Sleeping all night long.....almost

Okay people, the Ferber method works!! After just one night of misery Owen now puts himself to sleep without the pacifier and stays asleep. No more fetching the pacifier at midnight, 2:00 and 4:00 in the morning. Owen slept for 8 hours straight last night. He woke up around 4:30 am and wanted to eat hut I am trying to cut out that nighttime feeding so it took him a while to go back to sleep but he did it. He has been able to fall asleep quickly for each nap and sleep much longer than he ever has. I slept for 6 straight hours last night! I feel like a new woman!!

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone!!

Our little man is out, I had to wake him up so we don't miss Owen's first time getting ashes today.

The real sleep training begins

So I got a little desperate with the sleep training and decided to call in the bug guns. Author Richard Ferber wrote a book called Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems.

My sister Nicole used this method for both of her children and it worked wonders after a few nights of misery and several glasses of wine for the parents. Brad and I decided we needed the same support system, by that I mean the wine, but we actually didn't have any good wine left so we decided to open the bottle of champaign from our neighbors to celebrate Brad's new job. So we drank that, yum! However we did not unpack the champaign glasses so we had to use wine glasses, oh well!

The Ferber method wants us to get rid of all of Owen's sleep crutches which are his pacifier, the swaddle and the NapNanny all at once. We put him in his crib awake but drowsy and he has to try to get himself to go to sleep. We are supposed to go in his room in intervals of 10 minutes to try to calm him down and let him know that we are here. Brad and I are sitting in the living room listening to Owen cry and watching the clock waiting to go in to console this sad little guy. This is harder than watching him get shots but I know we will all benefit from this in the long run.

Here is a picture of Owen during happier times, before he learned that he had to give up his pacifier.

 

Bourbon chase 2012

Owen slept for about 9 hours in a row last night which means that I had my first night of good sleep in about a month.

So, there were no more excuses. Time to get to the gym and start running again. It has been over a year since I hit the pavement. Although I have been dreading the day I will lace up my running shoes and hit the pavement, I also missed it in some sick and twisted way. So when Owen woke up at 5:30 this morning I fed him and put him back to sleep, grabbed my ipod with a little Nicki Minaj playing and went to the gym. It was painful but I was able to run 1.5 miles. I have a long way to go before the Bourbon chase this October so hopefully Mr. O continues to sleep well so I can keep up my training schedule. Here are some pics of the Bourbon Chase from 2010.

 

 

For those of you who don't know, the Bourbon Chase is a two day, 200 mile team race (for absolute crazy people), where you run around the countryside of Kentucky through several bourbon distilleries in the area. I said I would never run this race again at the time but here I am getting ready to train. We are running the race with a group of friends from UK and it is a ton of fun to spend this time together!

 

Our baby is 4 months old!!

 Owen is 4 months old already, well actually we are a couple of weeks late with these photos so he is now 4 1/2 months, sorry:)  

Owen is doing so many fun things and is developing his own little personality.  Owen is such a sweet, social and funny little guy!   

Owen rolled over for the first time yesterday! Brad was excited that he was home to experience the first roll.  

 

 

 

 Such a big boy!  Now all we need is for Owen to start taking a bottle so his mommy and daddy can have a date!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

I decided it would be fun to make a special Valentines treat with my nephews. Courtesy of pinterest, of course.  We made cupcakes inside of ice cream cones.  This was not the most nutritious snack but it sure was delicious!

 Luke came over early to help.

Owen just watched.

 

 Then Max came to decorate

 

Here are all of our creations. Yum!

 Cousin love!

After all that baking, my husband gave me the best vday gift of all.....a NAP! It was wonderful!  We hope you all enjoy a fabulous day with you loved ones!

 

Sleep training = a very tired mama

 Owen is the kind of baby who spits up after almost every feeding.  In order to prevent spitting up in the middle of the night in his bassinet I had to splurge on the NapNanny.

 

 This was a great purchase and worked wonders for several months.  That is until Owen started moving. No, he isn't crawling yet but he is rolling over onto his side.  Anyways, not only are we trying to get the hang of sleeping longer and self soothing, but I have to wean him off of the NapNanny which has been the hardest part.  So, needless to say I am back to waking up every couple of hours to put the pacifier back in or to help Owen calm himself down.  This has made me a very tired mama.

I do sneak in a few naps with my little man.  

Looking back....

One year ago we found out we were pregnant, my how our lives have changed....

I found out we were expecting when Brad was on a ski trip for Eddie's bachelor party.  I had to wait three days for Brad to finally come home so I could tell him in person.  When Brad finally arrived he was exhausted amd maybe a little hungover, I surprised him with this adorable outfit.  This also brings back memories of how I felt all last winter.....

Yikes, this part of pregnancy is not fun!

The weather was quite lovely last week so Owen and I spent a lot of time exploring our new neighborhood and Owen got to ride in the jogging stroller for the first time.  Although no jogging took place, we did get some exercise.

Mr. O has been sick with two different colds, but that doesn't stop him from being stylish in his new shoes.