Birthdays, Beaches, and Blogging

Things have been a bit crazy here with learning to navigate life with a toddler and a newborn!  Eric is now 4 months old (gasp) and finally not so colicky.  We're still having some struggles with waking up anywhere from three to four times a night (two on a good night).  So, I'm still pretty darn sleep deprived and 4 months of sleep deprivation can lead to neglecting a blog, clearly.  I probably would have just complained the last four months anyway.  But I'm going to try to get back to this because I really want to keep documenting these times so one day I can look back and and REMEMBER things that my sleep deprived memory might rob me of :).

This fall was beautiful and the weather has been really mild.  Lillian's birthday was a big hit.  She had an apple themed birthday party with LOTS of friends, family, and babies.

Just a few decorations

Pie in a jar for our guests to take home (we didn't serve dessert at the party)

She was running around so much, this is the best photo I got that day!

My little colic monster would only rest with mommy

Lillian is growing up so fast.  She picks up on so much going on in the house too.  Ever since we brought Eric home, she has been ALL about her baby dolls!  She puts them in his swing, on his play mat, in his jumperoo, in his bumbo seat, she lays them on the bed and puts diapers on top of them, puts the swaddle on them, etc.  She burps them and rocks them too.  I just love watching her and if she's playing with her dolls, then she's staying out of trouble...

Speaking of trouble, turning two has been interesting.  She has learned how to get my attention by getting into anything and everything she's not supposed.  Drives me absolutely batty!  It's especially hard with a newborn who cries and nurses all day and I'm trying to soothe him while keeping my eye on her. Oy. And all while sleep deprived. 

It's been really hard to not loose my mind the last 4 months.  I was so desperate for a break, and felt horrible that Lillian wasn't getting the attention she was used to.  Finally out of desperation I called the local PDO program (parents day out) and asked if they had any openings, and thank God they had one opening in her age group. We went in and toured the facility and I talked with the teachers in her classroom for a while.  It took a few visits before I was comfortable leaving her there for the whole day (9-3), but I'm thankful they are willing to make a few adjustments for her and were more than willing to learn about her syndrome.  The kids eat snacks and lunch at "school" and I'm able to provide Lillian with all her own food, so that makes everything much less stressfull.  I found a great PDF file written for preschool educators of children with PWS.  The link to that file is here.  I also printed this out for all of her therapists because it's really great information on how they learn best.  She absolutely loves going to "school" and usually doesn't want to leave when I go to pick her up.

So now Lillian's schedule for the week consists of 2 days at PDO, 4 therapies (PT, ST, OT, DT), and church 2 mornings a week (once during a mom's group and once on Sunday).  She's a busy girl!

We also recently went to the national PWSA conference in Florida and met some really great people.  Lillian enjoyed swimming and we spent some time at the beach. 

Eric deserves (more like demands) a whole post to himself, so I'll update on him later. He's an absolute joy and I'm really enjoying this age with him!  Lillian loves her brother too and luckily has shown no jealousy of him whatsoever.  Hopefully it stays that way.

Any sleep advice for a 4 month old is welcome :).  I'm sure many of you have experience in this department!  Since he was a colicky newborn, up until this point I've basically done anything to get him to sleep.  Rocking, nursing, singing, etc.   Now that he's not crying all the time, I'd like to get him out of the habit of needing to nurse to sleep because i'm really not getting enough sleep to be a good mom.  I'm just so tired. 


Sarah