I thought I would start this blog NOT talking about Maks...we will see how long that lasts. I ran across these pictures of my dog, Reilly...a puggle. That's half pug, half beagle. When I bought him, you could see why I thought he was going to be the perfect little purse dog!
Here he is within the first week we took him home. Remember, the place we bought him told us he would be between 10-15 pounds.
Here's a picture of him at over 45 POUNDS from when it snowed this past Monday in Memphis...he is the smaller of the two. The other is our Great Dane, Tony:
Needless to say, I was hoping he would stay the small size we thought he would. Annnnnddd, here's comes me talking about Maks! OOHHH, you all knew it was coming :)
He's a few pictures of my snow bunny:
This wasn't technically his first snow, but it was his first snow that we got a picture in and the first snow of 2011, so we are calling it his "first snow"!
Luckily, I had a nice snow day at home to relax and chill with my two favorite boys all day! It was wonderful!
On another note, Maksim slept in his crib for the first time last night! Yes, he is almost 4 1/2 months and he is just now going in his crib. But, cut us some slack here... we are first time parents and selfishly, I didn't want to do it! But, even just doing it last night, I feel better rested and I can tell he does, too!
For anyone curious...here's how it worked for us and I was pretty impressed. I had talked to a good amount of girlfriends who are Mommy's and got their advice and then just picked from that what I wanted to do.
We had girls (and guys) Focus groups last night (small groups for our youth) and the girls went to McAlister's Deli. Maks was crying for the last little bit then and I couldn't figure out if he was hungry or tired. We fed him a little, but he didn't eat more than 3 oz (which he has been doing this past week b/c he has been sick) and on the drive home, he kind of whimpered for a few minutes and then fell asleep in the backseat. Well, when we got home, I let him sleep in his carseat for a few minutes while I played on the computer. Usually we take him out of his carseat, but the last few nights with him had been kind of rough. I think he was just saying to us "PLEASE, PLEASE PUT ME ON A SCHEDULE B/C I AM A BABY AND DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO", ha! So, he woke up and I started feeding him a little after 9. I thought...here goes nothing...and started the process that I had semi planned in my head. He was already kind of tired so that may or may not have helped. So, after burping him, we proceeded up to his bedroom (which I love...it's pretty calm for both of us, I think) and I prepped his bed with the monitor and then began to read to him. I read my favorite book when I was young,
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
He really liked it, I think :) He LOVES anything with colors so, I tried to read slow and let him look at all the colors against the white background. We went through the book twice. Then I prayed out loud...kind of through tears...I am a very emotional person. I just prayed that this wouldn't be horrible and that Maks wouldn't hate me. Stupid to feel those things, but that's what I felt.
Then, I turned on his mobile, put a blanket over him, put his pacifier in (which was out by the time I got to the door) and proceeded to check the time and leave him there. He pretty much immediately started crying, but it was a different kind of crying...it was more of a "I'm tired" cry...but not a horrible kind. He did a little bit of the horrible kind for maybe a minute, but over all, it was a pretty "not horrible for Mommy" cry. We started him in there at 9:51...yep, I am that exact, and Grant came home about 10-15 minutes after that. I had been pretty much staring down the monitor to make sure he was ok and we decided to send Grant up there. The doctor advised that if he was still crying after 15 minutes, go in there, tell him he's ok and pat or rub his belly and then leave without picking him up. She said that if that made him cry harder then we would know to NOT do that the next time/s. Well, Grant went up there and Maks smiled SOOOO big! He hadn't seen his Daddy all day and I think he thought he was coming there to rescue him. But, Grant just talked to him for a minute or two and then came back down stairs and I would say no more than 10 minutes later, he was out like a light. I was kind of in shock! So, about 10:20, he was asleep! I was AMAZED!!!
I am not sure how different I would want to do it with the next one. I know 8 weeks is kind of the normal for putting them in their beds, but I also know that each child and family is different. Now, granted, we shouldn't have waited double that time for his sanity and ours, but I still did enjoy the time we had him in our room.
So, the Lord was faithful and answer my prayer of helping me emotionally get through this and we all did wonderful!!!
Now, just to get him to repeat that and do the same with nap times...
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