Since we now have 3 hours to work with before each nap, I got up and got to work on some chores. About 40 minutes before Ayden needs to go down is when he starts to get a little clingy/fussy so that is when we get our floor play, reading , etc in. If I'm focused on him he can power through the 3 hours and then some. If I'm not focused on him, the whole world probably knows that he's tired. I have found that making him a little overtired, and then nursing him to sleep is the magic formula to hour long naps.
Since I've been getting more sleep lately, I haven't been as diligent about getting naps in myself. Most days I end up wishing I had but for the most part, I do okay without. I was feeling particularly tired today so I decided to join Ayden for his morning nap. The few times that I have napped while he does, I've put him in his crib and then sprawled out in my bed but I brought him in the bed with me. We napped for an hour and a half! I still feed him after every nap, even if he nurses to sleep since the pre-nap feed is usually just a snack/pacifying session. When he woke from our super morning nap I fed him and he fell back to sleep! He probably would have slept longer but we had a lunch date with David so I woke him up so we could get out of the house.
We were late to lunch but we made it and enjoyed our mid-day visit as always. David is always so proud to show Ayden off and I could tell Ayden was really happy to see David too. It was the first time we've gone to eat lunch with David since Ayden has started eating solids so I packed a little container of food for him and took his big bib. He sat in my lap and munched on his leftover steamed yellow squash from last night's dinner while we ate and it actually went pretty well. The only semi-problem that we had was that Ayden gets very vocal while he eats so he was being pretty loud in a room full of people trying to work. We thought it was funny but tried to keep him as quiet as we could out of courtesy. David gets an hour for lunch so when we got done eating we went outside and walked around a little and got to chat and play with Ayden.
When we left we headed straight to the dance studio since I've been helping my sister reorganize her office there. Yesterday, we emptied out every drawer and did some cleaning and rearranging of furniture and today we started moving some things back in. She is excited about some of the new organizational systems that we've put in place. I hope that all of the employees will jump on board and help her keep it up. In my experience, it's difficult to stay organized when you run a small business because everyone seems to have their own ideas about where to put things. The key is to make things easy for everyone so that it's hard not to put things back where they belong. We shall see how things are this time next year!
Organizing, or doing any task for that matter, is interesting with babies running around. Obviously I had Ayden with me who is almost 7 months (!!), and then my sister had her two kiddos there too. Her son will be 3 in December and her daughter is almost 11 months. We probably would have gotten 3 times the amount of stuff done had we had a baby sitter of some sort, but we did what we could! The Ergo came in super handy for me. Ayden took two naps in it while we were there and I just kept on working.
He is becoming more and more of my little buddy and I absolutely love it! If he sees me sit down on the floor, even if he's across the room, he comes crawling over as fast as he can panting like a little puppy with a smile on his face. He likes to climb around in my lap and hold onto my legs while he stands up. He likes Eskimo kisses and likes to grab my cheeks and pull my face in and either puts his forehead to mine or puts his mouth all over my nose or wherever he can get it. I know that the first time he gives me a real hug will be one of those moments that I'll tuck away in the special compartment in my brain reserved for the warmest and fuzziest of mommy moments that I will cherish forever; but in the meantime all of these cute little things that he does will stand in as my hug equivalent from my little sweetie.
Some times are still tough, don't let me sugar coat things too much. He still has his fussy moments, or even days, which can frazzle me and wear me out and I have a million half-completed projects strewn about the house. Even so, I think most mothers would agree with me when I say that being a mommy is so amazing that all of the sweet moments far outweigh the tough ones. I am so happy that I love it as much as I always thought I would. It's all about keeping the right attitude and perspective and though it can be hard at times, I am so proud that I've been able to find those two things and keep them right where they are supposed to be.
~Sarah
Love it Sarah!♡ vanessaj
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