New Toys at Grammy's, Daddy's New Swaddle Attempts, and Loving His Feet!

Last Friday I didn't work. Originally my parents were supposed to be on vacation, so I had told my boss I needed to take the day off. My parents didn't go on vacation because they were too busy, but because of that reason, I still took the day off, so my mom didn't have to watch Caleb. It was a yucky rainy day, so we didn't do too much. We did go visit my parents for a little while just to get out of the house. My mom has been cleaning her basement, and she found a bunch of baby toys that she had accumulated, so she had washed them all for Caleb and they were all lined up next to the sink. My dad was holding Caleb and my mom kept giving him toys and he would grab them and as soon as she would hold up another one, he would immediately drop the one in his hand and then reach for the new one. It was very cute! Caleb also practiced his sitting up a little more by sitting on a blanket with all of his new toys. Here are a few pictures!

My mom is actually holding a toy out in front of her, so Caleb would look, and clearly he is trying to grab it!!

 

Sabbath morning we actually made it to Sabbath School for a little while, because Caleb was up a little earlier. We hadn't made it to Sabbath School in awhile. Here are a couple of pictures.

 



We had Rad & Jen, David & Yully, and Anthony & Tiffany over after church for haystacks. I tried to put Caleb down for a nap because he should have been more than ready, he would not go to sleep. So, we brought him out with the group and he enjoyed his johnny jump-up. He later took a 30 minute nap, which was not enough, so I was going to try again later after everyone left. We had a nice visit with everyone. We had a church member pass away last week, so there was a memorial service for him on Sabbath evening. I stayed home with Caleb, but Steve went with Rad and Jen. I tried to put Caleb down for another nap, since he had napped for a grand total of 30 minutes all day. He was in there for probably an hour and would not sleep. I was so frustrated!! I finally took him out and then just fed him earlier that night, so he went to bed at an earlier time. I was very happy once he was in bed, because it was a frustrating afternoon/evening! Here are a couple more pictures from Sabbath.

 

Sunday morning I got up and worked, but I didn't work as long as normal, because Aunt Melanie came down and went yard saling with my mom and Dania. They came to say hi to Caleb, but then we ended up joining them for a couple of yard sales. Here are a couple of pictures of Caleb and Aunt Melanie! He was hungry!

 

 

We went to a couple of yard sales that had kids items. The first one we found a lot of good things. We got a turtle sandbox that we are going to use as a pool for $3 and a baby gate for $5 and a couple of other things. The other one wasn't that great, and I just got a couple of clothing items. It was still fun to go out to the sales, though. Caleb did take a short nap while we were out. It is nice that he usually falls asleep well in the car.

 





We didn't do too much else the rest of the day. Steve went out and was gone for several hours and I think Caleb took a pretty good nap and I did some more work.

Monday was a pretty normal day. Caleb didn't wake up at all this week in the 4:00 hour, which was good, but he is still getting up usually before 5:30. I think Monday morning he woke up around 5:00, but usually I leave him there for awhile before getting him, because he's not crying. By the time he fell back asleep, it was around 7:00 and I was pleasantly surprised that he went back to sleep until 9:30. Lately it has been around 8:15 or 8:30. He also took a pretty good nap Monday afternoon and then we went for a walk with my mom. Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

 

Monday night we tried again to feed Caleb some food and it was pretty unsuccessful. He just will not open his mouth! I have been able to kind of force the spoon in his mouth (I stop if he starts to fuss) and he will eat what is on it, but he still refuses to actually open his mouth. Monday night Steve gave him the spoon and he would put it in his mouth on his own, but wouldn't open for us. He is being a little stinker! Here are a couple pictures of our unsuccessful attempts.

 

 

Tuesday morning started out rainy and Caleb slept in later than usual, which I was very happy about. He got up around 6:40, I think, which was great. I put him back to sleep upstairs instead of downstairs so I could walk on my treadmill (I have to start using headphones with my treadmill instead of having the sound from the TV, because it is right below Caleb's room). Unfortunately, Caleb didn't go back to sleep for very long. Oh well. We didn't get out of the house in the morning, but Caleb took a good nap in the early afternoon and then we took a walk with Jen later in the afternoon. It is nice now that Jen is done with school. Hopefully we will get to spend more time with her!

 

Wednesday morning Jen came over to watch Caleb. She and Rad are going to California so she can't babysit on Friday, so she babysat on Wednesday instead. Caleb was very good for her and they had a very good time! She brought him over to my mom's house for the afternoon. One minor dilemma my mother had was the fact that I didn't tell Jen to bring a swaddle with Caleb, so my mom had to figure out how to get him to take a nap without a swaddle. She could feel my pain of when I tried to go down that path, because it was quite a process, but she eventually got him to sleep and he slept about 40 minutes, which is better than I would have expected for being unswaddled.

 

One thing I don't think I have mentioned on here yet is that Caleb has really started playing with his feet the last couple of weeks. Every time I put him on his changing table, he has to grab his feet. He even likes to grab his feet while I am feeding him, which is sometimes a challenge. It is pretty cute to see him discovering new things! Here is an example of him on the changing table!

 

 

Today was a little bit of an off day for Caleb and napping. He woke up around 5:30 and then went back to sleep after eating until 8:30. That part was ok. We went to Trader Joe's and the Christmas Tree Shop around 10:30 and got back a little after 11:30, which is about when Caleb should be taking a nap. He tried to fall asleep in the car, but I kept him awake and then put him down as soon as we got home. He fell asleep pretty quickly, which I was happy about, but then only slept 30 minutes. It was a pain, because there was something I really needed to be working on for work and I was hoping for him to sleep longer. I left him in there for awhile, hoping he would go back to sleep, but it didn't happen. At least he is easily entertained now, so I was able to put him on his play mat while I got some work done. Since he slept so little at that naptime, I figured he would take a better nap later. I put him down around 3:20 and he was swaddled, but was just laying there talking and kicking his feet. He wasn't crying or anything, so I left him there and he ended up not falling asleep until 4:30, even though he should have been really tired! I had set my cutoff time at 4:30 for getting him up if he hadn't gone to sleep yet, but that is right when he went to sleep. Of course, he only slept 30 minutes again, so I wasn't impressed! Hopefully that is not a new pattern for him.

 

Speaking of swaddling, Steve attempted to make a new swaddle for Caleb this week, because that swaddle we have been using is pretty small. He was going to just add the swaddle part to a sleep sack. He used T-shirt material and spend 2 evenings sewing it. Well, when we tried it on Caleb, the material was too stretchy and he wiggled out of it in the first few minutes. So, we went back to the old swaddle for that night and then decided the next morning that Steve would just take the part of the swaddle that goes around the arms off of the existing swaddle we are using and sew it onto a larger sleep sack. So, he did that last evening while I was feeding Caleb and we used it last night and it worked perfectly.

 

My dilemma now is how long to keep swaddling him. I am not sure if I am just delaying the inevitable battle of getting him to just go to a sleep sack or if he truly isn't ready to be done with the swaddle and maybe if I wait, it will be an easier transition. I guess we will just keep swaddling for awhile and try the sleep sack by itself again in the future and see if it goes better.

 

Well, I guess that's it for the week. Here are a few more pictures!