The jolly fat man has become a marker of time. A growth chart. A yearly reminder of all that has changed and all that has stayed the same. I know I can’t always dress them in matching monogrammed plaid, but I’ll do it as long as I can. I’ll make this collage for as long as they will let me pose them, even if they’re just pretending they still believe. Merry Christmas.

 

 

I wonder if anyone has loved cake quite like this. Yeah, It was buttercream.

 

We’re preparing for Henry’s baby dedication tomorrow. For those of other faiths, that’s the Baptist equivalent of a christening/baptism for a baby. I totally meant to do it when he was younger, before his first birthday, but we just joined a new church. Tomorrow we are having a family celebration for the kids’ birthdays after the service.  (They are 4 and 1 this week if you haven’t followed all my nauseating activity on social media.)

First birthday. Baby dedication. I clean the house and feed everyone once. Boom. It’s a beautiful thing. I picked up the cake today. I just posted this on Instagram:

Greyson says, “Um, why did you get a cross cake? You make us look like zealots or something.” I’ll admit. There is a hint of piousness mixed in that icing. I’m not one for Bible beating or forcing my faith through food or any other means. I just got your standard cake from the grocery store bakery under the “Baptism/Christening/Communion” designs.

Charlotte’s cake for her baby dedication was from a specialty bakery and had her monogram on it. Oh, and it must have been made with holy water and had edible gold flecks in the fondant for the outlandish price I paid. Screw that. I’m not buying that again. Poor second child. He gets grocery store cake.

I will say, there are two things I will NOT STAND FOR when it comes to cake.

1. Almond flavoring- Remember how old-school wedding cakes were RUINED by that stuff? Ugh! It makes it taste like Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper is the devils brew. Speaking of the devil…

2. Whipped icing- At the bakery they asked me if I wanted whipped or buttercream icing. Why would you even ask me that?! I would never subject my sweet babies to whipped icing on their birthdays. It’s “icing lite.” It’s crap. If I’m eating cake, I want cake, not “cake lite.” Beth Anne said it best, “Whipped icing is the devil’s baby batter.”

So true. Lord knows the devil has no place on my holy rolling cake. Can I get an “Amen?”

Hi. I’m Amy and I slept 7 hours last night.

 

I slept 7 the night before too. It’s a miracle, ya’ll. My squirmy little 9 month old has found his circadian rhythm. It’s about time, son! We were incredibly spoiled with our daughter. Our first born slept through the night when she was just a few weeks old. Seriously. It’s this trait that runs in my husband’s family. All the babies do that.

We quickly realized Henry did not inherit this trait. After talking with a pediatric sleep consultant, I learned a couple things:

1. We can’t do the same thing with both babies. They are different people. Happiest Baby On The Block, the 5 S’s and all that shushing was great for Baby #1. That helped her establish early sleep patterns as a young infant and we never had to use any other sleep methods. In addition, I was working so she naturally fell into a great sleep routine with daycare. I lazily did the same for Baby #2. Mistake! As a newborn, the 5 S’s were great,  but then he needed ME to help him get into a sleep routine as he grew into an older infant. With me staying home, I was the one who needed to establish that, not daycare. Duh! I’m not sure why it took me so long to figure that one out. Live and learn. Granted, he is a lighter sleeper and more voracious eater than his sister, so he may have still had trouble until 9 months, who knows?
2. “Cry It Out” is not the child abuse I thought it was. I wondered how anyone could ever be so cruel as to let their baby scream. Here’s the thing, I was still in the “newborn mindset.” Of course you don’t let a newborn cry it out. They need milk and swaddling and comfort. They can’t be taught anything. They are in the “4th Trimester.” Thank you Dr. Karp. (Karp wrote Happiest Baby On The Block.) But an older infant? My older infant needed a sleep routine and I knew he could sleep through the night. The first night was rough as you may have noted from my Twitter stream as I live tweeted the affair using hashtag #HenryCIO14. But, the next night was better. The next night was even better and by the fourth night he was asleep by 8:30 pm and waking up at 6:00 am. Cue angels singing!

One other thing really helped Henry too as he transitioned out of the swaddle. Remember last week when I had a review and giveaway for Summer SwaddleMe products? I mentioned Henry is now in the fourth stage of their swaddles, the Wearable Blanket. While, he does wear it at night occasionally, he mostly wears that for naps. What is he wearing at night? Glad you asked!

When he was really little I mentioned to Beth Anne, “Henry wants to hold any tag on any fabric all the time. It’s crazy!” She said, “Oh! He’s a tag baby.” Huh? Oh, yeah that’s a thing. That’s why they have baby products devoted to kids who love tags.

Right as I was trying to ditch the swaddle because he was squeezed in it like a little sausage, I discoverd Bitta Kidda. I was all like, “ZOMG! What is that?!” They sent me a Bitta Blankie. They call it a “wearable lovie.” Genius! It’s a sleeper with soft tags right on them to promote self soothing. It is truly perfect for a tag baby or a kid who loves lovies, but you don’t want them to have toys in the crib. In some of the pictures below, he is holding the tag as he sleeps.

All this good sleeping at night as put him on a better nap schedule and we are all generally happier in our house. Now that our tag baby is a self-soothing night sleeper, the husband and I are all like…

Disclaimer: Bitta Kidda sent me a sleeper. My opinions are free and honest. 

Oh, I am still tired. Less tired than I was, but still sleepy. My darling little baby is 8.5 months old. He’s still not sleeping through the night. It’s been a battle, but we are so close! Hopefully I’ll get some good pointers when I attend a seminar with a pediatric sleep expert soon. That’s why I have put off writing this post. Two companies sent me some great products that have really helped Henry sleep and I want to do them justice, but it took several months to get where we are now. I’m going to write about one today and one next week. Stay tuned for more.

So where are we with Henry’s sleep? Well, he takes about a 30 to 45 minute nap in the morning and a two hour nap in the afternoon. He will go down anywhere between 8:30 and 10:00 pm before waking up one to three times a night. Let me be clear when I tell you this is SO MUCH BETTER than it was. I flashback to the days I slept downstairs on the couch with him either on my chest or in the bouncy seat because he woke up every hour or every other hour each night. I’m still waiting for him to sleep for a continuous 8 to 12 hours. We will get there! Keep the faith!

We were spoiled by our daughter. She slept through the night at just a few weeks old. She loved being swaddled. We only used one brand of swaddle with her. Summer Infant Swaddle. When we brought Henry home, we snuggled him up in the same pink fleece swaddle his sister was in. He also rocked the one with pink butterflies. (See below.) I tried to tell my mom that Henry’s manhood was in no way threatened by the pink, but she wanted to get him “a more masculine swaddle.” I told her that was fine as long as it was the Summer Swaddle with the Velcro. Both my babies calmed down as soon as they were swaddled. Granted, Charlotte slept through the night and Henry woke more often, but they both loved the secure feeling.

Right as I was transitioning Henry out of the swaddle this spring, Summer sent me some of their new offerings. They now have four stages that will take you at least through baby’s first year.

1. I was so bummed out that my kids were too big for the SwaddlePod. They would have LOVED that since newborns seem to like to have their hands by their heads. It’s so “womby” and cuddly. Love it!
2. We started with the SwaddleMe stage. (That is the pink swaddle and butterfly swaddle I referenced.) We called them our “baby burritos.” They loved them! They can’t break their arms out and startle themselves awake. So many parents tell me, “They break out of the swaddle!” Not these.
3. When Henry was ready to transition out of the swaddle and it was getting warmer, the level 3 SwaddleMe Wrap Sack was perfect!
4. Now we are in the SwaddleMe Wearable Blanket and I LOVE it. Henry uses it for his naps everyday. When he sees it he knows it’s nap time. It zips for easy diaper changes. I am still not comfortable with blankets in his crib, so this is great. We call him the “flying squirrel” in this thing. It makes me chuckle every time we put him in it.

So, the SwaddleMe Wearable Blanket is what we’re using for naps now and he is consistently taking good naps. We always had them in seasonal pajamas under their swaddle. We used fleece on cold nights and cotton every other time. If we were in the fleece swaddle, we typically had lighter pajamas underneath. We just used our best temperature judgment and they were almost always comfortable.

Henry uses another product for overnight right now, I’ll write about that next week. Again, we have used Summer swaddles with both babies and highly recommend them. Who wants some?! Summer is offering a super lucky Somebody’s Parents reader a prize package of all four products pictured above! Dude! Baby shower present, anyone? You pick boy colors, girl colors or gender neutral. Don’t fear the pink, boys! Henry didn’t. I’ll pick a winner Wednesday. Good luck!

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Disclaimer: Summer Infant sent me swaddles. My opinions are free. I only write about stuff I like.