Sibling Love & Owen Learning How to Crawl

Samantha: 82 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 48 Months, Week 2
Owen: 6 Months, Week 4 (Week 30)

Sunday mornings have been a little different around our house lately because we have started going to the second service at church so that we can give Owen a nap at home first. He pretty consistently wakes up around 7:00, give or take a half an hour, so that means he needs a nap around 9:00, which is right when the first service starts. So, because of that, everyone has a little bit more time to hang out on Sunday mornings. Samantha and Aedan usually get ready right away and enjoy some time to play before we have to head out of the house. Here they are snuggling on the couch that Sunday morning. Samantha is reading a book to Aedan. I love these two so much. I love how much Aedan looks up to Sissy and loves to be around her. She is his world, and everything is better when she's around. I love how strong their bond is, and how most of the time she is perfectly fine to have him cuddle up to her or want to be around her constantly. I know there will probably be a day when she will think of him as her "annoying little brother," but I hope that their bond will always remain in tact, and I can show them pictures like this to remind them of the times they had together growing up, and how they were each other's favorite play mate.

Sunday was also a bit of a crazy, hectic day for us because we agreed to watch another family's foster baby who is about fifteen months old. They were going out of town for awhile, and we agreed to watch her from Sunday night through Thursday morning. Ben picked her up from her mom on Sunday morning, and we brought her to church with us. Then, we came home for a quick lunch and nap time. It was bit tricky getting everyone to eat and down for naps, as both babies were extremely tired by that point. I had everything set up in the guest room for her to stay, and she was pretty easy to put down for a nap that day.

Here I am with Owen as I took him downstairs to put him down for his afternoon nap. There is a mirror at the bottom of the stairs, and he loves to look at himself in the mirror and laugh.

Both Aedan and the foster girl took really good afternoon naps. In fact, we had to wake them both up around 4:00 because we didn't want them to sleep too long and then not be able to go to sleep that night. That is the problem with Aedan lately. Ever since he got this stomach bug, he has been napping pretty much every day. Sometimes it takes him awhile to settle down, but generally he goes to sleep pretty easily, which is great, I'm not complaining about that part. However, he will then be in his bed talking and singing for an hour or hour and a half at night, and sometimes is awake kicking in his bed as early as 6:15, before Ben or my alarm even goes off. So then that makes us wonder if we should just rip the band-aid off and have him stop napping and switch to quiet time in his room or something. It's nice having a quiet house at nap time, especially with Owen napping, but whatever sleep he gets during the day, he is losing at night by not being tired enough to fall asleep when we put him to bed. It's a vicious cycle because he isn't sleeping right away at night or waking up too early, which then makes him tired and ready for a nap the next afternoon. But then because he naps for so long, usually a good two hours, he has trouble sleeping at night again. I never know what the right thing to do is, especially since I know he will not be as good about playing in his room quietly like that Samantha did and still does when she is at home during nap time. He would have a hard time adjusting to being in his room by himself for a long time, but I don't want it to just turn into TV time every day either. I don't know. I have to think about what to do.

Here is Daddy playing with Owen that afternoon, throwing him up in the air and making him giggle and laugh. We think this boy will like to roughhouse along with Samantha and Aedan when he gets older.

Having another child around the house to care for made for a little bit of a challenge sometimes. Ben and I were both in charge of feeding a baby at meal times, so we didn't get a chance to eat food when it was ready and hot for most of the week. However, this was good practice for us to see what it would be like to add a foster child to the mix again. We are still licensed foster parents, but basically are just on hold until we decide we could handle doing it again. As of right now, we are planning on waiting at least until Owen is a year old and is in a more consistent routine with sleeping through the night. We will see how we feel as more time passes, but we are happy to do respite care in the meantime.

Monday morning after dropping our foster girl off to her school, the boys and I went to Meijer to go grocery shopping. I am still trying out Meijer, and at some point need to go through our receipts and compare prices with Walmart. Ben is pretty convinced that it is more expensive. But, there are many things I like better about shopping there. I am trying to do better about looking at the weekly ads ahead of time and planning our menus off of things that are on sale. I also am loading coupons onto our m-perks account and bringing coupons in with us from the ones that print out after you check out. That is one thing that Walmart doesn't have, for there the price is the price, there are no discounts or coupons. At Meijer, I love the special carts that hold the car seat for me, letting Owen continue napping without me having to take him out right away. I love not having to stand in long lines just to check out, and Aedan loves the cookies and riding on Sandy. Owen rode on it with him again, and he seemed to like it a little more this time. (This is what Aedan does when I tell him to smile.)

After we got home from shopping, I was changing Owen's diaper, and he couldn't wait to flip over so he could get up on his knees and rock. He wants to move so badly. Look at him in this video! He is up on his hands and knees, sometimes on his hands and toes, rocking back and forth, trying so hard to figure out how to propel himself forwards. It's only a matter of time before we have a crawler on our hands!

I continued to have trouble getting Owen to nap this week. For his afternoon naps, he just wouldn't stay asleep. He will sleep for about 45 minutes and then wake up crying. I go down down to his room and get him to fall back asleep on my shoulder, but then as soon as I go to lay him down, he wakes back up and starts crying again, starting the whole process over again. Even at night he's been waking up more, which is unusual for him. On Friday night he woke up seven times, and Ben and I took turns going in to help him go back to sleep or I fed him if he was acting hungry. On Sunday night he woke up four times, making me feel totally exhausted after not getting much sleep over the weekend. I just felt exhausted in caring for him and not getting enough sleep makes everything worse. I felt like I was doing something wrong, or allowing him to nurse and be bounced to sleep too much, so that now he can't settle himself back to sleep when he wakes up at the end of a sleep cycle. I felt like it would be different if it was one or the other, like if he had a hard time napping but then did okay at night, but lately, it has been both, so I just felt so tired and tired of dealing with it. He is definitely a little stinker when it comes to sleeping sometimes.

After getting all four kids tucked into bed on Monday night, Ben and I got to work getting our own work done, his for teaching, and mine for getting food ready for MOPS and small group the next day. I was tired and not feeling like making anything, but so is the life of an adult and mother.

Tuesday morning was a bit hectic again trying to get everyone up and out the door, dropping our foster girl off, and trying to get to MOPS on time. Owen fell asleep in the car as we drove around town, and I attempted to get him to stay asleep once we arrived at church for MOPS, but he didn't sleep for too long. I maybe got half an hour nap out of him. Once he woke up, I took him to the nursery, and then I was able to enjoy some time to myself eating some yummy food, drinking coffee, and talking with other moms. I love MOPS. I look forward to it every time. It's been great being a part of it this year, and I'm excited about joining the leadership team for next year.

Lunch and nap time are always a bit crazy on MOPS days because Owen is usually super tired from being out all morning. However, he is getting easier to distract and make happy. With small group that evening, I wanted to get Aedan down for his nap first so he could work on getting to sleep while I put Owen down, since it takes longer for me to put him down since I nurse him first. Plus, I figure if Owen's only going to sleep 30-45 minutes, I would rather have that time to myself and to get things done, not just spent putting Aedan down.

Anyways, Aedan wanted to snuggle with Owen in his bed as I sang songs and prayed. They were so cute together that I had to take some pictures of the brothers together.

These next few pictures are some of my favorites. They both have such silly expressions on their faces. They are going to be trouble together when Owen gets old enough. I'm glad that they will have some time together before Aedan goes off to kindergarten a year and a half from now.

Tuesday afternoon was more of the same in getting Owen to sleep and then waking up half an hour later. I tried to get him back to sleep, but I had to leave to pick up our foster girl that afternoon anyways, so I figured there was no point in getting him to go back to sleep once it was almost 3:00.

We knew it was going to be a little crazy taking an extra kid along with us to small group, but we knew we would have people to help us. We brought Owen's high chair and our booster seat along to make it easier to feed the little ones. Samantha and Aedan do a good job of eating by themselves once we get their food dished out for them. We went with a breakfast theme for dinner that night, so we brought Monkey Bread and Breakfast Casserole to share with everyone. Our kids were really excited about all the yummy food for dinner. Participating in small group is difficult for me on regular nights when I am just wrangling Owen, but it was even more difficult having two babies to watch that night. I tried to take our foster girl down to be with the babysitter, but she cried as soon as I put her down and tried to leave, so I knew that wasn't going to work. I brought toys to play with and tried to keep everyone occupied and quiet so the rest of the adults could talk and share about our study of Acts.

When we get home from small group, it's quick to bed for the kids, as it is usually approaching 8:00, and we usually try to have the kids in bed by 7:30 most nights. Owen fell asleep in the car on the way home, making him a little happier, so I was able to help put Samantha to bed that night. She wanted Owen to lay next to her on her pillow so she could cuddle with him, so I got some great pictures of Samantha and Owen in their pajamas, ready for bed. :) She definitely loves her little brother. Often, she will hug him, look at me, and say, "Thank you for having another baby, Mommy."

On Wednesday morning, Owen ended up waking up around 6:00, and I nursed him and got him back to sleep. Then he slept until after 7:30, which worked out well for getting ready, but made it so that he didn't get a nap at home that morning. We had to leave to take our foster girl to her school and then we went straight from there to the library, arriving early, which is unusual for us, but it wouldn't have made sense to go back home for a short amount of time. Owen didn't fall asleep since it wasn't time for him to nap yet, so I just got him out of his car seat to hang out while Aedan played in the library. The librarian helped Aedan find some super hero books, and we took some time to just sit and read together. Then we listened to the stories before making a fox hat craft. Owen was getting pretty tired at that point, so I put him in the Ergo and covered up his head, swaying back and forth until he fell asleep. Aedan played with toys and on the tablet for awhile before having a snack and wanting to do some puzzles with me. Once I sat down, Owen woke back up again, but he slept for about half an hour. Some of our friends were at the library, too, and they started working on a super hero puzzle. Aedan wanted to join in, so we went down to the bottom of the steps and worked on the puzzles together while Owen rolled around and played with his toys on the floor. It was a fun morning at the library.

Here are some cute pictures of Owen from lunch time that day. I was bouncing around and dancing, and he was smiling and giggling for me.  I love little baby laughs. I love it when they smile and all you see is their tongue and gums.

Aedan actually took a nap that afternoon, and Owen slept longer than usual, waking up about 3:00, which was good timing for feeding him and getting ready to pick up our foster girl. Ben and I both felt very worn down and tired that day. The girl we were watching was waking up during the night several times, in addition to Owen waking up more than usual and being more difficult to get back to sleep. Things have been so busy lately that I feel like Ben and I haven't had much time to connect with each other. I found myself wishing I could transport myself back to the days when, after a long day, we could just go out to dinner, just the two of us, and sit and talk for a couple hours, like we did before we had kids. I love our kids, and I wouldn't change having them, but sometimes life just keeps barreling onward and there are so many tasks you have to complete every day when it comes to working and caring for a family and home, that it leaves you with very little downtime to relax and connect and just be with your spouse. When Owen is no longer nursing, which I know is a long time from now, I would love to have a weekend getaway with Ben. We will have to try and make that happen. :)

Wednesday nights are AWANA and Bible Study nights, and the wife of one of the men in Ben's Bible Study offered to watch our two kids for us so that both Ben and I could enjoy our Bible studies without having to take care of a kid. It was a very kind and generous offer, so Ben took the kids with him to church and she watched them in the nursery while he met with the men. There are only a few more weeks left of AWANA, which I know will make Aedan sad. He has really enjoyed being a part of it this year. He loves his teachers and he loves singing at music time. Both Samantha and Aedan are always super excited to go into the church and join in the singing. I tried to get a video of them singing and doing the hand motions, but it was close to the end of the song, so I didn't capture as much action from Aedan. You can see Samantha in the foreground and Aedan in the background. He is a little more reserved in singing and doing the actions, but you can tell he knows them and is following along, he's just a little more shy about it. AWANA has been such a good program to be involved in this year. We will definitely have to do it again next year.

Since we had been out the last few mornings of the week, I stayed home with Aedan and Owen on Thursday morning. My plan was to get going on some laundry that desperately needed to be done, as well as just have time to play one-on-one with Aedan while Owen napped. However, I got Owen to sleep that morning for his nap, and he only napped for ten minutes before waking up crying. I tried several times to get him to go back to sleep, but it was not working. I felt bad for Aedan because sometimes I feel like I am always leaving him by himself to go put Owen to bed or to feed him, and then like on mornings like that, I'm spending half our morning just trying to get Owen to sleep, using up all the time I have to spend with just Aedan. Luckily, I think I care a lot more about it than Aedan does. He usually is happy finding Legos to play with or going on rescue missions with his Rescue Bots. However, I just have memories of good time playing with just Samantha when Aedan would nap as a baby, and I just don't get the same sort of time with Aedan because of how short or inconsistent Owen's naps are. I was hoping it would be better by now, but it seems like this is just his personality. He just doesn't sleep as much or as consistently as Aedan did.

That day as Aedan and I finished up eating lunch, I started taking these videos of Owen down on the floor. I have seen him up on his hands and knees rocking quite a bit, but I never saw him pushing and reaching for things as much as I did at this time.

We just had to give him the proper motivation of Buzz Lightyear, and he rolled and scooted right to it. Aedan was so excited for his little brother. It was cute to watch him cheering him on. :)

These next two pictures Aedan took of Izzy with my phone.

I couldn't have all the pictures be of Owen though, so I flipped the camera around so Aedan could see himself. He especially liked to see himself dressed up in the mask and cape of Superman. I love this sequence of pictures. They were all too cute to choose just a couple. I feel like it captures this little boy's personality so well. You can see his messy hair from having the mask pushed up on his head while he ate lunch.

Here he is smiling. :)

Here he is making a sad face. :(

Here he is making a silly, surprised face.

And then he just started to find himself very silly as he looked at himself on the screen, which is why he almost has to look away and covers up his mouth in the last two pictures, like he was too embarrassed to look at himself anymore. I love this little boy, and I love this time that we get to spend together. His personality is wonderful, considerate, and quiet, but also silly and rambunctious when he is around people he is comfortable with. I have loved getting to know his interests more over the past year as he has grown up and come to like his own things, like Legos and Rescue Bots and Super Heroes, and not just what Sissy likes.

We ended up watching the foster girl one more night from Thursday into Friday. She still woke up crying a few times during the night, but not as much as she had on previous nights. I'm sure she was finally getting used to being in our house and sleeping in a new room and in a new bed. However, we knew that would be the last night and that after taking her to school, she would be someone else's responsibility.

Owen woke up at 6:30 Friday morning and wouldn't go back to sleep, so I hoped that he would take a good morning nap. Ben actually ended up putting him down while I took the foster girl to school. Owen went down pretty easily, but he woke up right when Ben left for campus, really only napping about half an hour. I was hoping for much longer than that, for my sake and for his sake. I knew he was tired, and it made for a long morning. There was a MOPS play date at McDonald's that morning, so we decided to go to that for a little while. There were going to be a couple other boys Aedan's age, so I knew he would have fun playing there and getting some energy out. In fact, when it was getting close to noon and it was time to go, his head was all sweaty from running around so much. I'm glad he had a fun time and was able to play with another boy his age while I had a chance to sit and talk with some other moms, even though it's kind of hard to talk in the middle of a loud McDonald's play place.

Even though Owen hadn't napped much that morning, he was in a pretty good mood. In fact, when we got home and I changed his diaper, I got these great videos of this little guy who has now learned to army crawl! So he has gone from pushing up on his hands and knees, to rocking back and forth, to rolling across the floor, and now to army crawling, all in one week! Maybe this is why he has been having trouble sleeping. He has been busy learning something new, achieving a new developmental milestone. I thought it was so funny how determined he was to get to Izzy's bone. He is definitely using his arms and legs to move himself forward. Now nothing is safe! Let the extra baby-proofing begin!

After a rough couple of days of naps for Owen, he actually took about a two hour nap on Friday. He woke up in the middle of his nap, like he often does, and I tried something different that day. Instead of picking him up and holding him on my shoulder and bouncing him, then hoping he will stay awake as I lay him back down, I decided to leave him on his tummy, which is often how he is when he is awake and crying in his bed. I put one hand on his back and with the other hand I patted him on the bottom, enough to bounce the bed and him ever so slightly. So, in essence, he was getting the same feeling as when he's being held. He's snuggled up to something and he's being bounced to sleep. It was magic! I was able to get him back to sleep rather quickly this way, I didn't have to hold my breath hoping he would stay asleep since he was already laying down in his crib, and he stayed asleep for another hour or so. I was ecstatic! I may have found a new way to comfort my baby and lull him back to sleep. Maybe this will help him get better sleep and even help him settle himself more at times, too. It was so nice not to have to spend my whole afternoon walking around and bouncing him, or even letting him sleep on my lap as I let him do one afternoon.

On Friday night there was a Mom's Night Out event that I went to. I try to go to these whenever I can so I can have a break, but also so I can meet other moms and have a chance to talk without having to wrangle kids. We went to Applebee's for dinner and then back to one of the mom's houses for dessert and playing a game. Sometimes I feel really uncomfortable in situations like this. Big groups, small talk, and social games like that are really not my forte. I prefer smaller groups or one-on-one conversations, but I tried to push myself a little, and I had a lot of fun that night meeting some new people and getting to know others better.

Ben's night went pretty well with the kids. Owen gave him a little bit of a hard time going to sleep because he wasn't interested in drinking from the bottle at first. Ben got him to just go to sleep without eating much, but then he woke up because he was hungry. Finally, I think on his third attempt of going downstairs, Owen finally realized that Ben was trying to feed him, and he drank a good amount of his bottle before finally falling asleep and staying asleep. I know Owen isn't always the easiest to put to bed, especially since he is used to nursing to sleep and still isn't great at always taking bottles, but I appreciate Ben being willing to take the kids for me so I can go out. We need to keep trying to give Owen bottles and have him get used to other people putting him down so Ben and I can feel more comfortable leaving our kids with a babysitter so we can go out on dates more.

Once Ben got Owen down on Friday night, he had a pretty good night, waking up twice, which is what he usually does. It was definitely nice not being woken up by two babies that night, and I felt like I actually got some good sleep going into Saturday.

Saturday, April 14th was a busy day with a lot of different events going on. I signed Samantha and Aedan up for an event at the Lutheran church around the corner called Easter for Kids. Samantha was a little confused as to why they were doing something Easter related when Easter was a couple weeks ago, but we figured it would be something fun for them to go do. They played games, made crafts, sang songs, learned the Easter story, and had a snack. The kids said they had a lot of fun when I picked them up at noon. While they were gone for the morning, Ben ran some errands like buying more pellet bags to get us through the rest of the colder weather and also picking up Aedan's new twin mattress and box spring. We wanted to get it in the house at a time when he wasn't around so he wouldn't see it, since it's his big birthday present from us. I got Owen down for his morning nap and also put away the loads of laundry that I had gotten done the previous day, as well as vacuumed and started to do a quick clean of the house. Not exactly the most fun of morning activities, but it felt like a fairly productive morning.

After lunch and attempting to put the kids down for naps (I say attempting because Aedan didn't nap), we had more fun plans for that evening. Samantha had a birthday pool party for a kid in her class from 5-7. Especially with it being a party around water and with a family I didn't really know, I didn't feel comfortable letting her stay there by herself, so I decided to go there with her and take Owen with me. Then, I suggested that Ben take Aedan on a date to do something special. Their plan was to get dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and then go bowling, but the bowling alley was booked with leagues playing that night. Aedan still had a lot of fun having one-on-one time with Daddy. He got to color this beautiful picture at Buffalo Wild Wings, eat yummy mac and cheese, and then have some ice cream for dessert. Since the bowling alley was closed, Ben offered that they could go back home and cuddle on the couch and watch a show together. Aedan liked that idea just as much.

Samantha had a blast at the birthday party, jumping in the water, climbing on a turtle raft, and playing with some of her friends from school. Owen did a pretty good job just hanging out on my lap, even though he was getting pretty tired toward the end of the party. There were a couple times that Samantha seemed to be left out, and she would just sit on the side of the pool with a sad look on her face for a few minutes before going off to do something else. I feel bad for Samantha sometimes. I see some of myself in her when it comes to social situations like this, and I hope that she doesn't feel like I did growing up, for I always felt like I had a hard time fitting in and making friends. I hope Samantha can find some good, solid friends, and I hope the meanness between people, especially girls, dissipates some instead of getting worse.

And to end this blog post, here are some pictures of Daddy and Owen that he took that night before bed.

(Blog about April 8-14, 2018)

The Stomach Bug & Fun Family Time

Samantha: 82 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 48 Months, Week 1
Owen: 6 Months, Week 3 (Week 29)

Sunday, April 1st was Easter Sunday, and especially with Aedan getting over being sick, we didn't really have any grand plans. He seemed to sleep okay overnight and didn't get sick anymore. The rest of us seemed fine, so I was hoping it was just something Aedan picked up.

For the past several years, we have made Resurrection Rolls on Easter morning because it's a fun, yummy treat, and a great visual reminder of Jesus dying and being buried, but raising from the dead on the third day; just as the marshmallows "disappear" inside the crescent roll as you bake them. Samantha and Aedan helped cover the marshmallows in the sugar and spice mixture and place them on the crescent roll, then I rolled them up.

We didn't do anything too big for the kids' Easter baskets this year, just some bubbles, a chocolate bunny, and some Easter egg candy. In the past I have always picked out a little toy to put in their basket as well, but we didn't think they needed any more toys this year. They didn't mind though. They always enjoy getting candy to eat. Here they are with their Easter baskets that morning. (Owen didn't get one since he can't eat candy yet.)

Since Aedan was sick on Saturday afternoon, we kept him with us in the big church so he wouldn't possibly get anyone else sick in the preschool room. We didn't want to miss church on Easter, so we figured this would be a good solution. After church we got our kids together for some pictures before going home. Samantha looked beautiful in her pink polka-dotted dress, Aedan looked handsome in his blue vest, and Owen looked adorable in his suit and tie. Again, it's kind of difficult getting all the kids to smile and look for a picture, but we got some pretty cute ones. We have some pretty great kids. :)

I feel like you couldn't really tell what Owen's little suit and tie looked like in the pictures at church, so when we got back home, I laid him on the floor to take a few more pictures. He has a bright green dress shirt on and a little striped clip-on tie. I know it's kind of silly dressing a baby up in a suit, but this was given to us, and I couldn't resist putting him in it for Easter. He looked so cute.

We didn't have too many plans for our Sunday except for eating a quick lunch and getting the boys down for their naps. Aedan didn't have much energy after being sick on Saturday, and we wanted to make sure he got some good rest so he could continue to feel better. We let Samantha have quiet time in her room, and she was busy playing with her toys and set up all these books and toys around her room, calling it a "Toy Fair." She couldn't wait for Aedan to get up from his nap so she could show him the Toy Fair and let him choose the books and toys that he wanted to take. I thought it was pretty cute and pretty creative of her, so I took a few pictures of her set up. It's amazing what her little imagination can come up with when she has time to herself.

I'm not sure why this video turned out upside down, but I thought it was pretty cute to see the way Samantha and Aedan interacted with each other. He thought it was pretty special that he got to pick and choose toys and books to take and keep in his room. He loves getting special attention from Sissy.

As Samantha and Aedan were busy in her room, Ben and I went around the house and hid Easter eggs so the kids could go on an inside Easter egg hunt. It was definitely too cold and snowy to do any outdoor Easter egg hunts here. Especially since Aedan missed going to the one at the Norris Center on Saturday, he was excited to still be able to participate in an Easter egg hunt. They each got to find fifteen eggs, and Samantha had a much easier time finding them than Aedan did, but she was a pretty good sport about letting him have a turn to find some. Here is a picture and a couple videos of the kids searching for their Easter eggs.

We had a quicker lunch that day with plans to have a nicer Easter meal for dinner instead, when we would have more time to make it and enjoy it together. We made ham, baked potatoes, asparagus, and biscuits, and we used all methods of cooking from our crock pot, to our instant pot, to the stove, to the oven. The kids were really excited for the meal and ate it well.

Samantha does a great job of playing with Owen. He loves her attention, and she makes him laugh so hard when she is silly with him or dances for him. She was helping to entertain Owen for us after dinner that night, and it was just too cute. I love his laugh.

Other than Aedan being more lethargic on Sunday, he seemed largely okay. He kept wanting to do more than we wanted to let him do, and we tried to contain how many toys he touched and played with. I spent most of my Sunday night sanitizing all the toys he played with recently to try to stop any germs from spreading. However, as Monday went on, I realized that Aedan hadn't quite recovered yet. He had little appetite since being sick, and then he started having diarrhea on Monday. By afternoon he had it six or seven times, and he just looked like he didn't feel well. His eyes were sunken in, he kept saying he was really tired, he had no energy to do anything or play, and he was really whiny and crying about everything. I was starting to get worried about the amount of times he had diarrhea, not wanting him to get too dehydrated from it, so I called and made an appointment at the family doctor for 8:00 on Tuesday morning. They had afternoon times that day, but I didn't want to wake him up from a good nap just to take him to the doctor. Luckily, he was drinking quite a bit of water. In fact, pretty much all he wanted was something to drink, so that's good, and he hadn't gotten sick to his stomach again.

I was having some trouble getting Owen to sleep on Monday afternoon. With Aedan not feeling well, I didn't want to make him wait for too long to take a nap, so I ended up just laying Owen down in his crib and going upstairs to put Aedan down. By the time I was done, Owen was making very little noise and then stopped. I was completely shocked. I don't think he has ever settled himself to sleep like this, especially at nap time. I had Samantha home on her last day of Spring Break, and I let her watch a movie that afternoon rather than making her go in her room for quiet time. She was pretty excited that I was going to let her watch a whole movie. We don't do that very often, so it's definitely a special occasion. I was so surprised that Owen was quiet, that I had to sneak back into his room to see if he was asleep, and this is what I found. He was fast asleep on his stomach, which I had never seen him do before. Sometimes he is on his stomach when we get him from his bed after waking up, but I always assume that's because he rolls over when he wakes up. However, after seeing him all snuggled up like this, I began to wonder if maybe he sleeps like this more often than I realize. I feel like he would really enjoy sleeping on his tummy because it would almost simulate what it would feel like when he falls asleep on our chest with his head resting on our shoulder. I feel like he would feel a lot more secure and comfortable on his tummy than on his back, but who knows how he sleeps. I know Samantha and Aedan both slept on their tummies quite a bit after they learned how to roll over without any problem.

By the time it was dinnertime that evening, Owen also had several loose stools, a couple that required an outfit change. I was concerned that he had caught the same things Aedan had, but didn't know if it was just because he hadn't pooped in a couple days either. I prayed that Owen would not get sick like Aedan, especially throwing up, and I prayed that this sickness wouldn't spread through our entire family. We got everyone to sleep okay that Monday night, but just as Ben and I were getting in bed ourselves, both boys woke up, Aedan needing to use the restroom because of diarrhea, and Owen because he had diarrhea in his diaper. I hoped that we would be able to get some sleep that night, and that we wouldn't be up all night taking Aedan to the bathroom or changing diapers and sheets for Owen. I hate stomach bugs the most, and I just longed for everyone to be healthy, with no colds or coughs and no upset stomachs.

We were up quite a bit that night, and as the night went on, I realized I must have gotten the germs as well. Diarrhea for me started in the middle of the night, and I was starting to feel terrible. I hoped that it wouldn't turn into something more, but as I got up that morning and started to move around, I got sick to my stomach as well, making it so that Ben definitely had to stay home and help me that day. There was no way I could take care of the boys with the state I was in. By 11:00 I had gotten sick to my stomach four times, and I couldn't even keep a sip of water down. As soon as I would sit up or walk around, I would get sick to my stomach. I spent most of the morning just lying in bed.

Ben took Aedan to the doctor after dropping Samantha off at school that morning. He probably didn't really need to go, but we were wanting some advice on how to stop his diarrhea and also what to do if Owen caught it from him. They didn't say too much, which we figured, but they gave him a stool collection kit, if we wanted to bring it in and have it tested, and just said to keep him hydrated. Here they are waiting at the doctor's office.

I was so glad to have Ben home helping me with the kids that day. In fact, there was one time I thought I was well enough to sit up and nurse Owen, but as soon as I sat up, I got sick to my stomach again. Ben took him upstairs and gave him a bottle instead, and I pumped after a little while so that I could make sure my milk supply didn't suffer. I knew it was going to be hard enough just with how dehydrated I was feeling. Plus, with Owen having a touch of the bug as well, he didn't have much of an appetite, so he wasn't nursing well or eating much baby food either. Even though Owen wasn't eating as much, he didn't have any more loose stools like he did the day before, and he never threw up, thank God. Aedan also had less diarrhea, so I was hoping they were on the upswing from this terrible stomach bug.

I, on the other hand, was still not feeling great that afternoon when it was about time for Samantha to get home from school. I had some ice chunks and was able to keep those down, but I was also hardly moving from the couch. I felt really light-headed and weak every time I tried to stand up and walk around. My head was pounding, probably from being dehydrated. I tried to take the medicine that the doctor gave me for my nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, but of course, since I had to swallow it, it didn't stay in my stomach for very long. After getting the kids tucked into bed, and being able to hold it together long enough to nurse Owen and put him down, before getting sick again, I decided to take myself to the ER that night. Back a few years ago when I had a bad stomach bug like this in Bloomington and was nursing Samantha, I remember going to the doctor and they suggested that I get an IV of fluids to help with my dehydration. I remember it made me feel so much better, and I was hoping that I would be able to get the same thing if I went to the ER that evening. I arrived around 8:30 and was taken back to a room around 9:00. Luckily, I didn't even have to ask, for the nurse started me on IV fluids right away. A doctor came in to see me and decided to give me some Zofran through the IV as well to help settle my stomach. As soon as the fluids started working their way into my body, I started to feel so much better. In fact, I fell asleep in the hospital bed for over an hour. I was sent home with a prescription for Zofran that dissolves so that I didn't have to try and swallow anything, but I was hopeful that this would be the jump start that I needed to begin feeling better. I got back home at 11:30 and tucked myself into bed. The only times I woke up throughout the night were the two times Owen needed to eat, and I didn't get sick to my stomach again.

Wednesday morning we discovered that Samantha's school was cancelled for the day due to the weather. Samantha and Aedan were both super excited for a snow day to just stay home and play, and it was really a blessing to me as well because Aedan had someone to play with while I was still recovering and still not feeling 100%. They did such a great job playing together that morning. They had quite the involved game of Legos going on, even building an airport and Great Wolf Lodge. It was fun just to sit and watch them play. :)

That afternoon I was struggling all afternoon trying to get Owen to nap. He had only slept for half an hour, which definitely was not long enough. However, I spent most of the afternoon trying to get him back to sleep, and it was difficult for me to walk around the room and bounce him when I wasn't feeling better yet. My head was still pretty foggy, and I was still weak with very little energy. I hadn't eaten much in a couple days and was slowly working on drinking and eating more.

My struggles with getting Owen to nap in the afternoon continued on Thursday as well. He was sleeping for only 30-40 minutes after I laid him down and then would wake up crying. I got him back to sleep by holding him and bouncing him, but then he would wake up crying again shortly after I laid him down. I was so confused as to why this was happening again. In the morning he would sleep fine without waking up, if we are at home and I give him a nap in his bed. He usually even makes it past the hour mark. However, these afternoons of him not napping, but still being tired and fussy are exhausting. I know it's not all about the break that I can get in the afternoon, although it would be nice to have some time to get things done around the house, or even to just have some quiet time. However, it would be nice if Owen would start sleeping more consistently. Aedan was such a good sleeper by comparison, at this age. I have gone back and read my blog posts about Aedan at this same time, and he was taking pretty good naps for me most of the time. There was the occasional time he would wake up crying and need to be settled back to sleep, but that was not the norm as it seems to be with Owen. We keep hoping there is some reason, like maybe he is teething again, or maybe he is going through a growth spurt, or maybe it is because he is achieving a developmental milestone. Who knows, and maybe some day we will figure out the cause of why our boy is the king of short naps.

After trying multiple times to get Owen back to sleep and failing, I decided to just let him get up and hang out with me on the floor. I posted a picture of my cute little stinker on Facebook, saying, "He only slept half an hour this afternoon, much too short for this mama, but at least he's happy. Cute boy is moving and rolling all over the place, even getting up on his knees some. We will see when the crawling starts."

And here's a video I took that evening as we were giving the kids baths and getting ready for bed. I wasn't too excited to be seeing more snow on April 5th. The big, puffy snowflakes were pretty, but I am ready for Spring to come to the U.P. I want to see our grass again.

I was so glad to be feeling better that evening and to be more present with the kids. I always feel so bad when I'm sick, not just because my sickness was making me feel bad, but also because I feel bad leaving everything to Ben to take care of. He and I make a pretty good team at home, and although it seems like sometimes we are always tag-teaming it, and doing very little actually together, I like to think we have a pretty good routine and system down when it comes to caring for our home and our kids. So, it's hard for me when I can't help out with that and the burden falls completely on him. 

Ben gave the big kids their shower/bath, so I bathed Owen after that. I haven't taken very many videos of Owen playing in the bath tub. He has enjoyed splashing around a lot more lately, and I know he will enjoy it even more when he no longer has to use the baby seat, but can actually sit up on his own in the bath tub to play and splash. Here's a video of my little guy enjoying his bath time. (I tried to censor it by holding my hand up so that I could still include it on my blog.)

Thursday night into Friday, Owen woke up two times, which is pretty normal for him, once around 1:45, and then again around 6:00. When he wakes up around 6:00, I usually try to nurse him and get him to go back to sleep. On Friday that worked, and he ended up sleeping until almost 8:45, which is pretty late for him. However, when I went down to his room to get him up, he sure was a happy boy. These first two pictures are a little blurry because I didn't have the light up bright enough in his room, but you can see the huge smile on his face as he sees me for the first time that morning. He definitely is a happy boy, and I was getting lots of cute smiles out of him that morning. :)

Most of the week we stayed home since I was still recovering from being sick, so on Friday I decided to take the boys somewhere. There was a MOPS play date at McDonald's, but with all the sickness going around, I didn't really want to go there and expose ourselves to more germs. So instead, I decided to take a trip over to Canada to visit their library and check out their story time. We ended up being a few minutes late because they only had one lane open to get through the border, but we still were there for most of the stories. Owen had slept in so much that day that he hadn't fallen asleep in the car, and he was very interested in looking around the library. Since we were in a new place, Aedan was very apprehensive, as he always is in new situations. He likes to stick right by me, and I have to kind of force him to go out of his comfort zone sometimes. It's so funny to see how his personality is so different from Samantha. Samantha would have walked right in, gone up to the front, and sat down; but Aedan is much more reserved and shy, which is okay. The librarian read several books about sheep, and they they made a sheep for the craft. A lot of the kids at this story time were younger than Aedan, and most of the toys at the library were geared towards younger kids, but he found an airplane and boat to play with, so he had fun driving around the library with his vehicles. I put Owen in the Ergo after awhile to try and help him take a nap. It took a little while of walking around, but he eventually fell asleep for about half an hour. I was able to sit down and read a couple books to Aedan as well, and he had fun exploring a new place. I'm not sure if it's worth the $7 to cross over the bridge just to go to this library for story time, but it was fun to try out anyways.

As it approached lunch time, Aedan was getting hungry and tired, and he asked very nicely if we could go through the Wendy's drive-thru for lunch. I told him that would be okay, so we picked up some Wendy's once we crossed over to our side and went back home to eat lunch since I didn't have any baby food to feed Owen.

I took this video of Owen playing on the floor as I read books to Aedan before nap time that afternoon. He was having a great time playing with Aedan's Maui hook.

Izzy usually joins us in the bedroom as I am putting Aedan down for his nap. She loves to lay on the bed with him, usually on top of him, and she loves to give him kisses. Aedan usually doesn't mind the love from Izzy, as you can tell by his big smiles in these pictures. It's so wonderful having a friendly dog that the kids can grow up with. We trust her completely. She is so loving to everyone (unless you are someone she doesn't know coming into our house, then she will bark at you ferociously until she realizes you are not going to hurt us). We are so glad that we got her a year ago, and we are really looking forward to warmer weather so we can take her on walks again and the kids can play in the back yard with her on a more regular basis.

Isn't she a beautiful girl?

On Saturday we had a couple different things going on. One was a special Crafts for Kids event that was held at a local coffee shop. It looked like it could be fun, so after Owen took his morning nap, we went over there to check it out. Ben and I were able to get some delicious coffee while the kids made paper crafts and Samantha even tried her hand at knitting. This coffee shop also served food, so since it was close to lunch time, and we had always wanted to try the barbecue at this place, we decided to eat lunch there before going home for nap time.

Ben and I wanted to take the kids over to Canada to swim that evening, but we always stay past the kids' bed time, so we encouraged everyone to nap, without telling them what our plan was. Samantha took a short nap, Aedan took awhile to fall asleep but eventually took a nap, too, and we got Owen down but then he woke up after about forty minutes. Ben went down to this room to try to get him back to sleep since I have to deal with trying to get him back to sleep every day during the week, but every time he laid him down, Owen would wake up. So, in an effort to actually give Owen a decent nap, he just held him on his shoulder and let him sleep there comfortably for the remainder of his nap. I know I've said this a lot, but it sure would be nice if Owen would be able to get past the end of his sleep cycle without waking up. Or, it would even be nice if we could get him back to sleep once he woke up without having to stay down there with him for a long time or even keep holding him in order to get him to nap.

Anyways, we were glad that everyone took a nap so we could go swimming that evening. We had an earlier dinner, got everyone ready to go, and headed over to the pool so we would be able to get in as close to 6:00 as possible, when the public swim started. Going swimming at the John Rhodes Community Centre is always so much fun. The kids have a blast in the water, the zero depth pool is perfect for Aedan, and he enjoys being able to walk around and swim without his floatie on, playing with the toys, and enjoying the warm water. Samantha likes to go in the next pool over that is deeper for her, but where she can still touch the bottom. She likes to roughhouse in the water with us, practice swimming with her head under water, and jump in off the edge of the pool. Owen was perfectly happy the whole time, too. He chewed on toys, kicked his legs, and splashed his hands around while he watched all the kids play. We like to go during the public swim times because they have the water slide open, which Samantha enjoys doing, and they have the water features turned on, like the mushroom fountain and the other fountains and sprayers. We stayed in the pool until almost 7:45 before finally getting out to get showered and dressed. It's always a little hectic getting all five of us dressed, but luckily Owen was in a pretty decent mood, even though he didn't take an evening nap that day. We stopped at Tim Horton's on the way home to get doughnuts for breakfast the next morning, and Owen fell asleep in the car pretty much right away as we drove back home. It was a fun, family evening, and everyone was tired from swimming and ready for bed that night.

(Blog about April 1-7, 2018)