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i have been a grinch lately because jonas’ sleep at night has been driving me nuts while we’ve been on vacation in houston. before the trip, jonas was consistently sleeping a 5-7 hour stretch at night. the past week, jonas has been going about 3 hours between feedings. the past few nights, he’s been crying out between feedings for 10-20 minutes. put this all together, it makes for a long night. i thought that after a few days, after jonas’ growth spurt, he’d go back to normal because he did so well adjusting in colorado and the fact that his naps were going pretty well after his 2-3 days of fussiness. he actually has gone down easier here in houston for his naps than he was back at home, crying only 5-10 minutes. it’s been almost a week, and he’s still waking up every 3 hours, and i don’t know why. i think that he should be adjusted to the new environment by now, and i think he should be over his growth spurt. i’m not sure if it’s because he’s really hungry or something else is bothering him. he has slept a 8-3AM stretch twice since we’ve been here, but it’s definitely not the “norm”. it puts me in a bad mood because i know that he can sleep longer and i don’ t know why he’s not.
i’ve been trying to pray more (ironically, the night that i prayed with my husband is one of the nights he did a long stretch) and to be content with the current situation. i know that my grumpiness/frustration has affected my attitude and preventing me from really enjoying parts of my day. this morning, i felt better about jonas’ night sleep, and i’m hoping that i can have a more “go-with-the-flow” attitude. i have to remind myself that jonas is still pretty young and is changing a lot. i was also reminded today to be thankful that jonas was sleeping so well and long before, at a young age. i also was reminded to be thankful that i have so much help during the day so despite a long night, i have lots of help during the day so i can rest. i do hope, however, that jonas does get back to his more “normal” self at night. 😛
sean, on the other hand, has been a champ this trip. he adjusted right away, like he normally does. he’s taken a nap almost every day, and he’s been doing well with his sleep. 🙂
we are now about halfway through our vacation in houston. it’s gone by so fast with so many visitors and time with family. i’m going to be sad when it all ends. on my first night here in houston, i told my husband that i was already feeling sad that we’d have to leave. i love the help that grandparents provide and the nice break that i get from being on call 24-7. 🙂
our travel day on the 23rd went relatively well despite the fact that sean was coming down with a cold. sean did pretty well on the plane, though i will say i was glad to get off the plane and arrive at my parents house. jonas did well on the plane, though he didn’t take very long naps. mr. and mrs. r stopped by in the afternoon with their daughter izzy. it was nice to see them, though it was a little crazy with the boys adjusting.
we had a long day Christmas eve because jonas didn’t sleep well the night before, and he was pretty fussy that day. i felt a little bad that the grandparents had to see jonas so fussy. i kept saying to them, “he’s really not that fussy all the time”. we had a nice day, despite the fussiness, and a nice dinner with my cousin.
Christmas morning, i woke up early in anticipation of the presents. 🙂 i know, i’m still a child at heart. sean got the most presents, and it was so sweet to see him open all of his gifts. he got some toy cars (both big and small), books, a rocking horse, a plastic tricycle/motorcycle, a baseball set, and firetrucks (big and small). i think sean caught on to the idea of presents because he was picking at the wrapping paper the night before. he definitely enjoyed playing with all his new gifts.
we had some more visitors throughout the weekend; a lot of my college friends. i must admit, i was pooped with all the visitors and balancing my time between trying to catch up and watching the kids. i’m so thankful for my husband because he took care of the kids most of the time so that i could hang out with my friends. 😛
the past couple of days, we’ve just spent time with our family. it’s been nice to have the grandparents play with the kids so that my husband and i can spend time doing what we’d like to do. we actually got to go out to watch a movie last night, the blind side. 🙂 it was nice to just have a night out. 🙂
we went over to visit the j’s today because we hadn’t seen them in awhile. it was a great excuse to let them see jonas since they hadn’t seen them since he was born. it was great to see all of them. we got to see all of their kids except for rachel.
we had a great time catching up. i forget how much i love the j family. abby, susy, karis, and peter were great at helping me with sean and jonas. sean definitely took a liking to peter and just wanted to sit next to him the whole time. at dinner, sean wouldn’t move into the dining room until he saw that peter was coming too. it was so sweet. 🙂
we also got to catch up with the older kids and mr. and mrs. j. it was nice because they were making Christmas cookies and they offered us some. they were all delicious. when we were about to leave, mrs. j asked if we wanted to stay for dinner. i loved the impromptu-ness and family-feel to the invitation. we were happy to stay. in fact, i wasn’t sure what we were going to do about jonas’ nap because we were planning to go out to eat, but it was also his nap time. it was great timing, and my husband and i didn’t have to feel rushed at dinner. jonas managed to take a catnap in his carseat while we were eating dinner.
after he woke up, many of the j girls held and watched jonas and sean for us. sarah and abby managed to get jonas to laugh! it was the first time we’d seen jonas laugh. sarah was holding jonas so that he was facing abby, and abby was making noises and holding jonas laugh. it was so sweet to hear him laugh and see him with sarah and abby. actually, almost all the j girls were able to make jonas smile. 🙂 he’s such a ladies man.
it was a fun night of fellowship with j family, and we can’t wait to see them again!
we celebrated Christmas this morning at our house since we’ll be with my family over Christmas. we started our morning by telling sean about the birth of Jesus using sean’s children’s Bible. we sang three Christmas hymns and then got ready for breakfast. my husband thanked God for sending Jesus as our prayer before breakfast. sean really enjoyed our breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and the homemade almond danish. my heart melted as i watched sean eat and enjoy his breakfast. he just sat their quietly eating.
after breakfast, we opened presents. sean, by far, received the most presents. it was very sweet and cute watching sean open presents. he doesn’t quite understand that he gets presents at Christmas (which is great!), so sean would open one present and want to just play with that present. we had to encourage him to open his other presents. he really liked all of his presents, which were mostly from my in-laws. 🙂
i had a nice time spending time with my family and just watching sean play with all his toys. 🙂
jonas started blowing raspberries two days ago. it’s been pretty non-stop buzzing at our house. i must say i’ve been laughing a lot hearing him buzzing. 🙂
* bonus points if you know what this post title is referring to.
i thought i’d write a sleep update since we started training jonas. we started on halloween when jonas was 7 weeks.
7-11 weeks
during the day, i would try to soothe jonas until he was mostly asleep and then put him down. sometimes he’d fuss/cry, sometimes he wouldn’t. if he did end up crying, he would cry for 30 minutes or less. most of the time, it was less than 30 minutes. my husband and i would go in after 30 minutes of crying and try to resoothe on the occasions that he was still crying. sometimes he’d go to sleep, sometimes he wouldn’t. most of the times he wouldn’t go back to sleep occurred in the evening during his fussy period (5-7pm).
jonas showed a huge improvement at night. when jonas was a newborn, he’d have one night every week where he was just up for an hour or two. he didn’t cry or fuss too much except for the last 20-30 minutes, but he wouldn’t be asleep. between 7-11 weeks, he definitely had less of those nights.
jonas was also getting much better at going right back to bed when i put him down after a night feeding. before, the process of changing him, feeding him, and getting him back to sleep could take almost an hour. as the weeks went by, the time grew shorter. by 7 weeks, and maybe before, we stopped changing his diaper at night. we would also just put him down regardless if he was asleep or not after a feeding. if he cried, he would cry himself back to sleep. i honestly don’t remember nights where jonas had to cry himself back to sleep. there were times where jonas was awake when i put him down, and he would just go back to sleep with a little fussing or none at all.
11-12 weeks
when we went to colorado for thanksgiving, jonas fell asleep a lot more easily. he took about 10-15 minutes to fall asleep if he was crying. there were more and more occasions where he didn’t cry hard, but rather just fussed to go to sleep. he still had a hard time taking a nap during his fussy period, but there were occasions where he would catnap during that time. jonas started putting himself more of a routine of 3 naps a day, sometimes 4. the length of his naps are variable, but usually he gave me one good nap of 1-3 hours.
jonas started to sleep longer at night, though not consistently. he did great at putting himself back to sleep without crying at night if he was awake after a feeding.
13 weeks
we’re at 13 weeks now, and jonas is doing pretty well at putting himself to sleep. most of the time, he’ll fall asleep with 10-15 minutes of crying. i’ve been putting him down awake more often, and he seems to be doing well. the past 3 times i’ve put him down, he’s been awake and just fussed a little before going to sleep!
jonas seems to have put himself more in a routine for his naps. he’s usually up 1-1.5 hours, and he’ll usually take two good naps of an hour each. he usually catnaps for his 3rd nap and goes to bed around 7:30-8pm. we try to put him down between 5-7 if he needs a nap then, but usually he doesn’t take that nap.
his nighttime sleep is still random, but on average, he’ll give me at least one 5 hour stretch at night. there are nights where he’ll sleep only 3 hours, other nights he might give me 7. it’s still hard to predict what he’ll do. 😛
sean hasn’t been one for stuffed animals until now. the past month, he’s been bringing some stuffed animals into bed with him. first, it started with “bay-r” (bear). then, he added “chu chu” (piggie in mandarin). then, he added “two ze” (rabbit in mandarin) and “ya ya” (duck in mandarin). i think it’s cute that he started wanting to sleep with his animals.
this morning, my husband said that sean had been awake for awhile. when he went in to get him up, sean was sitting in the corner of the bed talking with his animals. if his animals can keep him entertained for an extra 15 minutes in the morning, i’m all for it! 🙂
i am a little worried that sean will get attached to certain animals and then we accidentally lose one. unfortunately, i don’t know where to get duplicates of bear or rabbit, so i hope he doesn’t get overly attached to those!
jonas smiling. it totally makes it worth it when they start smiling at you. it just melts your heart!
uncle ethan and aunt anne taught sean how to do “thumbs up” at thanksgiving. here’s sean showing off his new skill. 🙂
sean painting for the first time today. he definitely loved it!
on saturdays and sundays we watch football on tv. sean has become quite the football fan*. this sunday, sean started to imitate the players. when the players would line up, sean would bend his knees and squat. when the ball was hiked, he’d start running around the room. it was too cute. 🙂
* i think my husband would still prefer that sean like real football (aka soccer) over american football. unfortunately, we don’t have cable, so we can’t really watch many football games.
we’ve been having a mini-battle with sean at naps and bedtime for the past month. almost every night, before right after we leave, sean starts crying for something.
it first started with sean taking off his blanket. we’d leave, and he’d throw it off and say, “bane-ket!”. we’d go in there, put the blanket on, and he’d go bed. after a few nights of this, we decided we weren’t going to go in there. we would explain to him that he had one last chance to tell us what he wanted us to do before we left. after a couple of days, the “bane-ket” battle was over.
our next battle, was “chu chu, bay-air” (pig, in chinese, and bear). sean started bringing these two stuffed animals into bed. before we’d leave, he’d throw them out of his bed. we’d try to put them back, but sean would be adamant and say “no chu chu bay-air”. we’d leave with pig and bear and close the door. as soon as the door was shut, sean would cry, “chu chu, bay-air”. we’d go back in there, and put them on his bed and he’d go to bed. after a couple of days of the “chu chu, bay-air” battle, we explained to sean that if he says no, that he doesn’t get pig and bear. if he wanted pig and bear, he needs to say “yes”. sean said he understood, but we went through a couple of days of him saying “no chu chu, bay-air”. we decided not to go back in, so he spent 20-3o minutes whining/crying before bed.
i thought we were done with this battle, but yesterday, sean started the battle with “no kee-suh” (no kiss). sean said he didn’t want a kiss from my husband last night. my husband tried to give sean a kiss anyways, but he just ran away. we said goodnight and left. sean immediately started crying “daddy kee-suh”. he spent 20 minutes crying/whining, 10 of which he was saying “daddy kee-suh”. my husband said to me after 10 minutes, “i bet he doesn’t even know why he’s crying anymore”. i agreed with him, until i went in at 10PM to put his blanket on him. sean sat up, and sleepily said, “daddy kee-suh”. i told him that daddy wasn’t there (he was at game night), and that i would give him a kiss. i thought the battle would begin again, but he just laid back down and went to bed. this morning, the first words out of sean’s mouth were “daddy kee-suh”.
my husband and i are exasperated with these mini-battles. on the one hand, we know that if we just go back in there for 10 seconds and give him what he wants, he’ll go back to bed. on the other hand, we don’t want to start a trend where he uses these tactics to extend bedtime; we also want to be consistent with letting him know that when we say we’re going to leave, we are leaving and not coming back. we go back and forth in wondering if sean understands what “no” means when he says it. it seems that he should be able to to understand, especially as he’s showing that he understands abstract concepts like time, colors, and numbers. he also shows us that he means “no” by running away or throwing things of what he doesn’t want. despite this, we’re still not sure because it seems that his immediate answer to things is “no”, even if he does want it. :sigh: these battles have definitely been an exercise in our patience. i think we’re going to continue to leave and not go back in hopes that he will learn what “no” means.
Our Sweet Ts 