Sleeping

I'm so behind on blogging, and I'm going to attempt to catch up this week. So look for several posts this week including my half marathon race, Lindsey coming home from her mission, and another family camping trip.

For now, I thought I would record some of my favorite things about Caleb's sleeping so that I won't forget them! Caleb is a really good kid, but he is not a good sleeper. He has the capability to go on less-than-average sleep and still be happy and pleasant all day. It was so hard to train him to fall asleep on his own as a baby. We got lots of advice about letting him cry himself to sleep. It would take around an hour for him to cry himself to sleep, and it was torture for me to listen to him. When he was old enough to stand, he would cry himself to sleep in a standing position with his head and arms resting on the top of the crib.

When we transitioned him to the "big boy bed," that created more issues with him getting out of bed. The bottom line about his sleep issues is that he's scared--of what exactly we're not sure. If he could have his way, he would have someone sleep with him all night. We've tried night lights, leaving his light on all night, hall lights, a picture of Jesus, and we've had several conversations about monsters, shadows, noises outside, etc. and how the Holy Ghost will protect him when he gets scared. We've also done motivational steps like earning toys and getting to make cookies with Mommy the next day when he sleeps all night. We've had weeks and maybe even a month where we felt like we were finally making progress, but at 3 years old, Caleb is still waking up most every night in the middle of the night. In the beginning, he would just wake up and then come sleep on the floor outside our door where we would find him the next morning. He's since learned to crawl into bed with Mommy and Daddy, and then the battle of taking him back to bed begins. We've now bumped the incentive up to getting an ice cream cone at McDonalds whenever he sleeps all night. Matt and I have been stumped about what to do, because he is genuinely scared at night. Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, and we've discovered that if we keep Caleb up later, then he tends to sleep harder at night and doesn't wake up. That's not a solution we necessarily like though, so we're pretty much just holding out for when we feel Carter is old enough to move into Caleb's room. We're crossing our fingers that this will solve Caleb's waking-up issues at night.

A few weeks ago, my parents babysat so Matt and I could attend a church function at night. They did the bedtime routine, kissed Caleb goodnight, then came downstairs. An hour later they started up the stairs to check on the kids, and this is what they saw. He just needed to be close to them (without them knowing because he didn't want to get in trouble), so this is where he ended up. I love this little boy.

Big Changes

Caleb has had several big changes happen in his life in the past few weeks. In addition to potty-training/big boy underwear (hoping to have done by the time baby #2 comes), he has now moved rooms and moved to a 'big boy bed' (a mattress on the floor for now).


The transfer was earlier than we had planned (we thought we'd just wait till the new baby arrived), but Caleb had learned a new trick to prolong bedtime as well as make Mommy and Daddy very angry. Bedtime has always been difficult for Caleb. We have had a couple of good phases over the past 2 years where it hasn't been too bad, but in general, Caleb has an aversion to sleeping that we, as his parents, just don't understand! He learned that if he stood up in his crib and shook it really hard that it got a fast reaction out of Matt and I, and we were quickly in his room (which is what he wanted!). In shaking his crib, he would physically move it where it would rub up against the wall, and we were also concerned that the crib would break. Thus the transfer to the 'big boy bed.'

Unfortunately Caleb was sick with a cold when we made the transfer as well, which did not help matters. The change wasn't as horrible as we expected at first, but it soon became worse than our wildest imagination within a week. Caleb would throw things at the door, slam the sliding closet doors, slam his bedroom door, bang on walls, scream 'no' at the top of his lungs, etc. Bedtime brought out a side of Caleb that we weren't used to as he usually is a really sweet boy. We tried all kinds of different punishments for Caleb's behavior as well as trying to reward the times when Caleb did lay down in his bed. We even bought 'Cars' sheets to try to make his bed a "fun" place for him each night. The problem of Caleb acting like "the devil" resolved the other night when Matt put Caleb in time-out anytime he left his bed (rather than when he left his room, which is what we had done previously). The process took over an hour of Matt doing time-outs over and over and over again. Caleb finally got tired of resisting and crying and stayed in bed. Since that night 3 nights ago, we haven't had a problem of Caleb acting out. (Also, strangely, the bad behavior was limited to bedtime. I rarely had problems with putting him down for naptime.)

In addition to these other antics, Caleb would wake up at least two times a night either leaving his room and laying down in the hallway, or just sitting up in bed screaming progressively louder until I came into his room. He is now only waking up once a night, so hopefully the problem will resolve itself as we have no idea why he won't sleep through the night anymore. I suppose it's just adjusting to his new room and bed, but it's been over 3 weeks, which means it's been over 3 weeks since I've had a solid night's sleep!!! (If I'm woken up in the middle of the night, unfortunately I can't go back to sleep easily. It usually takes about an hour before I fall asleep, which is why the first several months with a newborn are especially a killer on my body!) Oh the joys of parenthood :o)

Besides these changes in Caleb's life, other changes in our house include lots of painting upstairs. Pictures to come soon!

5 Months

I LOVE the age Caleb is at right now. I think each "stage" gets progressively more fun so far. Hopefully that will stay true. Caleb is so curious right now. He gets so excited with each new object I give him for him to explore i.e. put in his mouth. He can play more independently now too. Yeah!!! I have to admit that I was really struggling during the day with activities to do with him while he was awake. It seemed that he had to have my full undivided attention, and that was getting really hard. How many different things can you do with a baby all day long? I was running out of ideas fast...we would go on a couple of walks each day, play with toy after toy after toy (his attention span was very short), read a few stories, practice rolling over, etc. My days just seemed pretty boring. We still do all that stuff each day, but it helps so much that he plays more independently so I can work on some things that I want to do. Besides exercising and reading my scriptures, I like to try to fit in a little scrapbooking each day, piano playing, and I finally have learned how to crochet (I'm working on a burpy for my sister). My days feel a lot more productive when I can do some of the things I want to do. Here are a few pictures since my last post.

He's so peaceful when he's sleeping. If only he would do more of it at night! He is still waking up 2 to 3 times every night and can't comfort himself back to sleep. Usually it just takes someone holding his hand, and he'll fall back to sleep within 10 minutes, but sometimes it takes much longer! My mom says I value my sleep too much, so Caleb is just trying to remind me that I used to go on less sleep in high school (but that wasn't interrupted sleep!). He is eating oatmeal cereal very well (rice cereal...not so much), but even that hasn't helped his sleeping at night. I used to do all the getting up by myself at night since Matt had to go to work the next day, and I could try to squeeze in a nap. But it takes me SO long to get back to sleep after I wake up with Caleb at night whereas Matt hits the bed and he is OUT. It is very unfair, so now Matt helps during the night more :). We have made progress as far as Caleb being able to fall asleep by himself for naps now rather than us rocking him to sleep. That's helped a lot!

Caleb standing up by himself in his crib. He's still very wobbly.

Chillin' with Dad

Favorite Pictures

My winning smile

Bath time is a favorite activity.

Sleeping with Daddy

We go on at least one walk a day, and sometimes Mom rollerblades!

Halloween was not a happy occasion, but even my grumpy faces are still cute.