Saturday, April 23, 2016

If you can't beat 'em, them join 'em...

Isn't that the saying?? If you can't beat them, then join them.

This was exactly my thought at 3:30 this morning when I heard Micah wake up. I thought I could either fight him to get back to sleep for the next hour or two, or I could just join him.  I fed him and he was wide awake and extremely happy, so I joined him and stayed up with him. There was no way I was going to get him back to sleep! And after struggling for three hours the other night, this was probably the best option. My thought was to wake him up, let him play, wear himself out, and then he will go back to bed easier! And maybe even sooner than if I tried to get him back to sleep when he wasn't ready.

I laid him on the floor to get his wiggles out and went and grabbed one of my pillows off my bed. While he wiggled and giggled, I laid on the floor and slept a little while still keeping my ear out for him.

When he needed more attention, I opened my eyes and played with him. I also put his laundry away and pulled the rest of his 3-6 month clothes out of his drawers while I was up! Might as well do something productive, right??

About 4:45 am, he was starting to slow down, so I fed him and put him back to bed.

I think I got back to bed about 5 am.

Let's see, last Saturday night, I was up until 3:30 am, last night he woke up at 3:30 am!! I am seeing too much of Micah in the morning hours lately!

Friday, April 22, 2016

Another sleeping post. :)

I want to write these down, so somebody I can remember how little of sleep I was getting at this point in Micah's life!

Yesterday was rough. I got to sleep about 10 the night before and heard Micah around 11:20. After 3 1/2 hours, he finally went back to sleep at 2:40 and I got back to sleep about 3:15. I then heard him again at 6:45 am. I did not get much sleep! Honestly, I put steroids on his skin right before he went to bed, so I wonder if that kept him up.

Last night, he fell asleep on my lap about 7:30 pm and I got him in bed shortly thereafter. He woke up about 9, which is fine! I got him out of bed, changed his diaper, and fed him. I did get him back to sleep and I put him back in bed, but he had different ideas! He woke up almost right away. I told him, "You can either go back to sleep OR get up and be happy." He decided to wake up for awhile. It was about 9:30. We went and played with the girls for awhile becase they were still up and he giggled and giggled!Then they really needed to get to bed because they were getting goofy, and I took him downstairs. He literally needed to wear off some energy! I laid him on the living room floor and just let him move! I helped him stand up, sit, roll around, anything! About 11 pm, he started to get tired, so I nursed him and he crashed! I got him into bed and didn't see him all night!

Unfortunately, I did see Christian at 3 am because he needed albuterol for his coughing.

At 5:40 am, I heard Micah wake up. I went in there and got him. Being very quiet, I sat in his room and nursed him. I didn't know if he would want to wake up or sleep, but he ended up waking up after we were done. I brought him back downstairs to play again like last night. About 6:45am, he started to get sleepy, so I sat and rocked him and he went to sleep! I also laid down! If he is going to catch up on some sleep, so am I!!!

It is now 8:45 am and he is still sleeping. And so are the big kids! I feel a little refreshed after sleeping for almost two hours on the couch.

Now, I really do need to wake the big kids up, I try to get school started by 10 am these days. 

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Boys, boys, boys!

Both of my boys have been getting me up at night for awhile now, but not at the same time!

Last night (ahem, this morning at 2:40 am), I heard Christian start to cough pretty bad, so I got up and gave him some albuterol.  On my way back to my room, I went in and checked on Micah and he was looking up at me with his wide open eyes!!! NOOOOO!! Christian had woke him up with all his coughing.

Let's just say I didn't get back to bed until 3:30 am.....

I had just seen Micah at midnight and he was awake this morning at 6:30.  I may be running on fumes today.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Somebody forgot how to sleep at night!

I admit it, I am a little on edge today. Christian is not behaving very well and it's kind of getting under my skin. It usually doesn't. But why?  Can I blame it on lack of sleep by the other boy??

Micah was sleeping very well for a little bit of his short life. When he was about four months old, he got a cold and his sleep was totally interrupted. He actually ended up back in our room in his swing for a couple of nights! Now he is back in his room AND in his bed!! But I cannot get him back on a good sleeping schedule! My perfect schedule would be for him to go to bed about 10 pm and sleep until about 7 am. He was actually doing this for awhile and it was great! Not so much anymore.

Saturday night was a case in point. We went out to the Fremont lakes for the evening to hang out with my parents and he fell asleep at 9 pm on the way home. I thought, perfect, I can just put him in his room in his carseat and he will sleep all night! HA! Matt brought him in and put him in his room in his carseat. Just as I was getting ready to turn my light off and go to bed about 11, I heard him wake up. I went in and nursed him and got him back to sleep. No problem. This was about 11:30 pm.

Around 1, he was up and crying again. I went in and turned his music and some lights on and let him cry. I really want him to be able to put himself back to sleep on his own!! I let him cry for about 30 minutes, then I went back in there.

When I went in, he was scratching his head pretty hard, so I put some coconut oil on his head as was still crying in his bed. (He still has cradle cap and I have seen him scratch it until it bleeds.) I sat there and just scratched his head for him for awhile. I also rubbed his belly and his chest. He did calm down for a few minutes.  Pretty soon, he had started crying harder again and the massaging was doing no good anymore. :(  I went back to my room about 2:15 am and said in a rather irritated tone, "Matt, I don't know what to do with him anymore! It is 2:15 am and I haven't had any sleep yet!!" He told me to calm down and he would go deal with him for a little bit.

Matt went in there about then and I laid down for a few minutes. By 2:45, I realized there was no crying (I must have fallen asleep in there), so I snuck in there. Matt was sitting in the glider with Micah on his lap. He said Micah was wide awake and they were playing!!  2:45 am is not the time to play!  I mentioned tht we could probably put him in his swing and let the swing get him back to sleep. We have really been trying to keep him out of the swing lately, but we were getting desparate!

Matt put him in the swing and we went back to bed.  Around 3:15, I got up to check on him and he was sound asleep! I turned the lights and his music off and went back to bed for good!

Unfortunatley, less than a half an hour later, I was up again with Christian! He is battling bronchitis again, so he needs albuterol sometimes during the night to control his coughing. I was up giving him some medicine.

That was one long night!!

Last night, Mr. Micah was up until 1 am. I think I had him back to sleep four times before he finally settled down for the night.

Some of this is because he is not taking very good naps during the day and will only fall asleep if I nurse him to sleep. When he does sleep, it is for 10-20 minutes, so he may have a total of an hour worth of sleep during the day. Not good for a 5 month old!

I also noticed that I have had some soy lately and I know this bothers him, so I wonder if I am getting some other things off his list that is causing him stomach aches and therefore, up at night.

I want some sleep!!!

This is this afternoon. Naps= sleeping better at night!








Thursday, April 14, 2016

Makeup?

Somehow we got on the discussion of makeup at the lunch table today.  Megan asked me when girls usually start wearing makeup and I had to think a little bit! My first thought was high school, but then I backed down to junior high. I told her that if she was at a middle school right now, most of the girls there would probably be wearing makeup.  We had a short discussion about how makeup makes you look prettier and sometimes you won't see certain people without their make up on. 

I told the girls that it is certainly ok to wear makeup for special occasions, such as a dance, going out, etc. but I don't really see a need to wear make up on a daily basis, especially at home. I told them they are both beautiful girls without makeup! Courtney then chimed in and said, "If you wear makeup all the time, then you are hiding your face. Didn't God make us beautiful already? Should we need to wear makeup to cover up what He made??" Exactly Courtney!! God already made you beautiful, let's just keep it that way!!



Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Something I have wanted to do for many years!

When we moved into our house in 2008, I vowed that we were going to paint the walls. Every single wall was white and the carpet was white.  Throughout the years, we have had a room painted here and there.  Most of the main floor has been done for awhile and I have been super anxious to get the upstairs painted.  Most of all I wanted the two story entryway plus my master bedroom painted. 

Today was the day that my two story entryway finally got painted! We got a name of a great painter last summer and he ended up painting the outside of our house after all the home improvements last summer. He also painted Christian's room last fall and did a great job!  We found out a couple of days ago that he is moving to Arizona in may, so we felt we needed to have him come over and paint the rest of the rooms before he moved. His prices were very decent and he does a great job!

Here he is painting our entry way today. As you can see, it is trimmed, but not fully painted.



He got the whole thing done today!! I am so excited! No more white walls!!



 


He also gave us estimates for the master bedroom and sitting room, master bathroom, girls' bedroom, girls' bathroom, and a little entry way by our garage door. I want all the white gone!!

He is hoping to start on my master bathroom tomorrow!!!

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Update!

I cant believe I haven't been on my blog for almost two weeks! Either not much has been happening or I haven't had time to sit down and write about life!

Here are a few things that have happened in our household:
1. Courtney got her retainer last Monday. Wow, retainers have changed since I was younger! Instead of looking like this:

  Hers look like this:

 Such an improvement! She has to wear it all day for at least three months and then at night for three months. After this, she should start losing her molars and then it won't fit! Then we start all over....

2.  I went to a homeschool conference last weekend for two days and got a nice break from everything at home. I have to admit that the curriculum fair is a my favorite part of a conference! I kind of think we are going to be switching to a new curriculum next year for history, science, and language arts.  We have not been able to get back to Sonlight this spring and as I look at next fall, it looks like it will just be too much yet. As much as I want to finish what we are in the middle of, I do feel we need to keep moving forward and need to get Megan ready for high school in a few years!

A.  Matt and I decided that we need to make the kids more independent in some of their school work and history would be a great place to start. I think I may be going with Notgrass history next year.

http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/    I would do World History for the next two years.

B.  I am pretty sure we are going to be switching science too. This may not be independent, but I really want to do something other than life sciences. We have learned a LOT about animals the last few years.  Again, I think we need to dabble in some of the other sciences, such as chemistry, earth science, physical science, or even some of the other sciences before Megan hits high school.

Here are the two curriculums I am looking at. They are both biblically based, so I can teach from a Christian worldview. :)

Answers in Genesis:  https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/gods-design-science-curriculum/?sku=40-1-323

Masters Books:  http://www.nlpg.com/browse/homeschool-curriculum/grade-school/imprint/master-books/subject/science?m-layered=1&m-layered=1

I would be able to incorporate Megan, Courtney, AND Christian into these two subjects. The history and sciences that I am looking at are geared toward 3-6th grade, but I would teach my three kids all together!! Christian picks up so much the way it is, why not add him? (I often catch him answers Courtney's grammar questions even as he is playing upstairs!)

3.  Micah is sick again with a cold, but on a more happy note, he is very close to sitting up by himself!

 Of course, Megan is helping him!

I also really hope he pops some teeth through shortly. This drool is getting out of control!! At this moment, we have drool and snot, so it's just lovely!! And his favorite thing to do is to wipe everything on my shirt!!! No wonder I have so much laundry!