My New Best Friend

Such a cutie!!!

 The past couple of nights have been rough. After trying bed sharing for a few nights after we got home from Nashville, we decided that it still isn't the best arrangement for us. Ayden woke just as often as he does when he's in his crib, which made David tired, and I suppose our bed is the culprit for making my hips hurt. It's a bummer because we like the idea of it but the reality of it (when we're home) isn't so nice. Now we are in the process of getting back into a consistent nighttime routine with Ayden in his room and us in ours. The week before we went camping for our family reunion Ayden had a great sleeping week. There was even a five and a half hour stretch in there so now that we know for sure that him being in his crib is what we want, we can focus on getting consistent (and hopefully longer) stretches of sleep back in our lives.

All of this being said, we refuse to let Ayden's sleep (or lack thereof) and obvious need for consistency keep us from living our lives. We could have recognized his progress and cancelled our camping trip and our trip to Nashville but what fun would that have been? It is important to find something that feels right and works for you and be as consistent as you can when you are home. It is also important to think realistically and know that taking a baby out of an environment that they are used to, or switching things up for a bit to confirm without questions that you are on the right path, may cause a "two steps forward, one step back" type of scenario but that's okay. The key is to find the consistency again and to continue to work towards your goals, whatever they may be.

In the meantime, naps have become my new best friend (well... second best after David of course!). All I need is one a day and I feel relatively normal until I go to bed. Now that I am making a point to consistently take a nap a day my body is ready for it and I always manage to fall asleep. I am also very fortunate and grateful that I am staying home and am able to get regular naps. Moms, if your baby is not a great sleeper, and you are able, treat yourself to a daily nap. The time you "waste" taking a nap will most likely be very comparable to time wasted walking in sleepy circles all day I assure you!

Yesterday David treated me to a group fitness class!  He found a gal in our area who is a Beach Body coach and has classes similar to Turbo Kick, Hip Hop Hustle, P90X, etc.  (all Beach Body programs).  I took an hour long Turbo Kick class while David and Ayden hung out in the waiting room.  It was so fun to be back in the group fitness environment.  I pushed myself harder, physically, than I have in a while and it felt good.  Group fitness has always given me a little extra push because it's fun to be in the same room with people working just as hard as me.

In Ayden news, his crawling is getting better by the day and he has now declared that his spit up is finger paint.  Every time he spits up he takes a second to look at it, envisions his masterpiece and then proceeds to smear it around whatever surface it may be on.  Awesome...  David read somewhere that spitting up usually peaks around 5 or 6 months and then tapers off.  We are so over the spit up and are ready for the tapering to begin anytime now.  Ayden has also started scrunching up his nose and breathing in and out like a little pug or something.  It is too cute! He does it for a second in this cute clip from today:

We took Ayden swimming tonight and as always he loved every second of it.  David won free passes to our local pool at work and this was our first time using them.  The pools close in two weeks (crazy that it's already August!) so we are going to try to get lots of use out of them.  Ayden woke from his last nap a bit out of sorts and the second I stripped him down in the shade to slather him with sunscreen and get him in his swimming gear his mood turned around and he was in a great mood until he fell asleep.

Chillin' after his swim

 As we were packing up, I needed to put Ayden down for a second but didn't want him crawling on the concrete (he still face plants every now and then and his knees are not toughened at all yet) so I came up with a solution:

Baby in a diaper bag...

 Haha, he thought it was pretty funny and don't worry, it is a wide,  sturdy bag and both David and I were standing right there. 

After his bedtime routine he was sleepy but still wanting to practice his crawling (his need to practice this milestone has by far been more intense and interrupted sleep more than any other) so I turned on our wedding song and left him to hang in his crib and play/practice to his little hearts content.  I went back in every now and then to let him know that I was close by and to hug him, lay him back down and tell him it was time to go to sleep.  It took a while for him to wind down but he fell asleep on his own by 8:15 or so with me in the next room.  It will be interesting to see if he sleeps better after falling asleep by himself rather than me helping him (whether that be nursing him, rocking him or just patting/rubbing his back like as usually do). Since he had his crawling practice to distract him and was so content to be by himself it felt normal and natural to let him do just that.  I've been following Ayden's cues along with my heart and tonight, he seemed to want some space so it felt right giving it to him. 

Tomorrow is story time day and the last week for summer dance classes.  I'm also going to try to throw a few errands in there as well. 

~Sarah