The first day after the cry-out

So, I decided that now that Ryder is getting rice cereal in the morning and in the evening, he's not starving and he doesn't NEED to eat in the middle of the night. So I thought I'd see how it goes with trying to let him cry a little. We put him to bed for good at 7pm. At 1am he finally woke up, I caved and fed him. He went right back to sleep but was up again at 330. He fussed for the first ten minutes, but then he started to really cry at 340. I would go over to his pack n play every five minutes or so (he was in his pack n play in the living room downstairs so that dad wouldn't hear him all night. Mom slept on the couch by him) and give him his pacifier-which he refused to take and it would just tick him off even more. So I did that about three times and at 4am when I did it the third time he accepted the paci and fell right asleep! No need for feeding him.

After that, he woke up three times between that 4am time and when he got up for good at 8am. But each time I just gave him his paci and he fell right back asleep, which he never does. So he only fed one time between when we put him to bed at 7pm and when he was up for the day at 8am. That's really good in my book, even though I was awake a TON and slept ZERO last night. We cut out two feedings the first night! I'm hoping it goes better tonight and the next and the next until he just sleeps. We'll see.

Tonight my goal is to not cave in at the midnight/1am feeding and let him cry it out. I never thought I would be the mom to let my child cry it out. But after five months of no sleep and ESPECIALLY the last two nights before this, I thought...okay I'll try A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G. to help. So I'll try again tonight like I said, so cross your fingers.

As usual....

My Flash Me Friday posting is not on time...typically I post on a Thursday or a Saturday or a Sunday even. And now we can add to the list: Monday. Oh well. I was really busy on Friday and then we left first thing Saturday morning for Alexandria, MN for my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary (50 years!! Joe and I are coming up on 2 years in October. Times that by 25...that's a loooong time!) and then we didn't get back till last night late. SO: better late than never. This week's Flash Me Friday is your dishes.

These are our dishes. Nothing special. Thank you to Target.

This is our dish cupboard. The blue plastic bowl that's in the center of the middle cupboard is from my Freshman year in the dorms. I love that bowl: the perfect cereal bowl. Joe would like me to get rid of it, but I just can't!

This is Ryder's cupboard. He already has so much crap with all of his bottles and now bowls etc. It's too hard to keep organized. So I just shut the door and forget about it :)

Weekend update

We went to the Haskins' cabin this weekend. Probably the last one of the summer in Park Rapids (I work Labor Day weekend...booo). It was absolutely gorgeous up there; also probably one of the nicest weekends we've had up North this year. There was some boating, kayaking, and a LOT of ice cream eaten ;) Here is a picture of Ryder riding in the car home. Just chillin like a homeboy.

I love this one with his bucket hat and swim trunks on...he's seems slightly annoyed, doesn't he?!

Anyways, so just as I was thinking about updating the blog saying that every person who ever told me that rice cereal helps a child sleep better at night was lying to me. It's all a bold-faced lie I tell you. (there is one exception--molly---who told me that it's not a guarentee. I chose to listen to the others who said it helped. Hey--I needed some sort of hope to hold on to, right?) Ryder still, even though we've been doing rice cereal every night for two weeks will still wake up 2 sometimes 3 times a night. stinker butt. BUT then (and it may be a fluke...but I hope not) last night I fed ryder and did his night time ritual of cereal, bath, nurse, bed. He was sleeping in his crib at 10pm. He slept until 530!!! then I fed him and I put him back down at 6am. I heard him chatting to himself for a little bit, but I fell back asleep. Then I woke up at 9am and went in there and he was already awake but was just staring at his little crib mirror. I LOVED it. So I'm sure you're thinking, wow, Carly got a GREAT night of solid sleep. Nope. Joe and I got into bed around 1045. My boobs woke me up a little after 3 because they were full. I pumped a little and tried to go back to bed around 345, but I was thinking he was going to wake up at any time to feed, so it was hard to fall back asleep. Then I finally fell asleep at some point and I woke up at 5 panicking because I thought Ryder MUST have been smothered otherwise there was no other reason I hadn't heard him yet. (thankfully, that wasn't the case). I guess I can't complain totally. I did sleep four hours straight before my boobies woke me up. Let's just hope this is not a one time only thing.

On one other side note, ryder is now doing every three weeks for physical therapy rather than every other. Progress!!! Have a great week everyone.

Flash Me (almost) Friday: catch up day

I am still a couple weeks behind everyone else on the whole Flash Me Friday thing. So I'm doing two this week to make up for it. And a day early because we're going to the cabin after I get off work tomorrow. First one: favorite piece of art. Second FMF: your garage. To join in on the fun, head over to Jen's blog!

In our whole entire house, this is our only piece of art. Compliments of Target. So since it's my only piece of art, I guess it's my favorite! The rest of our house is all picture frames with family pictures.

The second Flash Me Friday is your garage. It's not very organized. The boxes are a bunch of Joe's work files that haven't made it to the basement yet. And the black shelf is full of junk!

The third stall of our garage doesn't have much in it. Just garbage cans, strollers, lawn chairs, a grill (we need a deck someday to put that grill on). The standing tool box is NOT ours. It's my brother's. It's currently being stored at our house and that's okay because we can use some of his stuff (not that we're handy by any means, but we can pretend). The hub cap is from my trusty old Camry is still with us as a souvenir too!

Flash Me Friday: Open your front door

Flash Me Friday: Open your front door. What do you see?? To join the fun, head over to Jen's blog to see what it's all about!

Open the front door...

Look to the left....a sitting room that we don't use that often!

To the right, a 1/2 bath and a little bench...

Have a great weekend! I work, so you can imagine how mine will be...

Screetching Ryder

Here's a video from about a month or so ago I just found. It's the first time Ryder really found his voice and was screetching for a bit with Daddy.

Ryder is not a fan of rice cereal...

Apparently rice cereal tastes bad...a little video clip for your enjoyment...(2 videos actually...they go together)

Now, watch the next video of his continued hatred towards rice cereal. We're going to have to wait a bit and try again another day. Haha.

Weekends go too fast

Once again a weekend comes and goes so fast. Too fast. I shouldn't complain because we started our weekend early too! Thursday morning we took off at about 7am for Park Rapids to go to the cabin (sorry, no flashing this week because we were gone!). The weather was okay on Thursday, but it was absolutely stunning on Friday--a perfect summer day! Then we came back Saturday afternoon for our friends Kelly and Brian's wedding. It was also another great day and it was fun seeing people even though it wasn't for too long because we had to get back to little Ryder. We stayed till about 10pm though...pretty good by my standards considering the last wedding we only stayed till 8pm...

Tonight is our first night trying rice cereal. I seriously can't wait :)

Ryder's 4 month appointment

This afternoon we had Ryder's 4 month appointment. I HATE doing shots, it's so sad to watch him go from smiling and cooing to instantly screaming. Actually, more like not breathing. He cries so hard his face turns into a tomato and he doesn't breath. Luckily I have two perfectly good calming tools called "breasts". So right after they give the shots, Joe hands him to me and I put him to the boob and it calms him down within about 30 seconds. Then he was fine--fell asleep right away in his carseat on the way home. Hopefully he won't spike a fever or be crabby tonight. Poor buddy!

On a better note, he weighs 16 lbs, 2oz (75th percentile). Two months ago he weighed 12.5lbs (70%). He is 25 and 1/4 inches long (65%). At two months, he was 23 1/2 inches (70%). So he's a healthy "chow hound" as the pediatrition called him! She also asked if he's sleeping through the night, in which I promptly replied NO to. He still enjoys eating at 1030, around 230 or so, and again around 530 to 6am. The pediatrition gave us the okay to start him once a day on rice cereal at bedtime to see if it will fill his tank longer and hopefully help him skip that 2am feeding. She said he probably isn't satisfied enough and that's why he's still waking up to feed. And trust me, it's not that I just walk right in there and scoop him up and feed him. I try to put him back to sleep by giving him his paci, rocking him, sometimes even just letting him talk to himself and try to get himself to put himself back to sleep. 9 times out of 10, it doesn't work and I finally feed him and he acts like he's never eaten before in his life. SO, it's not a guarentee that he will sleep better with the rice cereal, but I'm hoping it does anyways!

I'll try to take some video of him eating rice cereal for the first time and post it for you all the enjoy with us :) Take care...

Thanks Amy Grace :)

Amy Grace (my sister-in-law) came over the other week to take some pictures and test out her sweet camera for Ryder's 3 month pictures. There are a ton to pick, but here are just a couple of my favorites.

Look at that little booty :)

I LOVE that face (and belly)!