Preston wakes up anywhere from 5:00-6:30 am, and I feed him. Then daddy takes him until 7am when I get out of bed to help get Jaidyn ready for school. Jaidyn eats breakfast, gets dressed, gets her hair done and teeth brushed, prepares her book bag, and is out the door anywhere from 7:50-8:00am with daddy. School starts at 8:10am and is basically down the street from our apartment, so on the days that they leave at 7:50am they walk and when they leave at 8:00am Kyle drops her off on his way to work. I usually eat breakfast after she leaves, then I swaddle Preston who is ready for his morning nap. Generally I nurse him to sleep, and put him in his swing once he is asleep. He sleeps from around 8:30 or 9am to 11:00am. Sometimes instead of the swing, I will hold him and we fall asleep on the couch together. I love our morning naps, but try to limit it to once or twice a week, otherwise I don't get much done. I generally don't do much during his morning nap, because I myself am not a morning person. So I use this time to facebook, blog, watch tv, research things online, etc. Then I try to whip up a simple lunch for myself before he wakes up, but this doesn't always happen. He has a lovely habit of waking up when I'm in the middle of it. After he's awake and I have eaten, we have activity time where we "play". Preston obviously can't do much yet, but on September 1st he gripped his first toy! It was little bunny rattle that came with his snuggabunny swing. I, of course, was super proud and had to tell daddy right away! I love the little things that we get excited about :) So, anyways, we work on grasping for different toys, have tummy time, play on our play mat, sing songs, etc during our activity time. Tummy time has gotten slightly easier since I started propping him up on the boppy for it. It's much more comfortable for him. Around 1:00 or 1:30pm or so he is ready for another, smaller nap. I usually wake him up by 2:30pm so that I can change his diaper and feed him before we go pick up Jaidyn from school. We pick her up at 2:50, and again, sometimes we walk when Prest is in a good mood and the weather is nice enough. Once we get home I look at Jaidyn's school work and get her a snack while she does homework. Then she goes off to do her own thing (watch a little tv, play some educational computer games, read, play, etc) while I clean. Preston is usually in a pretty good mood and will sit in his kickin' coaster in the kitchen while I do dishes, prepare for dinner, clean up, etc. Pretty much from the time Jaidyn gets home to the time he goes to bed he takes small cat naps. Sometimes he will fall asleep on his own, other times I need to swaddle him, bounce him, nurse him, etc to get him to sleep. He generally naps in his swing, but will sometimes nap in the kickin' coaster. He won't start napping upstairs alone until he's around 6 months old. Daddy comes home around 5pm. Sometimes I will be making dinner, sometimes it will already be made, and other times we cook together. I love cooking together. It gives us the chance to talk about our day, talk about the future, or just talk about whatever! We are busy several nights a week. Monday night is bible study, Wednesday night is Jaidyn's gymnastics, Friday nights are often youth nights or we have some other random activity going on. Starting soon is a Thursday night bible study, so we are often very busy! Thankfully Preston does very well (most of the time) when we are out and about, but it is getting more difficult because his bedtime is much earlier, a change that he himself made that I am very happy about! He used to consistently go to bed every night around 10:30pm, and I would stay up until 2am doing my own things, or spending time with Kyle. Now he takes a bath at 8pm, we read a book, and nurse to sleep. He is usually down by 8:30pm. I am usually in bed by midnight, rather than 2am, which is so nice! He wakes up anywhere from 1:30-2:30am, usually at 2:00am though. It's amazing how on the dot he is sometimes! I change his diaper and nurse him back to sleep. Here is where things get tricky. Preston loves being swaddled. In fact, it's the only way he will sleep. But for some reason after his 2am feeding (usually around 3:30am), he tries desperately to break free from it. I will lay in bed and hear him ferociously trying to get out of it, and he succeeds every single time. Once he gets unswaddled, he stretches out, and gets his arms stuck in the craddle slats. This makes him super angry, and he will scream until I pick him up. I reswaddle him, "nurse" him back to sleep, and put him back down. (I saw "nurse" because Preston is a huge comfort sucker, so he doesn't always eat, but just uses me as a binky for comfort.) This goes on at least once (but sometimes more) an hour until he finally wakes up for the morning. The only way I actually get any sleep is when I bring him into bed with me, which doesn't happened often, but some nights I am so exhausted that I don't have much of a choice. He will sleep for hours snuggled up with me. It's not the most comfortable situation for me, because it means I don't get to sleep with a pillow, my arm goes numb, and I can't pull my blanket up very far on me when I'm cold. But, it works when we need to do it. Well, there you have it. Our schedule in a nutshell!
I am very much enjoying my days with Preston. He is so smiley and happy. My favorite part of the day is when we sing songs. I especially love to sing him to sleep. I feel like it's our own special thing that we do....our secret time together that no one else knows about. When I sing him to sleep, I sing The Moon Song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, or Baby Don't You Cry (The Pie Song). The pie song is his favorite. When I sing it to him, he smiles so big. And he will keep on grinning until his eyes get heavy and he falls asleep. It will always be our song :) Jaidyn's favorite has always been The Moon Song, and to this day she still asks me to sing it to her when she is sad or upset. That one will always be our song :) Preston and I also sing songs for fun. We sing during our play time, or when he is upset and I am walking him around the apartment. We like to sing How Much is That Doggy in the Window? over and over again. My Great Grandmother Allen used to sing this song to me when I was little. So when I sing it to him I always picture her sitting at her piano, swaying back and forth as she sang it to me....so gorgeous, with a big smile on her face.
We did have a scare on Sept. 6th. Preston had been acting weird since about 3 am. Crying in a way that I'd never really heard him cry before. But I brought him into bed, nursed him, and he fell back asleep in my arms. He was restless until we finally got out of bed around 6am. He was screaming by this point. We changed him, fed him, bounced him on the ball, and nothing worked. I could tell that he was in pain by the way he was crying, but I couldn't tell what was wrong. I just happened to look down at his little hand while Kyle was holding him and trying to calm him, and I saw this ring around his middle finger. He had a hair wrapped so tightly around his finger that is was cutting into his skin and beginning to cut off circulation. Thankfully I was able to get it off easily, and I could tell that he felt much better after that. We gave him some tylenol in case he was still feeling any discomfort. I couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the day. It still makes me sad now when I think about it. I hate that he was in pain and had no way of telling me what was wrong. That's the worst feeling in the world. I check his little fingers and toes constantly now to prevent it from happening again. After the incident, he held onto my finger so tightly, and just wanted to sleep in my arms. I realized in that moment how much of my heart that little guy has. I love him so much, and just want to cry thinking about him being in pain. I can say the same for Jaidyn, who had her surgery on Sept. 10th.
We arrived at the hospital for the surgery around 7:45am. After a bit, I went back with Jaidyn where she was prepared for surgery. She got into a hospital outfit, had her vitals checked, etc. We had quite a bit of time, just the two of us back there to chat. She was worried, and scared, but was also very brave. I sat on the bed with her and tried to reassure her, but I won't lie, I myself was worried. The procedure was simple, but I hated the fact that she was being put under. I wanted to cry, but had to be brave for her. The procedure was explained to me, and then someone brought her some medicine to take to "calm her down". Basically, it made her incredibly loopy. She got pretty funny, which I guess helped both her and I with our nerves. She kept saying that I had two eyes, and there were two mickey's on tv, and silly stuff like that. She was a goof! It took her quite awhile to tell the nurse her name and birthday before they took her back, because she was so out of it by then. As they wheeled her down the hall, I called out "I love you" to her and she said "I love you too!" I was grateful that she was able to say it back, being in the state that she was in, because it made me feel better about her going back for the surgery. I hated not being able to go back there with her. I was worried that she'd be so scared, and she's want me, and I wouldn't be there for her. But I guess that was one of the purposes of the drugs they gave her. Kyle, Preston, and I were sent to a private waiting room to wait for the surgery to be completed. It only took about 30-45 minutes before the doctor (Mike Smith, a friend of ours) came in to let us know that the surgery had been a success. I had to wait until she was in the second stage of recovery before I could go back to see her. When I finally was able to go back, my heart broke. There was my baby, sitting alone in a hospital bed, eyes puffy from crying, tears on her face, and blue lips from eating a snow cone. She looked so sad, and I just wanted to break down crying. She was very emotional, and cried many times. She was upset because she couldn't see well (she was coming off of the many different forms of anesthesia she was on), she was upset because she wanted to go home, she was worried that her class mates would make fun of her face, and she cried so hard because Preston wasn't allowed back there and she so badly wanted to see him. After a few minutes, she wanted to see daddy, so I sent him back and Preston and I went to the gift store. We bought her a cute little kitten whom she named Honey, and I brought it back to her. She snuggled it tightly until it was time to go home. By the time we got home, she was back to her old self. But I must tell you, my heart absolutely broke that day. Both before and after her surgery. I am so grateful that everything went well, and I pray that I never have to go through that, or worse, with either of my babies again.
9 week Milestones:
Gripped first toy on Sept. 1st, and started gripping blankets on Sept. 2nd.
Laughed for the first time on Sept. 3rd
Kyle swears he whined "mommy" when I left the room on Sept. 3rd. Of course we both know that isn't possible yet, but he still whines "Maaaaaaa! Maaaaa!" sometimes when he is crying and I like to pretend he is calling out to me :)
Started sleeping a 4 hour stretch at night, and did a 5 hour stretch on the night of Sept. 3rd. Now consistently sleeps one 4-5 hour stretch each night (either in his swing, or cradle).
10 week Milestones:
This is a sad one....Preston cried his first real tears on Sept. 5th. I could do without see those again anytime soon!
Also on Sept. 5th was when we started "playing" and he began enjoying tummy time a little bit more.
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