President's Day

Thankfully, today was a holiday (otherwise, we definitely wouldn't have stayed so late at John and Brenda's house last night). The kids slept in until 8:30 (usually they're up at 6), so that messed up the whole feeding and sleeping schedule, but we're just going with the flow today. We don't have anywhere to go, and I'm just concentrating on getting the laundry done. That is, after we hung the flag out...Lukas loves putting the flag up on holidays.

Natalie lost her breakfast again this morning, so I gave her another two ounces, and put her down for a nap. When I got her up from the nap, it appeared that she had "lost" some more on her crib, so a whole new bed changing event began. I really hate changing the crib sheets, because with the bumper pad, it's so difficult to change the sheets. When she was in the bassinette, it was much easier. She doesn't really move around enough for the bumper pad, but I'm always fearful that just when we're not using it, she'll move enough to put her arm through the slats and wrench something. Here's a pic of her on her freshly changed bed. When I took a picture of her, Lukas wanted one of him, so here's one of him jumping on his freshly changed bed (previously wet from fluids too late at night and sleeping in). Yep, it was one of those mornings!

Wow, I just checked on Lukas and he's not reading his books on his bed...just sucking his thumb, staring at the wall. He's been doing great at asking me if he can suck his thumb. He knows the rule is that he can only suck his thumb when he's going to sleep. In the car he sometimes asks in the morning, and I'll tell him no, but in the afternoon I tell him he can suck his thumb in the car to go to sleep (he transfers from the car to the bed). And he can suck his thumb when he's in bed. So no more sucking thumb while watching television or anything else.

A couple months ago, Natalie's physical therapist suggested putting her to sleep on her belly to increase her belly time and thus her gross motor skills. She said that when the anti-SIDS campaign started the "back to sleep" program, she saw an immediate slowdown in the physical development of kids, especially delayed kids. I had tried it once, but I think Natalie got sick shortly therafter, so I reverted her to sleeping on her side until just this past week. I took the pillow out from under her mattress and started putting her on her belly for naps and nighttime. She slept fine during the day (after inital protests) but woke me up several times at night. Last night I think I only got up once, and today she had only a very mild protest before settling down. Obviously, she's taking time to get used to it, but she's doing great...still with a pacy while sleeping. I've seen a small benefit in Natalie's gross motor skills so far, but hopefully she'll have even more benefit as the days progress.