Sleeping Beauty

As we did with Josh, we are using Baby Wise as a scheduling method for Emily. I feel it has lots of benefits, but one of the first rewards to reap is sleep.

In general I think Emily has been a pretty good sleeper. She takes the majority of her naps relatively easily and rarely cries to settle herself into sleep. Josh was quite consistent in the beginning of needing to cry in order to settle down.

Overnight Emily only wakes once to be fed. Her last evening feeding is 9:30 and is in bed by 10:15. She'll wake anywhere between 3-5:00am. Then the trick is to get her on schedule hopefully by 9:30am for feeding every 3 hours. Ideally her first feeding would be at 6:30, but it depends on when that middle of the night feed is to see how we have to adjust.

The next trick has been to get the kids sleeping in the same room together. We've tried the one overlapping afternoon nap a couple times with mixed success. But about a week ago we started trying overnights together and it's been great! There is just something very exciting to me about having the kids in the room together (besides getting our own room back). I have visions of them as they get older giggling and bonding.

Emily has a fussy time most nights between the 6:30 and 9:30 feedings, so this sleep time has been tough to keep her in the room with Josh since he's goes to bed by 8:00. While we want them both to get used to each other's sounds, it just seems too cruel to try to let her cry it out for too long while Josh is trying to settle into sleep. Part of her fussiness is gas, but she also seems to really need to suck at that time of night. It's really the only time we give her a pacifier. So I think I'll try letting an arm out of her swaddle so she can find her fingers. This morning's attempt didn't go so well. But we'll keep at it.

She looks peaceful here, but don't be fooled, she was crying within a few minutes.

Leaping Language

Watching Josh's language skills grow is one of my favorite things these days. It's amazing to hear new words he's learned and also to hear him say a word wrong for so long and then suddenly says it perfectly right.

Here's a list of some of my favorite mispronunciations of Josh:

Lunch Fries = french fries

Pway = Pray (it's just great to hear your kid initiate prayer)

Poke-a-Pot = Polk-a-Dot

Elalee = Emily

These last two will make me sad when he says them right. Sometimes it's hard for me to say them right because he says them so much and it's so danged cute. I'm thinking of changing Emily's name to Elalee because I love hearing him say it.

Forming sentences is another fun challenge to watch. My favorite is:
I may excused get down = May I be excused (from the dinner table)

He is very much in a repetitive stage of speech. He will say the same sentence over and over and over... "Josh play with the cups in here. Josh play with the cups in here. Josh play with the cups in here. Josh play with the cups in here. "

Usually he can be stopped by just repeating what he is talking about. "Yes, Josh is playing with the cups in here." He likes the acknowledgment. But it doesn't work every time.

We are trying to help him understand the differences between "you", "me", "I" and "Josh". Like he'll say "Mama hold you" when me means "Mama hold me". I know this is a huge concept to learn and I totally see how the confusion happens. But it's great when we hear him say it right.

Siblings

Kids. Siblings. Children. Brother. Sister. Four.

These are all new words in our house these days. I like it. They all give more depth and meaning to the word "Family".

As I wrote in my previous post, Joshua was not able to meet Emily in the hospital. I think this was actually for the better for Josh. The hospital itself may have been pretty overwhelming and seeing me there might have been confusing or worrisome. At least this way at home it was just the four of us. It may have also been clearer that Emily is a new addition to the home, and not just some baby he met in the hospital.

We came home from the hospital on the 8th. Jim picked up Josh from his parents' after Josh's nap and I had Emily in the living room ready to meet her brother.


Josh walked in with the gift he had picked out for Emily and presented it to her. It seems I could see his wheels turning to understand that this little creature was the Emily we have been talking about for so long.


There were also a couple gifts from Emily to Joshua which quickly became his focus. After a little while we had Josh hold his sister. He was reserved, but patient.


Since then he really likes to ask to hold her.

Jammies time

Josh sees me nurse Emily and started asking to feed her himself. In fact, when I left the room to change her diaper, he grabbed the nursing pillow and wrapped it around himself sticking out his arms to receive her when I returned. Way too cute!

(Only once did he asks to be fed in the same manner as Emily.)

Instead, he has since learned that he can hold her with the pillow. It doesn't last for much more than a minute, but he is very gentle with her, stroking her head and saying "be happy" if she is fussing.

Joshua did finally get to feed Emily from a bottle.

He was very focused.

I just thought it was way too cute when Josh saddled up to his chair to draw next to Emily.



He is definitely very concerned about where she is most of the time. He likes to be with me when I put her to bed or get her up. In fact today we took Emily to her first chiropractor appointment. The doc always likes to get a picture with his young patients and as he walked out of the exam room with Emily, Josh got quite worried about where she was going without me.

Josh is such a big helper...

...moving her bouncer...

...making sure buckles are taken care of...

...and giving a bath.

He really gets right in there.

So we are all learning to be a new family unit.

Josh seems to be adjusting pretty well. He has shown absolutely no bad behavior towards Emily. I've seen a little bit of jealousy in that he wants to be held more, but he usually waits his turn and just asks to be held as soon as Emily is out of my arms. And how can I complain about my kid wanting to cuddle??

Jim seemed to like this moment of both kids being held. Josh was upset about something and saw me giving Emily a "big hug" and needed one too on my free shoulder. Then he put his arm on Emily too.

And these are the moments I love. Josh and I have our cuddle spot on the couch and Emily joins us now.