Luke Stylin'!

Back when Luke was 3 months old, daddy was determined to get a great shot of him in his Old Navy baseball cap that Mamaw gave him. As you can see, we got quite the memorable pose!



Luke's noggin' is now too big for this cap. Oh well. Lots of brains in there!

(Can you tell that we just downloaded the last several months worth of photos?!)

My Favorite Photo of Luke

Here is my precious baby playing in his exersaucer around 4 months old. He's such a ham!

We've all been sick

EArly last week, Marty and I were fighting off colds. It didn't get too bad, and we were feeling better by Wednesday or so. Then on Thursday, Luke came down with a bad cold and had it much worse than we did.

He's been so congested; he can hardly breathe through his nose at all. When he sneezes... watch out! Snot goes everywhere! He fusses off and on, in between laughing and playing with his toys. He's been in surprisingly good spirits, considering. But in the evening, he just cries and cries. We figure he must feel worse at night.

The pediatrician's office recommended the vaporizer, saline nose spray, and letting him sleep upright. He's too young for a decongestant, so we've been giving him baby tylenol once or twice a day. He's been sleeping in his bouncy seat, and we put it in his crib so he can still see his little aquarium that plays the soft music while he falls asleep. Getting him to sleep has been tricky the last few nights, but fortunately, he's been sleeping throught he night between 8-10 hours while sick. We're very grateful for that!

Then yesterday, I woke up feeling especially cruddy. I'm stuffed up, achy, tired and have a bad sore throat. I didn't sleep well last night and hope to get to bed early tonight. The good news is that Luke is breathing much better today. Marty is off for President's Day, so Luke gets to hang out with daddy while I'm working at the church and teaching this evening at Clark State.

Luke Slept 12 Hours!

Last Monday night, Luke slept from 9:30 pm to 9:30 am! Woohoo! And it was a snow day for Marty, so we all got to sleep in and have a lazy day being snowed in.

Luke seems to sleep around 9 hours per night on average. He's usually in bed between 9:30 and 10:30, and is up between 7:00 and 8:30 am. I can sure handle that schedule! It's so nice not having to get up for middle of the night feedings any more. Thank you, Lord, for such a good and easy baby!

Sleeping through the night

Luke has been sleeping through the night fairly consistently for the past couple of weeks. He still won't go to bed at the same time, but at least he sleeps until 7:00 or 8:00, which is a real blessing. He seems to be a bit of a night owl, though, and will not go to bed any earlier than 9:30 pm. We've tried to put him down earlier, but he just screams and wants to be up. He's usually ready to sleep between 9:30 and 10:30 pm, but since I'm a night owl, too, I can handle that.

If Luke falls asleep around 7:30 pm and seems ready for bed, he'll be up again and ready to eat by 10:00 pm. He needs that extra feeding to get him through the night. He's now eating 6-8 ounces every 4-5 hours. He has quite the appetite and is right around 16 pounds!

Yesterday, he took a 3 hour nap from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, which was awesome. I was able to get a lot done around the house. Usually, Luke will only nap for 45 minutes tops, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. Sometimes, he still catnaps a little in the evening. The schedule is slowly becoming more regular, which is nice. A little predictability would come in handy.

He's been laughing like crazy, and his new thing is sticking his tongue out and squealing with laughter; it's adorable! He sure loves to jump and spin in his exersaucer. He has fun playing with his toys and squealing in that thing for about an hour at a time; he's precious to watch!

No More Rice Cereal for Awhile

We had a little scare this evening. Around 7:30 pm we gave Luke a 4 ounce bottle with about a tablespoon of rice cereal in it, which had been recommended by the pediatrician. About 20 minutes later he was just sitting in his bouncy seat happily playing with his toys. All of a sudden he started coughing and choking. We thought he'd be okay, but then no sound was coming out and he actually started to turn blue! Marty grabbed him out of the chair and I quickly threw him face down across my arm and whacked him on the back a couple of times. He coughed up a whole bunch of milk and some clumps which I think were cereal. It seems as if he must have spit up and then inhaled it. Once he started crying we were so relieved. It brought back horrible memories of him being resucitated after he was born.

Thank God he's okay. I've been a little paranoid to put him down the rest of the evening.

He's also started rolling from his back to his stomach, so we have to keep flipping him onto his back when he's in his crib for the night. He's been rolling from his stomach to his back since he was a week old, but it's as if he gets confused in his crib in the dark and forgets how to flip back. He just cries, and when we go in there, he's laying face down.

Please pray that he'll stay safe and that I won't get overly paranoid about needing to check on him constantly.

Luke's Crazy Schedule Continued

I'm trying really hard to get Luke to bed at the same time each night, but it's not working out. Some evenings he's wide awake and wants to stay up until after 10. Other evenings, he's ready to crash by 8:00.

The night before last, he drank 5 ounces at 6:00 pm, drank 3 more ounces at 8:00, then nursed at 9:00 and again at 10:30. The good thing was that he then slept from 11:00 pm until 8:00 am.

Last night, I gave him a bottle at 7:30 pm, then nursed him and had him in bed by 9:45. But, then he woke up crying at 11:00, and after 15 minutes of not settling down he needed to drink 2 more ounces. Then he was up again at 5:30 am and drank 6 ounces; then it was back to bed until 8:15. Craziness.

He has been taking around 3 naps each day, but they're not consistent. Some days he's up at 6:30 and others he sleeps until 8:00 am. He does get a morning and afternoon nap, but never at the same time, and they range from 30 minutes to about an hour long. He usually has an evening nap, too, which sometimes seems to be the longest nap of all.

I may try Anya's suggestion of putting him to bed much earlier, around 6:30 or 7:00 pm. Most of the time when he dozes off in the early evening, he's up again after about an hour.

I sure do appreciate all your advice and suggestions, though, so please keep them coming!