Success and Spring

This morning I had Nadia sit on her potty while I gave her milk to drink. She drank about 3-4 sippy cups of milk and still it took her 3.5 hours until she peed. I couldn't believe it took that long! I was sitting on the kitchen floor with her the whole time. Part of the time Ian was with us, and part of it he was taking his morning nap in the Nap Nanny (on the dining room table). Nadia and I read books, I fed her apple slices and raisins, she drank lots of milk, we sang songs, and we played with toys. My back was killing me from sitting on the floor that long. I can't imagine she was super comfortable either. I was tempted to give up a few times, but then I didn't want to after having already invested so much time. I was thrilled when she finally peed in the potty for the first time ever! I think she thought she did a bad thing. I worked really hard to celebrate and let her know she did a wonderful thing. I then put some Elmo underwear on her and let her watch some VeggieTales in the family room. Less than 10 minutes later she pooped in her underwear. It wasn't hard to clean up. Once I realized what she was doing, I quickly sat her on the potty, but she was already done. The rest of the morning I had her sit on it for very short periods of time, but she never went again (in her underwear or the potty). Her bladder must hold more than mine does, LOL.

A little before noon I put her diaper on and put her down for a nap. She had been without a diaper for about 6 hours and we only had one very easy to clean up accident (#2). I am grateful for the break during her nap. I wanted her to take a long nap as I am exhausted and hoped to take a nap, but she only slept 45 minutes, and I was nursing Ian for 30 of those minutes. I got less sleep than usual on Friday night and Sunday night, and I didn't get any naps on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I also did most of the driving on Friday and all of the driving last night. After her nap I took off her diaper. I tried to get her to pee many times, but she didn't actually pee until a couple of hours later when we were playing outside. Then after dinner she did pee (a little bit) into her potty. I was so excited! She again was upset when it happened, but I tried to make it a big deal of what a good thing she had done. I took her outside and let her go down the slide 5 times as a reward. Then we came in and I took her up to give her a bath. I turned on the water and started to take off her clothes and realized that while standing there in the bathroom she had peed in her clothes. Maybe the sound of water running is what did it? After her bath I put her in pjs and a diaper. She was without a diaper for about 10.5 hours today and during that time had 3 accidents (one of #2 and two of #1) and 2 successes.

It seems that she has GREAT bladder control. I was pumping the fluids - feeding her popsicles, lots of milk, water, apples, etc. She never had an accident when she was naked from the waist down  - for even 3+ hours at a time! The only time she had an accident is when I put her underwear on. I am open to any suggestions on how to help her this week. It was a tiring day, but I do feel encouraged with the two successes, and at least the clean up of the accidents was REALLY easy. Only one time did anything land anywhere in our house aside from her clothes and that was on linolium in the bathroom. All it amounted to was extra laundry. I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of laundry this week between potty training and washing everything that we took to Maryland to get rid of any cat hair or dander since Paul is very allergic to it and my mom has a cat.

It was a WONDERFUL day to take Nadia outside. I put a new spring jacket on her (reversible coat I got for $5 at JCP last year), and I didn't wear any coat. It was in the 60's. WOOHOO! That's my kind of weather!!! Spring has sprung!!!

Today I joined one of the PBS stations Nadia watches. For $120 we will receive a Curious George stuffed animal and book, 6 handstamps for the local amusement park for May 8 (with a handstamp an adult or child can ride the rides all day), and 6 admissions to Reptiland for April 25 and/or May 2. Nadia gets in free at Reptiland so the admissions would be for adults (such as Paul or I, Grandma, and PopPop) and possibly her cousins Shawn and/or Brandi. We'll also be sharing the amusement park handstamps as at the most we'd use 3 of them. The $120 is a lot less than what it would cost for 6 people to go to these two places. I am excited about putting these events on our calendar! I think Nadia will really enjoy riding the rides on May 8. Hopefully the weather will cooperate that day! I think she'll also like the stuffed animal as she loves monkeys and Curious George is one of her two favorite shows. We've tried quite a few different ones (since Ian has come home) such as Sid the Science Kid, It's a Big World, Dinosaur Train, Dragon Tales, etc. and the only ones she likes aside from VeggieTales (which is her favorite) are Sesame Street (although she really only likes it when she sees Elmo in it) and Curious George. She asks to see "monkey" and she means Curious George. Now if she says "bed monkey" she means she wants to jump on our bed (as in "no more monkeys jumping on the bed).

He's Not Happy

Yesterday morning while Paul was changing Nadia's diaper in my old bedroom Wendy came down to give Adam a quick shower. Adam isn't fond of showers so he was crying. Nadia said very clearly, "He's not happy." I was in the room  nursing Ian when this happened, and I turned to Paul in amazement. I think that's a very good sentence for a 20 month old. Not that I'm biased or anything, LOL! Her cousin Rachel has a very good vocabulary for being only 10 months old. She can say "mama," "dada," "Ada," (for Adam) and "bye bye." She also can clap, wave, and give you five. As you can see from the photos, she's a very happy little girl. It was very easy to get great pictures of her! She started crawling for the first time on Friday and continued to use that skill the rest of the weekend (for short distances). She's a BIG girl. Nadia is 10 months older than her, and they wear the same size diaper, pants, etc. In the photos I posted yesterday of Nadia on the back patio, she's wearing Rachel's hat and size 18 month coat since we had her own coat in the washer/dryer due to her throwing up on them on Friday night in the car. At least the dress in the family photo shown here is too big for Rachel (size 24M) and it's "just" big enough for Nadia. Nadia weighs about 4 pounds more than Rachel.

Ian fell asleep shortly before we left for church yesterday morning; he didn't wake up until part way through the church service. The orchestra woke him up. He was sleeping in  his car seat on the pew beside me. He didn't last very long in my arms. I took him back to the infant nursery to nurse him. After I was done, I asked a nursery worker to hold him for a few minutes since I needed to use the bathroom. On my way back I peeked in the one-way window of the toddler nursery. There I watched another little girl take Nadia's sippy cup from her. Nadia didn't start crying until the nursery worker took the cup from the other girl to the bathroom so she could clean it before giving it back to Nadia. I heard Nadia screaming "milk, my milk." She was still upset when the nursery worker returned the cup to Nadia. I went back to get Ian, but he was so content in Debbie's arms that I ended up leaving him in a nursery for the first time. There were four workers in that infant nursery and including Ian only three infants. I went back to the sanctuary and I found out I had missed the whole sermon.

After the service was over I peeked in on Nadia again. She was still screaming. Ian was doing fine. We went to my Dad's Sunday School class but not long after the class started one of the pagers Paul had in his pocket went off. I went and got Nadia and brought her back to the class. It was hard to keep her quiet. She kept saying things like "Hi!" and "Grandma." The other pager (Ian's) went off twice. The first time they had him calm by the time I walked down to the nursery so they sent me back .The second time I brought Nadia with me and let her play in the infant nursery while I nursed Ian. When we got home, the ten of us ate lunch. After lunch we did a quick family photo shoot with Wendy before putting Nadia down for her nap. As you can see we got some good photos! Thanks, Wendy! Nadia didn't take a very long nap. After nursing Ian, I put him down for his first ever afternoon nap in the Nap Nanny.

We didn't leave quite as early as intended, but we were on the road by 5:00. Ian was again an angel. I am not sure how long this being a good traveler stage will last for him, but if we hadn't stopped at McDonald's at 6:30 to get Nadia a happy meal, I think he might have stayed asleep the whole trip. He was awake (aka crying) for less than 15 minutes of the 3.5 hours we were in the car. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Nadia.

Leaving earlier didn't help the ride go more smoothly. In fact the only improvement was that she didn't throw up. On the way down she was good for about 2.25 hours and then cried for 15 minutes and then after we changed her clothes she slept for the last hour. This time she was good for 1.5 hours and then the happy meal gave us another 1/2 hour. We weren't going to stop for food, but she was fussing and we hoped it would help. After eating she fussed off and on (more on than off) for 1.25 hours. Then she cried very loudly for 10 minutes. This woke Ian up so they were both screaming for those 10 minutes. Nadia fell asleep when we were exactly 3 minutes from our house. Ian went back to sleep when she stopped crying. Traveling with Nadia was difficult when she was really little. Then she did well if we traveled after her bedtime (she slept the whole way). Then that stopped working but she did well the whole way if we were traveling prior to her bedtime. The last long trip was 3.5 months ago. Before we travel in May, I think we're going to buy a portable DVD player to see if that will make the trip go more smoothly for her. I wish both sets of grandparents lived within 2 hours of us. 

Last night Ian slept from 9:30pm-12:30am, 1:30-3:30, and 4:40-5:30. He was in the Nap Nanny for almost 6 hours. I think that's pretty good considering he slept over 3 hours in the car right before we got home at 8:30. I expect tonight will go much better for him. I hope so as I am very tired. This week is spring break for me. Paul only went to school one day last week because he was working on a paper (which he was still working on in the middle of the night last night). He plans to go in every day this week. Even though Nadia went to bed an hour later than usual, she still woke up at 6:05 this morning.

If I wasn't planning to try potty training Nadia this week, I'd be headed to the "new" smaller MOPS group this morning for their March meeting. I am also planning to skip ladies Bible study tomorrow morning. The upside is that this will enable Ian to take a nice long morning nap in his Nap Nanny every day. The downside is that Momma might be going a bit stir crazy by the end of the week considering I'll be home alone without any adult interaction for much longer than usual. However if at the end of the week Nadia is potty trained during the day, it will have been worth it. If she doesn't seem to start to get the hang of it today or tomorrow, then I'll probably postpone the training until May. I'm going to try to keep her in the foyer (tile) and kitchen and bathroom (linolium) as much as possible. I'm going to move one gate so that the living room and dining room will definitely be off limits. At the most I'll be cleaning the carpet in the family room. Although she's asked to go pee pee on the potty and I've sat her on a big toilet several times (at her request), she's never actually gone. Hopefully it won't take too long today until she has her first experience of going on the toilet. I love the fact that it's going to be in the 50's this week. If it weren't for the fact that I don't plan to have her wear pants the next few days, I'd be tempted to use "outside time" as the reward for going to the bathroom on her froggy potty.

You know you have 2 under 2 when...

1. You feel badly for your firstborn because she no longer gets as much of your time and attention as she used to when she was an only child.

2. You feel badly for your second born because he will never get to experience being an only child.

3. It feels like you've experienced nothing short of a miracle when both children take a nap at the same time.

4. You know that taking a few minutes to perform a simple personal hygiene task (like say brushing your teeth) might result in two children crying.

5. You wear make-up fewer than five times a year.

6. You know the names of all the VeggieTale characters and what time Sesame Street airs on PBS.

7. You will go grocery shopping at whatever time of day or day of the week enables you to be able to take only one child with you.

8. You take your toddler with you when you need to use the bathroom in order to keep your baby safe.

9. You've been heard saying things such as, "Don't step on your brother's head!"

10. Going from the parking lot into the church feels like a major accomplishment now that it involves at the minimum carrying your purse, a diaper bag, Bible, and your baby in his car seat while holding your toddler's hand. At times it also involves carrying in a flute, piccolo, music, and/or food that you're bringing for the "fellowship tea" after the morning worship service.

11. You usually don't change your clothes even after they've become drenched in spit-up.

12. Mealtime typically involves simultaneously holding or nursing a baby, feeding a toddler, and feeding yourself.

13. You've let your toddler watch far more tv than she ever did before her brother came home.

14. You've learned that the sleep deprivation stage is much harder the second time around because you usually can't nap while baby naps like you did the first time around.

15. You have two cribs upstairs, two car seats in your car, and a double stroller in your garage.

16. Two of your kids are in diapers.

17. Seeing your toddler take the initiative to give her baby brother a kiss melts your heart.

18. You're hoping that some day your children will love playing together and will be best of friends.

Yesterday the kids both took really long naps. Ian slept in his Nap Nanny (on top of the washing machine in the laundry room) from 8:30-11:00am. Since we'll be at church at that time today, I'm going to try to get him to take an afternoon nap in his Nap Nanny. I've found that having him sleep in his snowsuit works just as well as sleep blanket + swaddle blanket. Nadia was in the pack n play for 3 hours yesterday (12:30-3:30). She never cried or fussed during that entire time. Since we didn't bring the video monitor, I don't know when she fell asleep, but I'm confident she took a long nap up in my parent's bedroom.

Last night Paul & I put 4 children age 3 and under to bed as my mom attended Wendy's concert. I put Rachel down, then Paul put Nadia down, then I put Adam down, and then after I put Ian down I went to bed myself. Ian's first stretch was 4.75 hours long (8:45pm - 1:30am). At 3:00am I put Paul in charge of putting his pacifier back in so I am not sure exactly when he went back to sleep. Thankfully this is no longer the norm. At 2:30 he was just giving me the most adorable smiles. I wanted to go back to bed, but it was hard to be too upset about the fact I was still up when he was giving me those huge smiles. He got up for the day at 5:40am. He spent about 7.75 hours in the Nap Nanny. YAY! Nadia slept until 6:25am so I am definitely going to buy some room darkening curtains to see if that will help when she's sleeping in her room at home.

On the way down here Nadia was listening to 2 new VeggieTales CDs for the first time. One of them has many of the songs that are on the DVDs she watches. One episode is called Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly. When one of the songs from that episode started to play on the CD on Friday night, she immediately started saying "Jiggle" over and over again. Paul didn't understand why. I was amazed that she recognized the song. I then sang "Joshua fought the battle of " and stopped to see what she'd do. She said "Jericho." I can't wait to hear her start singing songs. So far she only sings a word here and there such as "so" in Jesus Loves Me and "aeiou" in the vowel song. I think she has an excellent memory!

Today we're going to church and Sunday School with my family. Yvonne and her family are in Virginia today, but we'll be with Wendy, two of her kids, Maurice, and my parents. My dad has insanely busy day today: church, then he's teaching a Sunday School class, then after a little break has a deacon's meeting, then he's doing a funeral, and then he's preaching at the evening service. Whew. Yvonne and the kids were here all day yesterday, and then Joe joined us for a couple of hours. At the dinner table last night we were ALL there except for Wendy's hubby and oldest daughter (16 of 18). Wendy, Adam, Rachel, and Maurice met Ian for the first time. Wendy took did a little photo shoot with Ian. I asked her to focus on hand and feet photos. I think little babies have such cute fingers and toes! After she sends me some of them, I'll share them here. :-) Today if possible we'll have her take some pics of the four of us together.

We've Arrived

Getting packed up yesterday definitely felt like a major ordeal. I think that's partially due to the fact that some things we have to pack whether the trip is 2 or 12 days long such as the Nap Nanny, pack 'n play, stroller, etc. I also gave the kids baths. I had hoped to take an afternoon nap while the kids napped, but other than a few "cat naps", Ian was awake from when he woke up from his nap (11:30am) until we left (6:15pm). Nadia took a 3 hour afternoon nap (1:00-4:00). YAY! While we were packing I said to Paul that I wanted to get Ian sleeping in a bed (without the Nap Nanny) over the next two months so that we don't need to bring it to Florida in May. However it hit me later that this has saved us from buying a second pack 'n play. I don't plan to transition Nadia to a bed before that time.

The next time we plan to come to Maryland is in May. First we'll come down and visit for a few days while my sister, Wendy, and her kids are here from Chicago, and then we plan to fly out of Baltimore with my parents to Florida. I guess if by that point Ian is flexible enough to sleep with or without the Nap Nanny then he could sleep in it at my parent's house (and Nadia would use our pack 'n play like she did last night), and then we could leave both the Nap Nanny and pack 'n play in MD and have them sleep in cribs provided by the resort once we're in FL. We were going to fly on either AirTran or Southwest to Florida. If we need to bring the Nap Nanny with us then we'd be better off going on Southwest since bags are still free on that airline.

I was fearful that Ian would cry a lot in the car. That certainly was the case with Nadia the first few trips to Maryland. She was not one of those babies who would sleep easily in the car until we started traveling after her bedtime. That only worked for awhile. Lately we had gone back to traveling during the day time as she wasn't sleeping well in the car anymore at night. We weren't sure what time to leave yesterday. We ended up leaving at 6:15pm. Ian was an ANGEL. The only times he cried were when we stopped twice (once for me to go to the bathroom at a gas station and once for Nadia after she threw up). I think if we had made the trip nonstop, he wouldn't have made a peep (in which case we would have arrived in MD at 9:25pm). 

Nadia played happily for the first two hours. We let her listen to a new VeggieTales CD the first 1.25 hours. We were trying to encourage her to fall asleep from 7:30 onward. She was yawning but not going to sleep. She drank a sippy cup full of milk while she was in the car, and at 8:15 became very distressed that her milk was all gone. Between that and being overtired, she cried for 15 minutes and got herself so worked up that she threw up ALL OVER herself (we didn't see that coming!). So we had a 20 minute detour including getting off the interstate, changing her pjs, trading her coat for a blanket, and getting back on the interstate. She fell asleep as soon as we got back on I-83 and slept the rest of the way there (one hour). She then was awake for awhile before Paul put her in bed while I was nursing Ian. So on Sunday we're going to leave earlier than we did today - maybe 4:30? That will work better for Nadia, and hopefully Ian will still be a good little traveler.

Last night Nadia was sleeping in the pack 'n play in my old bedroom, which is in the basement. Paul and I were sleeping in the sofa bed in the rec room (next to that bedroom), and Ian was sleeping nearby on top of the dryer in the laundry room. There are no windows in my old bedroom. I had thought maybe we should buy room darkening curtains for Nadia's room, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. Even though she had only slept a total of 8 hours (and only 7 of those were consecutive) - she woke up at 5:30 this morning! Unbelievable! (Later) Whew... she did go back to sleep and slept until 7:30. Maybe I will get those darkening curtains for her room after all.

Ian slept from 11:00pm - 1:45am, 2:30-4:00am, and 4:30-5:30am. Sleeping a total of 5.25 hours in the Nap Nanny is less than usual, but considering he had slept most of our trip (which lasted 3.5 hours), I think that was pretty good. If he sleeps in the car on Sunday, we can keep him up a couple of hours after we arrive back home and maybe that will mean it won't interfere with his night time sleeping. I definitely missed having a 5-6 hour stretch last night. My longest stretch of sleep was less than 3 hours long, and I got 5 hours total. Hopefully I'll get a nap today.

You know you're a Mommy when...

I'm trying to keep this list different from the ones I wrote in May '09 and  November '08. Tomorrow's post is a similar style but is focused on having two children under the age of two.

1. You're in your car listening to a children's CD for several minutes before you realize that you are alone in your car and can listen to your favorite radio station instead. :-)

2. You spend as little time as possible at work. (I used to spend FAR more than the required number of hours in my office each week. Now I stay the minimum required most of the time.)

3. One of the prime considerations for where to go on vacation is how long it will take to get there.

4. You find yourself saying the same phrase many, many times a day (such as lately I say "use your words" very frequently to Nadia as I am trying to extinguish the "fussing as a way of communicating" habit).

5. You will do various things (open and close car windows, pass back pretzels one by one, etc.) to try to keep the toddler in your car awake while you drive home so that she'll still take her nap.

6. You have been known to grade papers, email, or read a book at 2am and other hours of the night that previously were reserved solely for sleep.

7. You've said things such as "No, we don't eat ice cream for breakfast."

8. You know how many grams a dry diaper weighs.

9. You've learned to function of far less sleep than you ever thought possible.

10. You'd much rather shop for infant or toddler clothing than clothing for yourself.

11. You sing songs like "Old MacDonald" while taking a shower (to keep your toddler from crying).

12. You carry a lot more stuff to work than you did before (an electric pump, ice packs for the EBM, etc.).

13. The idea of having an internal clock takes on a whole new meaning as you are very aware of when it is time to feed your baby without looking at a watch or a clock.

14. You can recite books such as Goodnight, Moon from memory.

15. You wonder how many years it will be until you experience one morning of sleeping in until 7am.

16. You've become adept at typing with one hand while nursing.

17. Children's songs you heard for the first time a few months ago now run through your head All The Time.

18. When you reminisce about a first kiss or the first time you first heard the words "I love you," you might be thinking about a precious little toddler rather than your spouse.

19. You find it very entertaining to watch your toddler in her crib on the video monitor.

20. Little smiles and/or giggles melt your heart and make your day! (I had to repeat this one!)

P.S. Here's a 42 second video clip of Ian playing in his gym. I've been trying to get a good video of him the last two days. I've seen him smile more and heard him "talk" more in his gym at other times (when I didn't have the camera near me), but this was the best video of the ones I took the last few days. It's Ian's debut on youtube, LOL! I want to do better about recording videos of both kids in the future. For example, how How Nadia has said her name has evolved over the past few months. I wish I had recorded all the stages. She's only recently begun pronouncing the "i" ("E" sound) in her name.


The burp cloth is under his head because I am learning from experience! I was given these (cloth diapers) at a baby shower for Nadia. I never used them with her, but let me tell you we are making VERY good use of them with Ian. We keep them all over the house and frequently are washing them as they are well used.

Pure Bliss...

Since Nadia woke up sooooo early and was sooo fussy yesterday morning, I decided to put her down for a nap at 9:05. She fell asleep by 9:15 and didn't wake up until 11:50! Ian went down at 9:30 and didn't wake up until 11:20. This was the very first time that both kids were napping at the same time. The reason it was pure bliss was it meant I also got a nap!! I would have slept longer if Paul wasn't at home working on a paper. He woke me up twice to see if I thought we should wake Nadia up. At first I was tempted to do so to try to preserve the afternoon nap, but then I decided that the "bird in hand..." theory applied in light of the fact her afternoon naps had been less than an hour the last two days. I figured it was better to have one long morning nap now than possibly have a good afternoon nap. Since it was a bit warmer outside and I was trying to wear her out to increase the odds she'd take at least a short afternoon nap, I took the kids outside. I put Ian in his blue snowsuit and carried him in the baby wrap so that I was able to help Nadia get up the slide. The steps for the slide aren't meant for toddlers. I'm going to ask Paul to put in new steps on the ladder sometime. Unfortunately running around outside wasn't enough to get her to take a second nap.

While we were outside, I heard the words "leaves" and "dirt" many times. Nadia had fun playing with the dirt and dead leaves under one apple tree. She's also getting much better at saying her name, and she says it a lot more when she wants me to know that she wants to do something herself. Another change in the last few weeks is that instead of waving at everyone when we're out and about (such as at the grocery store), now she says "hi" to each person we pass. Many people didn't notice her waving, but most of them acknowledge her when she says "hi." I love that she's such a friendly girl! A couple of new words she's said this week were "counter" (referring to the kitchen countertop), "receipt" (took me awhile to figure it out but sure enough she was pointing to one on the couch), "this one," and "right there." This morning she said her first four word combination. As I handed her a cracker she said "I eat no mess." She's taken to taking food apart before eating it, and I am frequently telling her to eat it and not make a mess. As she took a bite she again said, "no mess." Good job, Nadia! You just never know what she's going to say these days! :-)

Yesterday I finished grading (until March 15 anyhow), did a load of laundry, and started packing our suitcase. My goals for today had been to finish packing, do another load of laundry, and write a performance review for a full-time adjunct in our department. I already gave Paul a haircut this morning, and since I didn't get as much sleep as I hoped to get last night, I think I'll do the performance review next week instead.

We still also have to be careful what goes in Nadia's mouth. She wanted to eat that dirt she was playing with outside. I introduced a new food to her yesterday; she again takes after her Mommy in that she loves clementines! One way she differs from me is that she wants to be outside ALL the time; it doesn't matter what the temperature is. She's going to be a happy girl once the weather gets warmer and Mommy is more willing to spend time outside most days. :-) I think I've done a good job of introducing her to a wide variety of fruits. She's even eaten papaya, mango, and guava yogurts for example. I was good at feeding her vegetables from when she was 6-12 months old, but I have been TERRIBLE with it from 12-20 months old.

Last night Ian slept from 8:30pm-1:30am. So we haven't had 3 nights in a row yet with a 6 hour stretch, but a 5 hour stretch is pretty good! He then slept from 2:30-4:00 and 4:30-5:00am. The reason he woke up at 5:00am was because Nadia was crying and it woke him up. We still have him in the pack 'n play in the living room, but somehow they are still managing to wake each other up. Nadia has a space heater which produces "white noise" in addition to warming her room, but that's not doing the trick. She woke up at 1:30 and 4:00 when he was crying. Since she didn't take a second nap yesterday, I decided to keep her up this morning even though she didn't have a good night last night. It wasn't hard to get Ian down for his nap this morning, but it was hard to keep Nadia from waking him up. I think next week I'll start putting his Nap Nanny in his crib for his naps in the hopes it will be easier for him to sleep, and then Nadia can play in either the family room or living room. I wondered if Nadia wasn't sleeping well because she was hungry (maybe we need to feed her a snack before bed?), but she didn't even want breakfast this morning until 9:30am. I wish she'd go back to sleeping 11 hours at night. Maybe she's teething? I am nervous about how she'll respond to the clocks shifting forward an hour this weekend. Hopefully it will mean she won't get up before 6am. I think Ian would have slept until 6:00 if she hadn't woken him up at 6:00. Ian is doing a great job of napping in his bed from about 9-11am; this morning he slept from 9:00-11:25! That can become strictly Mommy & Nadia play together time if I can get them both to take an afternoon nap at the same time. Then the afternoon nap time could be for me to take a nap and/or get some housework and/or schoolwork done.

First Road Trip

Thus far the longest that Ian has spent in the car at one time has been about 25 minutes. Tomorrow night we are driving to Maryland as my sister and her two youngest children flew into Baltimore from Chicago on Tuesday. This will be Ian's longest road trip to date. I have no idea how much he'll sleep or scream or whether we'll need to stop along the way so that I can nurse him. The trip normally takes about 3.5 hours. If he does cry, this guarantees that Nadia will sleep. I have noticed that if Ian starts screaming in the car, Nadia falls asleep very soon after that. I think it's her way of coping as she doesn't like hearing him cry. Of course my preference is that neither of them would cry, at least not for any lengthy periods of time that is. During this trip, my two siblings who haven't met Ian yet (Maurice & Wendy) will get to hold the little guy. I'm not sure when he'll meet Wendy's husband and/or eldest daughter. I think Nadia will have fun playing with her cousins! Hopefully we won't bring any germs back with us. :-)

We plan to go down Friday night and come back Sunday night. I'm hoping that Paul and Maurice might be able to take Nadia and her cousin Adam (who turned 3 last month) to the Baltimore Aquarium. I think they'd enjoy that! I would love to see Nadia's responses, but I think it would be better if I stayed with Ian. I'm also looking forward to introducing Ian to friends at my parent's church and hopefully playing a game of Boggle with my Dad and sister. If you think of me on Friday night or Sunday night, I'd appreciate prayers that the trip will go as smoothly as possible. I'm hoping we won't be "serenaded" by crying for hours.

Yesterday I started working on my 45 by 45 list by making a new recipe. You can read about it here. Ian did take a morning nap in the Nap Nanny, but it was only 1 hour long (compared to his 2 hour naps last Wednesday and Thursday). Nadia followed suit and only slept for 40 minutes. That is NOT long enough now that she only has one nap a day particularly when she didn't sleep well on Tuesday night. Hopefully her nap will be much longer today. While giving her a bath yesterday, I had Ian in the bouncer. He'll turn 3 months old in 8 days. The second picture is of Nadia in the same bouncer the day after she turned 3 months old. She was definitely bigger at this stage than he is. I hope he grows enough that all the clothes I bought for him to wear this summer will fit. Thankfully summer clothes are more flexible since you don't have to worry about things like the sleeves being too long.

I was reminded again of what a little peanut he is when I was at ladies Bible study on Tuesday morning. A woman came in with a newborn and as she sat down behind me commented that my son must be even younger than hers. I said, "Not necessarily, how old is yours?" To which she replied, "He'll be 6 weeks old this week." He was much bigger than Ian. I informed her that Ian would be 12 weeks old this week but that he came 6 weeks early. Her son came 2.5 weeks late so actually his due date was 2 weeks earlier than Ian's although Ian came 6 weeks before her son did. She said her kids don't want to come out as she's had to be induced twice now. I said both of mine came early. This baby was born the week of Ian's due date so imagine that is what Ian would look like now if he had come on time. They say he would have likely weighed at least 9lbs if he had gone full-term since he was already at 6lbs at 34 weeks.

Yesterday I finished grading one assignment (technically I finished today as I was grading in the middle of the night while feeding Ian). Today I want to grade an assignment for another class. I also hope to get Ian to take a morning nap in his bed and for Nadia to have two naps. She woke up REALLY early. She got maybe 9.5 hours of sleep last night. I am not sure what the problem is. Maybe she's teething? Ian slept from 9pm-3am (YAY) and then it took me 75 minutes to get him back down. I figured he would sleep until 5:45 as his second stretch is usually 1.5 hours long. Unfortunately Nadia woke up not long after he went down, and he went down at 4:15am!! She is one very sleep deprived girl at this point between two days of napping less than one hour plus two nights of not getting anywhere near her usual 11 hours of sleep. Her waking also meant I got less than 6 hours of sleep even though Ian was in the Nap Nanny for 7 hours. At least Ian is going in the right direction in terms of sleeping at night as he slept a 6 hour stretch two nights in a row for the first time!

Hugs and Zippers

Several days ago I started teaching Nadia how to zip and unzip her pajamas. I don't think Paul is thrilled that I taught her this skill as she "practices" at moments when she's not supposed to be getting undressed. She hasn't learned how to take the sleeper off so at least she's always somewhat dressed. :-) Her newest "joke" (similar to calling things "PopPop") is to say "ice cream" when I ask her what she wants for breakfast. She laughs at her own jokes just like her Daddy does, LOL. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but she's gotten back to calling milk "milk" (she called it "book" for awhile) as well as calling her slide "slide" (rather than "that"). Some new words include "Jericho" (which she says when she hears "Joshua Fought the Battle..."), "elephant," "jiggle," and "morning." She has started singing a few words when we're listening to a CD. The sweetest thing she's been doing lately is that she reaches her arms up and says "hug you." Awwww..... I definitely pick her up and let her hug me!!!!

As you can see from the picture in yesterday's post, Nadia really loves her new stuffed animals. Larry is her favorite. She likes these new ones (Larry, Laura, and Junior) better than Bob. I bought Bob awhile ago (new) through CBD. I paid less than $11 total for all 3 of these (used) on eBay. Toddlers don't care if it's new or used! I think "doggie" now has some competition as she really, really loves "Larry." I'm glad I didn't wait until her birthday to give them to her. What a delight it is as a parent to see your child really enjoy something you've gotten them. Ahhhh.....

Today my goals include grading papers, getting Ian to take a nap in his Nap Nanny (it's been 6 days since he had a long nap in it), and making sure Nadia gets her afternoon nap. I went to ladies Bible study yesterday morning. I left before it was over and fed her pretzels - both done in an attempt to keep her awake. I succeeded for the first 15 minutes of the drive, but she slept the last 10 minutes. When we got home she woke up when I was putting her in her crib so I fed her lunch and let her play. I put her down about an hour later than she usually goes down. She didn't sleep At All. Ugh. It was close to an hour before she started fussing, but she didn't sleep a wink. I told Beth that when she came over to watch the children. She told Paul when he got home that Nadia slept in her arms for about 30 minutes. That's better than nothing but she usually sleeps at least 90 minutes. Her naps average about 2 hours in length with 3 hours being the maximum. She woke up early again. I think she's just a morning bird. If we move her bedtime later or earlier she still tends to get up early especially if Ian wakes up between 5-6am. The first time she woke up this morning was 4:20 which is just WAY too early. Thankfully she went back to sleep and woke up again about an hour later. She didn't go back to sleep, but I didn't go get her until 6am.

She did really well at the nursery yesterday. It was my third time to attend the study, although it was the 7th lesson. She did well the first and third time, but the second time they moved her down to the infant nursery where she could be held/rocked since she was crying. Yesterday I peeked in on her once (using a window that parents can see in through but the children can't see out of) and I wished I had a camera. The children were sitting around a table as the adults were singing and doing the Bible lesson. She looked so grown up. It was a bittersweet sight.

Ian had a GREAT night last night. He slept from 9pm to 3am - SIX hours straight. WOOHOO! Then after being up a little less than an hour he then slept for about 90 minutes before getting up for the day. So he slept about 7.5 hours in his Nap Nanny. YAY!

This morning I did a quick search online as I was curious if others had written about my articles. I think I need to use a citation index to really investigate this, but my quick search showed that a college student in England mentioned me by name in an essay she wrote for a economics competition (that she won) in 2008. She quoted an article of mine that was published in 2006 (a different article than the one reviewed recently in The Teaching Professor). It's very encouraging to know some people are reading my articles. :-)

A Very Pleasant Surprise!

Yesterday as I was going through my (work) email inbox, I clicked on a link to a newsletter that I usually read, The Teaching Professor. My university pays for a subscription for all the faculty. I am particularly glad I read this issue as the 2nd page was a summary/review of an article I had published a few months ago! When I saw my name at first I assumed there was another person with my first/ last name out there (which there probably is as my married name is a common one), but then I realized nope they are talking about ME! What a pleasant surprise, LOL! I wonder if they were going to notify me? What if I didn't already read this newsletter? I was in such a state of (happy) shock that I almost forgot to pump before going to class. Thank goodness I remembered in the nick of time. I wasn't able to pump very long, but pumping for even 7 minutes (or something like that) is better than not pumping at all. Next week is spring break. This means that after class tonight I have 12 days off!

Ian's first stretch was 5.3 hours long (9:00pm-2:20am). What a blessing that was! I was leaking all over the place prior to the time he woke up, but thankfully I didn't have any clogged ducts so I didn't need to get up and pump. I would have had to use the manual pump as I left the electric one in my office last night. I plan to bring it home tonight. His second stretch was  about 1.5 hours long (3:35-5:00). He was about 15 minutes shy of 7 hours altogether! Much better... Unfortunately, Ian's crying at 5am woke Nadia up. Paul brought her down at 5:10am. That's just too early to start the day in my opinion.

WOW!!!

Well the scales were very kind to Ian as he gained another 2.5 oz yesterday. That means he gained 4 ounces in 2 days. WOW! I am putting the baby scale away in his closet. I thought maybe I'll weigh him once a month, but Paul thinks that's not often enough. Nadia was only weighed every two months at the doctor's office. Well I plan to wait at least a week, and I'm thinking 2 weeks sounds even better. I don't want another day like Saturday where I felt like crying most of the day as I thought that my baby wasn't gaining any weight whatsoever since it stayed the same from Tuesday morning through Saturday morning.

Ian's first stretch was only a little more than 3 hours long. Sigh. I have decided not to keep working so hard to stay up until 10pm. I think I'll just aim to stay up until 9pm as I'm still getting up at 1am even with a later bedtime. The good news is that he went down easily two more times. That was a relief. I can handle getting up more often if at least I'm only up say 75 minutes at the most. When I'm up 90-120 minutes for each feeding it's a much rougher night. He spent about 6 1/2 hours in the Nap Nanny, but that translated to about 5.5 hours that I was in bed because #1 I spend time after each putting him down popping in his pacifier or doing other things to help him get to sleep and #2 Nadia woke up before he did. Again. Ugh. Also, I am experiencing a very mild version of insomnia. This happened to me when Nadia was little also. In both cases after several weeks of sleep deprivation, even though I am very, very tired I have a hard time falling asleep quickly. It's the hardest when I try to take naps at random points in the day. I think in part my body has a hard time going to sleep based upon Ian & Nadia's schedule rather than my own body's needs. Also, it's hard to be up so much and keep going back to sleep quickly. When I go to the bathroom throughout the night I don't even turn on the bathroom light. I try to do everything I can to make it so I can get to sleep immediately. That doesn't happen when I'm nursing, changing diapers, etc. in the middle of the night. Well Ian is almost 3 months old so I am hoping the worst will be over within the next month or so. I keep telling myself I should be past the half-way mark in terms of the nights where I am getting less than 6 hours of sleep on average. I would be thrilled with a 5 or 6 hour stretch tonight, but even a 4.5 hour one would be an improvement!