Square One

Back again. It's been, what, a month or two?

Brett, T-man, Honus, Chester, Abby and I now live in an actual house which we own. We own the dirt outside, the cathedral ceilings in the living room, the noisy and inefficient dishwasher plugging away at our dinner dishes. We moved in August 31st and have been working on unpacking and making it home since then. The former owner was an older lady named Bernice, and we think of her often as we clean things up, and make repairs and alterations.

The living room wallpaper came down and we painted it a warm apricoty peach. I was going for parchment, but I do like the color we wound up with. The Besta wraps around the wall and hides the 80s era fireplace. In the bathroom, Brett changed out Bernice's old handheld shower sprayer for a cheap-and-cheerful $3 showerhead from Target. I couldn't be happier with it. He also removed the handrail for the bathtub and the splash guard. Then he took the overwhelming 4 foot by 3 foot mirror off the wall, pried out the medicine cabinet mounted in the wall to the right of the sink, patched the hole, spackled and sanded the marks where the mirror mastic was left on the wall and picked a beautiful denim blue color. We painted, put up a new white framed mirror/medicine cabinet, set our linens and shower curtain up and I love that room. It's probably my favorite room in the house right now!

The little guy is doing great, growing strong and healthy after a trip to the doctor for a checkup. He rolls over often, sits up and babbles with us, grins when we get his bedtime story out, giggles when his Dad blows raspberries on his belly and laughs when we laugh, which is usually right after he has an amazing spit up or ill timed fart. I worry what that might be teaching him... He's in his first week of sleep training, which I know is a sensitive issue on the interwebs. Personally, I think it's the best thing to happen to our family in a long time. We have a set bedtime and a good bedtime routine of personal hygiene, pjs, snack, book, and saying goodnight to everyone, then he lays down in his crib and stays there until he falls asleep.

He had no problem sleeping from 8:00-4:30 at about 2 months old, as long as we were in the room with him, but he's almost always cried at least a few minutes before falling asleep. In the beginning it could be an hour of constant screaming waiting for him to fall asleep. Even when he was sleeping his best he would cry for five to fifteen minutes in our arms. When we moved into the new house and he had his own bedroom, sleeping through the night was over. He would wake up every hour or hour and a half and cry, so I also got up every hour and a half and fed him until he fell back asleep. We could get him to fall asleep after fifteen minutes of crying, but just setting him into his crib would immediately wake him even from a deep sleep. Eventually this was so exhausting, I would just nurse him to sleep in our bed and he would stay there with me. If I left he would wake up, so we had the same bedtime most nights.

I was glad he was content, but I was miserable going to bed at 8:00 every night. I never got anything done around the house, or spent time with my husband, or had a time to myself to write a blog or do some knitting. The sleep I did get was tense and uncomfortable as I snuggled around my baby, to protect him from anyone rolling around in bed. I had a lot of practice side sleeping like this while pregnant, but it wasn't ever really relaxing. Between waking every hour or two to nurse and not sleeping deeply between feedings I'm afraid I was rather miserable to be around. After a month of this, getting the Dr.'s encouragement to try sleep training has been a huge relief.

Now we do our bedtime routine and he lays down in his own bed. He always cries, but after five or ten minutes (with some reassurance from us after five that we hear him and love him and checked to make sure he's ok, but now is time for him to sleep) he sleeps and sleeps well until four am or so. We're teaching him to sleep without us, and I think everyone is sleeping better. He sleeps more calmly, we sleep more comfortably. It's awesome.

I'm not sure if it will translate into more blogging or knitting, but I'm going to at least keep the kitchen clean and snuggle on the couch with Brett.

Upcoming projects:
Mark out garden bed for 2012 veggies.
Knit T a pair of mittens.
Organize front closet.
Plan for Christmas!