Reclaiming the night!

Pictures: Jack feeding the goats and discovering mud puddles at Windsor Farms. Declan holding up his head. Jack and Declan in the green car at Memorial Field Park.

So it's 9pm, both boys have been sleeping for one hour. I'll be in bed soon and plan on getting at least some sleep before Declan wakes up. (Hopefully. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully.) I'm so excited to have a bit of down time before crashing into bed. I really feel like this is such a big step in reclaiming life after the itty bitty infant stage.

This great change has happened right after a few nights of the worst sleep ever - Declan was up every 1.5 hours and would need to nurse to get back to sleep. I figured that he was waking up at the end of each sleep cycle and had no way to get himself back to sleep without help, so I knew we had to let him figure out how to do it on his own (aka, protest and cry). On Monday's nap (at mom and dad's) I resolved to let him cry for two 5 minute segments, and then do whatever it would take to help him sleep. He fell asleep in the second 5 minute interval and I felt like a new person. Thanks to mom and Mrs. Kulina for keeping me company during it all. So now we're easing into the "Ferberizing" stage, and so far Declan hasn't really cried for more than 10 minutes without being able to go to sleep, sometimes with some patting and back rubs, but no rocking or nursing. Say it with me: Yay! Last night he slept 9 - 12:30, 12:30 - 1:45, 1:45 - 5:45, and 5:45 - 8am. That was our best night in a long time and I feel like we're getting close to even longer stretches.

I'm pretty sure Declan is teething - he's gnawing on everything he can get his hands on. And he can get his hands on quite a bit because he's semi-mobile. He can shimmy on his belly to get to something he wants - he's a very determined little baby. I see him getting up on his hands and knees more and more often. He continues to be a very smilely guy.

As for Jack - he's so cute with Declan. When he finds one of Declan's toys on the floor (and let's face it, they're always on the floor) he brings it over to Declan and holds it out to him saying "Sssss." (Jackenese for "share"). For the most part Jack doesn't take much notice of Declan, although he is very careful not to step on him or fall on him when he's tearing around the house.

I've been staying busy these past couple of weeks - trying to get out walking with the boys every day - I love the fall. My best days are when I walk downtown to the Y, drop the boys at babysitting and have a workout, and then walk home. We have play group almost every Friday, and last Friday I was finally able to host now that we have the basement finished. The picture of the group of kids on the stairs is from last Friday - Jack's not in the picture because he was holding my leg, crying to be picked up. Sigh.

Off to relax a bit more before bed....