Sleep training

So here we are: four months old and sleeping (if that's what you call it) like a newborn. We had one freak week where Sam slept for eight hours straight every night (can we say bliss???), but ever since then we have had to bathe, lotion, swaddle, feed, rock, jiggle, pace, and then very VERY carefully place him in either his swing or his rocker/sleeper. Then we must hover over him for a few extra minutes just to be sure that the sleep "took." Wake and repeat every two hours as needed. And it is usually needed. If you're not tired just from reading that, then let me tell you that it is exhausting. And I'm so over it.

He's cute when he smiles at me, but oh, he is infinitely cuter when he's asleep. Trust me on that one.

I'll post some sort of update in a few days as to whether it works or not. Meanwhile, please pray for us that it does. Four months of interrupted sleep is not good for our bodies, people, and we are desperate for a guaranteed four-hour chunk of sleep every night. We're not asking for twelve hours. Not even eight. Just four consistent hours every night. Amen.


Something other than sleep training, PLEASE!
Sammy and I stayed in PA this week with Mom-mom and Pop-pop since Steve was really busy with work and meetings, and it was such a great week. What a saint Mom-mom was to let me make dinner while she held and entertained Sam (cooking is so much more fun when someone isn't screaming at you to hurry up with that raw chicken because the fishies aren't signing their song anymore and I'd like to see what's going on over there RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!!). She also hung out with him in the evenings while I went to bed early which is about as close to heaven as I can imagine right now. Not to mention the daily conversation with another adult, guaranteed shower time (without the background screaming), and did I mention the tons and tons of snow that are on the ground up there?? Unlike the rest of PA (you know, the people that actually have somewhere to be during the day), I was enjoying the white on the ground and got excited about the potential for more to fall while we were there. Multiple people tried to talk me out of liking the stuff, but that was near impossible since I come from a place where it is a true novelty. No pictures of snow though. I was too busy enjoying it to take a picture of it. Marci also enjoys the snow (probably more than I do), while Odie share the rest of PA's opinion of it, and looks very put off when she's forced to go out in it.

Marci on New Year's Eve 2010

In other news, Sammy got two new toys: a bouncy seat and a jumperoo. The jumperoo has gotten rave reviews. The bouncy seat leaves something to be desired apparently. Lucky for us, I got a good deal on craiglist so it doesn't really matter.

Watching those chubby little white legs jump up and down is so stinkin' cute! It almost makes the music that comes out of the thing bearable.

And his latest hobby is trying to see how many fingers he can shove into his mouth at once. Not a great habit to pick up, but a very cute one at his age.

And just because it was so darn good, I made that torte again. Seriously, if you haven't made it, you're missing out. It's easy, loaded with calories, chocolate-y, delicious, and easy. It requires no baking, so I will mention again that it's easy. My only personal changes that I would make to the original instructions are:

• use strawberries over raspberries (raspberries seem to be rivaling gold in their worth right now)
• use a glass circle (or square) pyrex instead of a metal cake pan. The first step that involves the Saran wrap can be a beast since Saran wrap does not stick to metal. It still turns out either way, but works just as well in a glass pyrex.

The recipe is here and you should all run out to the store and get the eight ingredients that it takes to make this because you will so not regret it, and I am not one to waste your time on not-so-tasty desserts. (FYI: One box of Nilla Wafers will make exactly two tortes, assuming that you only snack on a couple of them during the process.)

Steve and I found out that we are lucky #63 on the wait-list for on-post housing at Ft Campbell, which equates to somewhere between four to six months. This situation is not ideal since we do not want to rent off-post for four to six months and re-move everything (including baby and two dogs) on-post. So we are looking to rent off-post for our entire stay at Ft Campbell. We found the perfect house to rent in a nice cookie-cutter neighborhood with reasonable rent, but when we called the realtor, he told us that it wouldn't be ready until April and that someone else already wanted it. Boo. Apparently most of the units at Campbell are getting back from a deployment, so housing on- and off-post is in high demand. Lucky us! :) Please keep us in your prayers to find the right house. We can only search online for now, but when we arrive at Ft Campbell in three-ish weeks, we will only have ten days to find and move into a place. And that place must have a fenced-in backyard because I will not spend all my days walking behind Odie and coaching her on when and where to poop and then picking it up and carrying it around while she and Marci proceed to sniff every living thing within a ten mile radius of our house while Sammy wails because the scenery is not constantly changing before his eyes. I just won't. So please kindly include that in your prayers as well. Thank you.

Family picture! Because we haven't had one since we were in the hospital with Sammy. Our backdrop is pretty classy too, huh?