at this time instead of feeding him.
• Wake up around 6:30 - About half of the time Tyler is awake at this time and ready to start the day. Some of the days he is still sleepy. If I didn't feed him at 4:45, I might feed him now and put him back to bed until he wakes up around 7:30 for the day.

I was quite lucky on two nights when Tyler didn't wake up at all during the night and slept straight through until after 6:00 am. Here's to hoping there are more nights like this in the near future! For now, though, I am really happy that Tyler is sleeping in his crib. I can pretty much count on having my evenings to myself after 8:30 now because both kids should be in bed/asleep by about then. That gives me a little time to work or clean the house. I'm also hoping to start working out in our garage gym some nights after the kiddos are asleep. Now to work on nap time... Tyler typically only naps 30-45 minutes at a time, an hour if I'm lucky. I would love longer naps if possible! I'm thinking about trying to get his naps on a schedule too... We'll see!

Out of the Mouth of Kylee - Spring 2014

Just wanted to record some of our favorites from Kylee lately:

* Referring to the fact that the trees now have leaves on them - "The trees aren't bald anymore!"

* Saying "stink squirrel" instead of skunk.

* Saying she wants to ride in the "trunk" instead of the bed of the truck.