Not Much to Say

It appears I haven't had too much to say this week. It's been a pretty busy week with Nick on midnights so I haven't spent a lot of time at the computer. I also went to the visitation and funeral for Andrea on Wednesday and Thursday. Those were each as devastating as I expected them to be. The boys weren't at the visitation on Wednesday but were at the service yesterday. They were fascinated with the flowers (and there were a lot of them!) and at one point during the service one of the boys took a rose out of one of the arrangements and brought it over to his daddy. It was so sad and yet so sweet.

Today the snow is steadily falling outside. I'm about ready to be done with winter as I'm sure many of you are as well. I've got to live up to a promise I made to Darcy and I'm not looking forward to it. She has still been wearing (and wetting) a diaper at night time. I'm getting tired of putting diapers on such a big kid so we're trying to wean her off this. She had two dry nights in a row and so I promised her that if she went the whole week dry we would go out for lunch at McDonald's. I hate McDonald's. It's right at the end of our street and she knows it's a really special treat to go there. Well, she was dry all week so today I've got to keep up my end of the bargain and go to McDonald's. At least it doesn't have a playplace so we won't be there all day.

Wesley has been sleeping very well at night but has been waking up at 5:30 am and not really going back to sleep. You just can't win.

Nick was originally scheduled for two weeks of midnights starting next week. Late last week he was told this week's shift of afternoons was being switched to midnights giving him three straight weeks. Absolutely awful! Then last night a co-worker approached him about a switch for the last week so he's now switched that week for days. Very nice! He's also off for the weekend, so that's great too.

Wesley Update

I took Wesley to the doctor this morning for his six-month check up. It's amazing that I was able to wake up for that seeing as how he kept me up ALL NIGHT! Little monkey. Last night was also the first night of Nick's 3 weeks of midnights so I was on my own. Hopefully tonight goes better.

Wesley weighed 16 lbs, up 2 lbs from his four-month check up. The doctor was very pleased with that. He doesn't think the sleeping trouble is a reflux problem, which can be the case with some babies so we just have to keep fighting through. He got two shots again, one in each leg and he barely cried at all. Everything seems to be right on track. He is still 25 inches and our car seat is good for up to 26 so we should be able to squeeze in a few more weeks until the weather warms up.

Last night was really the only bad night we've had recently. On Saturday night Nick and I were even able to go out for dinner with friends. I put both kids to bed around 8:00, we had reservations for 8:30, the babysitter arrived at 8:15 and we left without the kids having any idea that we were gone. Both kids stayed asleep the whole time we were gone and we had a great night out. We'll have to do that again sometime. We figured that we hadn't been out in Windsor without either kid in over 2 years! That's pretty sad. We've gone out when we've been visiting grandparents but not at home. We're going to have to work on that.

A Privilege

On Friday night I heard through a mutual friend that our friend Andrea, who I wrote about before, only had hours to live. On Saturday night we got the message that she had passed away. Her husband emailed to let us know that she had passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family. She hadn't been conscious for a couple of days.

Andrea would have been 32 years old on April 1st. Her son, Nolan, is 3 1/2 years old. Lincoln isn't quite two. She and Allan have been married for about 5 years but were together longer than that. She was a wonderful mother and loved her boys more than anything. She was a passionate schoolteacher as well, but she had to give that up during her illness.

She was a great friend. I didn't know her long (just the 3 1/2 years since our oldest kids were born) but I still felt like I knew her well.

There's really not much more to say than what a tragic loss this is. I was privileged to know her and to have her count me as a friend. I, along with countless others, will miss her.

6 Months

Yesterday Wesley turned 6 months old. I really can't believe it has been six months already! He's really doing great and growing well. His 6-month doctor's appointment is scheduled for Monday so I'll have his full stats then.

We've had a pretty good week, sleep-wise too. I've been racking my brains trying to find out what's been causing his problems and it was driving me crazy. He's been doing well with his naps, going to bed awake and settling himself down in just a few minutes. When we put him down at night though, he would scream and scream like we were trying to kill him. I had to figure out what the difference was. The only thing I could think of was that it was darker at nighttime and that he was scared. We had tried a night light in the room when Darcy was a baby but it just kept her up so we got rid of it. She never had any sleeping problems. We put a night light in the room with Wesley this week and it seems to have made all the difference. He's had one rough night with it, but he hasn't had a huge freak out like he'd been having. So again we see the difference between our two babies. He clearly needs a night light. Darcy would never go to sleep if she had one.

Wesley is now eating cereal and fruit and he will be starting vegetables over the weekend. He likes to blow bubbles in his fruit which causes little drops to fly everywhere. I find spots of fruit in his eyelashes, eyebrows, inside his ears, his hair and on my glasses. I think he's growing well. He's finally outgrowing his 3 months-sized clothes and is starting to wear his 6 months clothes. I'll be interested to hear what his weight is on Monday. We're still hoping to keep him in the carrier car seat for a couple more weeks until we're safely out of winter. I don't want to have to deal with a snowsuit if I don't have to! I think we'll find out on Monday though that he's too long for the carrier. We've got the new seat sitting in the house so it's just a matter of setting it up and getting the snowsuit out of the cupboard. We'll see how it goes.

Cookies

Whenever you ask Darcy was she dreamed about, the answer is always the same. Cookies. Whether it's naptime or bedtime if she says she had a dream, it was about cookies.

Last week after our big school visit I thought she might have been excited enough about school to dream about school, so I asked her, "Did you dream about school last night?" To my surprise she said yes. I asked her what she was doing at school in her dream.

"Eating cookies!"

Odds and Ends

We had a really rough weekend, sleep-wise. Wesley barely slept all night and didn't sleep at all during the day. We had two consecutive nights where Nick and I barely slept at all. We've been zombies all weekend. Last night was much better, so hopefully we've turned a corner.

For something different on Friday night we decided to take Darcy swimming in a public pool that has a great kiddie pool. She loved it, and so did we. Wesley wore a little swimmer diaper and came in with us too. We got out half an hour before closing time to try to beat the rush in the change rooms. Just as we were finishing up, the family change room was suddenly filled with people. Apparently someone had pooped in the kiddie pool so they had to close early. Good thing we got out when we did!

However, once the change room was filled with people it was hard to keep an eye on Darcy. She was standing right between Nick and I when suddenly I noticed she was gone. My heart stopped. "Where's Darcy?" Nick started frantically looking around the change room, calling her name. A father across from us stopped what he was doing and started looking too. I looked down again and there she was. She had been playing hide and seek in the locker! She heard us calling her name so she came out. We explained to her that hide and seek only works if everyone knows they're playing.

At one point over the weekend Darcy was eating apple slices and asked me if I wanted to share with her. She was on her last slice so I said I didn't want to take her whole last slice but if she wanted to break it in half, I'd share it with her. She tried breaking it but couldn't get it to snap. She asked what to do so I told her to take a bite and give me the rest. She took a bite then took the chunk out of her mouth and offered that me. I declined and took the piece left in her hand.

Today is Ontario's new pseudo-holdiay, Family Day. It's a bit of a joke because 40% of people are still working. Nick is one of those people. Not only is he working but he's been sent for training so he's at a different location. If he was at work he could have taken the bus or ridden his bike but at this new location he had to take the car so the kids and I are stuck at home all day. Fun family day for us!

Called to the Office

I forgot one funny story from our kindergarten registration the other night...

The parking lot was really full so we couldn't find a spot. Nick dropped Darcy and I off as he went in search of a parking spot. We went inside and got started in the registration room before he and Wesley got in the building. Nancy Drew, the VP saw Nick come in and offered to help him find his family. Of course Darcy and I had no idea this was all going on. They couldn't find us in the first couple of rooms they looked in, so Nancy Drew went into the office and paged us over the PA system, "Would Darcy and her Mommy please come to the office? Daddy and baby are looking for you!"

She wasn't even signed up yet and she already got called to the office! Knowing my daughter as well as I do, I'm pretty confident it won't be the last time.

All Signed Up

We had a great time at Darcy's kindergarten open house last night. She was given a "passport" when we walked in the door and different rooms had different activities and she got a stamp in her passport in each room. This way she saw her classroom, the senior kindergarten classrooms, the gym, music room and library. We met the principal, vice-principal and several teachers. The vice-principal is named Nancy Drew. I think she teaches all the crime-solving and mystery classes.

Darcy didn't want to leave at the end of the night. She started to cry when we suggested it was time to go home. Then the first thing this morning she asked if we were going back. It's going to be a long wait until September!

The kindergarten program is half days, every day at this school. I chose to put her in the afternoon program because they said that doesn't fill up as quickly so there's the possibility for smaller class sizes. We'll see how it goes. She really wants to ride the school bus and that is an option for her but I don't know if it's an option for me. I just can't picture putting her on the bus when she's so young. I'll probably end up driving her.

As for Wesley he was up a couple of times again last night but it wasn't so bad because Nick was home and it was his first night off midnights so he wasn't planning on sleeping much anyway. I'm keeping the start time the same for another night to see if he gets more used to it. Still not much on the napping front either.

Note to Glenn: I write these thoughts down in case there's someone I know who is expecting their second child and they're wondering what the future holds for them!

Rough

Last night was pretty brutal. I started Wesley's bedtime routine around 9:00 and that went great. However, he was up again at midnight, 3:30 and 6:30 for about 2+ hours over the combined waking times. Again I feel pretty zombie-like today.

These things are to be expected when we're monkeying with his schedule the way we are but it doesn't make it much easier to take when it happens. His nap yesterday morning lasted for 2 1/2 hours and then he didn't nap again all day. He's napping now, he fell asleep in the car seat on the way home from Darcy's swimming lesson. I know it's bad form, but I'm just leaving him in the car seat. He's sleeping so soundly and I don't want to spoil his sleep by waking him. Is that bad? I've heard that when that happens you should just put the whole car seat in his bed so he's still waking up in bed. Has anyone tried that?

Of course today (with little sleep on my part) is the day I've been dreading for about the last 3 1/2 years. It's kindergarten registration day. Darcy is so excited. She knows she has to wait until after supper but it's all she's talking about. "Can I do this at school?", "Can I do that at school?" She wants to do it all tonight and we're just going for a visit and to sign her up. She's so excited that I can't help but get caught up in her excitement too, but I still can't believe my baby girl is almost ready for school.

Sleep is for Suckers

Wesley's sleep scheduling is going pretty well on the whole. I haven't had any problems with the nighttime bedtime, but he's still not a great napper. Of course with that being said he's 45 minutes into a nap right now.

Tonight we start bedtime at 9:00. That's pretty cool. My hope then is that he will be fed and in bed by 9:45 (he eats for a long time before bed). Now the question is when will he wake up?

On Saturday night I had just fallen asleep when he woke up after having been in bed for an hour and a half. It was cold and he had kicked off his blankets so it was just a matter of covering him up and patting his belly and he was back to sleep. At 3:30 am he woke up and startled babbling and babbling and babbling. I tried covering him up and patting his belly. No luck. After 40 minutes of listening to him I decided he must be hungry. He ate well and seemed to go back to sleep but as soon as I got back to bed he started babbling again. Altogether we were up for an hour and a half with that. We both finally got back to sleep. Of course this would happen when Nick is at work! I was a zombie on Sunday.

He'll generally take a good nap in the morning but I'm having a really hard time getting him to take another nap in the afternoon. He's generally waking up around 6:45. Sometimes he goes back to sleep after that feeding, but not today. If he goes back to sleep I wake him at 8:00. He'll go for another nap mid-morning. Usually that's it for the day. He's starting to melt down around 9:00 but for a kid who hasn't napped all afternoon, that's not bad.

I'm still hopeful that once we've got his bedtime back to 8:00 (by early next week if all continues to go well) his naps will fall in line too.

Sleep Schedule

Darcy has always been a great sleeper. If you put her in bed, she goes to sleep, no problem. I've talked about how she'll now get out of bed on her own, but she's 3 1/2 years old. It's going to have to happen eventually.

Wesley on the other hand, is a bit different. He's been sleeping through the night (sometimes wakes up to play for a few minutes) for a while now, but his night wouldn't start until between 10:30 -11:00. That meant by the time I got to bed it would be 11:30 - midnight. He could sleep until 10:00 but Darcy still got up at 7:00ish so I wasn't getting the sleep I needed. He's also not a great napper during the day.

I did a baby sleep test online the other day and it recommended some changes to his schedule that might make things better. I'm now waking him at 8:00 in the morning if he's not already awake. I'm moving his bedtime back 15 minutes every couple of days. Last night I started his bedtime routine at 9:30 and it seemed to work well. In a couple of days we'll try 9:15, then 9:00 and so on until we get to around 8:00.

Even with getting up earlier in the morning he still isn't a great napper. Babies are supposed to nap after 2-3 hours of awake time. I got him up shortly after 8:00 yesterday morning and he didn't nap until 4:00 in the afternoon. I tried and tried to get him to sleep but no luck. He just cried and screamed and kept Nick and Darcy awake (Nick was sleeping in preparation for a midnight shift) so I gave up after half an hour of trying.

I'm really going to be working on this over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we can get him started on a better schedule that will make life easier for all of us!

In the Vault

Darcy has recently discovered my old stash of Disney movies on VHS. I've got Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Lion King and a few more. She loves them, especially Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.

These are some seriously old VHS tapes and they were damaged when the apartment that Jerilee and I shared flooded many years ago. They still work, they're just not in great shape. The picture jumps around from time to time and the sound isn't good.

I'd like to update them to DVD but apparently Disney has some sort of policy about only having some of their movies available for purchase at any given time. The rest are "in the Disney Vault" whatever that means. I heard in December that Cinderella was going to be going in the vault at the end of January so I managed to get a copy of that before it went away. However, Beauty and the Beast is unavailable and that is Darcy's absolute favourite. Every time I put the video tape in I'm afraid it's going to snap in the machine, ruining it permanently. Yet for some reason I can't buy a copy on DVD. It has been available on DVD in the past but it has been removed from the shelves now. Does anyone know why they do this?

I've checked on eBay and there are some available but they seem to be going for some pretty high prices. Higher than I'd be willing to pay anyway. I've checked some second hand stores around here and have found nothing. It's very frustrating. I just want my daughter to be able to watch her favourite movie!

She loves to act out Cinderella right now too. Last year I bought her a pair of dress up shoes from Value Village and those have become her "glass slippers". She'll dance around in them, then let one fall off. She'll then go through the whole house trying the shoes on Nick and I and often her toys to see who they fit, when of course, they only "fit" her.

This morning while I was eating breakfast I heard her say, "Mommy, Daddy, the glass slipper fits Wesley!" This is what we saw...