Wordless Wednesday: Christmas 2010

Just not in the cards

I'm officially done with breastfeeding.  It seems that I'm not made for feeding my kiddos.  With Riley I was done at 6 weeks because of his issues with dairy.  This time we lasted 7 weeks.  And the reason you ask?  Because Aiden decided he was a big boy and didn't need to nurse any more. 

I realized early last week that my milk supply was getting lower due to Aiden not emptying them when he ate.  That was partially my fault.  After 10 minutes on the first side I would automatically switch him to the other so I was sure he would eat on both sides.  Well that resulted in lazy eating.  Once I started letting him stay on the first side longer he would only eat for like 2 minutes on the second and then cry.  I could give him pumped milk in a bottle and he would still eat so I knew he was still hungry, just not wanting to work for it.  Then it gradually got worse.  The more bottles he had, the shorter he would nurse.  Eventually he got to only eating for 4-5 minutes on the first side and then not even latching on the second.  And not just not latching, but SCREAMING if I tried to give him the second side.  Then if I gave him a bottle he would eat at least 2 ounces every time.

After a few days of that, I was exhausted!  Nights were getting worse because it took so long to get him to nurse and then I had to make a bottle.  And he got so worked up he didn't sleep as well.  Once I started giving him strictly bottles, he didn't have any eating issues.  I used up all my pumped milk (which wasn't much) to help transition him over to the formula.  It only took like 2 days and he was good.  He's now been strictly formula for 3 days.  And not surprisingly....we are sleeping more!!!!!!  He's sleeping in 4-5 hour stretches through the night.  I realized this week that Riley did the exact same thing.  He started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks and that's when I switched him to formula.

I know I could keep pumping and give him breast milk, but honestly that's not realistic for me.  I know there are women who can find the time and have the patients, but that's just not me.  Plus I have one mostly formula feed kiddo and he's THRIVING so I'm not worried about it.  Yes, the cost sucks but my sanity (and his) is worth it.

On the plus side, we are now starting to get into some what of a routine.  Not a BabyWise one by any means, but it seems to be working.  Last night was off because Aiden decided to be up late again, but hopefully I can get him to have some good awake time tonight and get back on track.

Totally random, but I'm so excited that my BFF, Patti, will be here on January 12th!  And it's while my hubby is on his trip so I won't be alone the whole time and we get some good girl time. Fifteen more days!!!!

Not so BabyWise

First, this is not a discussion on whether or not you agree with BabyWise - just wanted to make that disclaimer.

I've been trying BabyWise with Aiden and I have many reasons for doing so.  The first and foremost is that he doesn't like to sleep at night.  After 4 weeks of no sleep, I was desperate.  I have Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby that I used with Riley and it worked well.  But what I now realize is that Riley was a schedule sleeper by nature.  I didn't really struggle in that area with him - especially at night.  He slept through the night at 6 weeks old and never looked back.  I really like the book, because it really shows you why and how babies sleep.  I think it's much more beneficial once your baby is a bit older and only taking a few naps a day.  It only has like 3 pages in the whole book on newborns, therefore I needed extra help.

I found BabyWise for my Kindle for about $5, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.  I really like the idea of knowing when he's gonna eat instead of having totally random days like I did with Riley.  He ate regularly, but every day was different.  So far we either have regular days or regular nights, but not both.  I've had about 3 nights where he has slept good.  I don't even care if he sleeps through the night - I just want him to sleep AT night!  We got a little off of our schedule this weekend because of church and other things and now it's like he's 2 weeks old again.  After his 10pm feeding he wants to have a wake time, which is ok because his wake times are normally only 45min to an hour.  But at this time of day night he seems to want to be awake for hours.  If we put him in bed he cries.  And yes, I do practice a bit of cry it out, but not for too long (please no judgment comments on that).  Most of the time I let him cry for a bit to see if he'll go to sleep, then go in and settle him down and try again.  (I know most CIO advocates will say I'm not supposed to do that, but I'm kinda middle ground on it)  Each time I try to let him stay in there longer for more success.  During the day this works really well, but not at night.  By this time I KNOW he's over-tired and that's why he won't sleep.  Last night he screamed even when we were holding him, so I know it was more than just laying in his bed.

I'm so lost, I don't know what to do!  I just want to sleep! I know he needs that sleep too.  And then when he's up half the night, he sleeps at least half the day and we get on this horrible cycle.  And the one night where he basically slept through the night with just a 3am feeding, he was up for like 4 hours in the morning and the slept the afternoon away so then he didn't sleep that night.  I can't win!  There are sometimes (like this last feeding) where I can't do ANYTHING to keep him awake after feeding and I have to give in and just put him to bed.  Then he wakes up too early and so on and so on.....

I've decided Aiden doesn't like BabyWise, or schedules, and my life is just gonna be miserable for a while so I'll stop fighting it.

Well, that's where we are these days, just making it from one day to the next.  Oh and being up all day to tend to my 2.5 year old on top of it all.  I will say that my husband is AMAZING and does whatever he can to help - I am so grateful for that!  And for his awesome job that give him the flexibility to be available if I need him.

Wordless Wednesday: Best Friends (I almost forgot it was Wednesday!)

Christmas Favs

It's Christmas Favs time over at Girl Talk!  I LOVE Christmas so it's hard to pick favorites, but here we go.

{Favorite Christmas Movie}

My new favorite is Fred Claus.  I think it's hilarious and it has a good message about the reason behind why someone might be naughty.

{Favorite Christmas song}

O Holy Night

{Favorite ornament or Christmas decoration}

My Willow Tree Nativity.  My husband has been so great to foster my obsession with these in general, but he went over the top to provide me with my most favorite pieces.  I still want more of the set, but we'll see.

{Favorite Christmas tradition}

We really haven't set any traditions in our family yet.  If you read my previous post you know that I'm trying to establish some with our kids for next year.  I have my own tradition of putting up our tree and decorations the day after Thanksgiving while watching a Christmas movie.  That's definitely my fav right now.

{Favorite Christmas memory}

I was going to say Riley's first Christmas, but I think his second was more memorable.  He was a year and half and we spent Christmas at my sister's in Virginia.  Seeing Riley at Christmas with his cousins was very special.

Merry Christmas!

What are your Christmas favorites?

The Santa Claus Conspiracy

To Santa or not to Santa seems to be the buzz in Blog-Land right now.  I've read some GREAT posts (and comments on those posts) both for and against.  Honestly, I had never really thought it harmful for a kid to believe in Santa.  We chose not to "celebrate" Halloween in our family and I had had a brief thought about whether or not it was hypocritical to then "celebrate" Santa.  I thought that since there really isn't anything negative about Santa there was no harm.  Then I read a blog post about a little girl who was confused if it was Santa or Jesus that wasn't real - making both the writer and myself wonder at the effects of teaching our children about Santa.  We give Santa God-like abilities - see you when you're sleeping, knows if you've been bad or good, etc.  There is also the element of technically lying to our kids by encouraging true belief in a person that isn't real.  Then when they become old enough not to believe any more, will they then question their belief in Jesus?  You told them He was real too, but they can't see or feel him, so is He real?  Wow, I'm sorry but I couldn't ignore that possible reality when it hit me.

Let me just interject here and say that I KNOW most kids come out of the whole Santa thing just fine and I'm not trying to bash Santa or your traditions.  These are just my thoughts and musing on what we want to endorse in our family.

Last year we took Riley to see Santa with his cousins.  He cried hysterically and we got the screaming child picture.

So this year I decided I was going to acclimate him to Santa before we went to see him.  Since putting up our tree, I've talked a lot about Santa and let him watch Christmas movies about Santa.  Then I read that blog.  Now I'm wondering, why do I want to make my child to go and sit on a strangers lap?  The same occurrence comes with Halloween.  We teach our kids not to talk to strangers, but then once a year we force gently encourage them to not only talk to strangers, but knock on their doors and ask for candy.  Now at Christmas we want them to sit on a strangers lap and ask him to come into our house at night and bring gifts.

After talking with my husband about it, we decided we are not going to encourage Santa in our house (and yes, now I have to un-do some of the Santa work I did...my bad!).   We want our kids to know that the Santa we watch movies about and see in the mall isn't real, but a representation of a great Saint that lived a long time ago.  We want to teach them that he represents a true giving spirit and we continue to celebrate that through Santa Claus.  The Santa Claus we know today isn't a real person, but some people pretend he is and that's ok.  We won't mind them watching movies about Santa or even going to talk to the Santa in the mall if they really want to, as long as they remember the truth.

I've been researching other Christmas traditions that we can implement in our house.  Of course, the true Christmas story will always be a part of our Christmas.  I now want to incorporate the story of Saint Nicholas.  And I'm stealing this one from the blog I read - that our gifts truly come from Jesus because He provides the jobs that pay for them.  I love the idea of telling my kids that the gifts are from Jesus and He's the ultimate gift!

I have also been curious about Advent for the last year.  I never really knew anything about it except that my Uncle used to buy us the chocolate advent calendars every year - I loved that plastic tasting candy!  The church was attended last year celebrated Advent, but I didn't feel like they really explained it.  So I did some research today.  I got this from About.com (Advent link here):

Advent is a period of spiritual preparation in which many Christians make themselves ready for the coming, or birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ. During this time, Christians observe a season of prayer, fasting and repentance, followed by anticipation, hope and joy.

Many Christians celebrate Advent not only by thanking God for Christ's first coming to Earth as a baby, but also for his presence among us today through the Holy Spirit, and in preparation and anticipation of his final coming at the end of time.

Way cool!  Why has no other church I've attended every celebrated Advent before?  I then wanted to know how I could celebrate Advent in our home.  The most common are the Advent Wreath and Calendar.  Something I had not heard of before was the Jesse Tree. 

The Jesse Tree is a unique Advent tree that can be very useful for teaching children about the Bible at Christmas, and a fun activity, too! The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God's salvation plan, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit." (NASB)

Each day of Advent a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree, a small tree made of evergreen branches. These symbolic ornaments can each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ. Other variations include creating ornaments that represent the ancestors in the lineage of Christ, or using the various monogram symbols of Christianity as handmade ornaments.

I'm so excited to do this with the boys next year!  I found a great site that gives you all the people, verses and ornaments to make all laid out nicely in a chart.  Riley will be 3 1/2 and Aiden 1 by next Christmas (crazy!) so I think making an ornament every day will be a great winter activity.  I also like the idea of making something for Advent instead of feeling entitled to GET something like you would in an Advent calendar.  Kids are all about getting this time of year, so one less thing to "get" is great!  And my kids will be learning about the lineage of Christ in the process.

We aren't going to make a bunch of rules about Santa, we just are going to be honest with our kids and not glorify him.  All in all, we are going to be truthful with our kids and celebrate the real reason for Christmas - and have some fun along the way!

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

inCONCEIVEable Blog

I've started posting on my inCONCEIVEable blog again just in case anyone wants to know :)

Wordless Wednesday: Brother playing

Thanksgiving Recap & One Month Old

Well this last week we had so much family in town, and all for our little baby Aiden!  My sister and her family came for 10 days, my in-laws where here for 4 days, and both sets of my Grandparents were here for 3 days.  It was crazy, but so cool!  We had Thanksgiving dinner at my house with all the little ones running around like crazy.  I felt so grown up :)

Grandpa & Grandma Langford

Great Grandpa & Gigi

Auntie Starr

Me and my nephew Dallan

Great Grandma & Papa (I have almost the exact same picture of my Grandma with Riley when he was the same age)

On Sunday, November 28th we had Aiden dedicated.  We did the same thing with Riley - having all the family in town for his dedication.  Riley was dedicated on Father's Day and Aiden was dedicated Thanksgiving Sunday.  What an amazing opportunity to have our kids dedicated with so many family members present. 

My husband got to play on the worship team with his sister that morning.  They've only played together in public a hand full of times, so that was really special.  She's an amazing electric guitar player and it was fun to hear them play together.

Thank you Pastor Allen for allowing us to take over Thanksgiving Sunday :)

Mr. Aiden at one month old!

Wordless Wedensday: Our Whole Family