Kids

I love them to death but I swear they do this on purpose.

Another bed time party

Siena has started to rebel at bed time.  It was around this age that Cole started head butting the crib.  At least Siena is just screaming.  For the past five nights Siena has not gone to bed before 10pm, even though she is in the crib well before 9pm.  The first night both kids were out of control.  At one point I found Cole in Siena's crib.  Later on when I went in the room, Cole was lying in his bed and he had Kermit B. Frog under his blanket.  He informed me that Kermit jumped off of the spinning fan blade and hurt his head.  He was keeping his blanket over Kermit's head which was a "cold" thing to make the owie better.  He was also keeping Kermit's hands away from the owie.  Funny kid.

Well the other night Cole was a little bit annoyed that he got put in bed at the same time as Siena.  It was just before 9pm.  I was heading home from work and I called home and Mike informed me that Siena was refusing to go to bed.  I told him to put both kids in the room and close the door.  Neither of us are interested in ending up where we did with Cole, with Siena.  I will not allow another kid to be unable to fall asleep in their bedroom and become dependent on mom and dad to fall asleep.  That took way to long with Cole to break the habit (3 years actually).  So not interested in going there.  Anyways, Siena continued right where she left off last night, hooting and hollaring.  Cole just ignored her and went to sleep.  Siena fought us until 10pm.  I even put her in Cole's bed (he was on a mattress on the floor).  She got up within 5 minutes and was banging on the door.  I put her back in the crib and she finally passed out from exhaustion about 5 minutes later.

Well here we are 5 days later.  It's 11:30 and both kids are still awake.  I thought moving the crib out of our room was going to get us some freedom and peace and quiet.  Boy was I wrong.  All it's done is cause Siena to not go to bed anymore and Cole is turing into a little brat about bed time.  It's no fun at the Fredy house right now at bed time.

The only one funny part about this entire things is that Siena actually lies awake in the room for 45 minutes waiting for Cole to come to bed.  She just lays there in the crib not moving and once the door closes she is chattering away!

Wait a minute....

Shouldn't I be the one who gets to wear those???

Sticky fingers

Cole is a little thief. If you were using something and now it has suddenly disappeared, it's a guarantee Cole had something to do with the disappearance. It would be one thing if he put everything in his pockets or had a little collection spot because then it would be easy to retrieve the missing items. Cole prefers to toss everything off the deck and into the tall grass (ok they are weeds, but I like to call it grass) and then we have to search every where until we either find it or give up until the "grass" dies or the lawn mower hits it.

Just when I thought I'd finally got this 2 kids thing down...

Finally a sunny, warmish day!  I was so excited to get Cole outside and running around before lunch and nap time.  Cole was dressed and ready to go, I was dressed and ready to go and all I had to do was get Siena's diaper changed and then stuff her into the Bjorn.  And by stuff I mean swaddle up in a blanket to take up the extra space until she gains 2-3 pounds.

I walk out of the office / changing station room to find our front door wide open and Onyx standing in the kitchen.  I quickly look around for Cole and he is nowhere to be seen!  I run to the other room and check his hiding places and sure enough, no Cole.  Now I start to panic.  Oh shit, I've lost a kid!  I run out side and check on the deck, no Cole.  I go to the carport, no Cole.  I then decide I need more help so I run next door to grandma and grandpa's house and who do I see when I turn the corner....Cole hanging out with grandma and grandpa.  I was so relieved but so pissed at him at the same time.  

Turns out Hank and Onyx were coming over to beg for treats and Onyx barked at the door (when I think back I do remember hearing a bark while I was getting Siena ready) and of course Cole opened the door for her to let her in.  I guess he then decided I was taking to long so he'd go on out by himself.  I guess then grandpa whistled for the dogs to come back and Hank, being the good dog that he is, went right back next door and Cole followed behind.  They figured I had been outside and was on my way over so there was no need to run Cole back to our place.  

Time for a chain lock at the top of the door.  I am now envisioning our house to be like on of those apartments in the city where you hear someone opening 12 locks before the door finally opens up.....

I guess I should mention for those of you that don't know, we live on 2 acres, in the mountains, at the end of a court on a hill with no street, no traffic, no chance of the kid getting run over.  Bucked by a deer, maybe...

Vomit, goals & a weird toddler

Last night I spent 4 hours awake with Siena.  I went to bed at 7:15 last night hoping to get in a few hours of sleep before she woke up hungry.  In between the phone ringing and Cole sneaking in to our room I managed to get some sleep...until Siena woke up at 9:30.  She wanted to nurse, and nurse, and nurse.  This kid goes on nursing kicks each day at different times so trying to schedule around it is virtually impossible.  So she nursed until 10:30 when she then decided to vomit it all up.  And by vomit I mean projectile spraying of vomit on to me and the back of the couch, saving a little bit to spray out her nose.  After I freaked out for a minute,(this was my real first experience with a vomiting kid.  Cole has vomited once in his entire life and it was over a year and a half ago) Mike helped me clean it up.  Then the little princess was ready to eat again!  So I let her nurse thinking I would give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she just spit up (umm ya nice denial there). So she nursed for another 45 minutes.  I am surprised there was any milk left at this point but there was because when I took her back to our bedroom to sleep she proceeded to spray vomit once again while laying down and it was directed at my face.  After cleaning that up I sat with her in bed hoping she would fall asleep, but no she wanted to nurse again.  I waited about 15 minutes still hoping she would give up and fall asleep but no such luck.  I let her nurse again and at 12:30 am she was finally asleep and so was I.  But 1:15 rolls around and guess who wants to eat again!  Seriously she is a maniac!  Luckily no more vomiting occurred however she did spike a small fever through out the night.

This morning I called the Dr's and they wanted me to bring her in since they don't like seeing any fevers in babies under 2 months of age.  She got a clean bill of health, looks like it was just a small flu virus running it's course.  She is also gaining weight well, another half pound, she weighs out at 6 pounds even.  The doctor also wants me to put alcohol on Siena's umbilical cord to dry it out and that makes me want to vomit.  I can't handle that at all!

I had my 2 week check up this morning.  I am allowed to drive again!  Yay for me!  Even though I have no plans of going anywhere it is still nice to have the option to leave if I wanted to.  I have lost 12 of the 32 pounds, so I have 20 more to go to meet my goal of losing 30 pounds by May.  We will see how it goes.  Losing the weight is hard for me because I am so used to eating what ever I want with no worry and that is not the case when you want to lose weight.  As soon as I can exercise again I plan on getting back to curves and maybe doing some at home videos also.

I am exhausted, not from the all nighter, but from Cole and his newest behavior.  He is throwing everything in sight.  It doesn't matter what it is, his food, his toys, his music table, the phone, the remote, our shoes, etc... it all gets tossed in any direction at any time.  I also spend all day keeping him from hurting Siena.  Sure he has his sweet moments of wanting to give her kisses and hugs, but the rest of the time I am shielding her head from him.  The only way to have her safe in the house is in the crib in our room, with the baby gate up so Cole can't get in the room.  If he does, he is throwing things in the crib.  I don't want to leaver her locked up all day in the crib, but at the same time it is hard to manage Cole and her together.

Cole is resisting time outs also.  It took us 15 minutes tonight to get Cole to stay in his time out for 1 minute.  It is seriously exhausting.  He thinks time outs are funny....  I can only guess that the little guy is frustrated with losing some of the attention and he does not know how to deal with it or explain it to us.

On the bright side, Cole woke up from his nap this afternoon asking for me to make him a salad.  He can be such a weirdo.

Bedtime with Cole - a week in review

Cole has NEVER been good at going to bed.  It has always been a struggle.  Out of convience for the adults in the house we chose to snuggle on the couch watching tv until he fell asleep.  We occasionally would try to put him to bed awake but it usually resulted in an hour of screaming or head butting of the crib, wall, or door.  We finally reached our breaking point the week we brought Siena home from the hospital.  We knew we had to break the habit of Cole coming into our room every night and sleeping with us and also he needed to learn how to fall asleep in his bed.  After a week of awful nights (full on tantrums at 2am that lasted for at least an hour) I talked with the peditrician about what to do or how to handle the situation.  Her suggestions we pretty simple - don't let him come out of his room when he wakes up in the middle of the night and no more couch cuddling.  

Starting this past monday we began our new bed time ritual.  Bath time is at 7 pm and we had been really trying to get him in bed by 9 pm but it just wasn't working.  So that night at 8 pm Mike and Cole went into Cole's room and Mike read Cole some books.  Cole was super into the book reading so this lasted about an hour.  It then took another hour for him to fall asleep.  Mike was out of the room at 10 pm.  Cole woke up at 2 am and ran to our room but I only noticed that he was there in the doorway because I happened to be awake with Siena.  He did not wake up crying or run to our room crying like he had been for the past 4 months or so.  Mike got up with him and about 45 minutes later Cole was asleep in his bed again.

Tuesday night we started with the same schedule and at 8 pm Mike and Cole were in the room reading and Mike was out of there by 9:30 pm.  Progress!  Cole woke up once at 4:15 am and was back in bed within 10 minutes.

Wednesday night Cole dragged Mike into his room at 7:45 pm and closed the door.  He pointed to the light switch and Mike turned it off.  Cole then pointed to his bug light and Mike turned it on.  Cole jumped in his bed and got under the covers and pointed to his books!  They read for awhile and then Cole pointed to the bug light and rolled over facing the wall.  Apparently he was ready for bed.  Mike was out of the room by 9 pm!  Cole slept the entire night!  

Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same - requesting to go to bed and then sleeping through the night.  On Saturday night he woke up once but was back asleep within 10 minutes.  

We are so proud of the little guy.  I think we are both a little bit embarrassed that the problem was us all along and not a grumpy toddler.   All he needed was a little bit stricter schedule and some reading and he is one happy kid.

I guess raising kids is a lot like raising dogs.  You have to train the owners not the dogs and with kids it is the parents that need the training.....

Day 1 - on my own

Today was Mike's first day back at work which meant it was my first day on my own with 2 children.  My mom came over in the morning to drive me to Siena's doctors appointment because I am still not allowed to drive.  I am surprised at how well the day went.  Cole was his usual self, running around, screaming at the top of his lungs (this is his new way of communication), being a rambunctious little boy.  Siena slept peacefully threw the entire day.  I found it to be easier than I expected to balance my time between the 2 kids.  I know it is easier now with Siena sleeping most of the time so I do expect it to become a little bit more challenging later on.  I feel like I was a more productive and better mom than I have been in a while.  It was refreshing.

Siena's appointment went well.  She gained almost half a pound in 6 days!  That takes her up to 5# 5 1/2 oz.  She has a little cough which is not surprising since we all have had colds the past 2 weeks.  We did find out in the pathology report that the umbilical cord was not 1 foot long, it was actually 8 1/2 cm long and 1 cm thick!  I am surprised she was getting any nutrients at all!  Crazy stuff!

Tonight Mike and I are approaching an on going battle with Cole with new ideas.  We did him a huge disservice out of connivance to us, by allowing him to sleep in our bed when he woke up in the middle of the night.  Since Siena has been home, we have not allowed him to come into our bed at night.  He does not understand this.  I feel so bad for him but we have to break the cycle.  So unfortunately that means poor Mike has to do the enforcement since I am taking care of Siena at night.  Last night they were up from 1 am to 3:30 am with Cole screaming bloody murder for half that time.  It is so draining on everyone.  So tonight is a new day in the quest to get Cole to stay in bed.  Obviously what we were doing wasn't working so the pediatrician gave us some new approaches to take with Cole.  Hopefully something will work out.