On getting 3 kids under 3 to sleep in the same room

How in the heck did we do it?

Well it essentially took 10 months!!!!!!!!

We would have moved the babies into Maxson's room sooner around 8 months but we were leaving on a 6 week trip at the end of the summer not long before they turned 9 months and didn't want to get them out of routine of their pack n plays.

Here's some big tips that helped us and a timeline of events that helped all the boys be ready for it.

1. For essentially 10 months Max was constantly old "Shh! The babies are sleeping!" "Don't wake up the babies!" This was engrained in his head. He'd had experience with crying babies in the car and came to know he didn't want to wake up the babies. This has helped so much when the babies are asleep in the room and he needs to go in or out.

(Bryson always throws his stuffed animal into Quinn's bed when he wakes up).

2. WHITE NOISE. Boom. Gotta have it with any number of kids, it just helps. We use this brand. It definitely gets loud enough and has a variety of sounds. We use only the waterfall or white noise sounds

3. Black out curtains. The rooms is not totally blacked out, but it's good enough. My SIL is a ninja at blacking out rooms, it's amazing.

4. We trained the babies from about 2-3 months to learn to fall asleep by themselves and sleep even if the other is crying. How did we get them there. You keep doing it no matter what. I totally would have been prone to separating them for naps to get them to nap longer since they sometimes woke each other but I literally didn't have a choice. They HAD to get used to sleeping through each other's crying, the white noise helped.

5. How did Max get used to sleeping through their crying? They always cry at some point during Maxson's nap, mostly when they wake up. When we had our 6 week trip Maxson had to be in the car with the babies happy or crying and he just learned to sleep through it. He used to be a light sleeper during naps but I think the car trip helped him get over it, and he plays super hard so he naps pretty hard.

6. We put the babies down to sleep around 7 and Max around 8/8:30. For both night time sleep and naps we give Max the choice to go to sleep on his bed or mommy and daddy's. 90% of the time he usually chooses his bed. Before our trip he probably would have always chosen our bed. Our trip pretty much left him without his own concrete bed all the time so coming back from the trip he was excited to get to sleep in HIS bed all the time and then add the babies to the room it just seemed cool for him.

7. I leave the door cracked during naps and totally open at night time. Then Max can come out if needs without making a ton of noise to call for our attention (we have a baby lock on the inside of his door still since really bed tantrums end up in his room during time out).


I guess mostly our kids have been forced to sleep through noise of each other. We don't have a house big enough to accommodate quiet sleeping arrangements all the time so they HAD to get used to it, even I didn't have a choice.


8. AND LAST OF ALL, sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes they wake each other up and they only get short naps. Sometimes Max turns the lights up and wakes everyone up. Sometimes Max and the babies just play and play and play :)

Even sicker day

**Written last Saturday**

OH. MY. GOSH.

Remember how Max had a fever and was sick? As awful as it sounds I will take Max sick over the babies being sick any day because he is so much easier to deal with when sick. The babies spiked fevers last night (friday night) and it was one of the longest nights ever. I kid you not. They awoke at 11:15 and I couldn't get them back settled until 12:30 am until Casey was home picking my mom up from the airport and I had more hands to get the poor kids off my chest. They were oh so hot even after their tylenol, they were so sad, and their noses so runny. Starting at 3:30 we were up every half hour with the babies for some reason or another. It is/was so sad. My poor sick little babies. They can't sleep for a very long and they can't stay awake for very long either. It was a long night and has been a long day thus far. I just want my babies to be happy again.

All day long they couldn't sleep or stay awake for more than 30-40 min at a time and they were so cranky and sad and congested, it was just the saddest thing ever and super exhausting as parents.

By the way I am sick too. Starting in the evening I started a yucky not feeling cough, then a headache, then achey joints, and then during the night I probably had a fever go on and off with getting chilly. At one point I was in sweat pants, thick socks, and a sweatshirt with the hood up and still freezing under the covers. I don't know what my poor little babies are/were feeling either which stunk. Were they hot? Were they cold? It just makes me so sad.

GO AWAY GERMS! LET US BE HEALTHY!

COME BACK SUMMER, I MISS YOU DEARLY!

But my wonderful mom is here now to help. How great is that? I was able to take a nap when all the kids were awake and my house isn't falling apart with all these sick kids and sick momma. How indebted I am to her.

**Written Tuesday**

We had 2 nights of very sick babies and those may have been the hardest nights we have thus experienced as parents. Imagine 1 sick baby: I don't know what your sick babies are like but maybe they wake up every couple of hours, you have to suck out their noses so they can breathe, it's sad, you may have to hold them more, etc. It's a hard night but doable, you get through it

Now imagine 2 sick babies in the same room and then a toddler in the next room that wakes up to all the crying. Going through the chain of events that night would take way too long but let me right a few bullet points.

(I'm going to call Quinn and Bryson one and two just for fun because it doesn't really matter which woke up when, actually I have no idea who was who all night it seemed like because they were both equally awful and sad)

-One wakes up to eat and then won't go back down easily for a good half hour+ because it's s hard to fall asleep with a stuffy nose and high temperature. A half hour after you get one down two wakes up to eat, you have to suck out his nose because he can't breathe causing him to cry very loud then waking up one then you tried so hard to get to sleep. You then play this dance every half hour with both: feeding them, sucking out noses and screaming causing the other to wake up, and then finally falling asleep in your arms only to wake up nearly immediately and bounce/cuddle the baby back to sleep.I kid you not be I was out of bed every half and hour and there was a 2 hour stint I didn't sleep even a blink.

-Max woke up I think 3 times beginning at 1:30 and pretended he'd go back to sleep but end up screaming and not going back to sleep. He ended up sleeping in our bed from about 2:30-5 (first time he's slept in our bed in a year I think, it was so weird!) After a couple hours he must have gotten woken up too much by the baby's crying and decided to wake up for good. That was not cool and not going to go on. After 15-20 minutes with him downstairs arguing that he needed to go back to bed and it was still night time while he yelled back that he wanted the iPad, I somehow bartered with him that I would give him strawberry milk and he'd go back to sleep. He (shockingly) immediately agreed and went back to sleep, so weird and so exhausting.

The rest of the night was a blur, I think the day started at 6:30 or something, so early, I'm pretty sure I got a MAXIMUM of 3 hours of sleep. So flipping exhausting, I felt so bad for my babies too though, they were probably feeling terrible. The rest of the day they could barely sleep 30-45 minutes at a time and were only able to stay awake for 30-45 minutes at a time (usually they stay awake 1.5 hours and sleep 45 min-3 hours). It was rough.

We took the babies to the doctor on Saturday to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong with them, they test them for RSV and nothing showed up, just really bad yucky virus I guess.

Their fevers broke after about 36 hours, it was so long. And now their sleep habits have turned for the worse with all that sickness. Rmemeber how they used to sleep a ton at night? Not anymore :( They're now up 4-5 times a night, insist on formula after being nursed, wake up to each other's cries and just are not good sleepers anymore! Ugh, please change for the better babies! I told Casey that even though they were/are crappy day time sleepers, at least they slept fabulous at night. WEll the their redeeming quality has disappeared…they need a new redeeming (sleep) quality from somewhere, mmeh.

This picture was the day it started, I should have seen the signs in Quinn there on the right.

The first time they woke up with fevers I rocked their hot little bodies for a couple hours while they went in and out of sleep. Casey was gone getting my mom from the airport and I had to wait for them to return to move them, it was oh so sad.

The death days of 4 out of 5 people not feeling great and everyone not getting any sleep.

a. Quinn's stank face of how he was feeling, poor guy

b. Max was cuddling with Casey in the middle of the night and it was the stinking cutest thing ever.

Entertaining our tired sick selves during church.

Any tips on getting babies back to sleeping through the night is GREATLY APPRECIATED! Sadly, we have a tiny house and they have to sleep in our room, we don't have another room for them with Maxson being in our 2nd bedroom. We've thought about sleeping in the family room for a week or so while they learn to sleep through their night wakenings and each other's cries (read let them cry for longer times at night. With them in our room we come to their rescue immediately so we can get the most sleep possible). Also, why are they not satisfied just by breastfeeding anymore?!? It takes so much longer to bottle feed them too and it's so frustrating!

Funny thing, after the third awful night of helping the babies I was sitting on my bed with one of them at 4 am feeding them a bottle or just hushing their cries and I remember thinking "As crappy as this is, I'm so glad it's me taking care of these boys. I love them so much and want to be the one nursing them back to health, cuddling them through the night, and holding them tight" Funny how motherhood works, huh?

Rant over.

Germs: go away.

Health: come back.

Babies: be better sleepers.

Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiday

The end of a week.

Friday.

I love Fridays since that means Casey has less than a half day at school and then he's home for pretty much all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, yipeeeeeee!

It feels as if we are an all hands on deck house right now. If you're home, you're helping, no rest for the weary.

Poor little Max was/is one sick puppy. He's had a pretty runny nose for the past 4-5 days and then yesterday he came down with a fever and was just wanting to sit and not do much. My poor baby boy. And his eyes were watery all day long and he napped for 4 hours I think and then went back to sleep for the night just 2 1/2 hours later. Today he continued the fever on and off while we gave him tylenol here and there. Still an awful runny nose today (can't seem to get him to blow through his nose, it's killing me!) but eyes a little less watery, he's been eating less today too.

But remember how I said he went to bed pretty soon after his nap the day before? WELL, that was not a wise choice to allow him to do because at 4 am we here Max awake, Casey goes in (Casey always deals with Max in the middle of the night because a) he's nice b) I pretty much always deal with the babies c) Max is overall more used to Casey when it comes to going to sleep or back to sleep because he pretty much always puts him to bed). Well after talking to him and trying his best to coax him back to sleep, Max insisted "ALL DONE! AWAKE!" Ha, oh man. I asked Casey to stay up with him (stay up=let Maxson watch a movie on the iPad downstairs while he slept next to him, ha) and I told him I'd switch him when the babies woke up. Did I mention the babies woke up FOUR times to eat that night? What in the heck happened to them that night? No clue. Bryson decided to start the day at 6 am (usually the absolute earliest is 7:30, but more like 8/8:30). So I forced Quinn to wake up too and we switched Casey.

Babies went back to sleep 1-1 1/2 hours later and I was able to convince Maxson back to sleep at 7:30/8 too. The whole family slept until a glorious 9:30. I fed the babies and went back to sleep while Casey got up with the children (he didn't have school today because of boards for the 4th years, TENDER MERCY). When he came back in to put the babies to sleep at 11 I decided it was finally the right hour to wake up.

Oh my goodness, what a morning, right? Do you see why my last post was surrounded by exhaustion?

But my glorious, heavenly, wonderful MOTHER is coming tonight to my rescue!!!!!!!! I told her at the beginning of the month that I would be needing a break soon, ha, and was hoping she'd come help me out again.

This stage of my kids is just so overwhelming and intense, I'm so grateful she's so willing to come help and join me in the ranks of mothering small children again for a week to relieve me for just a bit, how I love her so much (if anyone else wants to come slave labor visit me for a week you're more than welcome! Wink, wink)

Onto something more exciting than me being exhausted and our household's sleeping status.

I'm working on my 2014 photo book again!!!!! GO KIMBER!

You guys, it's seriously a huge accomplishment to start it again. I got out 2013 the other day and Max and I loved looking through it. I decided I needed to hurry and pump out 2014 so we could hurry and enjoy last year too, especially since Max will still remember those later months! It's really not that hard to do, I got half of July, August, Sept, and half of Oct done in like 2 nights. It just take effort and remember how I said that at night I want to sit and nothing? Yiiiiiiisssssss.

I got up to the part of where the babies are born. I imagine the next 3 months of the book are going to take longer than just 2 nights though…

Also I took all 3 kids into the doctor this week BY MYSELF! This was the first time I've ever gone anywhere with all 3 by myself!!!!!! (Ok one time we went to the park but I'm not really counting that, it was 15 minutes maximum and I didn't even get the babies out). Well our ward is FULL of sickness, my family included. So we went in to check that they didn't have anything serious and just little colds. Moral of the story, I went somewhere with all 3 kids by myself and I did it!

I'm not sure why I've gotten all chatty lately on my posts recently. Maybe it's because it feels good to examine my feelings and my days, to step back and see where I am/where the kids are/where I want to be and that happens because I can write it out, now that I think of it, blogging is very therapeutic.

Pictures another time, I'm too tired and headed to bed.

Bedtime and routines

We've fallen into a routine,  routine I routinely love.

Casey is constantly in and out of the house, I can never expect him to be home or gone but he's both home and gone a lot (home a lot more often than he used to be, this is a cushy semester and I'm thankful for it). We've learned our places. Places that make life flow a little bit more easily.

Usually right after Max goes to bed I say to Casey "Max really is a good boy, I love him so much." Casey agrees and then we start talking about the silly things he did throughout the day, how hilarious he is, and how naughty he is, but it always comes back to him truly being such a good boy, he could totally be harder and worse in so many ways. Instead, he's just so eager to help, to be apart of things, to learn, to play, to be given attention. Oh how I love watching him grow. Oh how I love him

Casey always puts Max to bed and I always put the babies to bed, that's just way we work. Max hasn't given Casey a hard time about going to sleep in what feels like forever. He just gets it. They have their rhythm of bedtime, smooth like butter. Max sleep with monkey, duck, and baby monkey. He always wants to read the apple book and Casey spends so much time with him at each bed time routine going over letters, I can't believe the progress Maxson has made these past couple weeks because Casey has taken the time to sit and work with him on them. He's picked up identifying them so quickly, it's been really fun to be surprised by his progress during the day time.

I always put the babies to bed (kind of obvious since I gotta nurse them). Diaper changes, swaddles, nursing, bottles, burping, and to bed they go. They're little angels when it comes to night time sleep, every week it gets better and better. Bryson can consistently sleep 11-12 hours at night and I'm flabbergasted and ever so thankful for it. Quinn usually wakes up after 8-10 hours to eat and then again 3 after that. I he wakes up around 8 hours I feed him and pump on the other side. If it's more the 10 hour range I force Bryson to wake up too to eat so they will sleep longer afterwards. I really don't feel like I've done much different with these boys as I did with Maxson other than the rock n play, so I contribute it all to that and just their wonderful personalities. (Crossing my fingers this lasts and it's not just a phaseeeeeeeee!)

*Disclaimer*: they're kinda awful for daytime naps and have fallen into those 45-60 minute cat naps they drive me CRAZY. Starting today I've started letting them cry for 10 minutes to see if they'll fall back to sleep themselves, hopefully in time they'll get it. It's also sometimes not super smooth to put them to sleep, sometimes we have to work real hard to get them to fall asleep, like going up a billion times to put the binkie back in and picking up and feeding more food and and and. The new rule is to put binkie in once and after that give them 5 minutes to figure it out themselves. Hopefully those new rules will help because it gets really frustrating and tiring going up and down the stairs a billion times to help two babies fall asleep. Often times one goes down easily but then the other one fights ya so you can usually count on one baby giving you a hard time. Hopefully this will all help and they can start taking longer day naps. I really try not to complain much at all (except to Casey) about this though since they are amazing nighttime sleepers. I'd rather have it this way than awful nights and great days.

Gosh how do I always turn into a word vomit of a blogger lately? My apologies.

More pictures?

Mk.

Look at my cute twins. Don't you wanna just eat them up? QB

When you get them both to smile it's like being on cloud 9. My heart just wants to jump out of my chest and I want to explode with love for them and squeeze them I love them so much! BQ

Mk, that's it for today. To bed we go.

PS- I love hearing from all you "readers" If I know you in person or if I don't, it's so fun hearing things from people. Some of you have been so sweet and encouraging lately it just helps me so much. As a stay at home mom sometimes it can get a little secluded (especially winter time with tiny babies) but I read each and every blog comment, email, IG comment and letter that comes my way and it's so fun to hear when people read this or that or enjoyed this post and can totally relate to that situation or Kimber, how about you try this. Don't be shy, I love hearing your comments or even knowing the fact that you read my tiny, silly blog over here! From the bottom of my heart, thank you! And you secret readers, don't be shy! Leave a comment sometime or better yet, tell me in person that you read my blog, it will make my day!

this and that in words

oh to get back into the swing of things. it's tiring, yet oh so rewarding. i'm amazed how much i love doing my own house work (after i've had a 3 week hiatus from it). monday and tuesday have been non stop go and i love it. when you're at other people's homes it's a torn internal battle between a) but i'm on  vacation and b) what else can i do for you? there's of course things that i see that need to be done but it's those little things that really get the nitty gritty housework done that give you so much reward. being  a ruler over your dominion is truly fulfilling. example: i scrubbed all the walls in my kitchen areas down yesterday. nitty gritty work? most definitely. but the accomplishment of it looking so great and sparkling afterward is so rewarding. doing all the dishes yourself and knowing exactly where they need to be put away. finding the right ingredients because you know their homes. making batch after batch of yeasty dough concoctions and feeling perfectly happy in the middle of the mess. i'm so very grateful to be a wife, a mother, and a homemaker. it truly is such fulfilling work in my mind.

changing the gears to unhappiness: my hibernating bear has come out of his hibernation mode. cue tears. the past 4 days have been back to waking up at 7:45 am, sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and having to cry for a half hour, fighting me to go to sleep, and sleeping around 10 hours each night. it was oh so fun while it lasted. casey and i will be implements all the known variables we experience from wyoming to nebraska that we can think of beginning with switching him to a pack n play. that's the main difference we can think of between the 2 rooms. here's to hoping for success! oh an remember when he was sleeping well and not eating well? well now he's back to eating REALLy well and sleeping not so well.

this last sunday our stake (pretty much all the LDS members in Lincoln) met up for a special meeting that night to learn of new boundary changes for our wards. we were so saddened to learn that we'll be losing a chunk of around 20 solid active families in our ward (casey was most saddened that stake basketball teams were completely messed up). it's all for good reason and we'll still be friends it's just hard knowing that you won't have as many opportunities to rub shoulders with them so often. with the boundary changes and a few other things going on, casey has lost his whole elder's quorum presidency, it was a hard blow on him this weekend. 

last night for family home evening we watched this video that just so happened to be kind of about new years and kind of about helping mom around the house. ha, it was silly but good. i hope casey and maxson got a lot out of the less, wink wink. then we had an impromptu family dance party in the kitchen for about 15 minutes. we kept finding new fun songs on groove shark and dancing away. maxson couldn't get enough of watching us and then excitedly flapping his arms to join or stomping his feet as fast as he could. i'm so grateful to have married the man i did. casey's humor and complete disregard of an ego/embarrassment makes my life so much better. he is my perfect match in so many ways. 

maxson was utterly spoiled in our time in wyoming and was ALWAYS held by someone when he wanted. if you're in the kitchen, there's a 90% chance he will be at your thighs, trying to shift your body towards him so you will pick him up while on the verge of crying/yelling. he wants to be apart of all kitchen things going on. loud noises in the kitchen are his favorite: blenders, mixers, bread machines, washing, etc. he is there and he wants to watch it at eye level. cupboard: he's in them. drawers: his toys. he loves all things the kitchen i swear. if there's a counter space clean enough i can pull up a chair for him to watch me as i'm going, but he's grabby and can reach far, so that's hard too. we're both adjusting.

since we're on the speaking subject of maxson let's just continue. he's adorable. 1 year old are so much stinking fun i can't believe it. they are so much work because  they get into EVERYTHING and even when you thought something was get-intoable, he'll make it that way.  BUT for a trade off they are so funny. they understand so much, can't communicate with words too much but can communicate in so many other ways: voice intonation, signs, body language, facial expressions, sounds, actions, i'm just eating it all up. we can ask him where his hair, nose, tongue, and belly button is and he points to them all (when he's in the right mood). we can ask him "what does a dog say" and he sticks out his tongue to pant like a dog. his little laugh is contagious and brings us the biggest smile. he loves to be tickled and chased, and being pretend nibbled on. he is just a ball of joy.

he is HEAVY too, have i mentioned that? picking him up is like lift a brick that doesn't support itself too much. he's somewhere in between 26-27 pounds. AND he's totally grown taller too. he's about as tall as all the other 18-22 month kids around him it seems like.

casey and i listened to the book for all eternity by dr john l lund on our trip back from wyoming. this is our 3rd time listening to the book and it seriously such an awesome lecture series on marriage and how to be a nice person in life, and it's extremely entertaining. it kinda makes me want to go back to college to sit and learn from these professionals. so for the last week casey and i have been working on the 24 hour challenge where you find a block of time for 24 hours that you didn't criticize anyone else in any way: truthful, sarcastic, demeaning. whatever it is, just stop. neither of us are super bad at this but we catch ourselves every few hours saying some snarky comment or putting someone down in some way or another and have to start our 24 hours over again. it's been really good for us and it's fun exercise. 

other than that, we're just kicking it in nebraska again. casey back to the books at school. i'm back to domestic home like. maxson back to single child life with all his toys. valentine decorations are up and nebraska is back to it's blah  winter weather. 

and since every post deserves a picture:

the stereotype that children are obsessed with escalators rang true as maxson was introduced to his first one last night, all he wanted to do was go back to it every time he got off of it. man with a mission i tell you

btw: this is HILARIOUS

a sleeping babe

the main thing i will remember about our time spent in wyoming the past week and a half is 

HOW. MUCH. MAXSON. SLEPT.

he literally slept our whole stay like a hibernating bear.

12 1/2 hour nights was the usual number.

sometimes 13 but at the least 12.

naps ranged from 2-3 hours ALWAYS.

i don't know what magic wyoming brought but everyday i was ever so grateful for this new sleep phase.

it could be due to the temperature.

or the altitude.

his eating habits definitely changed while here.

he used to eat tons of whatever was put in front of him, rarely ever picky.

then suddenly, he decided he didn't want to eat very much of a few certain things.

i'm really not sure why that changed.

a day or two before christmas we kind of fizzled out of nursing. he was fine with it. i was fine with it. my body was fine with it. it was really quite the easiest weaning ever. he immediately/easily took to cow's milk. once he turned 1 i began giving him cow's milk when he woke up from naps during the day. then slowly some mornings it seemed like he needed more of something after  i nursed him. then while in arizona there was a night i just didn't feel like nursing him, so we gave him milk and he was fine. then another day i just didn't feel like nursing him in the morning either, and from there, we just stopped. i so very enjoyed nursing him for a year, it was a beautiful end to a rocky start of nursing. we were great partners. i'll miss those sweet little moments of having him all to myself, and i will most definitely miss cuddling with him. but he is happy and so am i. did stopping nurse help him sleep better? maybe? it's definitely a possibility. i'm completely happy with our journey though.

this sleeping like a rock phase will most likely change at some point but for now i'm incredibly grateful of the endless hours of sleep casey and i are getting

waking up is hard

sometimes i'm jealous maxson gets to take 2 naps a day.

but on the other hand, sometimes i feel even groggier and more tired when i wake up from naps.

although maxson's body needs nap, he sure doesn't like waking up from them.

i can count on one hand how many times that boys has woken up happy.

i caught this little series after a late day nap he took.

i think casey actually woke up him up from this nap because it was going so long into the evening.

i love his look of confusion.

the way he buries your head into your shoulder when trying to wake up.

the yawn.
the eye rub.

the smile when he sees me.

just watching his little mind wake up, try to take around his surroundings, and remember everything he's learned.

i love that little boy SOOOO much!

ps- casey your smiley-double chin makes my heart smile too ;)

sleeping babies or not so sleeping babies

let's talk about sleeping. babies sleeping. or in my case 1 particular baby named maxson

i was constantly asking other moms what they did for different sleep issues etc so i thought i'd add my 2 cents to my blog about the subject for mine and other's future interest/reference.

like i've mentioned, maxson's sleep habits were like a stock chart, huge peaks with lots of dips but a general upward trend. we're plateauing out (thank heaven's) at a beautiful spot on the chart and i'm sooooo happy. "how a mother's day went" is often measured on the child's sleeping (or lack there of) that day.

those first few months (up to nearly 5) I was at Maxson's beckoning call (which i'm ok with, i had/have only 1 baby, that's what i'm to do right now: take care of that ONE baby). He'd always been swaddled, and in my mind since he didn't have his hands nor could he roll, he would likely have a hard time soothing himself. Probably not so, but that's how i saw it. I was constanlty questioning myself "should i hurry and go in to put the binki in in hopes he'll sleep longer if i catch it at the perfect moment, should i let him cry a little and see if he'll put himself back to sleep, if he's in the car seat should i rock it, should i pick him up from the crib, should i this or that" the list and questions to myself were endless.

we kinda always had the same general routine though: swaddle, lights out, turn noise machine on, binki in, read good night moon (started that at 5 months), 3 primary songs (teach me to walk in the light, i am a child of god, love is spoken here. those 3 kinda just happened). now days at 7 months, lights go off, fan on (upstairs is hot hot hot!), binki in (his cue to cuddle my shoulder, love) read book sometimes, 1-3 songs, put him in crib awake to cuddle monkey and i'm gone. he never cries and goes straight to sleep, it's vundervul!

for more details month by month, keep reading

you can't have it all /// growing up too fast

casey and i were realizing today that when maxson starts rocking a new sleep habit, others fall to the wayside.

examples:

when he began doing well with sleeping long stretches at night,

his naps suddenly went capooey to little stretches.

when he began taking multiple long naps a day,

he started sleeping short stretches at night.

now he's beginning to sleep longer stretches at night,

but he fights me on falling asleep for his naps which he never did before.

ya win some,

ya lose some.

it'll all work out, right?

***

i look at this baby and sometimes and feel like i can actually see him growing and changing as i watch!

he wants to be so involved.

now when he's laying on his tummy, his head is almost always up at 90 degrees intently watching what i'm doing.

when he puts it down, and i call his name, he quickly bring it back up to find me.

when did this happen?

i used to prop him up on the couch and he'd support his own head to watch things around him but mostly just sit back and relax,

now if i put him on the couch i better be right there because he's trying to sit his whole body up by himself and could easily fall too far forward (off the couch).
cutest little shirt on this boy huh? thanks jocelyn!

i used to wear him in the moby wrap doing stuff around the house and he'd just be content watching.

now his little hands are reaching at everything and "helps" me do whatever i'm doing.

those are just a few of the things on my mind.

i have to admit, it's been so quiet around the blog lately.

a few weeks ago i thought the weather was going to stay sunny and warm for good and i was so happy.

but it's been cold most the time since then i've been so uninspired to go places/do things/take pictures.

i'm desperate to just sit outside with maxson and feel the sun on my skin.

i truly do belong in the warmth...

***
a few of you have commented about the dentist's beard.
he has turned into quite the lumberjack, that is for sure.
he decided to grow it out with one of my brothers for funsies (and a snow cone).
it's going to stick around until the middle of may and then he'll be back to his baby face!

and we're back

back to nebraska.

back to real life.

it looks like a bomb went off in our home, i will spare you all the pictures of the mess.

i wish my mom could come for just 1 more week to get my life back in order post vacation.

first day home by ourselves with casey in school went well.

i was surprised how much i got done and yet not surprised how much i didn't get gone.

max decided 7 am was a great time to start the day.

let me preface, anytime we've had not the easiest of nights or max wakes up earlier than he needs to or suddenly he wants to be awake for an hour in the middle of the night or stuff like that,

casey has dealt with that the past 3 1/2 weeks while we've been on holiday (that saint) while i sleep a little longer.

now it's back to reality where casey has school in the morning so i did  have to get up at 7 am...oh boy.

what i've been most surprised at motherhood thus far is how you can function on such little sleep.

i do get lots of sleep but it's lots of small increments or sometimes just a few small increments.

that was one thing i was most worried about pre-parenthood, my sleep or lack of,

but it hasn't been a problem at all!

i do love seeing that boy first thing in the morning.

he's so awake, alert, happy, and content.

usually casey and i will continue to lay in bed and look and play with him for awhile,

it's the best.

here's a little tid bit of today,

it's so funny how his expressions change so quickly!

now it's time to go to bed, because he feel asleep nearly a half hour ago!!!

ps- best part of coming back home after 3 weeks around the holidays?

you come back to lots of christmas cards from friends.

it's like christmas all over again!

pps- he was an angel baby all 27 hours back to nebraska.

so grateful.