I think it’s catch up time

Wow – it’s been a LONG time since I have had a second to breath to
catch up on the blog!  So much has happened since little Easton came
home, I don’t even know where to start……

Baby Easton
He had a rough couple (10) weeks.  About two weeks after he was born
(maybe even to the day) he turned colicky.  He went from this sweet,
QUIET baby to a very unhappy screaming baby.  We are talking
screaming, not fussing here.  I had to call in reserves (my mom,
Chris’s mom) because I was spent.  In addition to screaming all his
waking hours, he only slept in 1.5 hour stretches. All day, all
night….scream for an hour, sleep for an hour, scream for 2 hours,
sleep for an hour, rinse, repeat.  Chris made the comment that we were
lucky he was our last baby, because there might not be three little
Hustads running around our house these days, if he had been the first.
In desperation, I sought out a family chiropractor to see if ANYTHING
would help this poor, unhappy baby.  You could tell his tummy just
HURT and something was not right with his digestive system.  I think
it all started when I gave up on the breastfeeding (only made it two
weeks this time).  Between all the pain pills I was having to take
from my not-so-uncomplicated c-section (maybe I’ll tell this story at
a later date), and three small children driving me crazy, I just
couldn’t do the pumping and all that goes with it.  Towards the end of
the two weeks, I was only pumping a teaspoon at a time. A TEASPOON.
Soooooo not worth it.
Finally, after about 8 weeks of the colic – he just kinda snapped out
of it, started smiling and laughing and becoming the sweet, happy baby
he was meant to be.  I think we finally got his digestive system
figured out.  Those 8 weeks are honestly a haze. I wasn’t sure if I was
coming or going, or sitting still for that matter.  Between the
exhaustion and the screaming, I was struggling just to get by day to
day.  So you can imagine my amazement and excitement when one day, I
looked around and realized the baby was quiet.  The house was QUIET.
He was content. And that was that. The colic was over.  The waking up
15 times a night, however, was here to stay.

Wyatt
In preparation for baby E’s arrival, Wyatt was moved down to the
basement. His room is directly across from the foot of the stairs, so
if you peek out his bedroom door, you can see up the stairs into the
kitchen. I thought this would give him comfort, like he wasn’t TOO far
away from us. Apparently this is NOT comforting to a 4.5 year old.
Being downstairs like a big boy was cool for all of 5 seconds. And it
still is cool, as long as someone else is downstairs as well. He
doesn’t even like to go down to his bedroom alone to get dressed in
the morning. I feel terrible because I totally remember what it was
like to have fears as a young child, but I just don’t know what to do.
I got him a special “keep-away-the-monsters” light, I check under the
bed and in the closet before bedtime, I put a fan in his room for some
white noise so little noises wouldn’t frighten him, but nothing seems
to make the BIG difference.  In the beginning, he was getting up 3-4
times a night, requesting to sleep with us (which we NEVER do, so I’m
not sure where this came from) or wanting to get up for the day at 3
am. When I would send him back to his room, he would start wailing and
out of fear that he was going to wake everyone else up, I would have
to give in and go re-tuck him in.  Between him and the baby I was
getting out of bed up to 15 times a night.  Needless to say, I was
exhausted and would sometimes take it out on Wyatt in the middle of
the night, getting angry at him for not going back to bed. Which, in
the daylight, I felt bad about, because I bet it is scary to a four
year old being downstairs all by yourself. One night, I did not have
enough strength to get up and take him back downstairs so I suggested
that he lay on the couch in the living room with a pillow and blankie.
While this was a great immediate solution, it did not work out in the
long run. The next few nights he insisted that he should go to bed on
the couch , upstairs, close to mom and dad’s room. One night soon
after, when I got up in the morning I discovered a pillow and blankie
outside our bedroom door. Apparently, he had spent the night right
outside our bedroom. It is starting to get better, he is less scared
than before and his “bad dreams” are becoming less of a nightly event,
and more of a random one.
Wyatt has a special bond with his little sister, and I can’t really
tell if it is love or hate. Sometimes they play so nice together and
Chris and I go, “Oh, look how nice the children are playing! How
sweet!” And the second that comes out of our mouths, Wyatt is doing
something to irritate Brooklyn and she is screaming bloody murder for
him to stop it.  This whole sibling interaction is new to me, so I
keep asking people, “Is this really how siblings are? Bug the crap out
of each other all day every day?” If so, wow. I have a long 18 years
ahead of me.

Brooklyn Anna
Brooke. What a character she is becoming. She has her own opinions and
is getting very good at voicing them. We are astounded at her speech
at 23 months old. She can have full conversations with us, and it
frankly blows my mind.  Wyatt was so slow in the speech area, that
this is crazy to me. She is already counting and recognizing colors,
shapes and letters. She loves Dora and books and if it is a book about
Dora it’s even better.

Last week, I tried to put a clip in Brooklyn’s hair (the day before she thought it was coooooool, and she wanted no part of it, so she shook her pointer finger at me and said, “Naughty mommy! NO NO!” The next day, I was getting her up from a nap and she was sitting in her crib reading (as usual) and I said, “Well, good morning Sunshine! Ready to get up?” She looked up from her book, pointer finger in the air and said “Two minutes“.  She cracks me up.

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