"But I love my braces!"

Poor Courtney had an appointment to get her braces off today, but she really didn't want them off. She loved her braces and didn't mind them at all.

But she can't wear her braces forever. Her teeth had moved to where they were supposed to be, and this is where they need to stay. (She got braces because she lost her canine teeth prematurely and her other teeth were moving over into that gap.)

Our appointment wasn't until 3 pm and all day, she was just kind of sad and worried. She always has some emotional trouble at the orthodontist. She wasn't worried today about her braces coming off, but she was more worried about taking the impressions for her retainer! I think she has cried every time that we have gone! Today was no different!

They called her back and her orthodontist checked her out. He said everything looked great and started to take the wires off. She only had four brackets on her front four teeth and a wire to the brackets on her back molars. Even though I went back with her, I couldn't quite tell what he was doing. I could tell Courtney was uncomfortable though and something hurt. She was cringing in the chair. All of the sudden, she sat up and her braces were gone, but she had plenty of tears in her eyes! I started crying too! She said that it hurt when he pulled them off. I think she was sad they were gone!

He let her get ahold of herself for a little bit, and then had her lean back to scrape the glue off. Eventually he said, "Why don't you go get a drink or brush your teeth? Then maybe my assistant can finish. She's nicer at this than I am!" I think he saw she was having a hard time.  He also told her to go ahead and take a look in the mirror.  I saw her open her mouth really quickly, look at her teeth, and hen shut it quick again.

In the meantime, the orthodontist switched over to Megan. I had taken her in today for an evaluation for our next step in regards to her teeth. It's been about six months since they took her palette expander off and we were hoping her teeth would have straightened out on their own. They didn't, so now she is on track to get a full set of braces. The orthodontist recommended that we wait until summer because he wanted to time it with her growth spurts. He said treatment was about 18 months, and they want treatment done about the same time they are done growing. So, here we go again! I need to talk to Matt though about money. We are still paying off our medical bills from last year!

As I am finishing up with Megan, I look back at Courtney and an assistant is scraping her glue off and she is doing well. After that, I see the assistant bring over the tray to do the impression for her retainer. Honestly, this is what she was so nervous about! She didn't mind getting her braces off, but she did NOT want to do another impression. Poor thing! She wasn't breathing through her nose while they were doing and the tears just started all over again! She was actually shaking during this part!!

When she was all done, they let her go clean up and get a drink again. She was not doing well with all this! I made an appointment to come back next week for her retainer and had gathered all the kids up. As we were heading out the door, the orthodontist and his assistants grabbed a crown out of a drawer that said, "Braces free" and they put it on Courtney! Then they proceeded to sing her a song about how she got her braces off today!! Oh man, this is the last thing Courtney needed at the moment! She was totally embarrassed and did not like it at all, but she put on a fake smile. We all took some pictures and then she said very quietly to me, "Can we go now??" in an irritated tone of voice.  She wanted out of there! (They also offered her some candy, which we both declined. I said I would go get her an ice cream cone!)

We walked out the door and Courtney was still crying. We all got in the car and I headed over to Wal.Mart. She said to me, "Can we just go home?" I said, "No, we have errands to do, you are just going to have to pull yourself together."

Once we got to Walmart, I had to nurse Micah, so I gave her a giftcard I had to McDonalds and said she could get some ice cream. She just looked at me with her red, splotchy face from crying and I said, "Do you want me to order it?" She just shook her head yes. I knew ice cream would work magic and it did!!

Look at that big smile!!

Easter Baskets

Some things are more challenging than others around here. One of those is going shopping for things for your kids! Especially when you homeschool and always have four children with you!

Case in point was those Easter baskets that we traditionally set out every year.  On the way to our Easter family party yesterday, I looked at Matt and said, "What are we going to do about the Easter baskets? I haven't had time to get anything." answer. I threw around some ideas of giving them coupons to get out of their chores or even gift certificate for a supper at Valentines (All made on the computer of course!) We talked about these and then kind of let it be.

After we got home from our Easter celebration yesterday, I whispered to Matt again while we were both standing in the kitchen , "What are we going to do about the Easter baskets??" You could tell he was thinking and since Courtney as in the room, I said back quietly, "I have an idea" and then I dropped the conversation. Courtney heard this question to Matt and said," Why don't you just put money in the eggs like you did last year??" Gee, thanks Courtney! Honestly, that was my idea!

After we had the kids in bed last night and it was 10 pm, I went down to Matt's office to talk to him about what we should do. He said, "Let's just forget about putting things in their Easter baskets and just give them some money. We haven't had a lot of time this year because of Micah" I kind of looked at him funny.  I know that Courtney and Megan have it figured out, but I don't think Christian does.  I didn't want to disappoint anyone, plus it is kind of fun. I responded, "Let's just take some eggs and put some money in the and be done. Can you help me do that?" So at 10:15 last night, Matt and I sat at the kitchen counter and we stuffed eggs with candy! The kids had gone to the basement earlier to get their baskets, so they were set out already.

After we were done, I just put the baskets by the front door (legos were covering the fire place) and called it good! We were not so creative this year!! But our children will be $5 richer!

Overload of Ezcema!

 I have two children struggling with eczema right now and they are my two "m" children. :)

Megan has had it in her elbows, back of her knees and behind her shins for almost a year now. About a month ago, she started getting spots on her neck.  Back in December, I had her food tested and we did exactly what the doctor advised us to do, but it is only getting worse. Steroid cream does take it away, but it doesn't solve the problem. Along with the eczema, she has also been breaking out in hives when she showers.(She has been getting red spots for almost a year, I just didn't know they were hives until a couple of weeks ago!) I thought that this was from her shampoo, so I was trying all sorts of different shampoos and soaps. She has also had a hard time sleeping lately, and I was pretty sure that this was all related.

Finally, I took her into her doctor this last week. Now that I know we are dealing with hives and hives can turn into an anaphylactic reaction, I was more concerned. Her doctor knew we were dealing with eczema and asked us if we were following her food protocol and I said we were.  I said that they were still getting worse. She took a look at her spots and we talked some more and finally she said, "I have no idea what is going on with her! You stumped the doctor!" But after talking EVEN more, she finally concluded that Megan must have a virus, bacteria, or a parasite that she just can't fight off. The eczema is the result of this long-term microbe in her body. Eczema is usually a sign of some sort of inflammation inside the body.

She recommended some new things to try and these are quite challenging!

1.  Since yeast (Overgrowth of bad bacteria in body) causes eczema, her first recommendation to stop the yeast from growing. Sugar feeds yeast, so she told us to take Megan off ALL sugar or any food that converts to sugar for a couple of days. This includes any form of sugar, starches, fruit, etc.  We needed to starve the yeast and keep it from growing.

2.  Be super strict and not eat any foods off her allergy list. Since her body has built up antibodies to these foods, every time she eats something, her body needs to fight it. These defenses are taking away from fighting off the virus, bacteria, or parasite that is hanging around in her body.

3.  Take a microbial supplement that will kill off this microbe. She said we could do all kinds of testing to see what it was, but this should take care of it.

4. Take a probiotic to build up her good bacteria in her gut.

So pretty much we were hitting her immune system hard! And guess what? By the end of the first one, one of the spots in her elbow was almost gone!

She has really been good the last couple of days about only eating protein and vegetables. She has not had any starches or fruit OR anything on her food list! We have not been rotating our foods like we usually do, simply because there is nothing else she can eat! I went to the store tonight and bought more vegetables, even ones that we don't usually eat. It's time we tried them again.

She did have some strawberries today because they are really low in sugar. I know that she needs to eat from these other food groups, so I kept telling her that we were only going to do this a couple of days pretty hard and then we will have some foods in moderation.

With Megan taken care of, I then asked our doctor about Micah. He has had cradle cap for months now and this week, his eczema has gotten worse over the rest of his body, especially his face. His skin is so rough and red. :(

Our doctor asked if I was following his food plan and I said for the most part. She recommend that I take 100% of his foods out of my diet. (I was eating 1-2 a day.) She also though he was trying to fight too many things at once. He had a pretty bad cold this week, so his body was fighting that along with his teeth that are trying to break through. Even though his skin looks terrible, he is still a super happy kid!

I felt satisfied with these answers about my kids' health. I knew if I took them to a dermatologist or their pediatrician, they would have just given me steroid cream to push the rash back under the surface. I didn't want this, I wanted a cause for the eczema.  I believe we are getting to the bottom of their problems, now for their bodies to kick it into gear and fight it all off!

Sleep is overrated, right?

After being back in my room for about a week, I put Micah back in his own room last night. He still has a cold, but it is slowly going away and I am not worried about his breathing anymore.  He had been getting up about every three hours this last week, so it was much easier to have him right beside me.

Last night, I moved him back to his room and I hoped that he wouldn't be up every three hours or so. I was soooo wrong! It was about every two instead. :(

Seriously, what is wrong with a little sleep??

I got him up this morning and said to Matt, "Do you want to take Micah to work with you today? I am not kidding."  He kind of laughed at me. I wasn't kidding.

I love this kid dearly, but he is pretty much glued to me all day. He won't entertain himself very long, so he is either in the ergo or somebody is entertaining him.  He also takes his nap in the ergo.

I don't think this kid knows that I need some time to myself to recharge. More than a couple of hours overnight would be great!

Naked Baby!

This is how my baby ended up tonight...naked!

Why?

Because he had already gone through SIX outfits today and I was just tired of changing him!!!

#1- pooped out his diaper

#2- spit up down his front

#3- peed out the sides

#4 pooped out his diaper AGAIN

#5- peed out the front

#6 - spit up down the front

(I think the lesson here is that I need to move him up a size in diapers!!)

At least he is happy being naked!

And yes, I did put some clothes back on him for bed!

Poor Micah!

We made it all winter without anybody getting sick and now we have had two kids sick this week, including my baby! It all started with Courtney, who sounded like she had bronchitis last week. I am so used to Christian having bronchitis, so when Courtney started coughing, I could hardly believe that it was really her. Courtney rarely gets sick! I am guessing that she passed it onto Micah and now he sounds TERRIBLE!

I called the nurse hotline the other night and they really didn't tell me anything that I didn't know. They pretty much said to give him warm fluids (um, he drinks breastmilk) and to get to his needs faster than usual because his throat probably hurts. They also mentioned tilting his crib up and giving him a vaporizer.

 I took him into our chiropractor yesterday and had him listen to his lungs.  If it was RSV, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc. I wanted to get it treated right away. These young babies are so fragile! He said his lungs were all clear and his ears looked fine too. He said he did not sound like he had pneumonia, only a cold. He also thought he had a virus because his abdomen was covered in red spots! (On a side note, I figured the red spots were his eczema that he has all over the rest of his body!)

The doctor adjusted him and we were free to go! He told me to give him a call if it got any worse, but he didn't think it would.

Because of this cold, Micah had a real hard time settling down for the night last night. I started feeding him around 8 pm and had him asleep 4-5 times before he settled down for the night. This was about 1:30 am. He eventually ended up in his swing in our bedroom. Around midnight, I fed him again and he was still fussing.  I knew Megan was still awake, so I moved his swing into my room and shut my door.  Megan has had trouble sleeping lately and I really needed her to get some sleep! Eventually I got him to sleep around 1:30. I put him in his swing and turned the swing on. Everytime I turned the swing off, he fussed a little. I finally just left it on and went to sleep myelf! I think he swang until about 3:30 am when I woke up.

Today, I went to the store and got some saline spray and some infant ibuprofen. We used both of them tonight! I fed him around 9 and he was out! I put him in the swing beside my bed again. I want to make sure he is breathing!!

Hopefully his little body will kick this cold soon, and it won't get any worse!!

Sleep is going very well!

I really could get used to this. Micah has currently been sleeping almost 10 hours at night. Last night, I nursed him about 8 pm and he fell asleep on my lap. I put him in bed and didn't hear from him until 6:30 this morning. The nights previous were very similar.

Yesterday, he took a three hour nap (ok, I cheated and put him back in his swing) and I ended up waking him up after three hours! He also took a couple one hour naps in the afternoon while we were out and about.

We haven't had any screaming or huge fits for a couple of days now.

Why the change?? I finally thought I would try to take ALL the foods on his sensitivity list out of my diet during the day.  My doctor said to just eat one per meal, but I found that we were still having trouble.  I decided to see if taking it all out made a difference and I think it has.

I have been trying to find snacks and meals that would work. My doctor told me that food takes six hours to get into my breastmilk and if he is screaming pretty bad, I can usually trace it back to something that I ate earlier.  I have always noticed that he gets really upset in the evenings and that probably means I ate something at lunch.

Yesterday I did eat something off his list for supper (chicken). But I figured that since he is sleeping 10 hours, he probably won't get it in the morning.

I guess I needed to change up my diet anyway!  I am ok to get back on eggs and peanuts, so we might try some of those soon. As much as my children don't like it, I may be adding more fish to our rotations too. Chicken and turkey are both on his list and I don't want to take out all that protein.
I made onion rings last night, which is something I haven't done in a long time. I wonder what I can find to try today! (Now that he is happier and more content, maybe I can take some time and make something new again!)

Teaching Certificate

Back in 2002, I earned my teaching certificate in the state of Nebraska. I worked my tail off while student teaching and I taught fulltime for a year. After I had Megan, I substitute taught for five years. Once I got pregnant with Christian, it wasn't worth paying somebody to watch my three kids while I substituted. This was 2009. This was the last time I taught in a public school. 

I had to renew my teaching certificate a couple of years ago (2012). The rules said that I either needed to teach full time for a year in an accredited school or take two classes. Since I had previously taken a class, I only needed to take one class, so I did. I was able to renew it with no problem.

Here we are today. I haven't taught in over six years and honestly, I don't plan on going back anytime soon. If I continue to homeschool my kids, I will be home for awhile.

This all came up the other night because of a pile of old education textbooks that I still have from when I earned my teaching degree. I don't quite know what to do with them! I tried to sell them to Half Price books, but they would only give me a quarter for them. Nobody wants them on eBay. Open Door Mission has no need for them and even the homeschool library here in town refuses to take them. They are all outdated and nobody wants textbooks that are over ten years old!

Matt and I got talking about what to do with them on the way to church on Sunday. I said maybe I should just keep them incase I ever go back to teaching someday.  He looked at me and said, "I don't think you will want to go back to teaching." This statement got me thinking, Am I ever going to go back to teaching? I teach my kids now, but it doesn't count towards anything because homeschools are not accredited.  They are exempt schools in the state of Nebraska.

Matt and I then figured out that if I continue to homeschool everybody through graduation, I will be teaching my kids for another 18 years or so.  (Megan has six years left and Micah would start kindergarten her senior year.)  The law says I need to renew my teaching certificate every five years. This means I would need to renew my certificate FOUR times before I am even able to get back to the classroom.

And honestly, am I going to want to go back to teaching in a public school after homeschooling my own kids for 20+ years?? (I have already taught Megan for five years.) Do I let my certificate expire and just see what happens at the time??

I also brought up the "what if" scenario with Matt. What if we DON'T continue to homeschool our kids and for some reason, they need to go back to school? What if Matt loses his job and I need to go make some money? Are these valid reasons to keep my certificate??

If I don't renew my certificate and let it expire, I will need to take all my education classes over again, including student teaching. Would it be most cost effective to take two classes every five years or start all over again when I am done homeschooling??

After I thought this all through, I wanted to know how old I would be when I was finally done homeschooling.  I am 38 years old and if we see Micah all the way through until he is 18, I need to add 38+18, which equals 56. Am I really going to want to go back to teaching full time when I am 56??? (That is if Micah is our last kid!)  Am I going to want to start the whole education program over? Or am I going to want to do something else by that time?

And now, what do I do with those old textbooks??

4 Month Checkup!

I was very anxious to take Micah to his 4 month checkup yesterday. I wasn't looking forward to the shots, but I wanted to know how much this kid weighed!

On the way there, I bet Megan that he was going to be at least 15 lbs, if not 16.

I was right, he was 15 lbs. 15 oz!!!

He was also 26 inches long.

This boy has sure grown!!

Our doctor also thinks one of the main reasons he is not sleeping so well is because of his eczema. He has it on his head (cradle crap), his face, abdomen, and legs. It is just kind of everywhere. :(  She says that we need to switch soaps and if that doesn't help, we need to put some steroid cream on him.  I know most of this is caused by his food allergies, so maybe I need to be more strict on that.

I also asked about Megan. She has eczema patches all over her body, but when she takes a shower, she actually breaks out in these big red spots with white dots in the middle. Yesterday morning, it was really bad, so I took some pictures and showed our doctor. She said they looked like hives! After looking online when I got home, I think they are too! I am sure this is just an allergic reaction too, but what do I do about those?? Again, my doctor said to switch soaps and it should help. I also had Megan food tested and we have been following that protocol, and it is still not going away. I don't quite know anymore!

Our doctor suggested either Dove for sensitive skin or cetaphil for these two children of mine.  We were at the store last night, so I decided to head over to that isle and look for these two soaps. I found the dove for sensitive skin and read the ingredients. Do you know what the third ingredient is?? SOY!! I can't use this on Micah, he is allergic to soy! I couldn't find cetaphil in the adult soaps, so I headed over to the baby soap section. I found the Cetaphil, but guess what is in Cetaphil?? WHEAT!!! AHHHHH!!!! I ended up buying the Dove for Megan because she is NOT allergic to soy and some Dove for babies that didn't have wheat or soy.

I can't believe that our doctor recommends these two soaps when they are full of allergens! Allergens that are probably causing the eczema/ hives in the first place!!

Baby Wearing time!!

The other night I was at small group (small Bible study with some people from church) and mentioned that Micah was not sleeping very well. I was not getting anything done or school done with the kids because I had a baby who would not sleep.

My friend N. suggested that I carry him. If I did this, he could sleep close to me and I would still have use of my hands during the day. My problem recently was that I could get him to sleep, but he always woke up when I put him in his crib. Matt and I have decided that he is too big for his swing, so I can't just put him in there like I used to! I sometimes could put him in his carseat on the kitchen floor, but he's reacting to noises now and the kids are just too loud! So we were in a bind and hence, he was not sleeping very well during the day.

We were over at my friend A.'s house and she has an ergo just like this one.

Micah was fussing, so my friend got this out and we put Micah in it. He was quiet and seemed to like it!

She said I could borrow it, so I brought it home and when he got fussy yesterday and seemed like he needed a nap, I put him in it.

And guess what??? He slept!!!! And not just 10 minutes or so, but for an hour each time! He took two one hour naps yesterday and one 1 1/2 hour nap!!! I don't know the last time he has slept so well! He just curled up in there and slept next to me. I was able to teach all the kids while wearing him.

When he woke up, he was actually content and happy!! We did not have an out of control screaming baby yesterday! It was sooo refreshing. He ate when he woke up and then played like he is supposed to. I was thrilled!

Let's see how today goes. Wait, it's 6 am and he's already been up since 4:30 am. It might be a long day, but I will definitely use this baby carrier again!!

Basketball is Over!

For the last eight weeks, Courtney and Christian have played on a basketball league up at West.side Church through the Upward Program. They had their last game yesterday.

(These pictures were taken at their first game.)
Christian was one of the youngest on his team and was kind of overpowered by all the other players all the time. He rarely got the ball, but Matt kept telling him he had to run a little bit faster and work a little bit harder and he would get it! About halfway through the season, Matt told Christian he would buy him a new Lego set if he either rebounded the basketball after a missed shot or actually made a basket! Within the last minute of the last game yesterday, Christian finally rebounded a shot!  He fought some of his teammates over it and came out dribbling the ball! We were so proud of him! He started dribbling and one of his teammates, of course, wanted to take the ball away from him. I heard his coach yell to this boy (who was actually his son) to get back and to let Christian dribble it down the court.

Christian made it all the way down the court until he bounced it off someone's' shoe and lost it, but still, he did it! At the beginning of the season, he could not even dribble. He was sooo proud of himself and we were proud of him too! When we got home, Matt let him pick a Lego set off of Amazon and he ordered it for him.  I don't know if he is sad or happy that basketball is over, but I think he has said that he wants to play again next year.

Courtney on the other hand, is not so happy that basketball is over. We had tears last week because she had two games left and honestly, I thought we would have tears yesterday, but we didn't. She had her last game and all nine teammates were there. Some of them have caught up to skill level along with Courtney, so they all worked together as a team to play the game.

She did have a couple of great plays and even made a really long shot after the buzzer went off. They ended up tying the score with the other team (Courtney made the shot that made it a tie score), so they didn't exactly go out with a win, but that's ok.  It was probably the most exciting game I have sat through this entire season. The crowd was really into it!

After the game was over, another mom came up to me and asked me if Courtney was going to the Warrior basketball camp coming up. This is the homeschool basketball league here in town. I told her that yes, Courtney wouldn't miss it for the world and she mentioned that her daughter was going too. I said, "Do you homeschool too?" She said, "Yes!" I then asked her where she lived and they live about 1/2 a mile away!!

We stood there talking a little bit and the next thing we know, Courtney and Haley (her daughter's name) were planning to get together to play basketball!! Why not?? They could probably ride their bikes to each other's house if they wanted to! This mom also said that Haley doesn't have a lot of homeschooling friends, so she is so happy that she met Courtney!

She emailed me later in the day and gave me her phone number. She told me she would love to get the girls together anytime! I sent mine back, so hopefully we will be seeing more of this girl and her mom.

I think this really helped Courtney on her last day of basketball. She could've been a mess because she has LOVED it, but she made a new friend who also loves basketball!

Now Courtney is begging me to find her another league to play in and or course, Christian says he wants to keep playing too. We will see what I find. Matt and I have two stipulations.  It has to be affordable and there cannot be any games on Sundays. We set this rule long before we had kids when we would see baseball games being played on a Sunday morning by our old house. We want to make our kids' spiritual life a priority and they can not do this if they are busy with sports on a Sunday. (Now if you don't agree with me, that is perfectly fine. You have to do what is right for your family.)

How does he do it?

I woke Micah up at 6:30 am this morning, so we could get to Christian's basketball game by 7:45 am.

He did not take a nap until 11:45. He only slept until about 12:30 pm.

He did not nap all afternoon.

After MUCH fussing all late afternoon and evening, he finally crashed on Megan's lap around 8 pm.


How can a 4 month old stay up from 6:30 am to 8 pm with only a 45 minute nap??? Am I missing something here?

PS I hope he sleeps all night again!!!

YES!

When your baby doesn't take naps all day, he sleeps for 11 hours at night!!! Woo-hoo!!

Aren't babies supposed to sleep??

This young four month old of mine totally decided to boycott naps today.

He was up at 7 and napped from 8:30-9:30. He ate and played awhile. He was back down again from about 12-12:30.

I fed him around 12:45 and we were out the door by 1:15 for PE class at the library. He was wide awake during this time, and he watched all the kids play dodge ball. I fed him around 3:30.

After the library, we went and did some errands and he was awake the whole time.

At 5:30, we took Christian to basketball practice and he was very busy watching the little boys play basketball.

At 6, I fed him again. Still, no nap.

Christian was done at 6:30 and we came home. Around 7, he was begging to eat again, so I fed him. I was hoping he would fall asleep. NOPE!

By 8 pm, he was really starting to get fussy and I did mange to get him to sleep. I kind of felt out of practice since he hadn't napped all day!

This kid went over 8 hours without a nap today!

I hope he sleeps ALL night!

Blood Results

I wonder how many times in my life I have had my blood drawn...just a random thought for tonight!

Last week, I went in and saw my chiropractor because I was having some health issues again. I was waking up stiff in the morning, my joints were swollen, I had lack of energy, I was short of patience, and I could even tell my gastroparesis was returning.  I have always had trouble with my thyroid after pregnancies, so I wanted to get this checked and see where I was. I also wanted to get checked for rheumatoid arthritis because I know RA can cause stiff and swollen joints. It also runs in my family pretty strongly, so it is a good possibility I can inherit it.

I got my blood results back today and I do not rheumatoid arthritis! I was pretty happy!

On the thyroid side of things, I was low on one of my tests. I was not below the norm, but I was the bottom of the norm, which explains all my symptoms. My doctor recommended a thyroid supplement to get it back up before it got too low..  Thyroid affects milk production and with my hungry kid, I can't afford to lose my milk! (Like I did with Courtney and Christian!)

So now I will be taking some thyroid supplements along with some adrenal supplements for awhile.

I am glad that I am in tune with my body and can tell when things aren't right!

Back on Schedule

I am happy. Micah is back on a schedule. :)

He eats, plays for 1-1 1/2 hours, takes a nap for about 40-45 minutes. Repeat.

I LOVE IT!!

Back to sleep at night!

Why is sleep so trouble-some for babies??

The last couple of days, Micah has not slept but two hours during the day.  He has been on a schedule of eating and then being up for awhile after he eats since has been a week old. Lately, he wants to fall asleep after he eats, but he knows he is supposed to be awake. He is all confused and his poor body doesn't know what to do!

Before this started, he was going to sleep about 7 at night, waking up once to eat and I wouldn't see him until 7 in the morning.  It's just been hard because I never knew if I should wake him up about 9 or 10 pm or let him wake up on his own. When I did let him wake up on his own, I usually saw him between 2 and 4 in the morning.

I really want to change this whole crazy sleeping schedule.

My goal for him is:

1. Get back to taking a nap about an 1 1/2 after every feeding. I don't want to nurse him to sleep. If I do this, his whole schedule is off for the entire day.

2. Encourage him to stay awake until about 9, so he will sleep through the night.

He has slept through the night again for the last two nights, I am happy, but now we need to keep it that way!!

(Maybe things have been off since he was going through a growth spurt. All his sleepers are suddenly too short and even his diapers are not fitting the best anymore!)