Things, they are a'changin'

This week has been one of experimentation for our little family. Fortunately so far, its been going well. To recap:

We noticed a couple of weeks ago (specifically when my Mom and Granny came to visit - that LC was seeming to get hungrier - way to make the Momma look bad lol) - so we added breakfast to his daycare diet (to be fed after his first bottle of the day). That was last Thursday and Friday.

And we added a bigger dinner on Saturday night (a stage 3 meal and half of a stage 2 meal - start w/ the stage 3 heartier meal and stop when he says no more of the stage 2).

He was still up twice a night.

So by Tuesday this week we decided to up the anti and add in lunch at daycare. We were going to wait a week to see how he did w/ breakfast, but the continuous 2 wakeups a night were wearing on us and like I said in a previous post, after consulting a book and our parental brains and LC's belly, we decided more food was in order.

And after more food, was more sleep.

So this week we moved bedtime from 7:30-8:00 to 7-7:30, but lately he has proven to be exhausted at almost 7 on dot, sometimes 7:15.

So that means that by the time we all get home it is 6pm and we have 1 hour to play and have LC's dinner before it's bath, jammies, and bed! And let me tell you, that hour goes by FAST, but it is jam packed!

We practice standing, we practice balancing on furniture, and sometimes cruising on furniture, drinking from a sippy cup - still in training on this one - rolling the ball back and forth between us, army crawling, reading, and LOTS of hugs and kisses nad cuddles.

Then before we know it it is dinnertime and bedtime!

At first I felt extreme guilt at putting him to bed at what seemed to me, SO early, almsot TOO early. However, if we truly read his cues, he is clearly ready for bed at 7p and by clearly, I mean, dozing off with barely so much as a suck before the slumber overcomes him as I rock him in the glider! So clearly he needs his rest when he needs it, which is 7pm.

And you know what, *knock on wood*, we've had extreme success this week! As in LC now sleeps all night long - granted he cries out here and there but it is just him waking slightly in his sleep and adjusting then he's conked out again.

And in the parent world, folks, this is 3 hours that J and I have to make dinner, eat dinner,clean up, have dessert, watch tv together, read magazines, read books, pay bills, and just be husband and wife in the evening. Again, at first, I felt guilty about this, but J said to think of it in LC's terms, he needs his sleep, we need to give it to him, even if it is at 7pm.

So we have a new little routine in our house and I think we all really enjoy it!

I'm able to stay on top of laundry - doing one load a night - to keep it from piling up on the weekends - J is able to process his 203945204839 magazines which he finds relaxing & we have found we're both addicted to these singing shows 'The Voice' and yes, 'American Idol' so we watch tv, process mags, and do dishes etc on commercial breaks :)

And it's fun! It's our little family, and we're adjusting and maybe just maybe getting the hang of this parenthood thing.

It may all change tonite or tomorrow, but hey, what are you gonna do!

Roll with it :)