Sleep Check

We're still having a difficult time with the sleep thing. Kyler seems to be getting to the point where he needs something to suck to go to sleep. He hasn't really found his fingers, so a pacifier is being used. The only problem with that is that when it falls out, guess who gets to put it back (us). Sometimes he is able to go to sleep without the pacifier but that is not the norm.

We have been getting some great food from the neighbors this week that has been really appreciated. Everything from Lasagne to Pizza, salad, bread and some great desserts (Ice Cream, brownies, and cookies). Thanks go to the Hackett, Smuda and Azize families for all of the help.

Sleep Check

Well, sleeping has gotten a lot worse since my last post about "sleeping". Kyler seems to have taken to his 3 hour schedule too much. Four of the last five days he woke up twice during the nights and has occasionally had trouble going back to sleep. We were really dragging until last night where he gave us a 6 hour block of sleep. We also put him in is room for the first time so that we wouldn't have to hear the snorts and snuffs. It was very nice. We are still not back to normal but that 6 hours really felt nice. It seems that all we have been doing is tyring to get some sleep. When you take a nap at 2-4 p.m., have dinner around Kyler's feeding schedule and then go to bed at 8 p.m., it just seems like there is not much going on.

Two nights ago (Wednesday), Ilea and I went to Barney's Magical Castle at the Key Arena. All that day, we were telling her that we were going to see BARNEY that night. She was pretty excited although we don't think she really understood that we were going to see a real Barney that is not on TV. We got there about 6:30 and because we bought the semi-cheap tickets we were 1/2 way up on the side. It was obvious that they didn't sell as many tickets as they thougth because there were about 15 rows of empty seats below us to the next group of people. When the show started, I picked up Ilea and our stuff went to the 3rd row. They were much better seats. Ilea was almost like she is when she watches him on TV, stares without saying much. This time she stood there and periodically she would turn to me, point and say "BJ" or "Baby Bop". She even got into doing some of the activities at times but mostly she stood and started. I guess that is better than the woman three rows up from me who was sitting there with her sleeping daughter next to her. All in all it was a good show and Ilea enjoyed it very much.

Sleeping has recently gotten a lot better. Last night Kyler slept from 10:40 to around 6:00 am. That was about 7 straight hours. It is so nice to get a good nights sleep. The first couple of days Kyler would totally not sleep through a whole feeding schedule so we would be waking up every hour for about 3 hours. Then he would sleep for the next three hour period. All in all it hasn't been too bad but it was a little difficult at the beginning.

Here is our story. Jenny started having minor contractions around 8:00 pm
on Wednesday. By 9:00 pm, they were starting to get kind of close together
(~5 minutes apart), so we called the hospital and headed in. When we got
there, she was still at 2.5 cm which is where she has been for 2 weeks. The
contractions also seemed to be diminishing, so they called it "false" labor
and sent us home. When we got home at 11:00 pm (after the 40 minute drive),
the contractions started getting worse. We thought they would go away so we
tried to wait them out. Around 12:20, they were so severe I called the
hospital again. They tried to tell me to have her take a hot shower, but
right then Jenny had another contraction and the nurse heard her over the
phone and said that we should come in right "now!" After another very long
40 minute drive, with contractions about every 2 minutes, we made it to the
hospital. (I went through 2 red lights and almost a 3rd but there was a cop
waiting to turn at that one.) When we got to the birthing room at 1:05 am,
they checked Jenny's cervix and it was at 9 cm (we couldn't believe it).
Since Jenny was so close to delivering, she was not allowed to have an
epidural. Jenny's birth plan was to a) get to the hospital and b) have an
epidural. We did "a" twice and "b" wasn't going to happen. Jenny's doctor
made it to the hospital in 15 minutes and after about 4 pushes, she gave
birth to Kyler at 1:36 without any complications. Both mother and baby are
now doing fine, although Jenny is still mad about the birthing plan.

When I put Ilea down for nap on 2/27, she had a sip of water, and then coughed. I asked her if the water went down the wrong way. She said yes. I said to try again. So she coughed again for me.

She is singing songs a lot, and talks all the time. She loves the "monkeys jumping on the bed" song. She reads so many books now out loud. She makes up what she can't remember, or just describes what she sees. She tells stories to her baby doll, and has conversations with her. She is also starting to pray by herself a little. She usually says "Dear God, please help mommy feel better.". I guess it's kind of a sad commentary on what we've been praying for a lot lately.

Ilea also knows a number of celebrities. She recognizes Rosie O'Donnell, Elmo, Big Bird, Barney (her very favorite), Dragon Tales, Clifford, and President Bush. Without fail. I guess we watched a little more of the election coverage than we thought. She correctly identified him during the inauguration, which was over a month ago. Tuesday night Bush's address to congress was on. Kipp asked her who that was, and she said President Bush. It's amazing what she remembers.