A few pictures of the kiddos

Mason 5 months

He really isn't sitting up alone yet, but he's getting better all the time. It took a few shots of him falling over to get this one:)

Mason is 5 months old! He is doing great! He is getting more mobile, rolling a lot, he can turn himself 360 degress, and sometimes attempts to get on his knees. I think he will be crawling in another month or so and I'm not ready for that yet! He loves food. He is always watching us eat and wants whatever we have. He loves his baby food and cereal. So far he has had bananas, avocado, pears and applesauce. I tried sweet potatoes but they didn't settle well. Sleep is still an issue but we're working on it. Nate wants me to cut his hair, I really wanted to wait til he was 6 months but it is getting a little out of control. He is so much fun and we love him soo much!!

Pagosa Springs

Last weekend we went to Pagosa Springs. We were a little bummed that the trees weren't at their peak of color, but we had a great time. We went on a long hike one day. Nate and I had quite a workout carrying the kids for a few miles. I don't have pics of the hike yet, but the waterfall at the end of the trail was really neat. Nate and I had our 7th anniversary date. We went to dinner, had a huge banana split and then to the hot springs. It was a very relaxing evening. Sunday we met Devon in Durango and went to another hot springs. It was a great weekend, but we spent the week recovering from lack of sleep due to Mason's constant night wakings all weekend. Oh well, thats how it goes:)

Megan's visit

Megan came to visit a couple weeks ago. We went to Manitou Lake in Woodland Park for the day. We had a picnic and walked around the lake. There was a "beware of mountain lions" sign and Alyssa was very concerned, she kept telling us to" keep your eyes peeled for mountain lions."

Stumped

I wish I had some great news to report, that Mason was sleeping throught the night, but no. We've had some rough nights around here. Not just Mason either, Alyssa has been waking up at night which is completely out of character, ugh. So for a few nights when Alyssa was waking up every couple hours from 11-4, I had no energy to do anything but feed mason when he woke up at 4:30. The only problem is now he won't even go back to sleep when I feed him! He stays quiet about 20 min, poops and then won't go back to sleep. Any ideas on how to alter his potty schedule? Last night we let him cry about 20 min before I fed him, just to see if he might go back to sleep. No luck, so I fed him and he was up 20 min later with a dirty diaper. Changed him put him back down. We knew he was fine, fed and changed. So we let him cry for about 40 minutes. When we went to get him he was hysterical, hyperventilating and he had rolled over onto his tummy (another new problem). He would not calm down so I fed him again and he was out, well for an hour until I woke him up to start the day. I just cannot accept that 4:30am is morning, but it seems that Mason thinks so. The only thing I'm hoping for now is that he outgrows the 4 am wake up really soon.

Night 3 and 4

Well last night didn't go as great as I'd hoped. He woke up at his usual time 3:45am, he wasn't that upset at first and was tempted to let him fuss a while but he started getting more upset so I went in and had him calmed down in about 5 min. I thought, yay that was quick. He made a little noise at 4:30am but went back to sleep. Then we heard him again at 4:50 am and had to go in. Took 15 min to get to to sleep. Up again at 5:30, took another 10-15min. He was very restless. I could calm him down quickly but he just kept stirring and would not sleep for more than 20-30 minutes. Finally he slept from 5:45 - 6:15 and then I fed him awake and laid him back down. He stayed in bed til 6:45, awake I think, then we were up for the day. So I'm not really sure what to think. He is just so restless after 4am. This was the case before too. I would feed him around 4am and then he'd be up 1.5-2hrs later. So I'm not sure if he's restless now because he's hungry or if it's because it's just a restless time for him. I'm hoping that it will get better cause I'm exhausted. I know that I have to stick with it a little longer to really see results, but I just wonder why he won't stay asleep. They don't really address this in the book, I need answers!! The other thing is with the "dream feed" I'm not able to go to bed early to try to get more sleep. I have to say up til 10:30 or 11pm to feed him. At least naptime is continuing to go well.

Night 4

I caved....I fed him at 4:30am. I just don't know. He woke up at 4 and I tried for 30 min to calm him.. He would calm down and I stood there to make sure he was asleep. I would climb into bed and he would start up again. This happened several times. He would calm down but would not stay asleep. He seemed hungry and thats one reason why I thought he wasn't able to sleep. So I fed him and he was semi awake when I put him back down, he slept til 7am. I was so exhausted I just did not have it in me to keep going to morning. I picked a bad time to do this too cause Nate hasn't been able to help much (checkrides, TDY). So I'm not sure if I'm going to keep trying this or if I'm going to go back to the 7:30pm til 4am, feed at 4 and then do the patting if he wakes up before 7. He just seems to be stuck at a 3-4 am wake up regardless if he has a dream feed or not. If nothing else, naptime is still going well so at least we fixed that problem. Why is this so hard!?

NIght 2 Day 2

Last night was better than the night before. Nate got up with him so I got a little break, but still didn't sleep from 4- 4:45am. Mason woke up at 4am and Nate went in and did the sh/pat. He didn't even need to be picked up at all. It took about 15 minutes and he was asleep. About 5 minutes later we hear him again. Nate went in but by the time he got there he was already settling back to sleep, so Nate didn't have to do anything. About 20 min later we hear him again, Nate went in and gave him his lovey and he went back to sleep. After that he slept 1hr 15 min and woke up at 6. Nate tried to get him back to sleep but he seemed hungry so I went in and fed him with the lights on and made sure he didn't nurse back to sleep. I put him back down awake and he was quiet til 6:45 when I went in and got him to start the day. I don't know if he slept for those 30 min or not, but he was quiet. I put him down for his nap around 8:20 and he went down great and is still asleep at 9:10am. Now the hope is that he will take longer naps without waking up and that he will sleep til at least 6:30 in the morning. I'm really, really glad we did this. The last two days have been so great and stress free!

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The rest of the day went good. He slept 1.5 hrs for his morning nap and 2hrs 15 min at his second. He even woke up and fussed a little at the 2 hr point and went back to sleep for another 15 min. I didn't put him down for an evening nap today which I probably should have. He was fussy tonight. It seems like he wants to sleep more now that we've started this. Kinda weird, but good. So, I hope tonight gets even better. I really hope that he will sleep until at least 6:30am. This has been pretty tiring, but worth it so far. This probably isn't very interesting to most people, but I just want to have a record of everything we did so I can remember it down the road.