The sleep habits of Owen (and of me since I only get to sleep when he does)

This is one of those posts that's more for me to look back and remember with my next babies. So sorry if its long and boring , you don't have to read it. Just know sleep training a baby is hard!

When Owen was first born I thought I had lucked out with a good sleeper. He only woke up 1-2 times a night from the time we brought him home and would go right back to sleep after eating. He even slept through the night a couple of times. For the first little while we would rock and bounce him while he cried until 11 or 12 but then we finally realized he was just overly tired and would go to sleep much easier around 8. Also around this time (I can't remember exactly when but maybe 4 or 6 weeks) we found out how much he loved his swing he slept in it and napped in it everyday until he was over 5 months old.

When he was around 4 months it all got really bad. He started sleeping only 2 hours at a time ( on a good night) and refused to sleep in his crib. The only way he would sleep at all would be in our bed where I would just nurse him all night. I was waking up 10+ times a night and it was making me ornery! For the next two months it just got progressively worse. It took hours to get him to bed to only sleep for thirty minutes.

We went to his 6 month check-up and the doctor said not to let him cry to sleep. When he woke up to just nurse him and rock him and treasure it because soon Owen wouldn't want me to rock him. I understand that.. But 10 times a night?! I don't think so. A week after that Clark talked me into letting Owen cry to sleep anyway. I was exhausted and at my wits end and was finally willing to try it. We got him ready for bed, rocked him until he was drowsy but still awake and put him in his crib. He cried for 40 minutes, it was so sad. We checked on him every 5 minutes. Let's be honest, Clark checked on him every time because I just wanted to pick him up. He actually threw up because he was crying for so long , which made me cry. But finally he fell asleep and slept through the whole night! It was amazing! The next night he cried for 8 minutes and slept through the night again. After that he never cried for more than a few minutes. He didn't usually sleep through the night though and I would get up and feed him once. But I'd take it! It was so much nicer!

Since then he's gone through phases where he doesn't sleep as good. When we went to Logan over thanksgiving for two nights it threw him off and then I took him to Ohio for a week and it threw him off even more. Or when he got an ear infection at christmas time and started waking up really early. but it never takes him long to get back on track. By Christmas he was sleeping 10-13 hours straight at night. I stopped feeding him during the night and that's when I stopped breast feeding for good. He was also taking two 1-2 hour naps a day and still is.

Owen is funny.
The earlier we put him to bed the later he'll sleep in. When we put him to bed at 7:15 he'll sleep until 8 or 8:30 but when we put him to bed at 8 or 9 he'll wake up at 6 or earlier. It's hard to be home that early to make sure he gets to bed on time every night, but if we don't we're kicking ourselves in the morning.

I wish sleeping was easier with babies and I wish we could count on them sleeping from this time to this time every single day and take a nap at the same time. But every day is different, just like it is with us. Sometimes we have a hard time falling asleep and sometimes we wake up a lot during the night. I just try to remember that with Owen, and try not to expect too much from him :)

Also, Owen falls asleep in the funniest positions. When I go in to check on him sometimes I Just have to laugh. This is my favorite. Foot up on the crib, arm hanging out.. I love him.

All the Holidays combined into one super long post...

This year was awesome. I loved it all. I wish I was more on top of things and did a post for everything but alas..

Thanksgiving was awesome. I had to work (so lame) so our plans to spend it with Clark's family in Logan were ruined. But that meant we got to spend it with my family which I always love.

I worked until about 1:30 and we made it to my family's house right in time to eat. All the Sam's were there and all the food was soo yummy! We ate and then everyone hung out. We played werewolf and skyped with Amy and Hillary.

Owen had such a good time. He liked trying bites of the sweet potatoes and rolls but hated the mashed potatoes. He especially loved the chocolate cream pie, his face after his first little bite was priceless. Pure joy.
Is it bad that I'm already getting him hooked on sweets?

Owen with his pilgrim hat

Hanging out with Aunt Bren and Cousin Lizzy

Meeting his cousin (second cousin?) Kennedy. She's almost 2 years old and is the same size as Owen!

This picture is terrible, but it's the only one of me and Owen on Thanksgiving.

He was SO tired when we got home. He NEVER falls asleep like this.

We got to spend the weekend in Logan visiting Clark's family. We hung out, the boys went to a football game, me and Owen went shopping with Heather, we had cheesecake for my birthday. We all had a good time and Owen loves seeing his uncles and grandparents that he doesn't get to see as often. I'm sad these are the only pictures I got.

Swinging in the backyard

I loved this outfit. I'm sad he's outgrown it already :(

Love this picture of Owen with his Great Grandpa Cederlof

We were lucky enough to go to Temple Square with my old roommate Amber, who I hadn't seen since we were roommates at Snow College. It was so much fun to get to catch up with her and meet her husband, Jordan.

My favorites.

Amber and Jordan

We had the Sam family party in Vernal. We ate turkey and Santa came, then we had a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up with a bag of snickers and Clark got a tin of popcorn. Owen got a teething book from Santa. I didn't know Santa was coming and in so glad he did. It was Owen's first experience with him and he was so funny. From the moment we put him on his lap to the minute he walked out the door we couldn't get Owen to stop watching him. He just stared the whole time! Silly boy.

This is the best picture we could get, Owen did not take his eye of him the entire time!

Sisters! You can't tell in this picture, but we're all wearing colored skinny jeans. We planned it. We're cool like that.

I have the cutes grandparents.

Santa leaving in a cop car, just like when we were little.

Owen loved his first Christmas present of the year!

We had the annual Menlove Christmas party on Christmas Eve at my Grandma and Grandpa's. for the last two years instead of drawing names we have been doing a sub for Santa for different family's. It is such an awesome experience. I love going out and shopping for people that I know will be really grateful for and really need the gifts.

Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus

 After the party we went home, opened presents from siblings, gave our parents our gift to them, watched The Christmas Orange, the. Went down and watched The Santa Clause to go to bed. I'm surprised how well Owen slept away from home. He started stirring at 4 but didn't get up until 5:45 which is what time we all got up anyway (I know, crazy.) Owen absolutely loved waking up with everybody. We opened presents then went to Lori and Al's for breakfast. Then we spent the rest of the day hanging out and eating.

The family on Christmas Eve. It took us forever to figure out the timer. I also like how the date says 01/01/2007.

Owen pouting in the giant box.

his favorite toy.

There were a lot of Ohio State hats this year.

We got spoiled this year.
Owen got a little snake rattle from his G.G. and Grandpa Bob. Some play blocks from his cousins, a trike from the grandparents and a few outfits, a walker, and a singing puppy from us.

Clark got a new drill, a carhartt vest, an outfit, some new work clothes, some things for his drill..

I got a bundt cake pan, some super cute serving dishes, a book, some massage coupons, a video camera...

Like I said, spoiled!
Having a baby makes everything so much more fun and I loved every second of he holidays with my sweet little family :)

Ohio!

Back at the end of November Owen and I went to Ohio with my mom to visit Amy and her cute little family. I was really nervous about traveling with a baby and being away from Clark for the first time, but my mom helped so much and we had so much fun! The way there we had a layover in Denver. The first flight was pretty hard. There wasn't enough seats for Owen's carseat and the whole time he was tired and anxious and just wanted to move. The second flight was better. He napped for the first little bit. The trip home was a lot easier. He napped for he whole first flight and half of the second. But after he woke up he had the biggest blow out of his life. I had to take him into he tiny bathroom on the plane and put him on the tiniest changing table ever, which he hated. I only had two wipies left to try to clean him all up and then I didn't have a change of clothes for him so he had to go the rest of the trip in only his diaper and jacket. It was terrible, and so embarrassing!

Ohio was so much fun! Owen loved every minute of it. He loved his cousins. I've never heard him laugh so much as he did watching Kaleigh and Lily play.

He didn't sleep very well at all! I think it was a combination of not being in his own bed and sharing a room with me and my mom. I felt bad for my mom getting woke up so much, but she was great at helping out and didn't complain at all :)

My new nephew, Benson, was such a perfect baby. I only heard him cry a couple times the whole week we were there. He would sit in his bouncy seat and put himself to sleep and didn't even cry when he woke up. He is the cutest baby with the cutest little scrunched up face and so much black hair!! I can't wait until him and Owen are older. They will be best cousins and have so much fun playing in the tree house their grandpa made them :)

I just have to give a shout out to my brother-in-law, Jeff, he is awesome! He is such a good dad and Husband. He did so much to help Amy while we were there. I hope Clark is as good as he is when we have our third baby :)

Me and Owen on his first ever plane ride

Meeting Benson

Owen could crush him.

Owen had such a blast with his cousins.

A little dark, but Lily was so excited to have a fire in her backyard to roast hot dogs.

On their way to church

They have the best Grandma

Making Gingerbread houses

Lily's Gingerbread house.

Kaleigh's house.

 

 

 

 

I love this little guy!

Catch up time

When I started this blog I wanted to write everything down that happened with Owen, now I'm already falling behind! We've had a great few months and Owen is getting so big!! Here are a few of his newest achievements:

•He started army crawling at about 7 months. Although he can really crawl now, he still usually prefers the army crawl if he wants to get somewhere quicker. It's the cutest thing watching him scoot around while trying to keep his toy, binky, or whatever in his hand.

•He finally started sleeping through the night at 9 months. 8-7 baby! Although he is having a hard time at the moment because he's a little sick :( I think sleeping is the hardest thing about having a baby. I don't do good without my sleep. But I think his sleeping habits need a post for itself :)

• He's been on a pretty good napping schedule since 6 1/2 months but now at 9 1/2 months he's finally napping in his crib!

• at 9 months he learned to crawl up stairs and and pull himself up on furniture.

• He is waving at 9 months and is really good at putting his binky in his mouth. He likes to try to put it in my mouth also.

• I thought he was teething at 8 months because he was fussy a lot, wouldn't sleep, and his shirt was always soaking with drool. No teeth yet, though.

• We stopped breast feeding at 8 1/2 months. I take it back, sleeping isn't the hardest thing about having a baby, breast feeding is. I've never done anything harder. We had problems from the beginning and nothing can make you feel like a bigger failure than not being able to feed your baby. I was sad to be done, but relieved. I'm more glad to be done with pumping. I hated pumping.

I think that's about it... He continues to be such a good eater. He eats cereal and a whole jar of baby food for breakfast and dinner and another jar for lunch. Things just get easier and easier as time goes on. Everyone has their favorite baby stage, but I haven't found mine yet. Every new stage Owen comes to I like better than the one before.