Eczema and preschool day 2

Oh how I hate eczema! All 3 of my kiddos have suffered from it. Vivian had the least severe case. Isabel has some persistent patches behind her knees and on her feet. We have to use hydrocortisone cream every single day to keep it from really flaring up. I'll be glad when this crazy heat is over and the weather turns cooler. It should help things. Logan hasn't escaped the wrath of eczema, although I'm hoping what appears to be eczema is really just a case of 'cradle cap' on his cheeks. We've started aquaphoring him up at night. He's a greasy little butterball after his baths like his sisters.

Logan has also started waking up again around 1-2am. Boo. It must have been because I posted about how good of a sleeper he is. So now I'm waking up at 1am and 4:45am to feed him in order to get to the gym by 5:15am. Awesome. He's taking little catnaps throughout the day as well, so it makes it extremely difficult to get things done.

Isabel had her 2nd day of preschool yesterday. I didn't see any tears when I left. I didn't try to sneak out, but I'm not sure she really knew I was leaving. Of course Logan was crying, so I couldn't stay. When I picked her up she was excited to see me. As usual Logan was crying. that boy HATES his carseat and riding in the car. I would love to have those kids that fall asleep in the car, but no, all of my kids hate riding in the car and would cry for a long long time before falling asleep. It's irritating to hear people say 'oh, we had to ride him/her around in the car to get them to fall asleep.' That sounds awesome to me. You get to go for a ride and have some quiet time to yourself?! What are you complaining about?! I guess if I had to take a car ride every time I wanted my kid to sleep it could get old. Anyway, preschool was good. Her report said she was 'happy and playful the entire time.' :) She only took a 1.5 hour nap and was miserable the rest of the afternoon. I hate that. She was SO overtired, but wouldn't go back to sleep. I went in her room, rocked her, sang to her and gave her milk but she just wouldn't stop whining and crying. I put her back down in her crib and rubbed her back. She was just about to fall asleep when Logan started crying. I picked him up and was trying to juggle holding him with rubbing her back. After I got a cramp in my leg and my arm became numb I had to stop. I left and let her whine for about 20 minutes, but she just wouldn't go back to sleep. I put in a SOS call to Brian and he skipped the gym to get home earlier. Unfortunately with traffic he only got home about 15 minutes early. On the up side Brian has learned how to make the perfect martini! OMG. Amazing! When we got the kids to bed I had a two martini night and then crashed at 9:30pm.

Preschool and Toes!

Isabel started preschool yesterday. It's a bit early as she's only 16 months, but when I had Brian go at 5am and stand in line for a spot when I was about 7 months pregnant and very very sick with food poisoning I thought it was a great idea. Now that Logan is here I still think it's a good idea, but it's hard to be away from her for so long! The program is 5 hours long 2 days per week. We had orientation Monday night and met her teachers. They were both super nice. Her room was smaller than I anticipated, but I think they go outside, for walks and into the playroom lots throughout the day. When I dropped her off I tried to sneak out while she was playing. Most of the other kiddos were crying and it was chaos. I thought if I could avoid a freak-out and give the teachers space to do their thing it would be better. I think they appreciated that I didn't stick around and hover, but as I was walking out I heard Izzy start to cry. :-( Since Logan was crying I had to get moving, but once I was in the car the big crocodile tears came. After a pep talk from Brian things were fine until I realized that I had to go back home, get her info sheet, and head back to school. I can't believe I forgot it. Important things like the fact that she needs 2 pacis to sleep are on it! I pulled back into the parking lot and saw the kids outside playing. I didn't see Iz because I think she was in the little mushroom house, but it looked like everyone was happy. I snuck around back and dropped her paper off before she caught me. When I came to pick her up she saw me, smiled and then had a meltdown. I didn't let it bother me too much because I knew she was super tired and hadn't napped. I also remember Donna telling us that if they cry when they see you it means they trust you and can let their guard down. She was back to normal when we made it back home. After a 3 hour nap she told Daddy all about her first day. He was impressed with the little hand prints she made on construction paper.

Logan is doing great. We thought about taking out the dream feed at 10 or 11pm and he slept until 5am the other day! That's 7:30pm to 5am without nursing! Two nights ago he was up a couple of times, but we managed to get him back to sleep with a little patting and paci placement. Last night he was up at 1:30am and went back to sleep, but he was up at 3:30am and needed to eat. Still not sure if I should add back in the dream feed or not. If I do I'm pretty sure he'll be able to sleep until 5 or 6am, but I leave for the gym at 5am and would need to wake him up to eat. I really hate doing that since we're trying to get him to sleep through the night.

Logan has also found his feet! It's so cute to watch him grab both feet and pull on his toes with both hands. He's super smiley and giggles when you make funny faces or tickle him. Last night at dinner Izzy was holding his hand and he was smiling at her. So cute!

Potty?

I hate to even post this, but Isabel has gone potty on the big girl potty 3 times! Two pees and a poop. I just sit her on and she does her stuff and gives me a look like "what, isn't this what you're supposed to do?" Of course this means that if I actually want her potty trained I have to actually potty train her. I've read that if you do it too early the kiddos usually revert back to diapers and rebel, so I'm not sure I should. Besides that, when you go hard core you usually have to stay home all.the.time until they get it. Humm....not sure what to do.

Clapping

So Isabel likes to clap. A lot. I make her watch the dancing segments on SYTYCD and at the end of each performance she will stop, turn around, look at the tv and clap. It's so cute. If she's drinking milk she will stop and put the cup down and clap. She really loves her clapping. She also claps at the end of any song that is playing (except in the car). For some reason she doesn't clap after I finish belting out a tune. I'm not sure why.

Transitioning to one nap a day

I'm trying to transition Isabel from 2 naps a day down to 1. My girl loves her sleep! I usually have to wake her up from her sometimes 2 hour naps and she almost always sleeps 12 -13 hours at night. It awesome! So why am I trying to move her to one nap? She's starting 'school' at the end of the month twice a week and she won't be able to get her morning nap in. I don't want her to be a complete mess, so we're trying to get her used to it. Also, I miss my little girl during the day! I feel like we're a slave to the naps and miss doing lots of fun things because of naps. Since she's 16 months old now she shoild be able to handle the loss of sleep. Last week went pretty well, but by Saturday she needed some extra sleep had 2 naps.

Logan is starting to sleep for longer periods of time if I put him down swaddled in the co-sleeper. I almost forgot that he also started reaching for toys. It's so funny to watch him batting at things. His current favorite is a little moose that I hang from his gym mat. He also likes to turn his head and watch tv. *sigh* There goes my catching up on crap tv while Izzy is sleeping!

Teething

Isabel is STILL working on those elusive teeth. She has just 2 bottom teeth and 4 top teeth. Her first top molars are trying to work their way down, but haven't broken through yet. I think she's getting used to the discomfort now, but last week she was really upset about it. She slept through the night again last night, so yay!

Logan is giving big smiles and the occasional giggle. Yesterday he was really cooing at me while we were trying to nurse. Super cute. I'm trying the 'dream feed' at 10pm out on him in hopes of pushing past the 1-2am feeding. It worked great with Vivian. She was sleeping through the night at 9 weeks. Isabel wouldn't wake up enough to nurse, so she continued her every 2 hour feedings until she was almost 7 months old. Logan woke up last night and ate and then slept until 3:15am. Progress!

I went to the gym and tried a class for the first time in a long, long time on Monday. I was so sore Tuesday that I could barely function. Squatting down to pick things up was torture. Izzy helped me out a lot with this. I might have had to wait 3 minutes for her to pick up the burp rag, toy, kleenex, etc, but it was worth it to not have to get it myself! I'm still really sore today, but I'm going to push through it and meet a friend for another class tomorrow morning if Logan's schedule cooperates. Setting the alarm for 4:45am isn't fun when you've been up feeding babies, but I need to get my butt into shape.

Vacation Time!

We just got back from a great Montana vacation! We were in the mountains most of the time and as usual the time their was way too short. Everyone commented on how much Logan looks like Brian. Isabel decided that she needed to get up with the sun most mornings, so she was tired a lot of the time. When she skipped naps she would get a little cranky, but overall was good. Logan was totally easy and just ate all the time. It was so much fun to meet Lucas. He's adorable and has the most amazing eyes. Brian and I compared them to amber. He liked to smile and laugh lots. I can't wait until next year when we'll have two 1 1/2 year olds and a 2 1/2 year old. Talk about fun chaos!