One-year goals: An update

Well, things are chugging along. Our first goal, with Sully's one-year birthday come and gone, was to establish a good bedtime routine that wouldn't involve us lulling him to sleep each night. I have to say that things are going better than I thought they would, although it is far from perfect.

Sully has milk anytime between 7:30 and 8 p.m. If he falls asleep while drinking, we usually let him be and just carry him up to bed. If he is still awake, we carry him upstairs to go to bed. A book is read, the light turned off and his musical monitor is on for one song. We leave the room, regardless of whether he is standing in his crib and crying or ready to sleep. For the first week or so, there was a consistent 5-8 minutes of crying, although it was the whiny crying, not the scream my head off, trouble breathing crying. Within two weeks, we were down to 2-3 minutes of crying and occasionally not at all. Now, we can consistently put him down without tears.

Like I said, it's far from perfect. He does sometimes still cry. He does sometimes still wake at night, although we usually got 3-5 days of full nights of sleep. I'd like to chalk that up to teething or some other random issue, but I just don't know. However, I can handle this. I'm a lot less tired during the day and a much happier mommy!

Bring on the bottle!

The official one-year stats

 

 

Height: 33 in

Weight: 30 lbs.

Head: 19 ½ inches

All in the 97^th percentile

 

 

 

Our to-do list is to phase out the bottle and heavy-duty sleep training (establishing a strict bedtime routine). The doctor suggested phasing out the pacifier too, but I don’t think anyone in our house in ready to give that up.

This all is very new territory for us. We did very minimal sleep training with Scarlett and at a much earlier age. She seemed to get it after a few nights. I know that it won’t be that easy with Sully, which is one of the reasons that we’ve been putting it off. Eliminating the bottle was equally easy. I gave her a sippy cup with milk in it on the day after her first birthday. After handing it back to me a few times, she just accepted it and moved on. Lastly, Scarlett was never into binkies – as much as we wanted her to be!

I’ll keep you updated!

Happy First Birthday Sullivan Patrick Coleman!

Yesterday was Sully's first birthday! I can't believe the long and hard year it's been (insert joke here)!
In the scheme of things, this first 12 months was just a little hill in the very long and winding road of life. I know this is true, as I experienced it with Scarlett, so I tried to remind myself as often as I could to stop and smell the roses. I took time to gaze at Sully, remembering every line, crinkle, crease, and dimple of his face. I tried to sigh a little less every time I extracted him from the stairs, knowing that in a couple of short months, he'll be able to climb the stairs by himself. Most of all, I try to enjoy when he won't let me put him down. I'm sure the time will come when he won't even want hugs from his uncool mom!

Here's a little photo blog of the last twelve months.

 

 

It's getting hectic in here!

 It’s been a hectic week. In addition to our normal events, lessons, and activities, we’ve had some extra excitement (and stress) this week!  Girl Scout cookie sales are in full swing and we've been stepping over boxes for a while now. If you need any, let us know. I'd love to move them out of my house!

Scarlett also participated in her second science fair for Hill Elementary School. This is never something that I expected Scarlett to get involved with. I wasn’t a science-y kid and I’m not really into science now. She must have gotten those genes from Ben! So over the course of three weeks, Scarlett and her friend Abbi worked on their Solar System project together. They colored and painted planets, read interesting facts about each one, and made their own bubble letters for the title. In the end, the came up with a very colorful interesting display. Below are some pictures.

 

At left is Scarlett’s Science Fair project last year. The photo about is of her and her partner this year.

 

Sully has had his own big adventures this week. He’s been standing on his own more often and taking a step or two when he feels like it. He is a bit lazy, as he won’t walk if we get near him. (Nor will he hold his own bottle for long, the little brat!) He’s quite adept at holding his sippy cup, however, and no longer eats baby food. Sully also loves puzzles and is working really hard at stacking blocks. He excels at knocking them over!

On an interesting note, he’s been finding private places to have bowel movements. I know that some professionals find that toddlers that hide have problems potty training, but I hope that’s not the case.

Hey all! I know it’s been a long, long time since I’ve last blogged. I don’t really have a good excuse. Life just happened, you know? The holidays are an especially busy time for us with numerous Christmas celebrations and Scarlett’s birthday. Work is also extremely busy during that time of year, so I use my breaks to work instead of blog!

Sullivan, who is now almost 11-months-old, has been growing like a weed and is still going strong. He now wears 18-month clothing, so it’s getting hard to keep up with his constantly changing wardrobe. He has also gone from army crawling to doing a one-legged crawl to bear crawling. It’s hilarious to watch and he gets around very quickly! He also walks along holding furniture and has even ventured a few seconds of standing by himself. I don’t think it will be long before he’s taking his first steps.

No full words yet, but he’s getting very close. He constantly babbles and roams the house saying, “te, te.” I’m convinced that he’s trying to say “kitty!” (That would be incredibly appropriate, since Scarlett’s first word was “ducky.”) My mom is convinced that he’s saying tea. Who knows!

Scarlett is also growing up quickly. She had her 7^th birthday, which included gifts that she donated to the Salvation Army. She’s way more mature and good-natured than I was at that age. Scarlett also enjoys school and her many activities. At some point she’ll have to pick and choose, but for now she likes being so busy!

 

 

Days 7 and 8

Pardon once again the double up of entries. Blogging is a little harder than just dashing off a quick sentence or two and posting on Facebook (perhaps that’s what I should have done).

This week, I’m very glad for the democratic process. Aside from party lines and partisan issues (face it, we’re all tired of those), I just feel very blessed to be able to vote. It’s easy to forget that 100 years ago, women weren’t able to vote. Women’s Suffrage was 150 years in the making and man did we have to work at it. I’m thankful every day that I’m allowed to have some part in the legislative process, even a small one. I vowed early on that I’d never let that go to waste.

Going with the woman-hear-me-roar theme, I’m also thankful to be surrounded by strong, powerful, inspiring women. I work in an office that is comprised of 75-80% women. The roles of leadership are held by mostly women. Glass ceiling be damned! Even in the University, I don’t have to look very far to see powerful women. Now, I just have to choose to be inspired and not feel like I’ve been left behind in the academic/career world.

Today’s Thanksvember entry is sponsored by antidepressants!

I have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which means that I have uncontrollable and sometimes irrational anxiety about things (ranging from individual issues to a big-picture type of anxiety that I can’t pinpoint). It's also usually long-term. I have probably had this for a good portion of my life, and most likely will be medicated for the rest of my life for it. In my case, I tend to obsess over minute details. For instance, I may say something to a co-worker while joking around. The other person may forget that we have even done this and just writes it off as part of their day, but I will obsess over this instance - maybe something particular that I said – replaying it for weeks in my mind. I’ll think of every way that my comment may have been interpreted, which would then lead me to worry over hurting someone’s feelings or offending them. I’ll think of every possible way that the situation could have or should have gone and then every reaction to every scenario in each instance. It’s dizzying, isn’t it?

This anxiety also tends to disrupt daily life. A lot of people know that I didn’t start driving until well into my 20s (actually nearing my 30s). What most people don’t know is that crippling anxiety prevented me from ever getting my license. I could never even figure out what it was that I was nervous about, but I was terrified to take the test, buy a car and to drive every day. Even today, I don’t love to drive.

Once I decided to get help (I don’t even really know what prompted me to do so), I felt the difference very quickly. While I still occasionally have generalized anxiety and anxiety attacks, they happen at a very low frequency and aren’t as devastating.

I’ve been off of Lexapro for about two weeks, inadvertently, while my mail-order medication place coordinates with my doctor’s office. Man can I tell the difference. I’m irritable, weepy, unhappy, anxious and restless. I formally apologize to my family, friends and co-workers for my weakened emotional state! ;)

I’m not embarrassed that I have to take anti-anxiety medication. I’m thankful every day for this wonderful medicine that lets me navigate my life without feeling on edge.