Nate Update

I get this from my husband today:


[11:31:27 AM] Jay: Nate took two independent steps


Aye YA!  Batten down the hatches!

Standing and Reading

Just want to send a quick update. Nathan is 8 and half months now and is trying to stand on his own and trying to cruise. He's stubborn.  He doesn't want help, but he likes you to be there in case he falls.  Right now Wesley is in an after school reading class. He's been struggling with reading and usually it was a struggle to get him to read. Things are slowly getting easier for him and he's getting better and more confident. Tonight was something I've dreamed of for a long time. After reading to us, he wanted to read to himself before he went to sleep!  I overheard him reading to himself in bed. I am so proud of him. I hope he will love reading, like Jay and I do.

1st Grade work

Since we've been doing 1st grade work, sometimes it gets frustrating.  Wesley brought this home last night since he was having trouble with it.   He basically flip flop where the numbers go. He was putting the yellow cube numbers in the 1st space and the blue cubes in the 2nd space.  It took a while to get him to understand you have to read the cubes from top to bottom (as per my arrows on question 1).   Since this worksheet is limited on instructions, I had to look at it for a while to see why his work was wrong. I wish the teacher gave us more guided instruction.  I have no idea how she's teaching this concept to them.

I also had to take a picture on this.  Look at the last question on the bottom.  

"Do you understand? How can you tell if a number is greater than or less than another number?"

What the heck?!?  Where's the instructions?  I think I'm pretty good at figuring out concepts.  But from what I could "figure out" from the example on the top, I guess it's by the colored cubes?  I didn't think it was the symbols < and >, since they didn't show it on the worksheet.  Wesley and I both got frustrated with this question.   I was so annoyed, I had to email his teacher and ask what the answer is.  I think that is a crazy question to ask a 1st grader. Is it just me or do you know the answer?  Do you think this is a crazy question to ask a 1st grader?

Sleep Deprivation Rating Scale

Here's my Sleep Deprivation Rating since Thursday.

Nathan normally goes to bed around 7-7:30 pm and wakes up around 6:15-7 am (depending upon when he does his last feed).  Luckily he's like his big brother, a morning person.

As you can see from my ratings below, after some great sleep from Nathan, it took a spiraling dive on Saturday.

Thursday - 1 (Nathan woke up once 4:30)

Friday - 1 (Nathan woke up once 4:30)

Saturday - 8 - (Nathan woke up at least 5 times, I think. I lost count after 4)

Sunday - 6 (Nathan woke up twice: 12 & 3:30)

Monday - 3 (Nathan woke up twice: 2:30 & 5:30. One arm unswaddled)

Jay and I could only guess it was because of Wesley's school Pumpkin Walk that night that threw him off.  He must have been overstimulated from that event.

Nathan and I drove separately and we only stayed until 6:30.  Then I did the normal routine of bath, bottle, bed.  I have to give it a pain scale of 8.  It was the "what are you trying to do to me kid?" frustration.  We had my dad's birthday luncheon the next day.  I was so wiped out, I had to sleep on the car ride home.  I wish I could have given it a 9 or 10, but I know a couple of people who've had it worse.  So far, neither boy has kept me up for hours in the middle of the night wanting to play.  That would suck big time!  

We also started the process of unswaddling him.  I'm hoping this is what's causing him to not stay down  for a while.  For a while, he's been struggling out of his swaddle.  On the one hand, I think it's time and he's outgrowing the sleep sack.  On the other, when he gets overstimulated, it helps him to settle down for bed.  I was pretty pleased on Monday, Jay was able to get him down like that for a couple of naps and I was able to get him down at night.  Today, Jay was able to get a nap with both arms out.  I was also able to get him down with both arms out for bed tonight.  I'm just going to say for now, we'll see what happens :)

4 Month Check Up

Nathan had his 4 month check up on the 10th.  He weighed in at 14 lbs and was 24 inches long.  Our lil' 14 pounder!  He came in at 41% in weight, 25% in height, and 71% in the head.

This past Monday I finally went back to work.  It wasn't as hard this time as it was when I went back to work with Wesley.  It was easier this time since Jay is now taking care of him.  We had a little rough couple of days of adjustment, more lack of sleep in the middle of night for me.  He would wake up around 3 to 4 times.  For Jay, he would only take a 1/2 or hour nap.   He was having a hard time settling down. Then, during the middle of the week, Nathan would get up at his usual times during the night, 1 am and 4am.  He was getting into the rhythm of having to go to school with Jay to pick up Wesley.  The good thing is that I've been able to leave work at 3pm, so I get home at 4.  So, I've been also been able to take Wesley to his Karate class.  This gives Nathan time to take a nap then.

Now as of today, the last couple of days has been great!  Nathan has only gotten up once in the middle of the night!  I've woken up a few times to find he's still sleeping.  Unfortunately, I've been waking up around 2:30am, and 4, waiting for him to wake up.   At 4:30, I've seen him stir on the monitor, then wake up and struggle out of his swaddle.  Then I'm up for about a half an hour watching him, waiting for him to call me.  I'm hoping he can resettle himself and close his eyes.  He has, but it was only for 5 minutes :)  He's been a little harder to settle down after that feed.  I think it's because he's had more sleep and all that struggling kept him awake.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  I'm hoping we're going to the next step of sleeping through the night!

The next step is getting him out of that swaddle.  Not looking forward to that.  I've been enjoying my sleep :)  Nathan can roll now.  I don't want him to get stuck in the wrap around swaddle blanket.

Nathan has also been "crawling".  He's been doing the same thing that Wesley did.  He uses his head to push himself along.  Whatever happened to getting on all fours and rocking back and forth first?  Guess we have impatient boys ;)  He's also doing good at "sitting".  I think he's doing better than Wesley at this age.  Wesley was all about moving.  Nathan, on the other hand, likes to sit, watch things and people, and cuddle.

Tonight is Wesley's school's Pumpkin Walk.  It should be fun.  His school is really good at fundraising, and they put on a pretty impressive event with food, midway games, jumpy houses, and a haunted house.  I'll try and post some pics of the event.

That's all for now.  I'm doing the lag of writing and pictures for the 2nd one.  I'll try and update more, if I can find the time :)  Things are just a little busier now with two.  Luckily, it's been a manageable busy :)