Fall bonfire

Last week D made a little bonfire to burn the last of the tree branches downed as a result of the big windstorm. It was a good opportunity to practice dressing Boyd in his warm layers. He was toasty warm in his layers.

The fire dying down - just embers.

Such a happy kid.

I can't remember what we were looking at - a plane maybe?

After Sammy passed away, D put this fish-shaped marker on her grave site in our backyard. Very sweet.

Sleep issues - hallelujah!

Teething really screwed up the tenuous sleep schedule we had in place. Before, it seemed like every other night would be a really horrible, rough time - but in between those we'd get a night with a 6-7 hour stretch. A few weeks ago Boyd started to wake every couple hours - just like a newborn! - and cry for a long time. Poor kiddo, his teeth hurt but we were tired! Well, more like zombie exhausted. And it killed me to see these big bags under Boyd's eyes - he wasn't getting the sleep he needed.

After yet another night last week where I was up 5-6 times between 7 and 11 p.m., and then D and I took turns sleeping in the nursery glider chair with Boyd all night, I hit the end of my rope. I was barely functioning at work on 5-6 hours of sleep a night, my husband was relegated to sleeping in a chair with Boyd on his chest, my back was killing me from my own chair-sleeping escapades, and I had no free time in the evenings since it was taking 4 hours to put my baby to sleep. It was ridiculous and needed to stop.

Cue The Sleepeasy Solution:

I read this blog post by Joanna Goddard (one of my favorite blogger/writers) and something clicked. I ordered the book off of Amazon that day and waited 5 days for it to come. For months and months I knew we had sleep problems but trying the "cry-it-out" method was a strategy I was dreading. This book put some of my fears to rest but knowing that my friends had tried variations of this method helped us push forward.

After a long day at a health fair last Saturday, I decided to start sleep training since I would be off of work on Monday and could have an extra day to work on it. D had already committed to being at a friend's house, so I listened to my baby cry for 57 minutes alone - it was EXCRUCIATING. I cried along with him. But it worked. After laying Boyd down to sleep, I checked on him in increasing intervals (5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes, etc.) but didn't touch him and each time spoke in a calm, reassuring voice before leaving the room. He finally fell asleep - and this is the kicker - slept for 10.5 hours straight! Wheeeeeee!

The next night he cried for 39 minutes and slept for 11 hours (woke up briefly but put himself back to sleep - amazing). Last night he cried for 37 minutes - it should have been less but he was very tired from short naps - and slept for 11.5 hours. We are working on naps at the same time, which are MUCH harder to fix than nighttime sleep, but it has to happen sometime.

I know this method is not for everyone - but D and I got to the point where personally, lack of sleep was affecting our health and our marriage. Two weeks ago I drove half a mile past my workplace in the morning before realizing where I was. And a few times I came close to falling asleep while driving. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

SO, finally a positive sleep update for once. We'll probably have to re-train him after teething, illnesses, trips, etc., but what we have now is an improvement for sure!

Boyd - 8 months

Little Boyd is growing up so fast - here we are at 8 months!

• Oh teething, you are the bane of our existence - well, that and lack of sleep. Boyd seems to be affected by teething a few months before the actual teeth come in, and then again right before they sprout. He has been increasingly fussy lately and there are two bulges where the top two teeth are ready to bust through the gums. This morning I could see a little sliver of white! Oh and the drool rash - ick. I thought perhaps he was allergic to some solid food we've been feeding him but I figured out the face rash around his mouth was due to excess teething drool. 
• Still no crawling, but lots of movement on hands and knees. Finally can roll over both ways. 
• Likes to sleep on his belly (when he does sleep) in what my mom has dubbed "the frog position," - hands and knees tucked under his body, little butt sticking up.
• Bath time may be his favorite part of the day. Enjoys splashing around, tolerates the cleaning portion and CRIES when we remove him from the water.
• He had a mini-meltdown this morning when I wouldn't let him play with my necklace. It's a cheap thing, probably made in China or something, so I don't want him putting it in his mouth. He freaked out and was pretty upset about the whole thing, then forgot about it a few minutes later.
• He's been doing this thing lately where he growls a little bit like a bear, and then balls his hands into fists while pushing his arms straight out. It's so funny because he's very intense. I'll try to get it on video.
• Boyd is a people magnet. Everywhere we go he attracts attention! Yesterday I had the day off and we had a mommy/baby day of errands and housework. Went to the grocery store and 4 ladies stopped to coo over him and pinch his little cheekies. Also a contributing factor to the cuteness level - dressing your baby in Carhartt overalls and a bright green froggy hat.

Ready to head off to Grandma Ann's house in the morning for daycare.

Eating is a messy business. I don't even bother to wipe his face until we're done.

My first foray into homemade baby food. This is an apple/pear concoction - turned out really well. I froze this and now we just defrost individual cubes for Boyd.

Purchased the green mat from Amazon, which we'll use at home and in restaurants to keep the food messes under wraps.

3rd snowfall!

Fascinated by the outside world.

Chubby baby hands!

In this photo you can see the face rash from drooling. Can't do much about it, other than keeping the face dry and applying lanolin or vaseline.

Grocery shopping on a weekday, in the middle of the day. SO nice to not have to battle the weekend crowds. The shopping cart cover is something I bought through Craigslist - keeps Boyd's grubby little mitts off of the dirty cart.

How I wish my dad could be here to enjoy my son. He would have LOVED being a grandpa! I miss him so much, all of the time. Love you dad.

Goodbye Sammy

My oldest cat, Sammy, (aka Smee, Cow Kitty, Fatty) crossed over the Rainbow Bridge a couple weeks ago. She had been declining for quite a while - arthritis, I think, along with an old-kitty condition in which claws curve around to grow into the foot pad, which is pretty painful. Sammy had a good long life - at least 16 years - so my sister and I decided to take her to the vet to have them take care of her.

The day before her procedure, I fed her as much canned food as she could eat and gave her lots of love. The next day my sister and I drove to the vet's office, and I was fine until we put her on the table. So, so sad to put a beloved pet to sleep. It's heartbreaking. Thankfully the process was quick and she drifted off without any pain. We chose to bring Sammy home and bury her in our backyard.

After losing Pepper 2 years ago, we're now we're a 1 cat, 1 dog household - which is plenty now that we have a little 2-legged troublemaker!

Boyd and Sammy on her last day.

Silly boy

Hold on tight

First BIG BOY ride in a shopping cart!

I couldn't believe how well he did. Usually we take the whole infant car seat and pop it into a stroller frame - it's convenient and the frame is fairly lightweight compared to a big stroller. The downside to this setup is that Boyd is stuck in his hot car seat at an incline for the duration of our shopping trip. And you can only fit so many items into the little basket underneath his seat. Grocery shopping can get difficult if the list is more than a few items long. As an alternative I would put the whole car seat in the main part of the shopping cart, especially at Costco, but then my space for groceries was limited. If we have another kid, I'll just wear the little one in an Ergo carrier and sit Boyd in the cart. 

Lately Boyd has really been struggling to sit up in the car seat, so I didn't even bring the stroller frame on this shopping trip with my mom. We popped him in the cart on top of a blanket and he was good to go! We were in Fred Meyer to purchase 4 bar stools for my mom's breakfast nook (you can see the boxes in our carts below). Her house is slowly coming together and looking great.

Little bit of an Elvis sneer here, I think.

Holding on for safety!

Video: Crib time - 7.5 months

Mr. Roly Poly baby - look at him go!

Can it - baby edition

Risha and Gabe are borrowing our pressure canner to can salmon, which will be used as wedding favors next summer. As you can see, the canner is the perfect size to hold a Boyd-sized baby...

Still very rainy in our neck of the woods. Haven't seen anymore snow since last month but it's just a matter of time. Fall is health fair time at my workplace so I've been pretty busy. We completed one fair and have 2 more to go. Because of this extra overtime in my schedule, my boss has given me Mondays off for the month of October. Still waiting to hear if it will become permanent!

D and I both had to work this past Saturday and thankfully my mom was able to watch Boyd. She stopped by the health fair to get her own labs done and brought Boyd so my coworkers could get a good look at him. They loved him! It helps that he is such a sweet baby.

Monday update

It snowed here Friday night and Anchorage woke up to a winter wonderland. Of course I forgot to take a photo because we're all sleep-deprived and I'm not running on all cylinders, ha ha. It's been getting a lot colder at night too. Last night it got below freezing and my outside plants are all dying off. Lots of frost in the morning - BRRR!

But today is a beautiful day and I dropped Boyd off at my mom's new house! The 2 moving men were there unloading her household goods (which took just a couple hours). They were very nice, quick and efficient - and even offered to come back to discard the mountain of boxes she'll have after unpacking. Alaska Terminals - we highly recommend them.

The house is a newer ranch in a quiet part of town, not too far from my house or Risha's rental. I think my dad would have approved. It'll be a nice fresh start for mom after so many losses over the last year. Risha, Gabe, D and I helped mom move some boxes and furniture in on Saturday, then we had a nice family dinner. Boyd got to hang out with his Grandma Ann on Sunday while D and I went to see the movie "Looper." So nice to have some quality time with my husband. :-)

Now for some photos...

Oh how I love my son's utterly adorable, squishable little face and cheekies.

Bath time with Grandma Ann. I bathe him in the bathtub while using a baby tub, but I guess this is easier on my mom's back.

His little hands are so fast!

What a smile! He was getting fussy in Costco, so D gave him something to hang on to. Loved it! Side note: we go through a TON of food saver bags. We use them for everything, from wild game and fish to bulk foods like cheese and bread. 

Fall walk

Last Sunday was a beautiful fall day. It stopped raining and the sun peeked out a bit, so Boyd and I geared up for a long walk around our neighborhood. All in all we were out for 3 hours and managed to cover 4 miles during our leisurely stroll.

A beautiful tree along our route. Love the color.

This is a new subdivision going in near our home - one street over. There are two short cul-de-sacs and both roads are paved, curbs/gutters done, street lights in, and utilities done. The builder will be back in the spring to start work on the homes, which will start in the low $330,000's.

A view of the new subdivision from the main road.

A nice sized birch tree that blew over during the first windstorm.

Nice day for a walk!

My favorite little man! It took 30 minutes of strolling before he conked out. The day was super warm (low 60's) so he just needed a light cap and blanket.

This is the Chariot I bought used off of Craigslist. Boyd is still a little young to be pulled in it while we ride our bikes and we can't try the skis yet, so I got some stroller wheels and they work great! Here you can see the mesh screen - there is also a plastic rain cover that I have rolled up.

Rainbow!

Fall leaves are everywhere - winter is coming.

There is an equestrian center down the road from our house - many people in our area (lower hillside) have horses on their property. It's fun to see them walking down the sidewalks and onto the wooded trails.

Well it's difficult to see here, but these two trees have CD's hanging from the branches. I'm not sure what that's all about.

Video: Puppy dog tails - 7 months

Boyd sure does love his pets. In this video he is fascinated by Drift's sweeping tail...

Mealtime

Boyd is still nursing, but we have eliminated the middle of the night feeding for the most part. It was surprisingly easy. He slept through the night a couple times and didn't eat, so the next few nights I would put him back to bed after waking without a nursing session. He was fine and boom, just like that we had night weaned!

He still eats 4 times during the day. During the workweek I nurse him in the morning and after work, and he get a bottle 2x per day, plus 2-3 solid meals (pureed foods).

Boyd - 7 months

7 months!

• Boyd was sick for the first time at 5.75 months and I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. He started sneezing a ton with some fussiness, and then was super stuffy and with a runny nose. He was miserable and I felt so bad for him. It didn't last too long - but then he passed the virus on to me! I was sick for less than a week. I think breastfeeding has been really great for his immune system and general health.
• No crawling yet but we're not stressing out about it. Bigger babies tend to move through the physical milestones a little slower than smaller kids, so he'll get around to it eventually. This just means we won't have to baby-proof the house as early as I thought!
• The sleep update: we had a couple amazing nights where Boyd slept 9 to 11 hours at a time. IT. WAS. HEAVEN. Then he went back to waking up once or twice, and now he's up all night and staying up for hours. I'm exhausted. D is exhausted. It's every parent's worst nightmare.Out of 7.5 months I can count on one hand the number of nights he's slept longer than 7 hours. I haven't slept longer than 5 hours at a time for 215 days.
• Lately he has been digging into the big rubber basket which holds all of his toys and picking the ones he wants to play with. Super cute.
• More sounds - especially the "bbbbb" one he is so fond of.
• EVERYTHING goes into his mouth. He'll grab something, give it a little look and then POP, in the mouth it goes!
• Really enjoys grabbing that left foot and putting that into his mouth too. Babies are so flexible!
• He gets SO distracted during the the daytime nursing sessions. I usually nurse him upstairs in his room but sometimes on the weekends I like to watch a little TV (since I never get to do so anymore) and I have to have the volume on low so he doesn't whip his little head around to look at the screen.
• It's weird, but Boyd loves hair - especially mine. He likes to grab it and put it in his mouth, but lately I've really tried to wean him off of this behavior.
• Every time I put music on he gets a huge smile on his face. We've been dancing and singing a lot.
• Still waiting for the top two teeth to make an appearance. He seems to go through a horrible teething stage but the teeth don't show up until months later.