Surviving Summer Vacation

 I haven't posted in 2 1/2 weeks but we have been a busy family! Summer vacation is in full swing here and it's a little trying with an almost-6-year-old who can't entertain himself very well. Add in a newborn who may sleep 5 hours at night, or may sleep 2 hours and that makes for a tired momma!

Bradley is a child who loves school, and loves the routine of the school day. I quickly came to the conclusion that we should replicate that at home to make the chaos of the summer a little more predictable. I love any kind of schedule being on maternity leave with a little one!

I made this loosely based on the day-to-day routine that we usually have already, but this one is obviously more structured and planned. I'm hoping to avoid the dreaded "I'm bored" by giving him a pattern that he can look forward to. I am going to print it and put it on the fridge.

There will be days of course that we are doing something else, or it's raining, or things come up but we will roll with the punches. If he wants to switch Art time with Outside time that is fine too! For the School Work slot we are going to have him work on learning things like telling time, spelling/writing, or math.

He is a very social person and since his little brother is too small to play with and there are no neighborhood kids his age, he tends to get slightly clingy to us and need us to entertain him. I started looking for things he could do this summer a few weeks ago, and I have him signed up for 3 different Vacation Bible Schools next month. I also found the summer movie schedule for the theater by us that has $1 kids movies every Tuesday and Wednesday morning!

Hopefully between VBS, movies, library trips, and our new schedule, this summer will be fun for all of us!

I will leave you with a picture of my littlest one snoozing in his rocker...

My 1 Month Old

Is anyone else amazed that little Jacob is already one month old?? I am!

at 1 month old you:

• sometimes take 2 good naps for a couple of hours during the day and catnap in between
• like to be held all the time...
• don't like to sleep on your back
• like your bouncy chair IF someone is bouncing you!
• like to pee on daddy
• sleep for 2-4 hours stretches at night
• have your days/nights straight, but you like to go to bed late and get up early!
• are wearing size 1 diapers (we are about to start cloth!) and 0-3mo clothes
• don't really like being in your carseat
• only have 1 pacifier brand that you like
• are starting to smile at us
• nurse every 1-2 hours during the day when awake

According to my at-home calculations, here is his current (approximate) stats:

Length: 22in

Weight: 12lb 

Here he is compared with Bradley at the same age:

Here is a pic of me and my babies on Mother's Day!

For the most part Jacob has been a decent sleeper at night. He usually goes down around 11pm in his crib and wakes up for feedings around 2am and 6am. He does not really like to go back to bed right away after the last feeding so sometimes I come downstairs with him until everyone else gets up for the day. By the time daddy gets back from taking Brad to school, Jacob is starting to get sleepy again and I can catch a bit more sleep!

We tried our cloth diapers on him a couple of weeks ago, but they are still a bit too big for his little legs and were leaking. We went back to disposables but I just got some different diaper covers that are smaller and should work for now until he grows into my other ones. We will try those out when we run out of the disposables that we already have. He has had a stubborn bout of diaper rash that we got some good cream for, but you can't use that with cloth so that's another reason we are waiting.

Life With a 3 Week Old

That pretty much sums it up! Ha! My little guy is doing good and growing by the day. He seems to have some sort of a schedule already that we go along with. Our day starts around 9 or 10am (depending on how our night was) and for the most part he stays awake all day except for an occasional cat nap for 30-45min here and there. He nurses at least every 2-3hr and loves to be held all day! Around 10-11pm he starts getting sleepy and I try to tuck him in for bed. Sometimes he is ok sleeping in his bed, but sometimes he will only sleep with us. He typically sleeps for about 2hr at a time with an occasional 3hr stretch at night. The main issue is that I can't turn my brain off to go to sleep! I lay there for what feels like forever just wishing I could sleep while he sleeps since my windows of opportunity are so short.

Nick has taken over getting Brad up and off to school in the mornings. If I had a long night then he will take over baby duty around 8am while I try to catch a couple more hours of sleep. Once I get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee then I'm good to go for the day!

His big brother spent the weekend at his grandparents so that is a nice break for us at home to just have one kiddo to entertain. Brad loves playing with his cousin so probably doesn't miss us at all! Speaking of big brother...I took him to the doc today for a nagging cough and they said he also had a double ear infection--all from severe allergies! Poor guy. So now he will be taking antibiotics (for the first time in his life!) and daily allergy medicine. Oklahoma strikes again!

It's a little hard to believe that in just a week Jacob will already be a month old! I do love his squishy newborn cheeks but this every 2 hour stuff is for the birds! I'm ready for him to be a few months old and able to play and interact with us. I know Brad will love it when he is able to connect with him more.

I'm sure this month will go quickly. Brad's school is winding down and May 22 will be his last day of Kindergarten! He can't wait to be in 1st grade. Then it's Memorial Day, and we will be opening our pool soon after that. I'm sure me and the boys will be out there all the time this summer to beat the heat! It's been in the 80s quite a bit lately and I'm already over it. I was not built for hot weather!