Aedan: 46 Months, Week 2
Owen: 4 Months, Week 4 (Week 21)
Sunday, February 4 was the Super Bowl, and even though I am not the biggest fan of football, it's fun to eat finger foods and get together with people. We invited our neighbors from the street over to come have food with us and watch the game while our kids played. They have four girls, and we had been looking for a time when Samantha and their girls could get together and play. The girls and Aedan were fast friends and went right down to the basement to play after eating dinner. It was a fun evening getting to know some new friends, and we will definitely have to get our families and our kids together again.
I don't often leave Owen in his pajamas, but with grocery shopping being the only thing on our agenda for Monday morning, I figured it was just as well to keep him comfy and warm. Plus, I think these pajamas are really cute on him with the little bear feet. When I put him on his play gym, I always set him on the middle of the mat so he can bat at the toys, but he kicks around and wiggles so much that sometimes he scoots himself down and right off the mat. He has even kicked it over on top of himself a few times. In the video below, you can see how much he is rolling over on to his side. He's definitely working on trying to roll over, and I feel like it won't be long now. I just love the way he looks and me and smiles. He knows that I'm his mommy.
Sometimes I feel like it's a miracle when I can get both boys successfully to sleep for nap time. Both boys have been challenging lately in the napping department. Sometimes it takes me so long to get Owen down just to have him wake up not long after, when he is clearly still tired. Or, Aedan is kicking around and playing in his bed (taking his socks off, taking his pillowcase off, untucking his blanket), and generally just making lots of noise. Monday afternoon both boys were tired though, and they fell asleep rather easily for me. I couldn't believe they were both sleeping so soundly, and they were so calm and peaceful, so I went back into their rooms to take pictures of them while they were sleeping.
That evening I had an appointment to go to, so Ben was at home with the kiddos by himself. I felt bad leaving him to do bath time and getting them ready for bed by himself, but he handled it well. Here are some cute pictures he took of Aedan reading books to Owen while Samantha took a shower. Owen loves watching Aedan and already looks up to him so much. It's cute to see the way they interact with each other and to see Aedan growing into his roll as a big brother, not just a little brother. Bath nights can be quite the production in our house with one after the other getting clean, usually Samantha first in the shower, then Aedan in the bath tub so he can play with his toys for awhile, and then Owen last.
Ben and I have been throwing around the idea of signing up Aedan for preschool. Sometimes we feel like he needs more structure and routine in his days, as he often walks around the house complaining about being bored, or attacking Samantha when she gets home from school because he's so desperate for someone to play with. (There's only so much I can do during the day when I have Owen to take care of and tasks around the house to accomplish or errands to run. Plus, playing with kids is more fun anyways.) We've been wondering if the social interaction would be good for him, and if preschool would give him something to call his own, something special that he gets to look forward to a few days a week. So, in thinking about that, I set up a time to go to the Sault Cooperative Preschool on Tuesday morning so that Aedan could try it out, and I could check out how things are run and whether or not that would be a good fit for him and for our family. He was pretty excited about trying it out, and Samantha was excited for him as we talked about it at breakfast that morning.
When we first got there, Aedan was acting pretty shy. He hid behind my legs and didn't want to go into the room, even though all the kids were crowding around him, very interested in the new boy and his baby that came to preschool. I eventually convinced Aedan to go in and take his coat off, and the teacher explained the schedule of their day to me, handing me an application packet I could fill out. I got Owen situated in the Ergo because he needed to take a nap pretty soon, and I encouraged Aedan to go play, even though he kept asking me to play with him. Eventually he got comfortable enough to go off and play, and it was fun to watch him explore and play. He found the dress-up area where he found a Spider-Man costume just like he has at home, so he was very excited to put that on. I would say his favorite part of the room was the sensory table that was filled with rice and pasta and hidden letters. He drove some cars around in it and was having a great time. They have free, independent play for the first hour of their time there. Here are some pictures I took of Aedan playing and the classroom in general.
Once they were done with their snack, it was free play time again. Many kids were trying to play with the boats in the water table at the same time, and Aedan didn't get a turn before it was closed up because the kids couldn't share. That made him upset, and he ended up throwing some toys on the floor and kicking them. I pulled him to the side and talked to him about his behavior, and I knew that he wouldn't act like that if I wasn't there anyways. At this point Owen was awake, but he was happy just hanging out in my lap as I observed Aedan playing. If the temperature is 20 and above they go outside to play, and as the weather warms up, they have outdoor toys, a water area, and a sand table for the kids to play with.
I know Aedan would really enjoy being there, and he would learn some too with practicing writing his name and learning letter sounds, as well as practicing the letter names. However, most of the preschool is play based, which is not a bad thing. My main hesitation is that it is my understanding that he would be in a 3 morning a week class for the rest of this year, and then next year he would be in a 5 morning a week class, which I don't really want for him, nor do I think is necessary. Also, part of me feels sad about him going to preschool three mornings a week and not having him around the house. He will be in school for so many years of his life, why am I rushing to get him off to school again? Also, selfishly, he is my excuse to get out of the house sometimes with various play dates and going to the library. However, the social interaction would probably be good for him, and it would be better than dealing with him being whiny and bored at home sometimes. Plus, I would be able to have those mornings while he is at preschool to do our grocery shopping and do things around the house, so that the mornings I have him at home, on Mondays and Fridays, I could focus more just on him and playing with him. I don't know. I still feel so indecisive and don't know what the best decision is. I was glad that we were able to check it out though, and now I will just have to consider my options and go from there.
After having a busy morning, I thought maybe nap time would go better on Tuesday afternoon; however, I still had trouble getting Owen to nap. I fed him at 12:15 after getting home from the preschool visit, and it looked like he could have fallen asleep, but I didn't want him to be waking up right when Aedan was going down. Plus, he slept in the Ergo while we were at the preschool until about 11:00, so I figured he could stay up longer. But then we had to eat lunch, and I had to put dinner together, so I got him down later than I should have. He just woke up and was wiggling around in bed, so I wondered if I just waited too long to put him down. He wasn't even acting interested in sleeping. I tried to go down and rock him and he was just looking around wide-eyed. It's hard for me to know what to do when all I want him to do is sleep. I felt bad because I was texting Ben about all of this, and he offered to come home, but I know I was just being ridiculous and I was tired from having a rough night the night before. I know every mom has to deal with kids like this, but I wasn't handling it well that day. I just didn't know what to do. He seemed tired, he was grumpy, but I could not get him to sleep. He just kept screaming but didn't want to fall asleep when I held him. Finally, after giving him some time in his bed while I took a mental break for a few minutes, I checked his diaper and he had pooped. So I changed him but I still could not get him to sleep. I didn't know if I should give up and just let him get up. He was crying, and I didn't know if that was because he didn't want/need to nap or because I still needed to try and get him to sleep. We were having small group at our house that evening, and I didn't know what we would do if he didn't nap because then he would have to take an evening nap, but it's hard to do that when all the kids are downstairs making noise. All that to say, Ben ended up getting home a little early from campus, and he went down with Owen to help me out, finally getting him to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Owen having trouble napping is a common theme lately. I hate to feel so consumed by his sleep schedule, but so much of my day revolves around that. I usually nurse him to sleep in the afternoon so that way he doesn't wake up sooner because he's hungry, but almost every day he wakes up after about 45 minutes, crying. Usually when he wakes up crying it means he is not done napping yet, so I always try to rock or bounce him back to sleep, which sometimes works. But then there are other times it's almost like he's sleeping while he's nursing, like I waited too long to put him down and then he can't keep himself awake. So then his eyes just pop open like he is done napping, even though he is still in my arms. That was what happened on Tuesday afternoon, and then I spent all afternoon trying to get him to sleep, but nothing was working. I felt so tired of spending so long trying to get him to sleep, sometimes that taking longer than he actually naps for. It makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong sometimes and makes me second guess how I take care of him. I think I need to stop letting him sleep nurse as much because then he wakes up and he's in his bed and not nursing anymore, which probably makes him upset. All this makes me wish that he would take a pacifier as a way to soothe himself back to sleep, but he still shows no interest in using one. Then I also think that maybe I'm not keeping him on enough of a schedule, or maybe I am trying to make him conform to our schedule too much rather than just following his lead and putting him down when he shows signs of being tired, whether that is convenient for me or not.
His day of having trouble sleeping continued that night when he woke up a little before 10:00 crying, which is definitely unlike him. He developed a bit of a stuffy nose that day and was gnawing on things like crazy, which made me think that he could possibly be teething. I always forget that teething is always something that could be going on that could be bothering him and his ability to get good sleep. I decided that if he woke up again soon after laying him down, that I would give him some medicine to see if that would help at all. All told, Owen was up three times overnight, making for a very tired Mom the next day.
Wednesday morning Aedan, Owen, and I made our usual trip to the library for story time. Owen usually falls asleep in the car on the way there, but on this particular day he was taking longer to fall asleep, and we actually left early so we had a few minutes for me to drive around and get him asleep before stopping at the library. For some reason there weren't very many people there, just Aedan and another boy and his mom. Aedan enjoyed listening to the stories about the lion and cat, and then made a lion puppet out of a paper bag. Even though story time is not quite what it used to be in other towns we've lived in, it's more personal there. They know Aedan, and he gets a lot of one-on-one attention from the librarian. She will interact with the kids while they do their craft and usually pulls out puzzles afterwards to do with the kids. Aedan, the other little boy, Theo, and the librarian put together an ocean puzzle on the floor together. While they were working on that, I was able to talk to the other mom for awhile, not realizing we had a connection through our husbands at Lake State. It was a good morning, and Aedan was very respectful at the library.
Here is a video of the boys playing once we got back home that day before lunch, Owen with his floor gym and Aedan with his Rescue Bots. It's fun to see the stories he comes up with and the rescue missions they go on together.
On Wednesday we got the Zipadee-Zip sack in the mail. After thinking Owen was growing out of being swaddled in his sleep sack with his arms held down, I talked with Christy and thought about trying the Zipadee-Zip because it is supposedly a good swaddle transition, keeping their hands inside and giving a little resistance in the fabric when they move their arms around. I decided to try it for nap time on Wednesday because really, how could it hurt? He did startle some when I laid him down because his startle reflex is still pretty strong. His arms woke him up when I laid him down. I just left him there so I could go put Aedan to bed and then went back down to check on him because he was quiet. He was not asleep, but just wiggling and kicking around in his bed. After about 15 minutes, there still was no crying. I was amazed because normally when he is in his bed awake, he just starts screaming. I didn't want to jump to conclusions too soon, but I thought that maybe he just was not liking having his arms swaddled anymore. Also, Aedan ended up falling asleep too, without me even having to go in there, I felt like it was a day of miracles. I was so excited to see if the Zipadee-Zip would help Owen sleep better. However, just like most days, after about 45 minutes he was crying again, so I went to see if I could get him back to sleep. I was able to get him back to sleep, but his arms still startled him a lot when I laid him down. I tried resting my hands on his arms to calm them as he settled in his bed, but his arms kept jerking up. It will take him some time to get used to the freedom of being able to move his arms more now. He woke up another time after that as well, so it didn't seem like the Zipadee-Zip made much of a difference, at least not yet. Here he is zipped up, enjoying the access to his fists to suck on.
After having homemade pizza for dinner that night, we got everyone ready for AWANA and Bible Study. I had Ben take Owen with him that week so that we could see how that would go and we could try giving him another bottle. I don't get much time away from Owen, and I didn't realize how nice it would be to not have a wiggly, squawky baby to take care of while also trying to participate in the conversation during the Bible study. I was able to just relax and focus and enjoy my time kid-free. I was slightly concerned about how Owen was doing with Ben, especially since he is technically the leader of his Bible study, but I was mostly just glad to have a break from having to take care of a baby.
I was a little worried how the night would go with Owen in the Zipadee-Zip and having that freedom overnight, but I figured we would never know unless we tried it. It went fairly well, with Owen waking up at midnight and then again at 5:00. It didn't seem to make much of a difference either way, he didn't wake up any more or any less, and he went back to sleep just like he always does.
On Thursday the boys and I just stayed home to play, get some laundry done, and just have a more relaxed day. I was really hoping Owen would take a good nap in the morning so that I could have more one-on-one time to play with Aedan, but he only slept for about 20 minutes before waking up, and he was pretty fussy the rest of the morning because of not sleeping enough. I know at this age Aedan was taking pretty good morning naps, giving me time to be with just Samantha, but Owen just seems to be having so much trouble napping lately, and it makes me feel bad for Aedan sometimes because I can't give him as much attention as he wants and I want to give.
As I was changing Samantha's sheets that day, I noticed Samantha's little sticker decoration that she put on her headboard. It's so cute how she does things so symmetrically.
It seems like the boys stay in their pajamas a lot on Thursdays since we have nothing to do and nowhere to go. Here are my little smiley boys at lunch time on Thursday.
With how much trouble I've had at nap time lately, I've come to dread nap time because I know it's likely to be a battle. Owen woke up again after laying him down asleep. I checked his diaper, just to be sure, and he had pooped, so I changed him and put him back swaddled since he had been so fussy that day and only wanted to be held. I thought maybe the swaddle would make him feel more secure and give him the feeling of still being held. However, even though I got him back to sleep, he was up crying again 15 minutes later. Then I spent 15 minutes getting him back to sleep, just to have him wake up again 5 minutes later. I actually ended up just feeding Owen again because I wondered if he was hungry and that's why he was waking up. I was basically letting him use me as a pacifier, and I was even willing to let him just nap on my lap for awhile, if that meant he would actually stay asleep. But at that point Aedan had already been in his room for almost two hours, even though he wasn't napping, and I didn't want to just leave him in there while I let Owen sleep on my lap, so I laid him down, holding my breath to see if he would actually stay asleep. It was a good thing I came upstairs when I did because Aedan needed to go to the restroom and was calling for me, but I couldn't hear him when I was all the way downstairs.
Friday was another busy, interesting day. Aedan, Owen, and I went over for a play date with Aedan's friend Owen. Our Owen fell asleep in the car on the way there, and I was able to put him in an upstairs bedroom to continue his nap. (Sometimes it seems like he naps better in his car seat than in his bed.) Aedan said he didn't want to go before we left, but I knew he would enjoy it once we went there, especially since we had just stayed home all day the day before. Owen was in a little bit of a grumpy mood, but it was so good to see that it's not just Aedan that acts in that way, but just a typical 3 1/2 year old boy thing. Kristen and I enjoyed talking with each other about life, kids, family, and education. It's fun for us to be able to get together and for our boys to have a playmate for the morning.
Friday afternoon was busier than normal because we watched a foster child for another family. She had taken a little bit of a nap that morning, so we were unsure when she would want to take another nap that afternoon. Ben agreed to come home and help me in case I had to do a lot to get Owen to sleep again. There was no way I'd be able to handle nap time with all three kids if Owen was fussy again. Ben helped put Aedan down while I finished putting Owen down. This little girl loved our dog and followed her all around the house saying "da da." When we let Izzy outside, the little girl just banged on the patio door, calling for the dog, until we let her back in. After giving her a little time to play, I got a bottle of milk ready and took her downstairs to feed her and put her down for a nap. Last time we watched her she cried quite a bit on and off before falling asleep. With how much trouble Owen has been having sleeping lately, we didn't want to put her in Samantha's room, which is right above Owen's room, in case her crying would wake Owen up. So instead, I set the pack and play up in the play room where it is separated enough from Owen's room, but it was still a nice, dark, quiet place for her to sleep. She drank almost all her bottle and was very clearly ready to nap. In fact, she was almost falling asleep in my arms. I put her in the pack and play awake, and she cried for maybe three minutes before falling asleep and sleeping all the way until her foster mom came to pick her up. I wish Owen could give me good naps like that, and hopefully some day he will. However, it was easy to watch her when she pretty much slept the whole time.
Here is my drooly boy hanging out on his tummy that afternoon after getting up from his nap. We are working on getting his arms strong and pushing up, but he doesn't seem too interested in hanging out on his tummy for very long.
On Friday Samantha came home from school saying her tummy started hurting at school. She had some diarrhea and spent quite a lot of time going to the bathroom and just sitting because she kept feeling like she had to go. Then at one point she got up and rushed to the bathroom, and we heard her throwing up. My response was "uh-oh" because there had been a lot of sickness going around lately, so it probably was only a matter of time before it hit our family. She got sick quite a bit that evening between about 5:00 and 10:00. She wasn't able to keep anything down, even the small sips of water I had her take came right back up. We felt so bad for her because not only was she getting sick to her stomach, but she also continued to have diarrhea. At one point she was sitting on the toilet with a trash can in her hands, poor girl. By the end of the night she was tired, light-headed, weak, and shaky. At 7:00 she just wanted to go to sleep, so we covered her mattress with puppy pads to protect it if she got sick or had diarrhea during the night, put a trash can next to her bed, and hoped for the best. She got sick a couple more times that night before Ben and I went to bed, and Ben was preparing to possibly sleep up in the guest room so that he could be closer to her throughout the night, if she kept getting sick and needed help. We felt so bad for our little girl, and we hoped that she would feel better soon and that no one else in our family would catch it from her, particularly Owen.
Ben decided to start the night out sleeping downstairs and then moving upstairs if need be. However, Samantha did not get sick at all the rest of the night. I heard her get up and go to the bathroom a couple of times while I was up with Owen, but she didn't need us at all during the night. (We moved a monitor into her room so that we could hear if she got sick, and she could call for us if she needed us.) Saturday morning she woke up acting largely back to normal. Ben had her get in the bath and get all cleaned up, and then we worked on washing all of her sheets and blankets and disinfecting the bathroom and doorknobs and things to hopefully prevent anyone else in the family from catching her germs. She started off slowly drinking water, then eating a banana for breakfast, and then trying some toast after it seemed like things were going to stay down. We were so glad it seemed to be a fast and furious stomach bug, and we were glad she was already starting to feel so much better.
The rest of Saturday we just kind of took it easy and let Samantha work on recovering. We did laundry and the kids played. Everyone was tired, so we all took a nap that afternoon. Samantha ended up sleeping for just over two hours and Aedan for close to three hours. I guess that's what happens she she is up sick a lot and he skips naps and wakes up super early every day. We were glad for the rest, and even though it's hard for me to have a day where we just stay home and not do anything, sometimes it's necessary and useful to force myself to stop and rest.
(Blog about February 4-10, 2018)
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