Luke's 2 Year Checkup

Luke went to the doctor today and fortunately didn't need to get any shots. He weighs a whopping 24.5 pounds and is a whole 32" tall. He's in the 10th percentile for weight and 15th for height. Oh well... so he's small for his size. But he's in the 85th percentile for his head circumference!

The pediatrician gave us a great idea for getting rid of Luke's binky. She had us put the 7 extra ones away and simply cut the entire tip off one and give it to him. He just looked at it, tried to put it in his mouth, sucked air, and handed it back to me. That was it. He picked it up a couple of times this evening and tried to suck on it, but it just wouldn't work. He said 'binky, binky' and I told him they were all gone and he seemed to accept that.

I thought we'd have a meltdown for sure at bedtime, but it didn't happen. He asked for a binky and I told him they were gone. I was going to give him the broken one but we couldn't find it. I put him to bed with his 2 blankets, toy motorcycle, stuffed monkey and giant Barney, and he laid right down. (He's a little bit OCD about taking all this stuff to bed!) It ended up taking him an hour to fall asleep, but he never cried. I heard him talking and playing, and every once in a while he called for me. I ignored him and he eventually fell asleep. I'm hoping that's the end of needing a binky!

Marty & the Kids

Here's a funny picture I just found of Marty holding both kids. As you can see, Lexie wasn't too happy about getting her picture taken this day, which was a few weeks ago!

Luke is 2!

We had Luke's 2nd birthday party at Young's Dairy in Yellow Springs. It was a lot of fun and most of the family on both sides was able to make it. We took a wagon ride over to the pumpkin patch where Luke got a small pumpkin. He keeps calling it an apple!

A few of Luke's favorite gifts include a giant stuffed Barney, a pogo stick Elmo, and his Diego tricyle! He can't reach the pedals, so he just pushes all around with his feet. He loves it!

I hope to have pictures downloaded as soon as I figure out how to get them off Walgreens.com. We don't have enough room left on our hard drive to download them all directly to our PC. Yup, it's an old machine and probably time we invested in a new one.

Luke Likes His Potty

I thought I'd talk about Luke for a change. He's been fairly fussy since he's had a cold, but did much better today.

Sometimes when I'm changing his diaper he says 'potty' and wants to sit on the little potty chair in his bedroom. I put him down quickly and he usuall pees in there. He's slowly learning to tell me before he goes, so he may be potty trained early and hopefully easily.

A few days back he said 'poop' and pointed to his potty. I asked him if he wanted to go poop in his potty and he nodded yes. The really precious part is that he then said 'mom' and pointed outside of the door of his room. I said "Do you want mommy to go in the other room while you go potty?", and he nodded yes.

I left him alone to do his business, and sure enough, when I came back in 5 minutes later, he had pooped in his potty. I got the biggest kick out of the fact that he wanted privacy! And he was so proud of himself, too. Very cute!

Better Sleep at Last!

Well, I discovered that the key to me sleeping better is moving Lexie out of our room. The past 2 nights she has slept in the living room in her bouncy seat, and I slept much more soundly. She sleeps quite well in that thing, but usually goes to bed just fine in her crib. She's still waking once to twice a night, but now I'm not waking to every little sound she makes. A lot of her noises are made while she's asleep, so I think I made matters worse by getting her when she wasn't really waking up.

Tuesday night I even let her cry for a bit at bedtime to learn to put herself to sleep. I figured she had to learn sometime, and she had a clean diaper and had just eaten. It only took 10 minutes and she was out! Yay! (Thanks, Anya!)

I've also decided to give Lexie a bottle for her middle of the night feeding for a couple of reasons: It worked well for Luke; I'd rather she didn't just nurse then simply because she enjoys it; and it should fill her stomach better. Sure enough, these last 2 nights she's eaten only 2 ounces of formula and then gone right back to sleep. So she's not really hungry at 3:00 or 4:00 am; she just likes to nurse!

We're moving her crib to the back room today, so that will be where she'll sleep until she's a little older. It should work out well.

Please keep praying for us, though; we all have colds. Boy, does Lexie scream when I have to suction her nose! Thanks for all the prayers for a solution to better sleep; I believe we are on the right track.

Thoughts on Sleeping at Night

I'm a very light sleeper, which is why I'm seriously considering moving Lexie to the back room at our house. Of course, she wakes up so often during the night that I'd be constantly running back & forth checking on her, so I may have to wait a little longer to move her. Right now she's in our room, and I wake up at every little sound she makes, even when it's a time she might put her self back to sleep. I try not to let her cry for long since Marty has to get up most days at 5:00 am and I don't want her to wake him up. Having her in our room is very conveniet, though, for all those night-time feedings.

I usually nurse her lying down in bed and sometimes manage to dose off, but not for very long. I don't sleep well with her next to me, and sleep much deeper knowing she's in her own bed.

Luke was a good sleeper and easy to get on a regular night-time schedule right from the start. He'd go to sleep by 10 or 11, then get up once to eat around 4:00 am from the time he was one month old until 4 months old. Then, at about 5 months, he starte sleeping through the night from about 11-7.

Lexie, on the other hand, doesn't do the same eating and sleeping schedule from one night to the next... even when I try to feed her around 9:00, and then again at 11:00 pm to top her off. She seems like she's starving every 3-4 hours, and sometimes it's every 3.

Last night she ate at 10:30 pm, and then was crying at 12:15 am. I figured there was no way she could be hungry again and just tried to swaddle her and put her bink back in, but she wanted to nurse and ended up eating for 20 minutes. Then she ate at 3:00 am, and was up again at 6:15. She really doesn't sleep well at all, either at night or during the day.

That's all for now... she's crying again. Thank God Luke still takes one good 2-3 hour nap every day!