UP

I should have included this in my last post as it's certainly been Ian's main form of exercise this week. He absolutely loves going UP the stairs. If he starts crawling really fast in the family room, I know where he's headed. By the time he gets to the foyer, he is literally laughing and squealing with delight. He gets SUCH a kick out of climbing up the stairs! I have to stay right behind him as he has zero concept of how to go down the stairs safely. He thinks headfirst would be a good option. Every time I try to teach him how to go down, he immediately just starts crawling back up. He can only go in one direction at this time - UP!

We have been putting the kids to bed between 7:45-8:00pm the past 10 days. The first few days of this week Ian was waking up at 5:15am. I would let him fuss and usually he'd fall back asleep and then wake up again around 6:00 or 6:15. Yesterday morning he didn't wake up until 6:00 so I thought if I let him fuss a bit, he'd go back to sleep. Wrong. All letting him cry a little accomplish was also waking up his sister. We were all headed downstairs by 6:15am. I was very frustrated because keeping the kids up later wasn't helping them sleep in later - it was just reducing the amount of sleep they were getting at night (from an average of 11 hours down to an average of 10 hours).

I had decided to put them to bed earlier last night and just accept a schedule of them getting up around 6am. However, Ian fell asleep sitting up at 6pm. I put him up on my shoulders - he stayed asleep. It was crazy all that I had to do to wake him up. That less than 5 minute nap gave him a second wind, and there was no way he was going to bed early. This was a blessing because this morning he slept until 6:30. After fussing a minute or two he slept another 15 minutes. I got him at 6:45 and nursed him (I've been nursing him every day again!), and he fell back asleep and slept on our bed until 7:45am at which point I went and got Nadia from her room. I am not sure what time she had awakened, but she hadn't been calling out to us or anything. So we'll stick with the 8pm bedtime, and I'm hoping eventually Ian will sleep until 7am. Then I just need to get myself motivated enough to crawl out of the covers at 6am so I can get my daily workout and shower accomplished before the kids wake up, at least until the weather gets nicer.

Aside from the 15 minute nap on Tuesday due to going to ladies Bible study, Nadia has been doing very well with naps. I put her down sometime between 12:30-1:00, and she wakes up some time between 3:15-4:30. The problem is that Ian still only takes two 30 minute naps a day. His first nap is usually from about 9:30-10:00am (even on the days he gets up early), and his second nap is often from 1:30-2:00 (the timing of when this nap starts varies quite a bit). Since Nadia is awake during his first nap, this means that I've been getting 20-30 mintues a day between the hours of 6:15am and 8:00pm of "free" time. That's not much! I've definitely been contemplating buying another laptop as I could be on the computer some while Nadia napped. I can't have Ian in Paul's office during her nap. Letting him cry isn't an option due to his reflux, and the fact that he'd also wake up Nadia. At this point I'm just hoping that whenever he transitions to one nap a day he will sleep for at least one hour. A good day for Ian is one in which he sleeps 12 hours total whereas an average day for Nadia is one in which she gets 14 hours total. Usually younger children need more sleep than older ones! The good news is that he does play independently more these days which means I can do things like fold laundry and empty the dishwasher while Nadia's napping and he's playing.

Although he still has a bad day here and there, Ian's up-chucking has returned to the frequency we've been accustomed to the past 13 months. I am 100% convinced that eating yogurt causes him to throw up FAR more than usual. Only giving him 4 ounces (formula and baby cereal mixed together) per hour also helps. He might want more, but if we give him more, it all just comes right back up. Also, I have to try not to let him cry or laugh. The latter is a big bummer because to me the sound of a baby laughing is the sweetest sound in the whole world. The poor guy upchucks almost every time after he laughs no matter how much time has passed since he last ate. The same goes for crying. Normally there are times when as a mom you just think - baby, you're just going to have to cry because Mommy can't hold you this minute. Well, I was reminded on Wednesday night that I shouldn't think like that. I set him down for a minute so I could change my pants (which he had sabotaged earlier) before heading to choir rehearsal. I was in the middle of pulling up my jeans, and he vomited all over his clothes, our bedspread, and my jeans. I had to put on a third pair of pants, clean him up, and do an unexpected load of laundry. I really need to appease him at all times if at all possible.

Mealtimes are a challenge. Usually once a child is 6 months old you can give them some fingerfoods (like Cheerios), and they're happy in their highchair while you eat your dinner. He still doesn't do fingerfoods, and in fact he has a very negative view of the highchair so it's a rare day when I can even get him to sit and play with toys in it. Last night I was trying to supervise feeding Nadia dinner while holding Ian and eating my own dinner. In most instances I have the attitude that I don't want the kids to grow up too fast, but when it comes to a smoother dinner time, I have to say I am looking forward to that. Nadia was such a good eater at say 10 months old, but now we have many battles at the dinner table. She did scarf down the slice of pizza for lunch today without any trouble, but of course I'm not going to serve her pizza every day. :-)

I took the kids to the library today. Ian didn't sit well today because the librarian brought her dog to story time. Ian went nuts with excitement and crawled right over to the dog. Because the dog was large, he would stop and sit down when he got really close. Yesterday we stayed home all day. I really enjoy outings such as to story time at the library. I think I'll sign Nadia up for two classes this next session as until the weather gets nicer the days seem long when we're cooped up in the house all day, especially since I am also in the process of adjusting to being a stay-at-home mom. Thankfully there are many options, and Nadia loves to do things with other kids! That's one advantage of Ian having such short naps. I don't plan our schedule according to his as he'll nap just as long in the car as he will in his crib.