Layla’s Sleeping Buddy March 13, 2014

Abbey has been sleeping in Layla’s room at night, which is soooo cute.  We had trouble for a while with Layla getting out of bed before she fell asleep, thinking of a million excuses ranging from needing to potty to something hurting to being thirsty.  Abbey started cuddling up during reading time before bed, and we started encouraging Layla to be quiet and still after the book was over so as not to disturb Abbey.  Low and behold, Abbey stayed and that really helped to break that bad habit of Layla’s of getting out of bed.  Even when Abbey doesn’t come straight in (Layla accepts that sometimes Abbey is having dinner at bedtime), Layla is still pretty good at staying in bed now – waiting for her. 🙂

It’s really sweet to go check on her later in the evening and see Abbey curled up next to Layla, with Layla’s hand still on her where she’d fallen asleep petting her.

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Abbey May 16, 2012

Boy, are these kids interested in our cat Abbey lately!  They love to pick her up, and bless her kitty heart she tolerates it.  It was funny enough seeing Hayden do it, and I about fell over laughing when I saw Layla waltz up to her and pick her up.  Of course, I rushed over to assist – Abbs is little for a kitty but still a lot for a 2 year old to hold.

There’s been a lot of attention on all of the animals by the kids lately, and with it a lot of coaching as well.  They usually mean well, but they are usually a little too rough or pokey.  I think the most overused terms in our house currently are “Gentle!” and “Not the eyes!” 😉  I love seeing them enjoy the pets.  I remember being little and loving picking up my cat, too (and I remember being told off for not holding her the right way, too) and wanting to ride my dog like a horse like they seem to want to do.  I also love watching how patient the dogs and cat are with them.  I’m sure it helps that they know John and I have their backs and are watching carefully that they aren’t getting hurt, but it’s very endearing to see them tolerate getting laid on, kissed, smooshed, and pulled.  Lucy even started giving Layla kisses this morning when she was messing with her and saying, “Good girl, Lucy.”

Back to work November 2, 2007

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went back to work this week.  It was not AS bad as I had feared, but I still much prefer being home with Hayden!  Tues was the most difficult day for Hayden; Wed was pretty good.  I have decided that unless I have a meeting before he naturally gets up in the morning, I will just wait for him to wake up before I take him to day care.  So Tues he woke up about 8:30 and Wed it was about 9:30.  I had been working since about 7:30, so it was an hour or two into my work day before he left home which was nice.  He’s not eating particularly well at day care and really not sleeping either, so I hope those things will straighten themselves out.  Tues I guess he only ate about an ounce at both feedings.  He ate well when I fed him at lunchtime and fell asleep, but he must not have stayed asleep as he really only got about 10 minutes the whole day they said.  The worse thing about Tues though was when I went to get him he was in a bouncy chair crying and no one seemed to be doing anything.  When I walked in they said he had only just started crying, so hopefully that was true.  He didn’t seem all worked up or anything so I’m sure it was.  But Wed he didn’t go in until about 10, after I had gotten him changed and fed and played with him a little.  Then I had meetings until 1 so I called afterwards to see if he’d eaten ok or if I needed to come feed him, and he had taken a couple of ounces and was ok so I didn’t go at lunch that day because I was going to pick him up early for Halloween so wanted to work through lunch if possible.  And I guess at his last feeding he’d had about 3 1/2 oz, which was by far the most he’d had there all week.  Doubtless there are to be some adjustments to day care life for him, so I’m sure his eating and sleeping will get better.

Halloween was fun.  Hayden was a tiger.  His costume had a little tail and everything.  Very cute!  Even Lucy and Abbey got in on the fun.  Lucy was snow white, and might I say the prettiest snow white I have ever seen!  And Abbey was a rooster for a very short time.  John took Hayden around during trick or treating with our neighbor Brian.  Our house sits at the entrance of the neighborhood, and there is only one other house besides ours which sits outside a neighborhood intersection that makes up the southern boundary of most of the trick or treating routes, apparently.  We got very few trick or treaters, in fact almost all of them were families that we are friends with who made a point to come by.  So Lucy and I went over to Macy’s and sat on the porch with Paula and Macy and handed out our candy there.  We got to see a lot more people that way.  But Paula said it was really dead this year compared to other years.  That’s strange because there are loads of kids in our neighborhood and it was fairly warm for the time of year.  We had fun anyway.

My little boy is growing August 14, 2007

Hayden is now about a week and a half old, and already his face is starting to change.  He’s filling out a little around his chin and jaw.  John, Hayden, Lucy and I went on a walk last night (oh, and Abbey too – she was trailing us pretty much the whole time) and I mentioned to John that I thought Hayden’s face was already changing.  He was sleeping and we could only see his profile when I made the comment, so John couldn’t see it.  But when we went inside and he was holding him he could see what I meant.  I know there are lots of great times to come as he grows, but I can hardly bear the thought that he’s getting bigger already!  I want all those great things to happen, but at the same time I want him to always be this age and size.

Yesterday was our first day home without Daddy.  He was gone for 1/2 day last week but my mom was here with us and it was just a 1/2 day, so that doesn’t really count.  We miss having Daddy here.  But we’re getting some rough semblance of a routine started, as best we can considering Hayden sleeps most of the day and his eating routine is demand-driven.  Speaking of his eating, I have a book on breastfeeding that I have been diving into, and it says babies range from the all business types who pause little throughout feedings and get the job done in 10 minutes or so to the ‘dawdlers’ who may take up to 45 minutes for a feed.  Hayden is definitely a dawdler.  He’ll eat with a gusto for a few minutes, then he’ll fall asleep and take a few gulps here and there with big, snoozy pauses in between.  No amount of fussing with him, talking to him, even getting him undressed down to his diaper, seems to make much of a difference.  Sometimes I’ll stroke his cheek with my finger and say ‘Haaaayden’ and he’ll just get this big grin while still asleep but usually doesn’t prompt him to carry on eating.  I’ve already learned that even though he has slowed down in his feedings, it doesn’t mean he’s done.  He doesn’t do well with ‘top ups’ where I feed him until he starts taking his biiiig pauses and then I close up shop.  That just means he’ll start fussing a few minutes later because he’s still hungry.

He’s been pretty good in the night the past few nights, though.  It seems he takes a little while to really go down.  I give him his last feed upstairs, and he really draws that out by falling asleep a lot.  I’ll change him and he’ll wake up enough to want more.  Then I’ll put him down in his bassinet and the last few nights he will fuss a little and seem to want more food.  We’ve had good results with swaddling, though, so we get him good and wrapped up and once he finally does fall asleep he stays asleep for about 3 hours.  After that middle of the night feeding he tends to go straight back to sleep again (of course, that’s after 40 minutes or so of snoozy nursing!).  So it’s really not too bad.  But thank goodness I can take a nap or two during the day, because for me it really only adds up to two sleep sessions of 2 – 3 hours each.  I guess that’s not too bad for a newborn, but for me that’s not enough!  So during the day Hayden and I have a little nap together on the couch, which is the absolute best.  He’ll lay on my chest and we crash together while cuddling.  It’s one of my favorite things ever.