Playing in the Rain

It seems like to me that it hasn't rained a lot of time in Connor's life.  At least during the day when he would notice it.  Today it started pouring and I wanted to show Connor what it was like.  After showing him the downpour on the front porch, we went to look at it through our back door.  Connor then reached for the sliding door handle to try and open the door. 

After I opened it for him, he crawled out in the rain!  I thought maybe he would get upset, but he loved it.  He was splashing in the puddles on the patio.

 Then I took him to the front of the house (after taking off his soaked onesie) to let him splash around on the sidewalk.

 I then realized that there was a stream of water going through our gutter and I thought he would love to play in it, so I let him.  He really had a ton of fun.

He thought crawling on the road was really fun.

Sleeping Through the Night

My world has been transformed.  Last Friday, Connor was fighting going to sleep in my arms the way we have been doing it for his whole life.  Earlier that day he had taken both his naps in his crib, so I though, "What the heck?"  and put him down in the crib.  He rolled onto his side and fell asleep.  Patrick and I waited with bated breath to see if he would wake up upset to be on his own, or to eat, but he slept 12 hours until the morning and has every night since. 

It's astonishing how much this change in his sleeping habits has changed my life.  I get to spend a lot more along time with Patrick, but I miss him like crazy when he's sleeping away from me.   I have so much free time, but since I'm not comforting Connor through his naps, he sometimes sleeps for only 40 minutes.  When he poops or toots in his sleep, it wakes him up.  I'm not really sure if there's anything I can do to change that, but he usually will only have one of his naps be short if either of them is.

You would think that since he's not sleeping with me, I would be much more well rested, but I'm not.  I used to be forced to have 3-4 hours of down time during the day when I napped or read, and even thought he was still night nursing, it didn't really disturb my sleep very much.  Now I'm getting continuous sleep, but it's hard for me to nap or even make myself sit still when he is napping.  Today I napped during his first nap, but it was hard for me to go to sleep and when he woke up I felt really groggy.  I'm sure it will balance out soon and I'll figure out what time I need to go to bed to feel good.

Patrick doesn't like it when I post with no pictures, here's well-rested baby boy.

Dinner with Friends

Since implementing Connor's new schedule, we have realized how incredibly hard it will be for us to see our friends.  Some nights it's even hard for Patrick to see Connor before he has to go to bed.  Our best bet is the weekend during the day and to have people over to our house for dinner.

Wednesday we have our friends Britni and Jerod and their sons Parker and Porter over for pizza and it was so fun!  I love seeing them so much!  A little background, Britni used to be my room mate and Jerod used to be Patrick's room mate before we all got married.  We lived in the same apartment building and they got married the weekend after us.  We all went on our honeymoon together.  So we know them pretty well!  But we know how hard it is to do anything with children and Jerod and Britni leave town a lot to see their parents and siblings.

Parker is a little over 2 and Porter is 7 months old.  Connor loves them both!  Boys really are so rough and tumble and they all give each other abuse you wouldn't think they could stand, but they handle each other like champs.

 Porter and Connor

 Britni dual wielding babies

 Parker hugging his buddy

 Parker likes to force Connor to do what he wants.

Connor Right Now

Connor is doing really well on his new schedule.  It is fun to wake up with him in the morning and seeing Patrick for a little while in the morning and I love that he's able to take his afternoon nap by himself.

Last week after coming back from Chattanooga, Connor started having a seriously runny nose.  Then I started having a seriously runny nose and it turned into full blown sickness.  I got really sick!  It was the sickest I've been in a long time.  I was exhausted, and coughing like crazy (I still am).  Patrick got somewhat sick as well, and started sleeping in the guest room to help Connor sleep.  Connor got used to having all the extra room and we're still trying to figure out how to be comfortable.  He wants to sleep in positions that don't work with having my arm under him, but he doesn't want me to stop having my arm under him.  He also was waking up during his 3-4 AM feeding, so I was putting him in his own crib to sleep the last few hours of the night.  Last night he didn't wake up though and it was really hard for me to sleep.  I'm not sure if Connor is trying to transition to sleeping on his own or not.  I feel like he should be physically ready to not eat for at least 8 hours in the middle of the night, but I'm not totally sure how to get him to stop.  We'll figure it out though!

 He's so pretty.

 Reading at book in his cold weather clothes last week.

 Looking at the front yard.

 See, so pretty!

 We have so many irises in our yard, but these variegated one are so beautiful.

Easter

Connor had a great morning nap so he's letting me have some time on my own while he plays with toys.

He's so adorable!

During Easter weekend, we went to Chattanooga to spend time with our families.  Connor always has a lot of fun with Sani, Uncle Will, Aunt Sarah, Happaw, and Nana.  He loves Aunt Megan too, but he didn't get a chance to see her then.

 Connor with Happaw's new bike

 Connor climbing up the slide at the Pumpkin Patch

 Group shot!

 So cute!

 Connor and Aunt Sassy!

 Granmar kissed Connor on the cheek.

 Connor's first "egg hunt."

 Spontaneous clapping!

Granmar and Nana with Connor

Sleep

My sister-in-law Laura tried to get me to read the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Kids before Connor was born and when he was little.  Before he was born, I was too overwhelmed with the prospect of labor, I couldn't think beyond it.  I really wish I had and read a book about breastfeeding.  I think I would have had an easy first three months if I had.  I barely had any problems though, so it's no big deal.

Sleep however, has been our issue.  I have been sleeping with Connor for all of his naps and at night since he was born.  Well, maybe there were a few times I put him in his bouncer or swing, but I've pretty much been holding him since he was a wee thing.  For the most part, that's been fine.  A little annoying when we were at my mom's for vacations or when I had things that I would rather be doing, but it made me rest at the same time as him and I've gotten A LOT of reading done.

A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to change things.  He's almost a year old and I would like to be free when he's napping.  I got Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Kids for my Kindle and had my mind blown.  I realized that I was keeping Connor up at night to fit my schedule and it was messing with his naps, so he wasn't having a good morning nap and a very short afternoon nap. 

We shifted his schedule to the one suggested in the book and it is working great!  Now we all wake up together around 6 and we try to get Connor down by 7.  It's taken some getting used to and trial and error to figure out how to get him to sleep when it's still light outside, but I'm slowly figuring it out.

The other major change to Connor's sleep is trying to get him to sleep by himself for his afternoon nap.  After trying for 9 days, we were both exhausted, since he wasn't sleeping and it was making his night time sleep disturbed.  We took a break for a week and today was day two of our second attempt.  Both days he has cried for about 20 minutes and then slept for a half hour before waking up.  I've been getting him and sitting with him in the chair so he can finish his nap, but I hope the time he can sleep on his own will get longer and long.  I'm still trying to figure that part out.

As the result of him sleeping more and me getting more of a break, we've been enjoying our time together more and we love being able to spend time with Daddy in the morning.  I hope we can keep figuring things out and that soon both of his naps will be on his own so we can start working on him sleeping in his own bed at night!

So Very Busy

What can I say?  Connor is a handful.  He wants to type on the computer if I have it open, or be on my lap, or have me sit on the floor with him almost all the time.  I end up having the TV on just to distract him for a few minutes so I can eat. 

Sometimes he is pretty self-sufficient, but then I have to watch him to make sure he doesn't get into anything he's not allowed to.  He is responding really well to his warning words, "Not for Connor."  Sometimes he will freeze and look at me to see if I'm coming to get him, but sometimes the temptation is just too much and he will grab books off the shelf, or whatever else he wanted to do and when Patrick or I get him he yells at us in indignation.  It's pretty hilarious.  I'm also trying to teach him that some things are "yucky" as well as "not for Connor," like the toilet seat.