"Oh Happy Night"

(to the tune of "Oh Happy Day")

Oh happy night!
Oh happy night!
When Micah slept,
slept all through the night!

Yeah!!! Micah slept 11 1/2 hours last night and woke up laughing and cooing in his bed this morning!! I gave a shout out to God this morning as I woke refreshed and ready for a new day! Thank you LORD!

Week 14 - Propped Up and Sucked Out

I can't believe Micah is 14 weeks old already. This past week was a blur with the sickness in our household. I'd MUCH rather have a pukey flu for 24 - 48 hours than the miserable-mess-with-your-breathing-and-possibly-cause-an-infection-in-the-lungs-or-ears cold that we've had for a little over a week now. Both of my kids have been propped up and sucked out so many times this week I'll be so peeved if we end up with ear infections in the end of all of this.

HOWEVER, I can't complain ... I just started following a family's blog who found out their ten month old daughter has stage four cancer. While rocking my relatively healthy little boy I've cried tears of joy and gratitude for what God has blessed me with and tears of compassion for that little girl and her family who are now undergoing chemo therapy treatments. I take SO much of my life and the gifts that God has given me for granted.

We ended up going to the doctor last Thursday with Micah and confirmed that he had bronchiolitis caused by RSV. He was sucking in his ribs when he as breathing and was having TERRIBLE coughing fits (to the point where he'd gag and empty his stomach). The doctor gave us a prescription for albuterol (which I was familiar with when Jackson had RSV at 18 months), but instead of a nebulizer machine the doctor sent us home with a prescription for an inhaler pump and a chamber and mask contraption. I like that WAY better than the nebulizer: 1. the nebulizer takes too long and the pump is two sprays and your done. 2. the nebulizer is so LOUD and the pump obviously is not ... I even gave Micah a treatment in his sleep once. 3. I'd have to rent and return a nebulizer machine, but I own the chamber and mask. Both of them still have a mask which the kids are not fond of, but hey it works. Micah slept MUCH better after he had the albuterol and it didn't seem to get him wound up like it did for Jackson. Unfortunately the doctor said the pump is not less likely to cause an ear infection ... that's just the nature of the RSV beast. GRRR. So far we've been able to ward off any signs of an ear infection, but I just started to put Micah to sleep in his propped up bed instead of the swing or car seat.

The cough and runny noses are still lingering here, but not NEARLY as bad as they were last week. Micah has FINALLY been able to master the skill of putting himself back to sleep if he wakes up early from a nap. We've had to cry it out a couple of times at night this past week as well. I think with all of the sickness Micah has had to break some habits of getting up in the middle of the night. Last night was a pretty good night ... he only woke up once a 2am but pretty much went right back to sleep and then at 5am to eat. I'm hopeful that we will be done with this cold soon and things will settle down a little.

P.S. I've included some fun pictures that we took yesterday. My kids are obviously handling this whole sickness thing better than I am! :)

CIO Update

Sickness has put it all on hold. Micah came down with RSV this week ... no crying it out until my little man is all better. Prayers for a quick recovery would be appreciated.

Week 13: CIO Update

Just when I gave up on the whole CIO (Cry It Out) method, because no matter what Micah was only sleeping 30 - 45 minutes at a time and then would scream (maybe not that extreme, but that's what it felt like to me) until the next feeding, it worked! Micah started taking longer naps this past Saturday. His morning nap was 2 hours without a PEEP and the afternoon nap was 3 hours without a PEEP! Amazing! We're still working out all of the kinks and of course the Sunday church schedule set us back a day or two, but we're getting there. I'm hopeful anyway.

Yesterday and today he's still been waking up 30 - 45 minutes into his nap, but he cries/fusses for about 5 minutes and then goes back to sleep. I can handle that ... it's the crying for almost an hour straight that I can't handle. He's finally learned to calm himself down and most of the time he can do it without his pacifier!! YEAH!! For a couple of his naps, if he can't put himself back to sleep, I've been putting him in the swing and he sleeps longer too ... I did that on Friday and I think that's part of the reason why he slept so well on Saturday.

He's still doing well at night (sleeping between 8 1/2 - 9 1/2 hours), but will wake up to eat at 3:30am. That's fine because he goes to bed so early, BUT then he nurses really well and won't eat at 7am. This morning I tried to only nurse him a little at 3:30am, but then he couldn't make it until 7am. I'm thinking I might try nursing him fully at 3:30am (he obviously needs it still) and then wait until 7:30am for his first daytime feeding. We'll see how it works.

Black Book Story

Jackson (2 1/2 years old) and I were praying for our lunch the other day. We've been encouraging Jackson to say a prayer, but often times at meals he has a hard time not eating a bite or two before he prays. This particular day he was having a peanut butter sandwich and before we prayed he began to take it apart. I quickly reminded him that we needed to pray before we eat and also encouraged him to not take apart his sandwich as it would make a mess of his hands. His prayer went something like this:

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for Mommy and apples and carrots and thank you that I didn't get peanut butter on my hands.
Amen

Weeks 11 &12: CIO (Crying it Out)

So I'm sitting here typing this as quietly as I can because I'm DETERMINED to get Micah to take a full nap (one to two hours). Lately he's been falling asleep on his own for naps (which is good), but then he'll only sleep for 30 minutes and then wake up crying.

If I get him up he's fussy. If I let him stay in his crib he's fussy. If I nurse him he doesn't take a full feeding. I've tried EVERYTHING I could possibly think of (I've even given into his thumb sucking ... which I'm not a huge fan of)and so now I'm letting him "cry it out"! Earlier this morning he'd cry for 15 minutes and then I'd console him, then he'd cry for 15 minutes and I'd console him. He never did go back to sleep for this morning's nap, but he's put himself back to sleep twice now for this afternoon's nap and is napping right now.

I vaguely remember doing this with Jackson, but I don't remember it being so HARD. I guess it must be similar to not remembering labor pains, because if we did we might not ever have another child. This morning I had to clean my downstairs to keep myself occupied and calm. This afternoon (since Jackson is also napping) I've been taking comfort in learning what Micah's different cries sound like. A tired cry sounds a lot different that a painful cry or a hungry cry and it brings me comfort knowing that I'm giving him what he needs at this moment. Even though I think it's harder on me than it is on him.

I know that not everyone reading this blog agrees with letting babies "cry it out", but I KNOW this will be best for him in the long run. I hardly ever have problems with Jackson taking a nap or going to sleep at night and staying asleep (unless he's sick or extremely out of routine) and I give all the credit to him having learned the skill of putting himself to sleep when he was a baby.

Micah hasn't had any problems at night time, so I can't complain, it's just nap times that are EXHAUSTING us both. Oh ... he's up again ... here we go!

"3am Thoughts"

I've noticed over the last three months that I have had some pretty profound thoughts when I'm up feeding and taking care of my son at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Perhaps they're really lame thoughts and I just think they're really profound because it's three in the morning and I'm a little sleep deprived, but I've talked about them with my husband the next day and he seems to agree that they are profound.

Some of my "3am Thoughts" include how to better myself, how to better a community I'm a part of, how to rearrange my home, ideas for blogs, etc.

Then I started wondering how many other parents out there have profound "3am Thoughts." We should collect them and write a book. Maybe we'd find a cure for cancer or end world hunger?! Who knows!

I'd love to hear your "3am Thoughts."

Week 10: Finding My Stride ... Almost

There's a phrase that runners use, "I found my stride," when they found a running pace that they feel like they could keep forever. Despite the vacationing and the illness in our family, I feel like I found my stride as a mom of two kids this week. I feel like Micah and I are finally on the same page. I feel like we're communicating ... I know he can't talk yet, but if you're a parent you know what I mean ... little gestures he does when he has to burp, faces he makes when he is filling his diaper, noises he makes when he's ready for a nap, etc. He is nursing every three hours during the day and doing longer stretches at night. He's starting his day at the same time (7am) and ending at the same time (around 6:45) and our bedtime routine has been established.

EXCEPT just when I felt like I hit my stride, we had to deal with the two hour time change coming back to California and Micah came down with croup. Poor baby!! The worst of it came when we were driving the three plus hours from LAX to Santa Maria late at night. I was so scared for him, being so little and all. Jackson has had croup twice, but he was much older and I knew he could handle it. There is NOTHING worse than the helpless feeling you get as a parent when you know that there is NOTHING you can do or at least there is little that you can do to help your sick and or hurting child. God knows that I need those moments in order for my faith in Him to grow even stronger and Micah just had croup ... in retrospect that's not that bad!!! I am the weaker vessel.

Anyway, we had a great holiday season visiting family! I miss them dearly and although it seems like our family gets sick every holiday season as we expose ourselves to foreign germs in airports and gas stations, I wouldn't give up our precious time with the people that we love so much.

We're done with the stomach flu, Micah has recovered from croup and we are all adjusting to the time change. Life is getting back to the mundane. I think I'll enjoy that for a little while. :)