Such a little monkey!!!

So first off the answer is no. The question being will the Vicks vapour pads make a difference with her sleep. She at least had a strech of almost 5 hours at first but then it was up every 2 hours. But you mammas out there know that actually means only like an hour for me in between feeds. (there's the time spent with Cassidy, then the time it takes to get back to sleep) So my new question is will a bit of benadryl help her sleep a little better? (my dr. recommended it and figured out the proper dosage for the weight)
So I'm puttering around the kitchen cleaning. Okay, I wasn't cleaning. I was on my Wii Fit. My mom got Dan the Wii system and me the Wii fit. SO MUCH FUN!!!!! Another post about our Christmas gifts b/c we got some pretty nice stuff. (Nice for us but not like someone should break into our house kind of nice) Anyways, I'm doing my Wii Fit b/c I'm going to get fit. And skinny too. So I hear some rustling around the corner and I know there's just empty boxes for Cassidy to play with. I peak around the corner and this is what I see:












She had climbed in the box and then climbed back out. All without tipping the box over thankfully. So little Miss Cassidy is starting to free stand. She'll just let go and stand there for a couple seconds without holding onto anything! She's also starting to imitate our sounds. Like when we sing "aye yie yie" from the Wiggles she'll copy it. Oh she's just full of tricks. She can't sleep very long but she's a hoot when she's awake.

Every 2 hours

Me: Dude, seriously. You have to stop getting up so much. I know you're not hungry.
Cassidy: I am the master. You are my slave. I cry, you do what I want. Thats how it works around here.
Me: Okay.

I was up every 2 hours with little Miss C. Her nose was so stuffed one of the times but the other times I'm not sure what was bugging her. She seemed less stuffy today but boy was she fussy. I can see two more bottom teeth wanting to come through so these may be the reason for her fussiness. She has a Vicks Starry night humidifier and it has a little slot for Vick's vapour pads. When I was nursing her to sleep it smelled so nice in her room. Not strong or overpowering but nice and gentle. We'll see if it makes a difference.

Christmas 2010- a sleep deprived update

I guess having 3 kids means less time to take Christmas pictures. I really don't have many pics to share.
This first picture was taken at the Portuguese Festa. Look how happy Lexie is! She is super comfortable sitting next to Santa. Maybe she'll move to his knee next year. Cassidy didn't cry this time. She is older now though- almost 10 months! Here's what the girls got from Santa- pull string Woody and pull string Jesse! Exactly what they asked for. You should see our living room- scattered with toys. These are the luckiest little girls. Even Cassidy- a third child and a third girl- got lots of new toys. We managed to keep a good pace for the first little while. Olivia, who had asked for a Leapster Explorer, kept saying that she'd like to open her explorer now. At one point Dan said "you didn't get one"!! In a joking way but Olivia didn't get it. But she went under the tree and found a gift and said "This looks like an explorer" and it was. Christmas is just amazing with 3 little ones that still believe in Santa. Everything is just so exciting to them. We even made it to Mass on Christmas Eve. All 3 girls napped in the late afternoon and had enough energy left for the 7pm service. Lexie kept asking where baby Jesus was and finally we saw a little doll and manager at the front. The girls thought that was pretty cool.

Sleep- It just wouldn't be a complete post without a little update on sleep. I am in desperate need of a good night's sleep but don't know what to do. I'm pretty sure Cassidy's waking up is due to her just not able to get herself back to sleep. Sometimes it could be teething pain but once in a while I'll give her tylenol or advil and she'll still wake up. At the same time every night!!!! Lexie did this too so I stopped breastfeeding her at night. The first night it took an hour and a half for her to fall back asleep without nursing. The second night it was 30 minutes and then the third night and onwards she slept through the night. This is not working for Miss Cassidy. She is just not able to go back to sleep without nursing. So let me tell you about a typical night- Cassidy goes to sleep around 7-7:30. Then she's up for her first feed around 12. She goes back down fairly easily but is back up around 4-5am, then for good around 7am. But the kicker here is that Lexie has been getting up around 6:30 asking to come to our bed. It wouldn't be so bad if she'd just snuggle with me but she wants to chat, comb my hair and then go downstairs. And if I don't comply she gets noisy and then i have to shush her and do what she wants so she doesn't wake her sisters up.

Back to Miss Cassidy- she's sick, like her sisters. They all have really stuffed noses. So I'll be going in to nurse her as often as she wants. But as soon as she's better I have a plan. I tried this with Lexie but it didn't work. I pick the feed I want to get rid of first. I have to time how long I'm in with her and reduce that time each time I go in. Right now I'm usually in with her about 20 mins. (That's if I don't fall asleep in the glider in her room. Those times are brutal. My head falls forward and my neck & shoulders get so sore.) My goal is to reduce the nursing time by about 2 mins each time until she stops waking up for it. With Lexie I got down to about 2 mins but this went on for at least a week. According to the book I read, she should have stopped waking up. Seriously that was annoying. I'd go in, she'd fall asleep as soon as she was latched on and then I'd unlatch her at the 2 min mark and go back to bed. It would take me at least 30 mins to get back to sleep and I would lie there thinking "why am I getting up for a 2 min feed???" I'll let you all know how my nightime weaning goes.

I'm Back!

I didn't really go anywhere but I'm back to blogging. It's been a busy month so I'll catch y'all up. (I don't think the photos are in any order) Here's Olivia at her last gymnastics class. Her and Lexie go to Phoenix Gymnastics near Nat Bailey stadium. It's awesome and the girls love it. The coaches are really good and they do neat things. Olivia is now in the downstairs gym which is for the big kids. Here's Lexie upstairs in the Treehouse gym. It's all padded and has tiny gym equipment like this trampoline, rings and bars.

Olivia had her school concert. I went to an afternoon performance with Lexie. Olivia was a little tired and kinda yawned her way through "Gloria". Luckily all 3 girls had a nap after school- Hallelujah!!!! That was a treat. Both Olivia and Alexis were totally refreshed for Olivia's nighttime performance. I stayed home with Cassidy but Dan said Olivia sang her heart out! She looked super cute as an angel.

Lexie had her concert the next morning. There was a curtain and when they opened it up she was so happy to see Olivia! I think the kids were all a little surprised to see people staring back at them. Lexie sang her little heart out as well. Her voice was loud and clear. In fact, I think it was the only voice singing loudly. She knew all her actions as well. Holy crap she was cute.

Here's me with my 3 girls. It just embodies life right now- me super happy, Cassidy sucking her thumb (quietly), Lexie being goofy and Olivia moody.

Grandpa Knox came for a visit and I can't believe I didn't get any pictures! He did the drop off/pick ups for school which was such a relief for me. The schedule right now is pretty tight with Cassidy's naps. She seems to be shifting her naps later which does not jive with the school schedules so January will be interesting for me.

Cassidy and her night sleep: still crappy. She'll have a good night here and there but for the most part she goes down to sleep around 7pm, then she's up around 10-midnight, 3, 5 & 7. I just go in and nurse her but I know she's not hungry. She's just gotten into some bad habits. Right now she's sick with a cough. I know she's getting up b/c of habit and not b/c she's sick. I know this b/c she gets up at the same times. Every night. I am so ready for sleep training but sleep training means crying and right now her cries are so sad with the cough. I can't handle hearing her cry when she's sick.

And now I will attempt to write about things not related to children:

I got to go out Christmas shopping by myself. It was fab-u-lous! I drove the Rav which was nice too. I love my Sienna but it's pretty big and parking is always an adventure. With the Rav I can just park where I want! Oh the little things that make my day. I even ran into a work friend and chatted a bit. Dan and I are trying to figure out what to get each other. I like picking out Dan's present to me. I'm looking for ideas of what to get....

Well, I'm off to wrap presents. Doing a few a night. I will have to continue my non-kid post later.

Olivia's 6th birthday invite

Buggy Beauties Pink Birthday Invitation

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View the entire collection of cards.

Many updates

First off, let me say that I'm in a fog. A sleep deprived fog. (more on the sleep deprivation below) I hope my words make sense. Forgive me when they don't. And pity me too.

As you can see I'm getting a little addicted to Shutterfly. Darn, and I just kicked my ebay addiction. I am green with envy everytime one of my friends gets professional photos. We take okay photos with our camera but the professional ones always blow me away. So in the new year I'm going to do it- I'm getting professional photos taken! And maybe I'll even get to be in one of them. This month I'm getting my hair cut and colored. I'm going to work out like a mad woman and watch what I eat. Well, really what I'll do is get a few work outs in and only eat a few purdy's chocolates instead of the whole box.

The sleep situation with Cassidy is kinda nightmarish. She was getting up every 2-4 hours and then in the morning she was getting up at 3, 5 & 7. Little dude is 9 months old, eating solid foods with gusto and has a bit of chub on all the right spots. In other words, she is getting up to hang out with mommy, not because she's hungry. So I've decided to do nightime weaning. I'm only asking for a few hours sleep. Already I've had a few nights of in and out of her room and I'm ready to go back to just feeding her when she wants. It's just so stressful trying to get her to sleep without feeding her, knowing full well that she's crying b/c she wants to nurse. Last night was a success- 7pm-3am, then up at 7:30. VERY successful for Cassidy but one thing that has been consistent about her sleep is that she is inconsistent. So tonight will be something different.

Lots of fun stuff coming up for the girls- gingerbread houses, concerts, and ice skating. I'm also debating wether to put Olivia into piano. She wants to but I'm not so sure about it. Cassidy just had her first visit to Science World. Not too fun though because Body Works (or whatever they call the creepy dead bodies exhibit) took over what used to be the 3 areas that our girls loved. It sucked really. We're members but I would have been pissed if I had paid.