Sleep is Good

Carter always has his legs sticking out the slats of his crib.

This past work week Carter slept through the night every single night.  It was amazing!  I couldn't believe how much more energy I had and how much better I felt.  When Carter went to bed I actually got quite a bit done.  I got chores done around the house and stuff done for school.  Before I was doing good to sit my tired self down on the couch and type up a blog post.  I hope we are on to sleeping through the night most nights from here on out!  I didn't realize how tired I was until I wasn't tired anymore.  It's crazy what your body gets used to!

Snuggles with daddy during naptime.

That Scary Moment

Most moms I’ve talked to have told me about that panicked feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night, your baby is still sleeping, and you are sure he/she is dead.  I had never had that feeling.  The only times I could think of when I woke up without Carter crying to eat were in the hospital right after he was born when I would wake up about 15 minutes before each of his feedings.

I finally had that moment last night.  I woke up panicked with my body telling me something was wrong (a perk of breastfeeding for sure).  The first thought that went through my head was, oh my gosh, Carter must be dead!  I’m pretty sure my heart stopped beating as I frantically reached out for his monitor and pushed the button to see the video.  Can I say again how thankful I am to have a video monitor, otherwise I would have lumbered not at all gracefully into his room and probably in my crazed state, pulled him right out of his crib!  I looked at him and thankfully he wasn’t in a deep sleep so he twitched his arms.  Thank heavens, a sign of life!

Assured that Carter was in fact alive, I checked the time.  4:00!!!!  Say what?  Carter had been asleep for 8 hours, 8 whole glorious hours?!!  As much as I would have loved to go back to sleep, there was just no way.  I thought about getting up to pump, but didn’t want to have to clean all the parts for my morning pump session.  Instead, I laid in bed sure that Carter would wake up soon.  45 minutes later the little man was ready to eat.  I was so thankful he was hungry and went back to sleep right after he ate.  I am still in awe that he slept for 8 hours and 45 minutes last night!  What a little stud!  I ended my morning pump session with 13.5 ounces.  I’m hoping my body will regulate itself once he starts sleeping even more or I will be in trouble!

Just because he's so darn cute!

Darn Daylight Savings!

Last night Carter went to sleep at 8:30.  He has been sleeping for 4-5 hour stretches when he goes down at night.  So normally he gets up at around 1 am for a feeding.  Last night when I woke up, I looked at my phone and saw it was 3:30.  I got so excited and couldn’t believe he had slept for 7 whole hours.  I was tempted to wake Ty up to tell him I was so impressed.  When he sleeps for a longer stretch he usually only adds an hour at a time, this time he added 2 hours.  What a big boy!  Then I started thinking about it more while I was feeding him.  I realized it was Daylight Savings so he actually slept 6 hours instead of 7, which is also really good, but I was disappointed.  So this morning I say, Darn you Daylight Savings Time!

Carter just says nap time!

Everybody Loves Carter!

This weekend we traveled to Topeka so Carter could meet lots of family on his daddy’s side for the first time.  Ty had taken Thursday and Friday off work and we planned to leave Thursday morning.  Unfortunately, while we received only about an inch of snow that was mostly melted the next day, Topeka got over a foot of snow and some highways in Kansas were even closed.  So our trip was postponed by a day and we left Friday morning instead.

Carter got to meet both sets of great grandparents, 2^nd cousins, great aunts, a great uncle, and some good friends!  My brother Thomas also made the 2 hour trip to visit with his nephew for the weekend.  It is such an awesome thing to see how much Carter is loved by so many people!  I love sitting and watching the joy he brings to their hearts.

Four Generations: Ty, his dad, Carter, Ty's grandpa.

Carter is smiling and cooing quite a bit now.  This past week he’d smile here and there during the day, but not a whole lot.  This weekend he really hammed it up for all his new pals, smiling all the time and talking.  I love how much he is growing up!  

Grandma and Grandpa

 I also love how much more he is sleeping.  We had gotten to the 4 hour mark with overnight sleep a few weeks ago.  Last night he slept for 5!  We have been sleep training.  It is hard to set the timer and listen to him cry, but we can tell it is working.  Each night he has cried less.  

Granparents, Parents, Great Grandparents

 We had been dealing with a midnight bedtime.  I would rock him to sleep and put him down, he’d sleep 15-30 minutes, he’d cry, I’d get him, rock him again and it would cycle back around.  We’d start at 9:00 and go until 12:00.  One night this process continued until 2 am and I was losing it!  I decided it was time to stop rocking him.  When he would start crying I’d set a timer for 5 minutes.  At the end of 5 minutes I would go in give him his pacifier (he only takes it at nap and nighttime), sing to him a bit, and leave.  I couldn’t believe it the first night when he was asleep at 11:30!  We slowly worked from 11:30 to 11:00 to 10:30 to 10:00 last night.  Tonight I’m hoping for 9:30.