2 week overview

After all the sickness in the house was finally over we packed our bags and made our annual anniversary trip up to the north shore of Lake Superior. Of course this one was special because we had Karsten with us and he had his first glimpse of the Lake and finally being able to be outside without having to be all bundled up! My parents also decided to meet us up there so we decided to stay in a 2 bedroom cabin (which, by the way, had a full kitchen and 2 bathrooms, one with a Jacuzzi tub) instead of staying in the main lodge of the resort which are all hotel rooms. We were really thankful that we did that because Karsten was not handling the change of scenery very well in terms of sleeping. The best he slept while we were there he woke up twice during the night....the worst being about 4 times and he DID NOT like the pack and play. We did all of the touristy stuff there is to do up there with my parents and just did a lot of hanging out and making fires and S'mores. There was a little bear table that Karsten liked and a few fish hanging on the wall that were really entertaining to him.


After we got back from there Karsten still was not sleeping well and on Sunday morning we found out why....another tooth decided to make its appearance! We had another couple of nights of him not sleeping well when we decided it was time to have to re-train him to sleep through the night. After having done that once we didn't want to have to go through that all over again but the first night was the worst - he cried for an hour before I decided I had enough and I just rocked him to sleep and then we woke up around 11pm and cried himself back to sleep. The second night he only protested for 15 minutes and last night not at all. He was being a little more fussy tonight but that's because he fell asleep on the couch next to me and I had to wake him up to put him to bed. Now that his night time is fixed again we have to work on daytime napping which this kid refuses to do. On a good day he'll get one maybe one hour nap otherwise he'll have 3-4 half hour naps and I think that's why he is so cranky all the time because he doesn't get enough sleep. He also refuses to sleep in his crib for his naps. He could be totally out of it and you lay him down in his crib and he is wide awake. He'll fall asleep anywhere for his naps except the one place he should as proven by this picture (Brice had him laid on our bed and wrapped in the sheets and he fell asleep while I believe, laundry was being done).

So this next week we have to do some nap training. We need to get him on a schedule and to nap in his crib. I did a little this afternoon which actually went ok. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes and being really grumpy but he would not fall asleep. I took him up into his room and read to him for a little while and he started getting real quiet and staring off into space. I laid him in his crib, gave him a couple of toys to play with and walked away. It was peaceful for about a minute and the cry-fest began. He was crying for attention for about a half an hour and all of a sudden....silence. The end result was:

I'll have to do that again tomorrow and see if I can get him to do a whole day of napping in his crib. Hopefully he won't protest too much!

Karsten is also getting really close to sitting up by himself. All I have to do is sit him on the floor with a pillow behind him and he can sit up and topple over as much as he wants (which isn't much anymore) and play all by himself (which is never very long because for some odd reason he just CRAVES attention).


Since Brice is working tonight and there has been NOTHING on tv lately, I went to Blockbuster this afternoon and stocked up on movies (Atonement, Enchanted, Dedication and Sweeney Todd). Of course the only time I can watch them is after Karsten falls asleep which I am ok with because I still get some me time in. I can go to bed late and still get in a good 7 hours of sleep before he wakes up in the morning (about 7am).

I do have some other thoughts to post but since this one is getting so long I think I will just close and post again tomorrow. I do have to say though - I LOVE the 10+ inches of snow that we got (I'm being facetious of course). What is up with all of the weather guys in this city predicting us to get monstrous amounts of snow in the last 4 storms that have gone through but ended up with next to nothing????? All I have to say is that this 50 degree weather they are predicting for this next week actually happens - winter has been long enough this year!