Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sleep Training 101

I didn't know what Sleep Training was before Riggs was born, but Cal is 3.5 mos and we are READY! After our friend Jen gave me a 20 minute pep talk, we started sleep training on Monday night and.........it's going well!!!! The gist is that we're attempting to teach Cal to self-soothe (hands to mouth, rolling around, whatever keeps him calm) and removing one night feeding at a time. So if he typically wakes up to eat at 12am, 3am, 5am, we first eliminate the 12am feeding. And yes...for us, that means letting him Cry It Out (CIO). The first night he cried for 45 mins, the second night about the same, and last night only 20 mins and it was a really light cry. Hopefully he is getting the hang of it! After he masters sleeping through that 12am feeding, we'll do the same process to eliminate the 3am feeding, etc.

Per Jen's recommendation, we bought a video monitor. BEST INVESTMENT EVER!!! It is such a relief to be able to SEE Cal in his crib and know he is okay (i.e. he isn't stuck in the corner or have something wrapped around him). We got the most basic one ($80 on sale at Babies'R'Us) and it's just perfect. No need for anything fancy, just something that works!

Anyways, wanted to share this excitement as I feel like my sanity will return very soon now that sleep is (almost) here!

Cross Country with Cal

We did it! We took the little guy to CT and Charleston to visit family...and survived the flights! We had a full rig set up with his mobile. During the last few weeks, he's been totally enamored with this one particular "guy" on his Stim-Mobile. We dubbed him "Big Boy" because he looks just like the Big Boy Hamburger image. For whatever reason, the mobile (which we typically have above his changing table) will spin around, then when it gets to "Big Boy", Cal starts CHEESING so hard! He'll then follow that particular circle around and just keep smiling, smiling smiling. So cute!

Here was our rig for the airplane. The flight attendant said that never in her 25 years of flying had she seen anything like this - ha!



This is Cal's reaction to his BFF:


Anyways, we got to CT first and Cal saw his first snow! He was not very impressed, but we thought it was beautiful. We had a fantastic week visiting with Dave's family (all 2,000 of them!). His parents even took Cal overnight...twice! The first night I was a wreck (crying as I left him...I mean COME ON!!!) and the second night I was running out the door! How quickly we adjust. Our plan for the first night (Dave and I were staying at the neighbors' house two doors down who don't live there during the winter) was to go out BIG with Dave's sister and cousins, who are all about our age. We get a great start with martinis, then had a wonderful dinner at Luce's in Middletown. While we were discussing which bar to hit first after dinner, it was 9:45pm and all I could think was B-E-D. I haven't had a full, uninterrupted night of sleep since November 14th and I just couldn't pass it up! Fortunately, Dave's sister and hubby were heading home too, so I hitched a ride and was asleep before my head even hit the pillow!

Here are some pics from the week in CT:


SOME of Dave's cousins!


The Bryand Men


The onesie says, "My Dad Is Rad" - love it!


Grandma hanging with Cal and Cal meeting his GREAT-grandparents!

And then here are some pics we took of Cal one morning when we woke up....







We had an AWESOME trip to the east coast. It was so wonderful to be with family, family, family! After CT, we headed to Charleston and loved introducing Cal to the Dirrrrty South. He had his fill of beautiful Southern women, accents and foooood! I'm not sure why, but we hardly took any pics in Charleston! Here are a couple from a delicious dinner at Rue du Jean:





Can't wait to go back (minus the 6-hour flight...5 of which were spent with one of us Bjorning Cal and pacing the aisles!!!).

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Mama Dianne and Dionne

Oh yes. It happened. Mama Dianne (aka Nana) came up to SF at the beginning of February for THE concert. We planned it months ago - DIONNE WARWICK WAS HERE!!!! Yes, THE Dionne Warwick. "Say a Little Prayer"..."You've Got a Friend"...and about a million other huge hits. And yes, Whitney Houston's aunt. She was OUT OF THIS WORLD. We splurged and got 4th row seats (thank you, Mom!) and just loved the theater (Castro Theater...in the Castro, which is known as the largely gay section of SF). The crowd was totally pumped about Dionne, including a 10 MINUTE standing ovation! Here are Mom and me outside the theater:



Mom also cooked over the weekend (yummmmmm) and generally just held Cal as much as possible! Uncle Jon & Auntie Lindsay sent Cal this cute hat, so we snapped a few with him in it:





So grateful for family!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Cal-i-licious Updates

Yes, that is what I've become. Or rather, what this blog has become. Updates on a human that can't walk, talk or do anything of "substance", yet captures our complete attention and hearts. But who could resist this little guy??


Elizabeth in Raleigh drew on this diaper for Cal - so cute!

Dave rocked a few pull-ups with him last week too. Whoever invented the Bjorn is a godsend!



I/we hosted the mom's group today that I mentioned in the previous post! It was absolutely great to have everyone over today (although a weeeee bit crowded with 30+ women + babies in our apartment!). I've never seen so many carseats and diaper bags in my life!!! I just started thinking...what do we do when they start CRAWLING in a few months??? We'll adjust.

While they were here, I decided to snap a few pics of the kiddos and used Cal as my test model. I just love that smile of his! He is giving us more and more everyday, which is a blast to watch.





I took two classes with Cal last week...one was about SLEEP (how to help babies sleep through the night) and the other was called PLAYFUL PARENTING (what to do with babies when it seems they can't "do" anything). Both were great! We have been trying to put suggestions into practice (routines at night, napping in his crib, etc.), but it's easier said than done as that means we have to be HOME for those items to occur. Instead, we're going about normal life and integrating when we can. Fingers crossed!

That's all from here for now, though I did want to share this video of my adorable nephew, Riggs. He's been crawling since 4 months (is about to be 9 months in a week) and is a MINI-JON!!!