Seven Months Old!

My baby is seven months old. 

Weight: 19.6lbs (~75th percentile)
Length: 28.5 inches (~90th percentile)

Sleeping Habits:  Tyler is a pretty decent sleeper....Finally!  He goes to bed at night around 7-7:30 and usually sleeps until 6-6:30.  He pretty much puts himself to sleep...just give him his blankie and pacifier and he's good to go! For the past couple weeks we've had nights where he's woken up in the middle of the night, but if I gave him his pacifier, he would immediately calm down and go to sleep.  During the day at home, he naps really well.  He usually sleeps 45 minutes at a time with typically one nap going well over an hour to an hour and a half.  I'd say he gets in 3-4 naps a day.  But during the week at daycare is another story.  He doesn't sleep that well there and often only gets in a couple short naps a day. 

Eating Habits:  Tyler nurses 3 times a day and gets 3 six oz bottles/day at daycare.  He eats every 2.5 hours at daycare and usually makes it 3 hours between feedings at home.  He's also getting a stage 2 fruit for breakfast, a vegetable for lunch and then I alternate fruits and vegetables in the evening for dinner.  We've tried giving him snacks like puffs and yogurt melts but he's NOT into those yet.

Awake Time:  For the last two weeks or so Tyler's been sitting like a champ.  He rarely falls over now.  He reaches for and grabs toys that he wants, which usually happens to be whatever Lily is playing with.  He's putting everything in mouth.  I really think his bottom front teeth have got to come in soon.  You can see that his gums are swollen and I think they've been bothering him for a while.  He's also drooling a fair amount.  So I hope they come in soon for his sake.

This boy is seriously the happiest. baby. ever!  He's always in a good mood unless he's hungry or sleepy.  He loves to giggle.  He's still super ticklish and loves to be tickled.  He bounces like crazy in the jumper.  He really loves that thing.

Mommy's Buttons

Lily was so cute tonight, jabbering away like crazy.  She talked non stop since I picked her up from daycare.  Telling me stories and asking questions and it was pretty sweet.

At dinner she was driving me a little bonkers and I can't even remember now exactly what she was doing - probably standing on her chair - and I said:

"Lily are you trying to push Mommy's buttons?"

Lily:  "Where's your buttons at, Mommy?"

Baaahahahahahahaha! 

Also, Lily only cried for 3 minutes tonight at bed time. 

Glory glory hallelujah!

Glory glory hallelujah!

Glory glory hallelujah!

That baby went to bed!! 

Passed Out Standing Up

Tonight while Joel and I were in the kitchen putting away groceries, doing dishes and cooking dinner, Tyler was playing away in his jumper.  Until he wasn't. 

Joel goes around the corner and says, "Oh you gotta see this."

That poor boy was so tired he PASSED OUT in his jumper.  He didn't fuss or cry or anything so I didn't realize he was so tired.  Just one minute he was playing and the next minute he was asleep!  His Aunt Jenny used to fall asleep in strange places (dinner table, swinging, etc) so perhaps he takes after her!

Update on Lily bedtime mayhem.....it's still mayhem.  Last night, she screamed and carried on so much I was really losing it.  Joel read on the Internet to threaten to close the door.  Then if they still don't stay in bed, actually close the door and hold it closed for 1 minute.  Then open it, put the kid back in bed.  Repeat, holding the door closed 1 additional minute each go round.  I didn't like this idea because I thought it would just scare her more.  But after her screaming and crying for an hour, I was pretty much open to any idea. 

So he tried it and I was so upset that I ran in to my own room and cried for a bit.  It's so awful.  A two year old screaming like that.  But amazingly, after he did that one time, she stayed in bed and eventually after another 15 or so minutes, she settled down and went to sleep about 9:00. 

So I guess threatening to shut the door transferred her focus to making sure we left the door open vs making sure we were standing in her doorway.

But tonight, it didn't work the same way.  I threatened to shut the door.  She still got out of bed.  So I shut the door and held it closed.  Do you have any idea how HARD that was - emotionally and physically (that girl is STRONG)??  After about 30 seconds (which felt like 30 minutes) I opened the door and made her get back in bed.  Again she shifted the focus to yelling at me to "LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN" instead of "STAND by the DOOR."

I went to the living room and watched the monitor.  After about 2 minutes of yelling to leave the door open, she changed tactics....

She started saying, "Mommy, I hurt my finger.  I hurt my finger Mommy.  Mommy I got a boo boo on my finger." 

That girl is SMART.  She's figuring out what will make us come running to her aid.  She cried "Mommy I hurt my finger" for over 30 minutes.  THIRTY MINUTES!!  And it was constant.  I was watching her on the monitor the whole time and I didn't see her do anything to hurt her finger.  She was playing me.  And it almost worked.  About 20 minutes in I wanted to go to her but Joel was like, "She's fine. Don't do it."

She finally gave in and and now she's laying down and it's quiet and it's only 8:30!  Sweet relief!!!  Only 1 hour to put her bed!!  We still have a long way to go to get it back to the 20-30 minute routine, but I'll take this big improvement and count it as a win. 

Happy Easter!

This morning was Joel's turn to sleep in so I was hoping all morning that Lily wouldn't see her Easter basket sitting on the floor by the back door so that Joel would be there when she "opened" it.  

 

 

Somehow she didn't see it until right when Joel got up.  She said, "Awwww!  Is that a surprise for ME??"  Then she tore in to it!

 

Tyler was pretty excited too.

 Lily helped Tyler put his monies into his piggy.

Tyler got some yogurt melts in his Easter basket.  I tried to give him one and he spit out. 

So I put it in his mouth again.  And he spit it out again.  I think he freaks out over the texture of something solid in his mouth.

So I put it in his mouth one more time and this time it stayed in but he wasn't too happy with it.

He started gagging on it.

He REALLY is not a fan.

Finally, it dissolved enough for him to eat it but he was none too happy with me!

I guess Tyler's just not ready for totally solid food yet!

This afternoon, we had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard.  Lily was mostly interested in finding the eggs with chocolate in them.  She couldn't have cared less about the ones that had money in them!  One day, that will change.

Where are we going? (clap, clap, clap) Play Park!

Come on vamanos!  Everybody let's go! Today the weather was so nice.  FINALLY!  After what seems like the longest winter ever, we finally had a nice warm day to go outside and play!  We took the kiddos to the playground (or play park as Dora calls it).

Lily was tearing it up.  It's amazing how much stronger and braver she's gotten since we were at the playground last fall.  "I want to do it mySELF!"  Everything is "mySELF!" 

Tyler was also getting in on the action.  He was so good and happy the whole time we were there. 

 

Lily made some friends too while we were there.

I'd say we all had fun playing together!

 

I'm having a hard time writing this blog post because as I do, Lily's standing at her doorway screaming and crying and not wanting to go to bed (PLEASE don't wake up Tyler!!).  This has been going on for over 90 minutes now with no apparent end in sight.  It's enough to make anyone lose their mind. 

We were always so proud of our parenting tactics and bedtime routines because Lily was always so good about going to sleep on her own.  We have a routine, we read a story and all that jazz we'd shut the door and she used to just go to sleep.  But ever since we started Lily at daycare last August, we've had our ups and downs with going to bed and we are in a MAJOR down.  It seems we get her through the down period and back to normal and then something else will happen to mess us up again.

Lily got sick a few weeks ago and that's the latest thing that's got us all messed up again.  She freaks out....FREAKS OUT....if we close her door.  And she wants us to stand by the door until she falls asleep.  We've been doing this now for a several weeks and we're trying to find a way to break the habit.  Nothing is working.

I bought this baby gate a long time ago and we've never used it.  Tonight I thought we'd try this since she won't stay in bed if we're not standing by the door.  She stood at the gate for about 2 mintues before she tried to climb over it.  She wasn't successful at first.  But about 10 minutes later - over she went.

 

So I went back there.  Picked her up, set her down on the other side of the gate, then I followed her over.  She put herself back into bed and told me to stand by the door.  I never said word this whole time (Super Nanny style).  I stood by the door (out of her sight) for probably 20 minutes and she was finally snoring.  FINALLY.  It's 9:45pm.  We've been trying to put her to bed for 2 hours.  I'm in tears.  Joel was so over it I thought he was going to start shaking and turning green like the Hulk.

 

This brings me to the week Lily spent with her Grams.  Mom said she was so good all week, until I showed up on Thursday night.  I walked in the door and she was all sweet for about 10 minutes.....and then, she flipped.  The rest of the evening Thursday she was a bit unbearable but mostly she just didn't want me to leave her side.  But Friday, all day, she was the very definition of a terror.  She screamed.  She threw tantrums.  She kicked and hit.  She pulled the "yes/no" routine.  You name it, she did it.  But the time I got in the car to drive back to Columbus, my nerves were so raw.  At one point, Katie said she didn't know how I hadn't spanked her yet.  LOTS and LOTS of self control. 

 

I'll end the post with something more fun.  Tyler is so much fun to wach these days.  He just plays and plays.