Crying it out

The last week has been an interesting one for our family at bedtime. Luke has had a little case of collic since he was tiny. It was scary because he would choke a lot at night (from his spit up - I guess this choking is caused by colic). So the doctor told us it would help to have him sleep in his car seat so his head would be elevated. It helped that he LOVED sleeping in his car seat. We would swing him in it to sleep and he would be out in like 2 minutes. So we had him sleeping in his carseat, with the carseat sat inside his bassinet next to our bed. Then I started bouncing or rocking him to sleep everynight and also at nap times. He'd fall asleep in my arms, and then i'd set him down in his car seat to sleep. But as he was getting older this was taking longer and longer, I would bounce him for probably around 20 minutes each time I put him to sleep, and then when I went to set him down half of the time he would wake up and I have to do it all over again!

He hasn't done the chokey colic thing for a couple weeks so we decided it was time to move him out of the carseat so he'd be sleeping flat. He has outgrown his bassinet, so we decided we'd have him start sleeping in his crib. We knew this would probably be a hard transition, so we decided we'd do it all at once - move him in his crib AND stop bouncing/rocking him to sleep so he can learn to put himself to sleep. But we didn't know how hard it would be!

I HATE letting him cry, and those first two nights were SO HARD! The first night we just had to let him cry, me standing by his bed because I didn't want to leave him in there all alone. I think he cried for about 2 hours straight, then finally feel asleep. I thought he had it! No way...he was up a half hour later, and went through the whole thing all over again. He didn't cry as long this time, but same thing. And this went on all night long. Poor baby!! I felt so bad for him...he must have just been so uncomfotable being used to feeling all snug sleeping in the car seat, plus me not bouncing him anymore. But I knew we had to stick it out. I don't think I realized how hard it would be for me to move him into his own room...even when he finally was asleep I was still walking into his room checking on him every 10 minutes! The next night we put his mattress on the floor and I set up a bed on the floor next to him. It was too hard the night before with me going in and out of his room all night, I figured I might as well sleep in there! This night wasn't quite as bad, he fell asleep faster in the beginning but he was still up almost every half hour, going through it all again.

The next day we went down to St. George for Memorial Weekend and we decided we had to stick to having him sleep flat (this time in his pack and play bassinet) and not rocking him to sleep so it wouldn't undo everthing we had been working on, and we thought it was going to be horrible, and he'd keep the whole house up all night! But amazingly enough, he slept...good! He fell asleep after only about 20 minutes of crying and only woke up once to eat! Same thing the next two nights we were down there, but he even fell asleep faster!

So we have conquered it. He still fusses a bit when he's put down but usually for only a few minutes, and then falls right to sleep! It is great! Only problem...all the sudden the last two nights he is waking up again every 2-3 hours to eat! I don't know what is going on! Is he still adjusting to the new bed...or is he just really hungry? We had him eating rice cereal but suddenly one day he decided he didn't like it and he just spits it out, so maybe he's not full enough at night? I don't know...but now I'm starting to remember how tiring it is to wake up that often to feed! Hopefully he gets sleeping longer stretches again soon!

But the good news is he is sleeping good in his very own crib! Only 4 1/2 months later :). Here is a picture of him sleeping today during his nap...

Family pictures

My sister took some family pictures for us over the weekend. We took lots of pictures (it's hard to get a good shot with the baby looking at the camera and everything) and we were lucky Luke held out till the very end. We ended up getting a few good ones.

First Disneyland trip!

My parents were so nice to take the family on vacation to Southern California earlier this month. Luke's first Disneyland trip! We went to Disneyland, California Adventures, Universal Studios, the Wild Animal Park, and also went to the beach. We had a BLAST! It was a lot of fun to spend time with the family and of course do the highlight of the trip...Disneyland!

This trip was Luke's first plane ride and he did pretty well both ways. We were a little anxious to see how he would do at the theme parks and everything, but he actually did really good! He is the youngest person in our family to go to Disneyland. He went on quite a few rides at Disneyland, I think he really liked the bright colors and the music on them. We had 7 people wanting to hold and play with Luke the whole time so he was getting non-stop attention. When he got tired he'd just fall asleep in the stroller. It worked out great!

The first day there we went to the beach. 

The next day was our first day at Disneyland. Luke was able to go on a few rides with us...he went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (I thought he'd be scared but he didn't cry at all!), Storybook Land, and the Casey Jr. Train.

The next day we went to Universal Studios. Luke didn't go on any rides here because they are pretty much adult rides. But we got some fun pictures of him!

The next day... California Adventure. We also watched the Disneyland parade that night back over at Disneyland and we had a great spot right up close. Luke liked watching all the bright colored floats go by!


Next day was Wild Animal Park.


Friday was our last day at parks and we did Disneyland for the first half of the day and California Adventure the second half. We had already done most of the rides we wanted to go on so we did some of them again. We took Luke on the Teacups, Peter Pan's flight, the Merry-go-round, and the Pooh Bear ride. He started crying in both Peter Pan and Pooh Bear (they were both dark rides so I think he got a little scared) but he seemed to really like the teacups and the Merry-go-round! We went back over to California Adventure and did our favorite rides there again, and drew some more pictures. That night we went back to Disneyland for the firework show and Fantasmic. The firework show was awesome! Fantasmic was really cool too.

Rice cereal...yum yum!

Monday Luke had his 4 month Pediatrician appointment (he turned 4 months last Saturday). At the appointment the doctor told me I could try giving him some rice cereal and see if he likes it. I was pretty excited, it's so fun when they graduate onto new things like this! So yesterday I went to the store and got some baby food, we set up the highchair, and we got all ready to go for Luke's first "solid" meal tonight.

I pretty much expected him to spit it out and not know what to do with it, but he actually really liked it. He didn't even make a funny face with it, just slurped it down (getting some on himself in the process). About half way through he started really getting into it and when I wouldn't get the cereal in the spoon and to his mouth fast enough he would start getting all antsy and whining for it, and the second I brought it to his lips he would just slurp it down. It was pretty funny. Probably about half of it ended up on his face, bib and hands (his hands are ALWAYS in his mouth lately sucking on his fingers!) He would get done eating a bite and then stick his hands right back in his mouth to suck on those fingers. This of course added to the mess, but that's all part of the fun right! 

Pictures!

Yesterday I was at my parent's house and my mom and Jamie and I decided to take some pictures of Luke. They turned out cute.