Owen loves anything with wheels...

...including his grandpa's TRAIN! You can see from the expression on his face here that this is true!

I have to share :)

Owen did NOT want to go to sleep last night, even though he was obviously tired. Very tired! I spent 20 minutes lying next to him in our bed, laying him back down every 30 seconds or so after he'd roll up to sitting. He was of course quite angry w/me, and I was getting a little irked myself!

Then suddenly he decided he WAS tired, and he settled into the rump-in-the-air sleep position (see earlier post) with his face toward mine. He was also suddenly cheerful and smiley at his mommy...he grinned, and if you have ever seen Owen really grin, you know his whole face squinches up. His eyes squint, his nose wrinkles, his whole face smiles. He did this, and made his little giggly noise (I have no idea how to spell that noise--'he-eh' or maybe 'hingh'), and reached over to pat my cheek. He rolled around some, putting his cheek on mine, then snuggling into my chest, just moving till he found a good place then giggling a little and snuggling in for a new good place.

Then he fell asleep, and his mommy cried with joy. I just was totally overwhelmed. As I've written before: this kind of love is the most amazing, God-given gift I have ever experienced. To go from 'good grief, will this kid ever go to sleep,' to 'I can barely stand it, I love him so much' in about 90 seconds--talk about mood swings!

Sleeping solution

Well, we may have a solution. We put Owen's pack-and-play in our room. So, I hold him till he falls asleep, either in the living room or in our bed. After he's asleep, I put him in the pack-and-play. So he's close enough to see us when we awakens, and yet not RIGHT in our faces if he wakes up and whines. We can tell him 'shhhh' from our beds, and he knows we're right there and goes back to sleep. He usually sits up about 4:30 or so, and that's when we go get him and bring him in w/us.

I like it. He's nearby, we can see each other, and we all sleep MUCH better. Last night he slept w/us till 1:00, since he and I fell asleep at 7:30 in our bed and Shannon was already asleep in the other room!

Some pictures, finally

The one with the writing on the bathtub wall says it all--the drawing of Owen and his little mouth shows he color he ate!

The others are this weekend, Sunday, after we got home from my parents'. Owen's cheeks were absolutely raw, even though he hadn't been out in the cold longer than it takes to walk to a car or into a house.

He's standing by his radio here, too--he is quite a dancer! :)

Things Owen thinks are funny.

--Daddy sneaking up on Mommy and him after Owen is out of the tub--for some reason DAddy stalking Owen In A Towel is hilarious.

--Things falling off people's heads. Pa started this one.

--When he shakes his own head to the music.

--When Mommy rolls two balls from Guatemala down the back of the chair so they hit the back cushion and makes a silly noise while doing so. Why is this funny? ????

--The Owen Parade.

--Kitty. Always, kitty!

Why no pictures, Becca?

Um, because I haven't even turned our computer at home on in three weeks or so. So no uploading pictures anywhere. Sigh. I'm sorry--but BOY, motherhood is SUCH A JOY and VERY BUSY! :)

I'll put some up soon, promise.

Thoughts on cosleeping and biology

Shannon and I are both biology majors by training (and teachers); my Master's is in bio. We were discussing how Owen seems to freak out lately in his own bed (we think we know why but that's another story). We're not knocking ANYONE's choices. This is just our perspective (which doesn't mean we're going to cosleep from here on out....).

Here's what we came up with:

-Humans are apes, like chimps, bonobos, and gorillas.

-Those other apes do not leave their babies alone in a separate nest at night--ever. They sleep together, secure.

-Only lately have humans begun to think that babies need to sleep alone, in another room. Before that, whole families slept in rooms together, sometimes in beds together; babies always slept w/their mommies.

-Other apes carry their babies around all day; we don't get to do that, usually. So sleeping in the same place makes for extra bonding that otherwise isn't available most days for working mommies.

-And for babies, bonding = survival.

-Biologcially speaking, cosleeping makes perfect sense. The baby feels secure; the mommy knows the baby is secure and right there; if the baby has any distress, mommy is right there to determine what's wrong; feeding can occur whenever needed...etc.

I am just writing about this because I worried about cosleeping for so long, and didn't want to do it when Owen was younger because I didn't want to roll on him. But he's bigger now, so it's not as much of an issue. And I miss him all day. And he clings to me this week when it's bedtime. And he grins and giggles into my face and his daddy's face when we come to bed and he half-wakes up.


And biologically, it really makes sense. As a biologist, I tend to view many things on that level.

Not for everyone, but slowly becoming maybe for us.

Report on last night's sleep

He fell asleep in my arms watching that old old old "Rudolph" Christmas TV special. I put him in bed where he stayed asleep till midnight then got up and howled. I was not awake enough to try the Ferber plan, so he ended up in bed w/us--where we all slept great! Sigh! :) :) :)

Mommy Caved.

Well, last night I rocked him to sleep--he was out like a light. WITH his arms clenched around my shoulders every time I so much as shifted. I tried to put him in his crib 3x, and no dice--woke up and cried/screamed.

So I laid down on the floor w/him, on some blankets. He snuggled up to me and was out. Then I was out (thus foiling my own plan to try to pick him up and put him in bed)

At 1am, I woke up, and tried to move him to his bed. Didn't work. We went back to sleep.

I have 3 sleeping books ordered. I hope they come soon! I slept fine but missed my bed and my husband!

Help with sleeping issues, please...

To my fellow mommies who perhaps have been there:

We were doing just fine w/sleeping before last week. Before then, Owen would fall asleep w/one of us in our bed, and we'd move him to his bed w/o incident when we went to bed. Well, early last week he stopped that nonsense--his little head would pop up and he'd sit and try to crawl around. This would go on for as long as we let it.

So, then I started putting him in his bed first. He absolutely screams. Cries. Kicks. Tears and everything. The first night it took nearly an hour to get him to sleep. After that it was like 20 minutes each time. Not bad but exhausting for all of us. And at the same time, he's started waking up in the night howling. If I go in there, I find him sitting up or on his knees with his hands on the railing, just wailing. Last night was the worst (hence my plea for help)--he howled for 45 min. and I finally went in there. I took him out and rocked him to sleep--three times. Every time I got up he'd wake up, till the last time. (I think that was from sheer exhaustion.)

He's never let me rock him since about a month after we can home (he came home 1 Aug.). He'd sit up and twist and at that time, wanted to just be in our bed lying down to fall asleep. So rocking seems to work. But I do not want to do this at 2am. I'll do it when he goes to bed, if that works!

Has anyone else come up against this issue? Any input? If so, email me or post a comment here!

Two things we think it could be:
-teething--he has 4 coming in altho he doesn't act like they bother him AT ALL during the day

-separation anxiety

But we're just not sure. Any thoughts? Thanks!