Rachelology

Rules: YOU! Yes, you, reading this. You're tagged. Now that you know more about me than you ever wanted to know, play the game, it's fun! Let others know a little more about yourself, repost this as your name followedy by "ology."

FOODOLOGY:

What is your salad dressing of choice? Ranch

What is your favorite sit-down restuarant? Applebees (if I had to pick a chain)

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Burger King

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Pizza!

What are your pizza toppings of choice? Mushrooms and Green Pepper

How many televisions are in your house? Three - only one gets tv channels though.

What color cell phone do you have? Silver


BIOLOGY:

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Left!

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Umm... my baby was taken out? Does that count?

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? No

Have you ever fainted? Once

BULLCRAPOLOGY:

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No way

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Hmm... not sure.

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? Five

Last person you talked to? Henry


FAVORITOLOGY:

Season? Fall

Holiday? My Birthday :)

Day of the week? Saturdays

Month? June

Color? Green

Drink? Mountain Dew

Alcoholic? Long Islands

CURRENTOLOGY:

Missing someone? Yes

What are you listening to? Harry Potter on TV

What are you watching? Just told you.

Worrying about? Our YM event tomorrow

What's the last movie you saw? Confesisons of Shopaholic (well, and Harry Potter right now)

Do you smile often? Yes

If you could change your eye color what would it be? More green than hazel

What's on your wish list for your birthday? Win the lotto

Can you do a chin-up? Never have been able to

Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited

Have you been in a car wreck? Yes.

Have you caused a car wreck? Yeah

Do you have an accent? No but it's fun to pretend I do

Last time you cried? 10 minutes ago

Plans tonight? Clean kitchen, go to bed

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? I felt like it - but now that I've bounced back I know it wasn't the complete bottom

Name three things you bought yesterday? A grilled cheese, salsa, and milk

Have you met someone who changed your life? Yes

For the better or worse? Always for the better, even when it seems worse

How did you bring in the New Year? With the family here at home, in bed by 10:30pm

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? No

What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever's on the radio

Have you held hands with someone today? Yes

Who was the last person you took a picture of? Henry and neighbors

Are most of the friends in your life new or old? It's a pretty equal mix

Do you like pulpy orange juice? Ick.

Last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? Last week on toast.

What were you doing at 12 a.m. last night? Sleeping

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I'm not ready to be awake

Work

We have been able to work out a way for me to take the rest of the school year off. I am so happy with this decision - I was having crying attacks at the thought of going back. I also put into a request for part time teaching next year - I hope that goes through as well!!

As our dear friend said - you're always going to have bills - but your baby is going to be a baby once!

So so happy!!


See? Henry's happy too :) He just doesn't know it!

3 Month Photo Session

Since photography sessions are very pricey these days, and we are on budget restrictions, I took Henry's 3 month pix myself! Here are some of my favorites!

Sleep Training - What I'm learning...

Several people have asked me about the process thus far - so here's a list of what seems to be most important to learn in this process so far:

1. Optimal Wake Time -- very tricky to figure out, but you need to know how long your baby can stay awake before becoming overtired or overstimulated. Henry's current waketime is 1 hour 15 min - 1 hour 30 min. Another trick of wake time is that if he wakes up from a nap early, and doesn't eat for 30 more minutes, he may be going to bed right after eating ... it just happens sometimes.
   
2. Watch for Sleep Cues -- these are the signs you need to know for when baby's awake time is over, and they're ready for sleep. If you miss them - you risk baby becoming overtired/stimulated - and then they can't easily fall asleep. I know - it's wierd that the more tired they are, the harder it is to go to sleep. Henry's cues are: a small whine, and rapid leg kicks.
   
3. The Routines -- Henry now knows his nap routine - and tries to fight it. This is his signal that he knows he's going in the crib (or where ever) and he's going to be put to sleep.
4. Flexibility -- Just because we're aiming for a schedule, does not mean that it works every single time. You just gotta go with what you think is best, read baby's cues as best you can, and see what happens!

For those of you beginning or going to begin the training - feel free to leave comments so others can share in your success or worries!

Sidenote: Victory! Henry just took a 2 hour morning nap in his pack n play! Does this means he sleeps better in our room? Or is it a fluke? We shall see!!

Henry Mercer - 13 Weeks

I'm taking his 3 month photos today - check back for those!

Sleep Training - Week 1 Review

It has been a week since we started the Sleep Training process - and I couldn't be happier with the results!! Ultimately - there was never a time where Henry screamed for more than 5 minutes.

I'd say the average time for him to fall asleep at naptimes is 30 minutes - and this is usually just talking to himself with the occasional moan or groan cry session. And nighttime crying has all but disappeared!

Last night - the official one week mark - there was NO crying or fussing at all! He was drowsy but awake when Nick put him down too! I don't expect this every night but see it as a vast improvement.

I'd say the biggest achievement was that he actually took a nap at Grandma and Grumpa's house in the pack and play in the other room! He's never done this at their house before - mainly because he always cries and we'd go get him! It only took a little bit of fussing and he was out!

Next goal -- get naps to be longer than 45 minutes!!

Henry's first time in his exersaucer!

Video Fun...

For those of you with extra time on your hands ~ here's some fun video moments with Henry!

Video 1 - this is how Henry talks right now!




Video 2 - When he's especially tired - he does this wild kicking!




Video 3 - Another kick video :)

Day 3

Nap Recap: Naps were give and take. About half of the day he went down really well - and the other half he cries for a while. He also still usually only sleeps for 30 minutes on average - and never falls back asleep - so I've just been moving him to his swing or bouncy seat for a 'rest' period afterwards. Two of his naps were while at the mall/in the car - those were great, and I think the correct amount of sleep helped him to go down good for his evening nap.

Bedtime: Not too bad - there are definite tears still but it's an on again, off again thing. He'll go down good for 15 minutes - then wake up and cry for a while, repeat for about an hour, then sleep. The last two nights he's woken up at 3am ... one night was because he was pooping, but I still fed him. Tonight (well, right now ... it's 3:30!) - he woke up and talked for a while, then that turned into crying so I got him up, fed him, and he went right back down. I'm tempted to try to add in the dreamfeed to see if this stops - but I just don't like the idea of waking him up only an hour or two after he just cried himself to sleep ... it seems risky. Thoughts on that?

Let's see if I can find a picture ... I feel like no post is complete without a picture :)