Baby's First Christmas

Christmas is one of the best times of the year, and having my sweet baby boy here to celebrate with us made it even better!

It was definitely a much different experience with baby around however. Wrapping presents did NOT happen as quickly as it usually does, and I could only wrap a couple at a time, but they all did get wrapped eventually! Tyler was a huge fan of the Christmas trees and lights... he'd just stare and stare for hours if you would let him.

We did a lot of traveling for the season. The Wednesday before Christmas we headed up to Woodstock to see Jordon's family. On Christmas, Jordon and I woke up extra early so that we could have our own little family Christmas (like we would if we were home) before the whole family joined together. Tyler, who is used to waking up around 8am, was very confused as to why we were waking him up at 6am. We went downstairs and let him open his stocking and presents first. He could sort of tug some of the gifts out of his stocking, but overall I think he was probably a little too young to take in the full Christmas experience. After his presents, the whole waking up at 6am thing caught up to him and he started to fuss, so I had to nurse him while opening my gifts... All I could think about was how different Christmas was this year, but how special it was as well. And each year as Tyler grows and grows, I think it will become even greater.

When we did presents with Jordon's parents, Luke, Jenna, and the kids, Tyler slept through the whole thing. He was lucky that he had an anxious cousin willing to open all his presents for him haha.

On Christmas afternoon we drove up to Maryland to see my family. They had waited for us to open presents, so everyone had a lot of gifts to open when we got there! I think Tyler was a little overwhelmed by the amount of wrapping paper and gift boxes flying around, but he sure made out with plenty of loot!

All together, I think Tyler got about 15 toys, 25 articles of clothing, 4 CDs (some Raffi classics thanks to my little bro), 1 movie, 4 books, and various feeding accessories. I can't imagine what is going to happen as he gets older and actually starts asking for stuff... We had to bring Jordon's parents mini van home to Ferrum to actually be able to get everything home! I got a baby food maker, which I am super excited to use! Tyler has been eating his rice cereal like a champ, and we are onto feeding him cereal twice a day now. My mom got him some baby oatmeal, so we are going to add that into his diet here soon. Maybe in the next few weeks I'll break out the Baby Brezza and start making the Ty man some squash and sweet potatoes! Oh how my baby is growing up!

In other non-Christmas news, poor Ty man got his first ear infection and first bout of pink eye right before Christmas. It was so pitiful when he woke up one morning with one eye goo-ed shut. He was still smiling though! It spread to his other eye and we decided to bring him into the pediatrician, who found that he also had an ear infection! I was surprised because he had actually been LESS fussy than usual, so I guess we just have a little trooper! He's been on antibiotics (you know, that awesome bubble-gum tasting pink stuff??) for about a week and only has a couple days left. Unfortunately, the pediatrician said the fact that he had an ear infection before the age of 6 months means he may be more prone to them in the future... oh, wonderful. While we were there, I asked the doctor about Tyler's teeth, telling him I could swear they had to be coming in any day because he had been chewing anything and everything and being fussy at night. He told us I was right because they looked like they should be coming in any day, of course it has been a week and still NO teeth! This momma is about to go crazy! I'm hoping by New Years my little man will have at least one pearly white poking through those gums. But I guess I'll just have to be patient...

So the holiday season has been quite the adventure for the Robinson family! I've been so blessed to have a wonderful husband, son and families to share it with :-)

Terrible Teeth

Long time, no post. That's because Tyler has kept me more than busy with parenthood. Where to begin?

First of all, we are working on good sleep habits in our household. After much sleep regression (to the point where Ty man was waking 3 or 4... or 5 times to eat in the middle of the night) I begged our pediatrician for the key to sleeping success. His first question was "How does he get to sleep at night?" to which I answered in a guilty voice "...I nurse him to sleep." and he said "Well, there's your problem!"

Apparently, Tyler goes to bed nursing, so when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he can't get back to sleep without nursing again. Makes sense. The answer? The cry-it-out method. Torture for momma and baby. Okay, not really, but the first few days were rough! We're using the Ferber method, which in essence is putting baby down drowsy but awake, and if he fusses, let him fuss 5 minutes. Then I go in, check on him and tell him it's ok, then back out. I let him fuss 10 minutes and go back in and check again. Then 15 minutes. And so on.

The first night Tyler cried through the 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute cycles. He was still going strong and had those big eyes so full of tears, so I caved and popped him right on the boob. Hah. The next night was the same thing. BUT the third night he cried through the 5 and 10 minutes cycles, but was asleep by about five minutes into the 15 minute cycle. The fourth night he fussed less than 5 minutes and was asleep. So it DOES work. And he started waking only twice during the night. He even had one night where he slept 7.5 straight.

However, teething is terrible and has messed us all up! Tyler's bottom 2 front teeth are just SO close to coming through. The gums had flattened out a couple weeks ago, got rough, and now are swollen and it really looks like those bad boys want to make their entrance! And my poor child has been slobbering like crazy and chewing on EVERYTHING. He'll grab onto my finger and do a little head bob and dive to put it in his mouth... it's actually pretty entertaining. We've discovered that he really loves chewing on a frozen wash cloth, and it tends to keep him happy for about 10 minutes or so (at least long enough for me to inhale my breakfast!). But these past couple nights have been just terrible with the teeth. Poor kid will NOT sleep longer than an hour straight and we've just kept him cuddled up in bed with us so we can comfort him without having to get up 10 times in the middle of the night (bad habit, we know, but desperate times...). Even nursing him in the middle of the night isn't doing the trick, and it used to be my never-fails insta-back-to-sleep trick. sigh. And getting him to go to sleep in the first place has become a multi-hour ordeal. Tonight has actually gone much better (he was asleep by 9 pm after about 20 minutes of crying-it-out), but I'm not holding my breath that he'll stay asleep for long. Let's hope for the best.

Everyday teaches me something new with parenting. I told Jordon I think our next kid will be a breeze because now I know all the stupid things I SHOULDN'T do and all the tricks of the trade (so far that is). Soon I'll be able to author the Jordon Tyler Jr. Handbook and Instruction Manual. Until then I'm still trying to draft out the first few chapters...