I wasn't planning on posting another blog o soon but we had a pretty exciting phone call this morning and I wanted to share it. A very dear friend of mine called today, I didn't answer it at first because we haven't spoken in a while and I just didn't feel up to the strained small talk. We used to be very close and did so much together until he got together with his current girlfriend. Don't get me wrong, I adore her and I am so happy for them but I miss my friend.  Well the phone rang again about 5 minutes later and it was him again so I thought it must be something important so I answered it. We had a bit of small talk and then he asked me what Annalynn was doing in October. I was a bit confused at first, I was thinking maybe they wanted her to go somewhere with them seeing as his girlfriend is from the states.

So I have decided to start a blog, I like reading everyone elses so I figured why not?  What a day to pick to start too, Annalynn has another cold. I am praying it doesn't turn into Bronchitis again. I have heard once you have it once it is so easy to get again :( I also forgot to take my Diclectin last night so together we make a great pair today, lol!  

Tomorrow will be the last time I nurse my baby and I'm pretty sad about it.  I know that we will bond in many other ways but right now this is such a special time for us.

So week one of wean from swaddle has gone alright. This is now week 2 and we’ve moved to the sleep sac, i.e. both arms out. He did ok with the morning and by the current sound of silence, the afternoon nap as well. Bedtime is always the test. The week went alright with the first few nights being quite tedious with the crying and back patting and sssh’ing. He’d go down at about 8, 8:30, sleep til 1a.m. and need ssh’ing, then sleep til around 5. So I worked on

Nothing much has changed.  Weaning is still going relatively well.

I think I may try to cut out the nursing before nap time this week just so it's easier on my mom when she has him while we're away.

Declan is still asking to be nursed a few times a day but when I say "no", and offer him a sippy cup he usually accepts it and moves on.  The only time it's difficult is when we're snuggling on the couch and he tries to lift up by shirt or shove his hand down my shirt...lol

I've been putting him to bed more often in the past few days and the night time weaning is still going very well.  I'm really proud of him and proudof myself for not breaking down.

So as the New Year rolled in DH and I decided we needed to come up with a 2 year plan, well, me more than him actually.  There are some big changes coming for us in the next two years, one being my return to work after a 3 year combined maternity leaves and leaves of absence.  Going back to work will be a bitter-sweet thing.

Today was pretty much like yesterday except I sprung a leak!

We woke up this morning and headed down for breakfast and playing.  Declan was in a horrible mood and I'm wondering if it had to do with me denying his pleads for breastmilk?  He wouldn't eat any breakfast.  He eventaully calmed down after waking my husband up with his cry.  Declan ate breakfast with daddy no problem.

While his crying episode was going on I noticed that my shirt was really wet.  I looked down and saw that I was leaking!  This hasn't happened to me in months......like 8-10 months!  I didn't think I was still producing enough milk for that to happen but I guess I was wrong.  So, I took advantage of the situation and pumped (so the hospital can't pull the formula card on me again with our next child)

Tonight was much like last night.  He's asleep and went to bed pretty easily.

I think this is going so well because he's making up for all the sleepless nights in the past.  LOL  Either way I'm very happy that weaning is going well...............I hope it keeps up!

I know i'm not the first to post on sleep issues...figured i'd just join the group :-) When noah was born, we had very little sleep issues.  From the birth board at prg.org i followed guidelines from the articles of Tizzie Hall  - Save our Sleep from about 8wks old. They worked and Noah was STTN by 3.5months, from 7:30pm-7:45/8a.m. His sleep cues were (and still are) easy to read. Bedtime routine was bath, feeding, lullaby, then to bed, swaddled. Around a month and a half later, he was having nothing to do with being swaddled so we stopped and all was well again.

Well I've officially made it to the year of birth for my little baby... I'm getting both anxious and nervous the closer to comes, especially when I think that it's really not that far off at all!

Lately, I've started to feel like I have a little gymnast on my hands, not necessarily a kick-boxer, because it's not really kicking, but lots of stretching and summersaults or something going on in there!

Since December, we've found out the gender of our little one is a girl, and we've got a few names in mind.. I like Claire Lillian, but my hubby prefers Lillian May, so we'll see... maybe we should bring more names into the toss to see where it leads us!

At our last ultrasound we were told that everything looked perfect, the baby was measuring the way it's supposed to, my placenta was nice and high where it's supposed to be, and all that good stuff, so that's a definate breather right there.. in February, at the beginning we have an appointment booked to see our baby in 3D I'm really excited for this, and hope we get some really nice detail! it's just such fantastic technology! :)

Now that the new year has arrived, it's a new phase to the pregnancy too, by the end of this month I'll officially be into the 3rd trimester, but already I've been having issues with sleeping, having a sore back and most commonly a sore tailbone when I'm walking around for any length of time (like around a mall or something)

 We bought our first big baby item, which was the stroller and carseat that I'm absolutely in love with! And in the next few weeks we're going to head out on the hunt for a nice baby crib!

Okay, here goes - I have no idea if this will actually show up where I think its supposed to on this website - its my first attempt at a blog!

Last night we finally decided to do something about DS's horrible sleeping patterns.  We realize its not his fault, and that most of the problems we have taught him.  SO we did our own version of cry it out.  After his nightly routine, I nursed him and put him to bed.  He woke up two minutes after that, and we let him cry for about 50 mins total (on and off) as we comforted him.  It was TOUGH.  I felt so heartbroken.  He stuck to his typical pattern last night (waking every two hours) but instead of jumping to get him right away, we let him cry for about 5-10 minutes each time before going in to comfort him.  By this morning, it seemed that he wasn't crying nearly as much... so I am hopeful it is going to work. 

 I never thought I would get to this point... I of all people disagreed with CIO SO much, but alas all the other types of things we have done have never worked.  The lack of sleep is really starting to drain me, and I have to go back to work in a few months. 

When I realized this morning he was still his normal happy self, I definately felt better.  Here's hoping tonight is easier (and that he sleeps more)!!