Leapin' Lizards!

In case you don't know this about me, I HATE lizards, turtles, frogs, snakes, alligators, Komodo dragons, etc. Okay, I don't actually hate them, but I REALLY do not want to have to handle them. They are fine with me as long as they stay outside and away from me. However, there must be an inordinate number of them here in Mississippi, because I have had to touch and deal with more lizards here than I ever have in my whole life! I worked at Lowe's before I had Bear and there were always lizards in the propane tank cages and they were often found on the sales floor. One of my cashiers called me one day to let me know that she couldn't work at the returns desk anymore because there was a lizard on her register and she was scared of it. I had to catch it and put it outside...which I did not like AT ALL. But, I did it. I thought it was a rare occurrence and they were just coming in because the doors were open a lot at Lowe's until the lizards started COMING INTO OUR HOUSE! I had a friend visiting when the first one showed up--I was pregnant with Bear and was showing my friend the progress on the nursery and right as she was about to step into the bedroom, a lizard ran across her foot! Well, she's not as grossed out by them as I am, so she just caught it and put it outside. Then, not too long after that, there was one in the master bathroom one day when I was trying to get ready for work. Those things are hard to catch as it is and it ran into our closet. I thought about just leaving it, because it kept running away from me, but then I knew that I would worry that it had gotten into my clothes. So, I caught it (FINALLY!) in a cup and put it outside. Also, we have found a few dead ones or just the tails in the house, we think due to our cat. All of this leads up to what I hope is the big finale of the lizards--yesterday, there was a chewed up, bloody, mangled one IN THE LIVING ROOM!! I carried Bear out of his bedroom yesterday to put him in his bouncy seat in the living room, when I noticed one of our dogs dancing around something on the floor. I assumed it was a bug (MS has a lot of those, too!), but when I looked closer, I realized it was a stinking lizard. Apparently one of our animals brought it inside. I'm not really sure how it got there, but I knew I had to clean it up. Upon closer examination, I found that it's guts were OUTSIDE IT'S BODY and it's tail had not just been snapped off, but CHEWED OFF and was all meaty looking. Ewww. Anyhow, I grabbed a bunch of toilet paper, planning to flush this nasty dead thing, when it started to crawl UP MY ARM! Well, of course, I yelled, which really got the dogs excited. The cat, who I assume brought it inside, just yawned and went back to sleep on the couch. Well, it couldn't run too far, because as I mentioned, it's insides were actually outside. I eventually got up the nerve to catch it again and flushed it to put it out of its misery. UGH. I hope that the lizard stories are over now, but the summer has just started, so I'm not so sure. Are there lizard exterminators?

Park day and shopping

Bear and I just got back from the park with the MOMS club and he seemed to have a good time. We went to Friendship Park, where they have swings, so he was able to participate a little. Previous park days that we've attended were at parks with no swings, so he pretty much just watched the other kids play. He fell asleep in the swing--so cute! He just kept hunching further and further down and his eyelids kept getting heavier and heavier until he just passed out. I took him out of the swing and held him while the other kids had a snack. When he woke up, he didn't scream or cry (surprise!), but he just looked around at the kids playing. We then ventured to Walmart, where I was just sure he was going to have a meltdown. I was wrong though...he was perfect! He only cried once, and that was because he was hungry. I brought a bottle with us, so he was satisfied to sit in his seat in the cart. He can't quite hold himself upright, so I propped him up with my purse and his little bottle cooler on each side. He is much happier sitting in the cart than in his car seat. He fell asleep again on the way home. I think I wore him out! Maybe we should go out more often. Yes, that is a dog crate that his car seat is sitting on top of. It's in the kitchen and is a convenient place to set his seat that isn't in the way.

Short post due to short sleep

Well, Bear slept in his crib all night, but it sure did wear Momma out. He woke up at 2:30 am fully expecting me to take him into our bed or to the couch. I would not do it and he was MAD. He cried every time I tried to put him in his crib and the cries escalated to screams in a very short time. I just kept rocking him and comforting him (I could not do the crying out thing, if you read yesterday's post.) until he fell somewhat asleep and then put him back in the crib. It finally worked on the 5th time. I felt accomplished, until I woke up everyone else in the house, including the dogs. I thought it may be a little chilly in Bear's room, so I decided to turn the thermostat up a few degrees. When I was reaching for the hallway light switch, I accidentally grazed the top of a glass candle holder with my hand. It hit the kitchen's tile floor with a very loud smash, which led Max to come running out of the bedroom. Our bedroom is right off of the kitchen and there were little broken glass pieces ALL OVER, so I warned him not to come out there. I swept up the pieces, which had spread into the dining room, the hallway and the kitchen. It was a little bitty candle holder, but it made a HUGE mess when it broke into about a billion pieces. Two funny things about last night: 1)Max slept through all of Bear's screaming, even though I left the monitor on. He didn't even realize I was missing from the bed until I broke the candle and was surprised to learn that I had been gone for nearly two hours. 2)Bear, who had a terrible time falling asleep, slept right through the candle incident. Go figure.

Memorial Day...but still no sleep

We had a lovely Memorial Day today! It's really hot and humid here right now, but Max still wanted to try making ribs on his smoker. He spent the early afternoon doing that and we took them over to a neighbor's house to enjoy. The neighbors have 2 daughters that are 3 and 1 and I swear Bear gets worn out just watching them play. He got so worn out, he had to take a short nap in the 1 year old's crib. He woke up after just a little bit, though, and we got out their doorway jumper and he went to town jumping and dancing in it. I still wouldn't feel safe not supervising him in one of those, so I'm glad we have the horsie one that sits on the floor, but he appeared to be having a good time.

I hate where we are with the sleeping thing right now. I have exhausted all my energy trying to do the right thing for my son, and I just don't know what to do anymore. He was sleeping for a good part of the night in his crib and then waking at about 6 am to sleep with me on the couch for a couple more hours. I was fine with this arrangement, but the time that he woke up and wouldn't accept the crib just kept getting earlier and earlier. He changed it to 4 am for a few days and then last night, he decided 1 am was the time to sleep with Momma. This is not good. Not good at all. So now, we are trying letting him cry it out. Actually, we are trying this as I write, which is not making for a very relaxing post, but anyhow, we are trying. I just don't know if this is going to work. I don't know if I have the strength to let him keep this up for hours, which is how long people tell me it could take. He seems miserable, but is he? I know he doesn't understand what we're trying to accomplish, but something has got to change soon or I will go nuts. I already hurt my back trying to accommodate him on the couch. I just can't do that anymore. I don't care right now how many times he gets up per night, but darn it, he just has to sleep in his crib. We did this a little earlier this evening and he stopped crying after about 20 minutes. From what I understand, if I go and get him after a certain amount of time, I ruin the entire thing and confuse him. We'll see if I or Max can wait it out with him without feeling like horrible parents. Right now I feel like a very mean Momma! If anyone has any suggestions or even if you just want to tell me to deal with it for a while, feel free. Wish us a good night!

Of course, I was WRONG

Apparently it was the shots that made Bear so sleepy. We followed the exact same ritual last night as we did the night before, and it did not work nearly as well. Bear fell asleep at about 8:30, but woke up again in about 15 minutes. I rocked him until 10 and then he did sleep, but only until 1:30, when he wanted to eat. He woke again at 3:30 and I could NOT get him back to sleep. At 4:30 I gave up and put him in his swing where he slept until 6. Not a good night for Momma...I'm pretty tired today. We'll keep trying, though! He's got to start sleeping through the night at some point!

One good thing about being tired and up for half the night--Max volunteered to make dinner! He actually makes dinner for us quite a bit during warm weather. We both love grilled food and he really likes to cook on the grill. Here in MS, you can actually grill for about 80% of the year, because it's hardly ever too cold. I think his plan is to make stuffed peppers for us, which he's made once before and they were very good. The ones he made on the grill before were a side dish, but tonight he's going to add meat for a main dish. I'm looking forward to them! Well, them and a nap!

Could've been the shots...

Bear SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT last night! I couldn't believe it when I woke up at 5 am to what I thought was a crying baby, but was actually our cat yowling to go outside. Bear stayed asleep from 10:30 pm to 6 am and is taking a nap as I write. This is serious progress, but he also had his 4 month checkup yesterday, which involved several vaccinations, so I suppose that could have been the culprit. What I'd like to believe, however, is that the doctor's suggestion of feeding him cereal right before bed and using Tylenol for his teething pain is what did the trick. I suppose we'll know better after tonight. Please, oh please, oh please, let it be the cereal!!

Here is a picture that we took of him last night for his 4 month birthday. He now weighs 16 pounds, 14.5 ounces and is 26 inches long.



Just to compare, here he is at 3 months. Has he changed much?

Uh oh...

I was just bragging to everyone about how Bear is getting so grown up and has this great schedule now when...BAM!...he decided to make me eat my words. I was even foolish enough to try and give someone advice about babies who seem to hate sleeping (Hi Lauren!). Last night was pretty much awful and it reminded me of a couple of weeks ago when Bear refused to sleep in his crib. He acted like his crib was on fire last night! Every time I got him to sleep, I would try and put him in the crib and he would SCREAM. Don't get me wrong, he always whimpers a little. I mean, who wouldn't rather be held by me all night?? However, the whimpering I can fix with back rubbing/patting. The screaming...not so much. So, last night was pretty crappy for me being that some of it was spent in my own bed, some on the couch, and some in my bed again but while holding Bear. I don't know what to do except just get through it again like I did a few weeks ago and hope that he'll come around again.

Something happened last night that may have triggered the not-so-good sleeping: he rolled from front to back for the first time. He's been rolling from back to front for a couple of weeks now and the first time he succeeded at that seemed to coincide with the last bad sleep episode. Maybe it's just that the physical development that he's going through won't let him sleep. You'd think he'd need the sleep from working so hard during the day, but apparently not. The bad news about him rolling from front to back--I missed it! I was making dinner and Max was in Bear's room playing with him. Max ran into the kitchen to ask me if he'd ever done that before and I told him that he had not. On one hand, I was sad that I didn't get to witness it, but on the other hand, I am so happy that Max was the first one to see him do this. Max has been at work when Bear has hit most of his milestones, so I'm really glad for him to get to experience this with his son.

Even though he didn't sleep much last night, he sure was happy this morning!