Is Anthony sleeping through the night at 6 months?

Anthony had his 6 month check up Monday. He took the shots like a champ, cried for a few minutes and then forgot about them. There are two pediatricians in the office we take him too. A man and a woman, this visit we saw the female doctor who seems to be stricter than the man doctor. I was a bit worried, because I knew she was going to ask me if he's sleeping through the night. When she saw him at his 2 month visit she said he should be sleeping through the night, so I knew she would not be happy to hear that he still wakes up not once but twice a night. But hey, at least he sleeps in his own bed, right? When I told her she said I am a lot more patient than she is and I should invest in some ear plugs and give this baby some tough love. I internally dismissed what she was saying, because I know that I can't listen to him cry, it gets me every time, the most I can let him cry is a few minutes. So yes I realize all of this is partially my fault, but it wasn't until she said that HE needs the uninterrupted sleep for growth and development that I decided to seriously try. Here is how it has been going.

Sunday night (before the doctor visit)

8:30 put to bed.

8:30-9:30 in and out of the room several times to put paci back in mouth until he finally falls asleep.

10:00 awake and crying again, Todd and I are trying to watch a movie (fools gold*) so I bring him down and let him sleep while I hold him. (because it's the easy thing to do)

11:00 sound asleep in my arms for the past hour, put him back to bed.

11:15 awake and crying, pick him up and hold him again, while we finish the movie.

11:30 put him to bed, he cries, we shut the door, ignore him and he falls asleep after a couple minutes. I go to sleep too.

1:30 baby awake, feed him and put him back to bed.

3:30 up again, give paci

4:30 up again, feed baby, back to bed.

5:30 I have to get up for work. (now I know why I am so tired, and Tony takes such good naps during the day)

Monday night (our first try at tough love)

8:30 put Tony to bed.

8:45 he starts crying, give paci and set timer for 15 minutes, watch The Bachelorette with the volume way up so I don't have to hear him crying.

8:54 sound asleep! Only 9 minutes, but it felt like forever.

He woke up again at 1:30 and 5:30 to eat and I gave in because I had to work in the morning and was too tired.

Last night

8:30 put Tony to bed and he starts crying right away. Set timer for 15 minutes and ignore crying.

8:45 still crying, send Todd up to console him. Todd gets him out of bed and brings him downstairs and says, "he doesn't want to go to sleep, he is so cute, don't make him do it." (I know we have no one to blame but ourselves for this problem we have created.) I take him back upstairs put him in bed and he starts crying again. Set timer for 15 minutes and within 6 minutes he is sound asleep.

10:30 pm, he wakes up, I decide to feed him since I am still awake and then make him sleep the rest of the night.

4:30 am, wakes up to eat, goes back to sleep until 8:50 am! Wow, what a treat for me.

I know it doesn't sound like much progress, but trust me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep is huge.

In other baby news, he is perfect, alert, interactive and very happy. Still wont bear weight on his legs, but the doctor assured me that I do not need to be concerned, even though all his other baby friends that are younger than him can do it. (I know you shouldn't compare babies, but sometimes you can't help it).

He can sit up for a few seconds on his own before he topples over. So I went ahead and made the appointment for some professional pictures. We're going to take them at the beach, I can't wait to see how they turn out.

And in pool news...

We went to a friends pool at her condominiums this past Sunday and got yelled at by someone who lives there. She didn't think we lived there, which is a requirement to use the pool, I told her I had a pool pass (not technically lying, because my friend who does live there, gave me her pass to use). I think it may have helped me in my argument for my own pool. When we got home, I asked Todd, hypothetically, if we were to get a pool where would we put it? He entertained my question by going outside and saying where he thought it should go. Hypothetically of course since we're not actually getting one ;) Then we came inside, and while I was feeding Tony dinner, Todd was on the computer, I assumed looking at stocks like he usually does. But then he says, "we should get one like this." To my surprise he was looking at swimming pools, and the one he picked out was awesome, and way cooler than anything I would ever imagine asking for. It had a hot tub that was connected to the pool and overflowed into the pool over a rock wall. So of course we're still not getting a pool, but I definitely think he's warming up to the idea.

For those of you who wonder how I find time to blog, this is what we do sometimes after breakfast.

He watches Baby Einstein, while I blog. I can get about 20 minutes of computer time before he loses interest in the TV. Notice he has outgrown the bouncer seat, so I have to prop it up with a pillow.

*Fool's Gold was a big dissapointment. They filmed the movie in Australia, the same time we were there visiting in October 2006 and even in the same town we were at. We never spotted Matthew McConaughey, but he was around and in town when we were there. The scenery pictures are exactly from where we were, but in the movie they are not in Australia.

Meet the cows

This is Molly.Jane. Lucy. (Lucy is Jane's daughter)
They've had 3 female longhorns for a few years now. They have a pretty good life for cows. They have more than enought room to roam and grass and hay to eat. There are no intentions to butcher them for meat. They even got a new barn built for them this year. They used to just have a little red shack of a barn for selter, but it was only big enough for 2 cows at a time. Jane and Lucy would always stay inside and leave Molly out in the cold. A few years ago Molly got really sick (probably from being out in the cold with no shelter) and had to have the vet come and see her and tranquilize her in order to give her antibiotics, but she recovered thankfully. I was so mad at those white cows, I think they were prejudice against Molly.

Recently they bought a bull with hopes that they will have some baby longhorns. We don't know for sure, but we think all 3 of the females are pregnant. They stay pregnant for 9 months just like humans so who knows when and if they are having babies. I don't know how you'd give a cow a pregnancy test.

Mountain Jack (bull)These chickens are the newest addition to the farm. They are too little to lay eggs yet, but it wont be long. I think they have a pretty good set up here in this new barn built just for them and the cows. I know they have a lot more room to roam than the comercial chickens that lay the eggs for the stores. Can you see the cow on the other side of the fence? Olivia (my friends daughter) is throwing pieces of bread down to the chickens.
She was having so much fun, I called to have Katya and Ben come over. I thought they would enjoy seeing the chickens and cows too.

Even Tony wanted in on the fun.
Here they are feeding bread to the cows, they are quite tame. Here they all are up on the hay.
Ben was a little afraid to feed the cows, Katya however was not the least bit scared (not surprisingly) she was reaching in to grab the horns. That little red shack is the only shelter they used to have before the new cow barn was built.
Olivia was even a little shy about feeding them. Katya had to refrain from taking the bread out of Olivia's hand and feeding the cows herself.
I think Ben and Olivia were a little annoyed by Katya's fearlessness. Of course it probably had something to do with the fact that Katya kept saying "why are you so scared? It's NOT scary"

Mountain Jack is a little scary if you ask me. I wouldn't feed him.

Todd's first Father's Day

Todd's first father's day.

Fathers day went almost how I wanted it to go. Remember back when I told Todd all I wanted for mothers day was to sleep in? And he came back with "how can you celebrate being a mother by not being a mother?" So for the past month, I have been telling him for fathers day all he's getting is 24 hours of one on one daddy baby bonding time. Well sure enough I ended up picking up a night shift the Saturday before fathers day. After I agreed to work it, I thought maybe I shouldn't have, but then decided that working all night would ensure that Todd got his promised time with Tony.

Honestly, it's not like it's a bad thing to spend the day with your baby. How could you not love every minute of it? I'm not sure which one of them is happier here. Anthony loves giving hugs (and eating your face and pulling your hair at the same time. See the new slideshow on the sidebar of the blog for proof.)

I got a phone call at work around 11pm from Todd saying that I was not allowed to work night shift anymore. Apparently he was having a bit of difficulty getting Anthony to sleep. I was very sympathetic and offered several suggestions for getting him to sleep, but secretly I was a little bit happy, I mean after he deserved it for not letting me sleep in on mothers day. I also expected Anthony to wake up once or twice during the night, since that has been his usual routine lately. Even though I've been trying to break that habit, I was secretly hoping he would do it one last night before breaking the habit for good.

When I came home Sunday morning I was greeted at the door by Todd and Anthony, both seemed happy. I asked if he slept through the night, and Todd said "I don't know if he did or not, but I did". Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I think it worked out for the best, because he slept through the night again on Sunday night. So maybe were making progress in the right direction. Or maybe that was just Anthony's father's day gift to his daddy, because last night he was up again twice!

After I got some sleep we went and had lunch with Todd's parents, and then for dinner we all went over to this girls parents house for some very yummy (as my sister Francie would say) Mexican food, with homemade salsa and guacamole (my favorite part). They also just happen to have a pool, so we packed our swim gear just in case, and I'm sure glad we did. They had the pool heated to 90 degrees. We were the only one's swimming, but we didn't mind. I used the opportunity to work on convincing Todd we need one of these at our house. I can usually talk him into most things I want (I hope I didn't jinx myself by saying that) it's just a matter of how long I have to ask/beg for something before he gets tired of all the asking/begging and he finally agrees. Although he is pretty adamant about us not having a pool, so I think it may take a lot longer than it did for the garage and the sprinkler system. Anthony LOVES the pool, so if I can't convince Todd in the next few years to let us have a pool, I may be recruiting Anthony to help me out, he may have more pull than I do, he just can't talk yet.

And look at Todd swimming in the deep end. He never learned how to swim as a kid, but since I've known him he has been practicing and getting better and better every year.

Lazy Summer Days

I have to admit I have a pretty leisure life these days. Working 3 days a week leaves plenty of time to play. No time to clean or do laundry of course, but we make time for the important things in life. I think I may have just contradicted what I said in my last post, but I guess it just depends on the day, and today is a pretty leisure one. I'm optimistic that I will have many days like this one this summer.

This morning while I was putting laundry away (I had to pre-clean for the cleaning lady) I put Tony in the rocking chair. He was perfectly content to just sit and watch me.

He actually started to sit forward in the chair, I had to recline him so he wouldn't topple over. I think he will be sitting on his own very soon. As soon as he does I'm taking him in for some professional photos. He smiles easily right now, so it's a good time.

We went for a swim today after his nap. He has been 3 times this week already and each time he likes it more and more. The first two days he didn't cry, but didn't seem to be excited about it either. Today he was laughing and smiling. I'm glad he likes the water because I love getting out in the sun. I have 2 friends with pools and a cousin with a pool I can go to, so usually someone is home. We plan on spending lots of time there this summer. They say you can teach babies how to swim, I wish I knew how. I checked into swim lessons at the YMCA, but at this age all they do is water introduction classes, which is pretty much what I'm doing on my own for free.

He doesn't seem to care for the brightness of the sun too much. I think the heat and bright light makes him sleepy. Usually after he spends a half hour or so in the water he sits on my lap and falls asleep.


I love this picture. I think it's a framer.

Oh and as far as the sleep issue were having, I didn't follow through like I planned. The last 2 nights he woke up twice and I was too tired to listen to him cry, so I just fed him. So tonight is the night, I promise. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Baby/Work/Run/Sleep/Play (and blog if I can)

Wow, I work 2 days in a row and I am so far behind on everything. I don't know how people work 5 days a week, 3 days a week is rough enough. So between Anthony, working, running, enjoying my summer and trying to keep up on housework, my blogging has been bumped to the bottom of my to do list. But here is a quick one to update you all on my oh so exciting life.

Well as far as the running a half marathon thing goes, I am crazy, cause I've decided to do it, but at least I'm not the only one. So far I have managed to convince 6 family and friends to run the Chicago Half Marathon with me. Rachael, Francie, Kim, Amy, Amber, and Rachael's blogger friend CM. I say if you got to be crazy at least don't be crazy by yourself. The 12 week training program we've decided to use officially starts next week. So this week we are training for the training. The first week you run 13-15 miles total, and since none of us (except CM who is already able to easily run 6 miles, and my friend Amber who is training for the Chicago full marathon in October so this will be a breeze for her) are currently anywhere remotely close to that, we are testing the waters this week to see what were in for in the coming weeks. So far two 3 mile runs done and other than a slower pace than I'd like, I'm quite happy that I have the stamina to run the whole 3 miles. The temperature is really hot and humid, so mid day runs are out, which leaves early morning or late evening runs. This is going to be a bit challenging though because I work at 7 am, so in order to run before work I would have to get up at 5am when it's still dark outside. I don't really want to run in the dark, so that leaves me with evening runs. Last night Kim, Amy and I went at 9pm, and we all agreed that other than the fact that there are a lot of gnats out at dusk and you either have to run with a mask and goggles or accept that you will eat a few bugs along the way, it's the perfect time to run. Still light outside, and not too hot. One other teansy little problem is that Tony goes to bed at 9pm and Todd is still working, so I'm still working on figuring that one out.

And speaking of Tony, here are some pictures of him that are so cute, I just have to share them. He has started rolling, and he rolls all over the place now. Here he rolled underneath the coffee table.
He also thinks his foot is good enough to eat (I have to agree, sometimes I want to just eat him up too) It's hard to keep it out of his mouth. I guess it's a good thing he has clean feet.




Now for the 3% of Tony that isn't perfect: He is now 6 months old and still not sleeping through the night. AND most nights he wakes up twice, usually at 1ish and again at 4ish. I know several people who have babies that are younger than Anthony and ARE sleeping through the night. So I don't know what to do, but something has got to change, because even if he's not, I am ready to start sleeping through the night again. I am off for the next 2 nights, so I am debating resisting the urge to just feed him when he wakes up so he'll go back to sleep, or try to get him to break the habit of eating at night. I'm so tired when he wakes me up, that feeding him is the fast easy option, but I really think if I can handle a few hard nights of getting him back to sleep without feeding him it will be so much better in the long run for both of us. If anyone has any suggestions other than to wean him to formula or just let him cry it out, I'd be happy to hear them.

I might be crazy!

But I think I want to do THIS.

Anyone else interested in joining in let me know. The deadline to sign up is July 31st.

The date is Sunday, September 14, which gives us about 13 weeks to train.

A little of this, a little of that

Baby Gap has the the cutest baby boy clothes. Last week I did a little online shopping for some summer clothes for Tony. This is one of his new little outfits. I learned my lesson last summer when I bought maternity clothes from Gap.com - Buy just a few items the first time around, because when they send you your order, they include a 10% off coupon for your next on line order. I have a whole shopping cart full in my account that I need to buy now that I have my coupon. It's kind of like online lay away. Every time I sit him on the couch for a picture he puts his arm out on the arm rest. A natural couch potato?
This was taken on my 31st birthday over the memorial day weekend. Yes, I am into my 30's now, which is a big difference from just being 30. I had a really good birthday as usual (I love birthdays, even if it means getting older) I went to Chicago with a group of friends for dinner and shopping and stayed overnight. It was my first 24 hours away from Tony. He did fine, but I missed him a lot. Then on my actual birthday I went over to my sister Rachael's house for dinner and birthday cake. Then we went over to Todd's cousins house for a cookout, not for my birthday, but for Memorial day, but they got me a cake so that was pretty cool. My mom wrote a very sweet birthday post over on her blog with some cute/some embarrassing pictures of me growing up. You can read it here if you like. Tony's shirt says "lil squash". Francie bought it for him from RachealRay.com last summer. Perfect for a future vegetable farmer don't you think?
This last weekend we finally got weather that feels like summer. I also realized that we have very few pictures of Todd or I with Tony. I frequently take pictures of Tony, but rarely with us. So this weekend before going to my cousins graduation party, we went outside and tried to take a few pictures. Problem was, we let the dog out with us, and Tony would never look at the camera, he was always looking at the dog.

Yes, he's looking down at Brewster here too.
Here he is in his new toy. It's a $40 well spent. I almost bought the $80 baby Einstein jumping thingy, but decided that he would probably like this just as much. Good call on my part. He loves it and I saved $40.
Head shot. Future Gerber baby?
So one of my friends mentioned that one of her friends works in marketing in Chicago and they are looking for a new Gerber baby. Age 6 - 9 months. I don't know much more about it and I'm not one of those crazy mom's that would go and get a modeling agent and market her kid. But if it were as easy as forwarding a picture of Tony to my friend who then forwarded it to her marketing friend and they just happen to agree that my baby is absolutely adorable, well then.... I'm willing to do that.
Here he is in his new little swim outfit. We haven't made it into a pool yet this year, but hopefully soon. I can't wait to see how he likes it.

Here he is with his daddy. Notice the drool on his chin? It's like a leaky faucet.
Love those little legs.
After several attempts at a self family picture, we gave up. This was the best of many. Pretty sad huh?
Tony checking out the Peonies.