Sleep issues and evil child

Our doctor at our last check up asked if Ryan was sleeping through the night, I laughed and told him no. Ry goes down about 7-8pm wakes up around 11:30, wakes around 4am and then wakes up at 7am for the  day. Lately it's worse, a lot of crying and shifting in his sleep. It's those god damn teeth.
I guess if I had five coming in I would also sleep poorly but really I just want him to sleep. Almost 10 months old (next friday) and STILL not sleeping all night.
I digress, doc said no more nighttime breast feeds. Water only. It can hurt his teeth. I checked with our dentist as well because I read some stuff online that said this is not the case for breast feed babies, only bottle kids. Our dentist said its a crab shoot. It might hurt his teeth it might not, but why risk it.
I have horrid teeth genetics. I just do. I brush and floss like crazy (even used to do it at work after lunch) but I still get cavities and I am 34. Neil has amazing teeth, almost never flosses and he has no cavities. Hope Ryan gets his teeth.


Thursday night was a living nightmare. He was up at 12am. Now normally I can rock him and hum for about 10 min and he is back out. Well not that night. Oh no. He wanted none of that shit. I had him till about 12:45am. We rocked, hummed, singed, changed diaper, tried the water, put him in his crib, left him for a few minutes at a time, put him in bed... everything. HE would just scream. Not cry, if he was crying I would have stuck with the crib and just checking on him every 3 min to let him know I was there and he was okay (read online to do this) but he SCREAMS.


Neil told me to put him in bed. Neil put his arm over Ry and was trying to sooth him. This works... as long as I am not in the room. So Neil picked up Ryan and took him in the living room to walk around. Then once he was calm put him back in bed. Screaming starts as he is looking at me. This went on till 2:30 when I caved and gave him breast.


Last night we did not cave. Tried all the crap above but instead of taking him out of the room I cuddled him in my arms rocking back and forth. He took the bottle (weak black chamomile tea) and drank almost the whole thing. Which for him is a miracle. I can get him to almost drink a bottle through the WHOLE DAY, not in one sitting. I rocked him for an hour and when my back felt like it was going to spasm I put him in our bed. Fuck the crib, lets break one bad habit at a time. Neil had to cuddle him to sleep. I think it was 3 something when he passed out. He woke at 5:30. I tried the bottle first and he started to ramp up.  I just gave him the breast. I was so tired I didnt even care to fight anymore. I figure we can kill that midnight (2am) feeding and we can work on the second one next week. I think its important we stick to our guns though. Don't cave in. Neils co-worker Liz (has 3 kids) gave him some good advice. She said Ryan doesn't remember being up for 2 1/2 hours Thursday night all he remembers is he got the breast in the end.


We have to be mean, well not too mean I dont want him to scream so hard he gets sick (he did that when he was an infant). We have to stick with it and just try to nap as much as we can during the day.
Books say the kid should sleep solid at night 10-12 hours and be taking 2 naps a day at 1 hours each. yeah right. In my fantasies. We were talking about having a second. I told Neil I don't think I want one and no way in hell we are having the talk for real until Ryan sleeps through the night. OR at least only wakes up once.


In happier news I made Butternut Squash Ravioli the other day for Ryan.

 I can feed myself?

Hey this is pretty good!

I used Wontons and it was so easy! Ryan loved it but he doesn't have enough teeth I had to cut it up. It took a while for him to eat. I ate half of his food. I just saute it in a little sun flower oil, no sauce. I also made meatballs but they are a bit dry. Gabi gave me a great recipe for home made sauce. SUPER easy to do and very plain so I am going to give him that for lunch today


Ryan loves to tickle us now. He was doing it to Neils feet the other night and Neil kept giggling. Now when Ryan touches my feet I giggle and bounce them around. Holy crap this kid loves it. He laughs like crazy! He will crawl across the house to get to my feet to tickle me. I guess that is what we get for tickling him so much.
Ryan also loves walking and pulling himself up. He does it on everything and the past few days he will pull himself up and then stand on his own. When we 'walk' him around the house and we will only give him one hand to hold. Before he would stop and look for the second hand and then either grab your clothing or stop let go and crawl. Now he is walking with just the one hand but he is a little shy about it. Every time he stands on his own I clap and tell him how great he doing. He loves it.

Bushy eyebrows and looooong lashes.

OH Gabi came over yesterday. Ryan hadn't seen her in a week. Soon as he heard her voice he lit up. HUGE smile and he did this flapping arms thing he does when excited. It was so cute. He really missed her, now to take him to visit Sandor (grandpa) as well. I know they miss each other.


I was playing with Ryans hair, I did the "Squiggy" if you dont know who this is I feel bad for you.

Mom... for real, stop it.

hehehehe

Its snowing outside, so pretty. I want to take Ryan out in it but its -12 feels like -21. Maybe not the day for snow play even with the snow suit.


Side note, I know the kid the tired because its 9:30am and he is napping already. Normally he naps between 10:30-11:30am for 1/2 hour. Lets see how long this nap is. Poor Neil is still in bed. I think this is taking a beating on him. He is so used to me taking the night shift cause he has to work so I think the sleeping in today and Monday (he has off) will do him some good. Silly man needs to go to bed earlier, silly mom should too!!!
I think we just get so excited about having the house to ourselves we stay up too late. There is a lot of things I can do only when Ryan is sleeping. I want to make my wall-dwellers again and no way I can play with Sculpty clay with Ryan awake!

Skiing Adventure with Neil

 Yes a few weeks late but this is all about our skiing adventure.


 Neil and I went Saturday the 21st to Blue Mountain. Neil found a deal for $99 each that included lessons, lift tickets and equipment for skiing and snow boarding. Neil has ski before but never snow boarded so it was perfect!


 We dropped off Ryan very early (with grandma/grandpa) and were on our way. We made it to Collingwood. As we were trying to figure out where to go to get the classes and equipment we got pulled over by a cop. Our license plate was still on Oct 2011 plate. Opps. So we got a ticket. Not a great way to start our day but we were NOT going to let it poop on our parade!
 We made our way over to the correct place and got dressed in the car. Once we checked in and got our ski/snow board boots. Holy cats it is a weird feeling. I was walking like I stepped out of a western movie, a cheesy one. I had this swagger and couldn't walk very fast in the boots. Neil had no issues cause snow board boots are just like normal boots. I found the ski boots were very stiff and could not bend my ankle which I assume is a good thing. heh


 We got our skis, board, and helmets and we were on our way. Neil went into his class area and I went into mine. I put on both skis and started my class. I learned how to do ski postion. Sort of like a squat in Zumba or any other work out class. You stick your butt out and make sure your knees do not go over your toes when you squat. You slide out your heels to the side and then slide then back in with equal weight distribution so it doesn't cut into the snow. I found this to be pretty easy to do. I really think Zumba classes helped with this!


 Once I got that down we took the left ski off and lined up to go in a circle with the one ski on and our poles. I would say it was more like a round edged square. This was KILLING my shins but I didn't want to give up. I did pretty good. We switched to the left ski only. This was a little harder for me but still was okay. Then BOTH skis on. That was super hard. I had no idea how to get going. We were not on a hill. Just going around in this little round square.


 Once you were good enough you got sent to the test hill. It was about 20 feet maybe.
You learned how to walk up the hill sideways on your skis. Then you go down the hill with your skis together and stop. I got it on my second try. I felt good because there was only adults in the classes and there were a lot! Some of the people were really bad. Just had bad balance. One lady ran right into me. I felt so bad for her cause she took her skis off and looked defeated. The instructor told me I was good to go on the small real hill. ACK!
 This is the smallest hill there so you dont get on a lift you get on this sort of escalator, like they have at the airport. You ski onto it though. I fell over the first time I went on. heh
 Once at the top of the hill I found the instrutor and he taught me how to stop. I went down the hill stopping every few feet. It was just to practice. I did this a few times (and fell a few times). Then they taught me how to turn. I got this pretty good with only a few fall downs. Neil got a pretty good video of it.


 Neil was getting pretty frustrated at Snow Boarding. He was falling A LOT and it looked super hard to do. Didn't look like much fun. We took a lunch break which was a great idea. My ski boots were on wrong and it was cutting into my shins which is why I had the bad pain when I first started. DOH!
 After lunch it was fixed thanks to Neils help and I felt so much better! We did the small hill a few more times and I told Neil I was ready for the big hill.

Lets do it!

 Neil confessed he was not, he was not comfortable on the snow board yet. He went to switch out for skis which I was very happy about! I wanted him to go with me because I was a little scared.

 We found an instructor and told her I was ready for the big hill... EKKKK

 The three of us got on the lift together. She taught me about lift safety and how to land. Well that went out the window when we got off the lift. I was supposed to go right, I went left into her and she stopped me from going down a VERY steep hill.

 On the top of the real hill it was much larger up there. I was freaking out and trying my best NOT to show it. The instructor and Neil were great. We would go down the hill a little and stop. We stopped a lot. However there was one part I freaked out and feel down. I feel pretty good. I ripped up my leg pretty bad. I was shaking I was so scared to get back on the skis. I don't think it helped that the snow was starting to get icy.
 We made it down the hill and the instructor was on her way to help another person. She was kind enough to tell me she was proud. She said about 6 new people out of the whole day go on the big hill. :D
 Neil all day kept telling me he was proud of me. So when he asked if we could do the hill one more time I said okay (after sort of crying saying I didn't want to). He said "please?" and I thought to myself. "fuck it Mary, man up. You have given birth, twice... this, this is nothing."
I tell myself that a lot when I am doing something I don't want to do or something hard. Also I didn't want to end the awesome day with my husband on a sour note. Though at this point I was feeling pretty beaten up and my leg was on fire.


 So we go back up, just him and me. I am so happy we did. Neil taught me a lot. I pretty much went parallel down the mountain the whole way. I did wipe out but only once in a bad icy patch. I felt a little bad Neil babysat me but he said he had a great time. He said he was shocked how fast I learned how to do a "c turn". What he calls a type of turn when skiing. 
 It was also nice to see all the little kids doing it, I can't wait to take Ryan. He can go as early as three but I think I will wait till he is almost 4 before we go. The kids were just so darn cute.


 We ended the day with dinner out with Joe and Angela and then picking up the kid.


 It was an awesome day. I love skiing and I can't wait to try cross country if we get any darn snow this winter. I am so happy I tried it and I didn't let fear stop me.
 I think since going on rollar coasters with Neil I have made up my mind to try more things. It really started when we went to Budapest. I told myself I would try anything and eat anything there. I want to be more adventurous. I want to be a person my son can look up too instead of a fuddy-duddy mom I was becoming. 
yeah sometimes it's scary, sometimes you get hurt (see below) but most of the time you just have fun and feel sort of like a bad ass.
:)

You can't tell in the picture but it was a HUGE bruise. I thought it was very pretty (and lumpy).

Snow walk

Ryan and I enjoyed our first snow walk today. I waited till the snow stopped and the side walk plow came out but holy cats it was cold! He loved it.

Walk was about 15 min. We didn't go any farther cause the side walk snow plow was stuck so...

We turned around and Ryan watched while I shovelled the drive way.

I am shocked my little dude is almost 9 months old. He has had a rough night last night poor kid. Farting ever few minutes. He is just eating SO MUCH.

More food please.

 Non-stop eating and he wants to eat everything we are eating which is cute. I hope he stays this way but I love that he eats anything. Though those kiwi I had were a little too sour for him. haha

This is more for me for in the future and I am re-reading these posts:

He eats about four ice cubes of homemade food (chicken soup or broccoli chicken mix) and then will have two ice cubes of fruit mixed with yogurt. And then some bread or cheese for him to feed himself. Then he will try to eat mine or Neils dinner! Little bottomless pit.
Breakfast is four/five scoops of oat cereal, five scoops of prunes and two big spoons of plain yogurt. I have also been giving him tea. Chamomile or Fennel. The fennel tea is awesome for helping with the gas pains. Thank you Gabi for that tip!

Anyway on to cute stuff. He is chewing the crap out of everything right now. And if nothing is around for him to chew he will chew his own hand!

NOM!

Ryan also has a fun time shopping with Neil and I. 

Neil kept putting his hat on Ryan, it was super cute. 

He also is talking a lot right now. Started a few days ago. More then just babbles. Neil was sort of shocked by it. He has been working late the past few nights and not really had much time around Ryan. Well with the exception of last night since he was the one that was trying to get him to sleep. With the inflections of his voice is really sounds like he is trying to talk. He also likes to sing along with you when you sing or hum songs. Today we were all in our bed and I was rubbing Neil leg and he was going "mmmm" and Ryan would go "mmmm" right back at him. They kept going back and forth. He loves to mimic. LOVES IT. He will also dance to music.

Oh poor kid fell down so bad this morning right on a toy. He screamed so loud even after I picked him up. I walked him around and hugged him and told him it sucks when we fall but its important to always get back up. He took that to heart and started to walk around again (holding on to stuff). 
Made me sad though tonight changing his diaper I saw the bruise from the fall this morning. Poor kid.
This afternoon he fell and hit his head on the wood floor. Sucks but I am happy it wasn't on the tile. The small 4" of tile we don't have covered in foam flooring. I am fixing that Saturday. More foam flooring because all Ryan does besides play (and eat everything) is try to walk. He will use anything he can to get up and then forgets he has to hold on still and falls. Something tells me we have many falls and bruises ahead in our future.

He has places to be people.


Places to BE.

Snow and 8 months old today.

Its Saturday morning (my morning to get up with the kid).
I am sitting here enjoying my cup of coffee and eggs while I watch soft fluffy snow blow round outside. The kid is squeeling in the background happy as can be. Oh, not because of the snow but because there is a kitty near him. I don't think he will enjoy snow until next year.


Now trying to convince Neil to go to Port Credit with me for Christmas Family fun will be hard with snow out. Then again maybe it will make it easier.
One thing Neil and I agree on, doesnt feel like Christmas without snow. Even more so this year because we can not have a tree in our tiny place with the baby. Once again, next year will be more fun because we will have our own place. Either Condo or the townhouse we really want. By god I will have a tree next year.
A real one.


Also check out this picture of Ryan with Santa. It was great cause there was no line and Ryan was amazing. He was smiling and looking at the camera. Our little Ham. Neil got Video of it.

Click to enlarge

Off to do a Skype test run with the folks. We are going to video skype next Saturday for Christmas so they can watch Ryan open gifts.


EDIT:
I forgot Ryan turned 8 months old. Changes in him.
 He is full on crawling. He can pull himself up to standing super fast and does it a lot. He loves to mimic and will do it endlessly. Small things like if you smack the table once he will do it once, you do it twice he will do it twice. Other day Neil was going "roar!" like a lion and Ryan did it back to him. And he does it with a huge smile. He wants to eat everything. I mean everything you eat. I can not eat around him without him booting it over to me and trying to get into my food.
Neil gave him a taste of coffee and he loved it. (yikes). He still flirts with all the ladies and some guys. Anyone can hold him. He doesn't care who you are. Even strangers are okay but he does prefer people he knows.
He will put his forehead on yours as a sort of hug/kiss. He does try to kiss but does it open mouth on your face (he did it Rita the other day). He loves when I kiss the palm of his hands. He also loves to have his hands washed after eating.(which I am trying to do after every meal)
If I am tickling him and try to pull his arm up to get to his arm pit he will giggle and try to hold it down so you can't. He is obsessed with teeth and touching peoples teeth right now, it's so weird. When I smell his feet and go "ohhhh smelly feet!" he giggles like crazy.
I think right now is my favorite time for him. He is such a little sponge and he is just getting to be more and more fun to be around. He is super stubborn though. If I try to put him to sleep he HAS to have the boobs. The other day I tried not giving it to him and he screamed for 45 minutes. Then I let him play a little and just gave him the boob and he passed right now. I am thinking about trying to introduce pacifier again so he can get that sucking calming effect without needing me. Self sooth and all that crap. He still wakes a lot at night. Sometimes I can get him to sleep without the breast. Sometimes Neil has to do it and sometimes I just nurse him back to sleep if its really late (like 2am and I am tired). Trying to break that habit this week, it's gonna SUCK.