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It’s almost Lent, folks! I know, I’m ahead of the game, but I have a good reason: I am hosting a giveaway for my new book, Bring Lent To Life. If you’re a Catholic mother with young (or youngish) children, click over and leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy!
Okay, now that I’ve done my shameless self-promo…moving on.
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I was poking around online, doing magazine market research yesterday, and an ad for “Molexit” caught my eye. Considering the helpless rage with which I am consumed every time I walk across my big lawn, my ankle twisting on the maze of mole hills, you can imagine I clicked. A little browsing led me to THIS. All I have to say is: These are people after my own heart.
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I teach flute and voice lessons in my basement, which you might imagine can be a bit of an adventure with three small children and, uh, a nursing baby. Alex used to be very quiet over in the corner, humming vocal warmups along with the students while he bent over a Lego creation or a rescue hero. (Precursor to the autopilot humming he does All.The.Time now.) But Julianna? Julianna takes it to a whole new level. This week in lessons, she turned her back to us, planted her feet shoulder-width apart, and sang to the sunny window with arms out Broadway-finale style, “Eee-AAAAAAAHHHHaaaaah!”
Ah, how I love that girl, despite her selective deafeness to anything she doesn’t feel like hearing…
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Speaking of Julianna, or rather, Julianna and Michael…my baby is 8 weeks old already. I cannot believe it. I’ve been anxiously watching for his first smile, and we got it this week–a few, fleeting, absolutely adorable smiles. But incredibly hard to catch. I spent twenty minutes making a complete, blithering fool of myself while the dish water got cold one night. Once–once–I hit the button at exactly the right moment….and the camera turned off. I had my finger on the power instead of the shutter. Sigh. In the end, this was the best I got:
While Julianna, who torments him ceaselessly, turning him sideways in his bouncy, soundlessly and sneakily rolling him over onto his tummy (and here I thought I was making a big joke when I said she was destined to be a superspy), dragging him by one arm when my back is turned, lying on top of him…what, you think I’m kidding? Look at this! Caught in the act!
Julianna is the one Michael smiles for most often. What is this, some freaky variant on Stockholm syndrome???????
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Smiles aside, Michael adores all his big siblings. He can’t smile with his mouth yet, but his whole face smiles. Moms, you know that look, right? Heart-meltingly bright eyes, arms and legs kicking, face alight? He does that often for us. And it makes me happy to see how much Nicholas loves him. I was worried about Nicholas, because he’s such a drama king, and so needy. I was afraid we’d be in for all manner of resentment and tantrums. But the transition has been remarkably smooth, and he absolutely adores his baby brother, asking to hold him at all times of the day. Of course, he lasts about ten seconds, but hey. He’s a boy.
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Alex was home from school two days this week. And now we have piles of homework to catch up on. Actually, he did most of it while I was teaching yesterday, but it’s a wakeup call, reminding me that whew, we are entering a new phase of parenthood!
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Well, I’m officially back to that phase of my life: the obsessed with sleep stage. It’s cyclical, and varies in cause and style. Right now it’s the “how many times did he get up last night?” strain. The Shangri-la of sleep for me right now would be getting to that stage where the baby wakes up around two and then sleeps till five or six. My babysitter keeps asking, “Is he sleeping through the night yet?” I’m like, uh…no. Is he supposed to? I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had a child who slept through the night until he or she was three years old.
But that makes me wonder–how many of you actually have kids who slept through the night consistently? And at what age?
Enough from me. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!
Kathleen M. Basi 
Wow, can I say how absolutely precious Michael is??? I seriously think I need more pics of him :). And I have a bunch of pics of Joey torturing Will in the same ways…
#4: I know, I would be sure that Elisabeth was torturing her baby brother and he would just laugh and laugh
#7: Somewhere between 18mo-2yr for Lisbeth, still waiting with Liam at 16months he is still consistently up once a night.
We are just now getting there with Reece sleeping through the night. It’s about an every other night occurrence right now. I’ll take what I can get 🙂
Wow! That baby is so cute. Thanks for sharig so many photos.
That whack-a-mole game was AWESOME!! Its now in my favorites. Thank you.
I’m so glad somebody actually tried the whack-a-mole! My life is fulfilled. 🙂 Or anyway, my Friday. LOL
I’ve had them across the board. After one who reliably woke up two or three times a night (or just stayed with us) for two years, I had one who fell asleep and usually stayed asleep for six or more hours at five-six months.
Great looking book!
Most of our kids slept through the night around 4 months. Before that, Will and Tom were up nursing for 45 min. every 2 hrs. It really depends on the kid. Liz only got up 1 time at night from the time we got home from the hospital. Are his days and nights confused? If so, I have a trick that can fix that. 🙂
I think he’s okay on days and nights, but I’ll bet there are others who would LOVE to hear that….fire away!
This is going to sound crazy, but personally I’ve told over 35 people to try this and it’s worked for all of them. Sit the baby upright in your lap. Turn him counter-clockwise 3 times. When I did it with a newborn, I sat her up chest to chest with me, then turned her 6 times (1/2 revolution each). My mother in law also told me that the more you feed the baby during the day, the less they’ll wake up hungry at night. I found this to be VERY true when they started eating solids…if I didn’t give them enough solids during the day, they were up all night nursing.
Sleeping through the night….UGH!
#1 Tyler….9 months old. I took him to his well baby visit and when the doctor asked me if he was sleeping through the night, I gave him the “why is he SUPPOSED to?” look. He talked me through how to get him to sleep through the night. Cry it out. Lasted three nights…sigh. I hated it. I hated myself. I couldn’t just leave him in that bedroom screaming so I sat on the floor next to his crib until he fell asleep. When he woke up in the middle of the night, his daddy did the same thing. UGH. By the end of the week, he slept through the night. But he was bottle fed.
#2 Garret…is it wrong that I don’t remember? He was born when Tyler was 18 months old. I know it wasn’t until around 5 months old because preemies need to eat more often at night than full-term babies.
#3 Courtney…she was a laid back baby. She slept through the night by 10 weeks despite being my most premature baby.
#4 Seth. Oh Seth. My Aspberger’s baby….slept through the night from birth. No kidding. Wow.
#5 Emily. MADE. UP.. FOR. SETH. 18 months old. Not only didn’t she sleep at night but she also didn’t sleep in the daytime. Ever. God is wise…because if she had been our first-born…I would have demanded a hysterectomy. LOL!!
Praise God at ages 18, 17, 15, 9 and 7 they all sleep through the night or are at least intelligent enough to leave me alone unless it’s an emergency. 😉
With regard to sleeping through the night…only one of my five slept through the night from about two months old. Before that, he slept five or six hours at a night. My oldest didn’t sleep through the night until he was 10 (not kidding…) The other boys began sleeping through the night anywhere from nine months to two years old. I know it seems like you’ll never get sleep (and that’s really difficult), but this too shall pass…Love the baby photos…he already looks a lot like his brothers…God bless…
So sweet! That looks like a real smile to me. As for sleep, my friend’s 5mo sleeps 7pm-7am and I am completely gobsmacked. I didn’t know babies could DO that. I thought it was just an urban legend.