Summer Updates

I haven't posted in a whole week, and I have several things to write about, so this will be a catch-all post.

Swimming

In the past week Noah has spent a lot of time in pools, and boy has he had fun!  4 out of 7 days he was in a big pool, and at 16 months he has gotten to the point that he is jumping off the side of the pool into my arms... or not even into my arms (!!!! kind of alarming). 

I need to get him some sort of floaty device.  I tried putting a life jacket on him, but he hated that.  It was too big and bulky.  I'm thinking one of those bathing-suit type things that has the removable floaty pieces? 

Since the pool scare last Friday, Noah has ended up underwater many times.  While he doesn't like it, he gets over in it about 4 seconds.  He hates floating on his back though.  I think he hates getting water in his ears (he also hates if I try to lay him back in the bath tub).  Who knows.

Napping

Unfortunately, this week we also hit a yucky nap regression.  Today was day 5 in that saga, and I am really hoping it will be over soon.  It started out the first two days with him only napping 45 minutes (as opposed to his usual hour).  The third day it was 35 minutes.  The past two days he has been waking up before the thirty minute mark.  Today he woke up 15 minutes after I left his room.  I have left him to cry it out but I don't think he really falls back asleep.  He'll be quiet for 5-10 minutes, and then start screaming again.  This goes off and on for an hour.  It's stressful for me.

At first I thought he was napping less because he had a few nights of sleeping 12 to 12.5 hours at night, and 12 to 12.5 hours is all the sleep he usually needs in a 24 hour period.  But then that was over and he was back to his normal 11 to 11.5 hours at night, and his napping got even worse.  So now I don't know what to think.

Without getting into too much detail, I have noticed in the past couple of months that Noah definitely sleeps like crap when he is overtired.  He was not overtired at the beginning of this craptastic napping spurt, but I think he is on his way in that direction now.  Luckily his night time sleep has not been affected as of yet... knock on wood ...

Playing

I am still making an concentrated effort to get out of the house with Noah on an almost daily basis.  He didn't used to need this, but as he gets older it becomes apparent that he is much happier when he gets to participate in activities outside of his regular routine.  Hence the swimming at various people's houses.  And playdates.  And going to the park.  Actually, about a week and a half ago Noah decided he didn't need his Mommy's help at the park anymore.  Suddenly he was going down big slides all on his own, not holding on to anyone's hands.  And climbing up 6 foot tall rock walls to the top of the playground.  All. On. His. Own. 

No, these are not things we urged him to do.  The slide - well, he just climbed up to the top of the playground and suddenly went down the slide before I could get around to hold his hands.  He just wanted to do it.  He would grin and go, "Ahh, ahh ahh" in a tiny, high, excited voice, and then go down the slide.  His grin would be replaced by a look of panic, accompanied by splayed elbows, as he was sliding, and then a joyful smile at the bottom.  "More!!!"  Back up, rinse, repeat.

The rock wall - I showed him how to climb it by doing it myself, and then I was sitting at the top of the playground and he just climbed up to me.  Saying "Mama.  Mama.  Mama.  Mama."  the whole time.  Justin was there by then, and was standing behind him to make sure he didn't plunge to his death (or a broken leg).  But he didn't even need to touch him.  I still can't believe Noah figured out that rock wall all on his own.  He climbed up it about 8 times.

And last Saturday, July 30, Noah's Dad, Gramper, and Papa built him his own playground!!!  I haven't taken an actual picture of ours yet, but it is this model:

Noah is a big fan.  Unfortunately, the slide is actually really tall, really steep, and really fast (it doesn't look like it in the picture, but it is).  So Noah can't go down it independently this summer.  Next summer I'll let him, but not this summer.

And he doesn't like the swings.  He's never been a huge fan of swings.  But he likes to climb up the rock wall/ladder and play in the fort.

******

So, that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.  Tomorrow we head out of town for a family reunion.  I'm hoping we'll actually get to socialize, and not just chase after our adventurous 16 month old the whole time:)

Beware the Pool

We had such a fun afternoon today!   We went over to my friend Jenn's house right after Noah woke up at 3pm. Noah had such a fun time with her 4 year old daughter Ava. She was sooo good with him. When Noah was younger Ava was not very interested in him, but she was just doting on him and taking him all over the house, bringing him new toys to play with... it was adorable.

We swam in the pool for awhile. Noah ended up having a LOT of fun. He has never liked being in a pool before, unless he's on the steps splashing or in a kiddie pool.  However, I want my kid to like swimming, so I always bring him in anyway. This pool was the perfect height, because in the middle of the pool it was only up to my shoulders. So it was really the perfect height to walk around comfortably and still be immersed in the water. Once Noah got used to the temperature of water, he was so happy, splashing and kicking and wriggling his body with excitement, while laughing the whole time.  I wish I could have gotten a video.

After we were basically done swimming Jenn was sitting by the side of the pool holding sleeping Ethan (10 months old), and Ava and Noah were sitting on the side of the pool splashing their feet in the water. I was standing in the pool next to Noah, but talking to Jenn.   Suddenly she said "OH NO!!! GET NOAH!! HE'S IN THE POOL!!!" I looked to my left and Noah was floating about a foot under the water. He had literally just slipped in.  He was right next to me, but I didn't even notice because they were doing all that splashing!   Luckily Jenn was actually looking at the kids and told me as soon as it happened.   Noah was underwater for a maximum of 4 or 5 seconds.  Not too long, but still freaky

When he came up he was upset, but he didn't really even cry. He more complained, and seemed a little bit scared.   He asked to nurse right away (a comfort thing), so we did, and then he was totally fine.   I took him right back in the pool because I didn't want him to be terrified of the pool, and he was completely unaffected by it all.

I should mention that Noah HATES putting his face in water or when he gets water running down his face at all. So I really thought he would scream!  Crazy.


You know that surge of adrenaline you get when your kid is in danger, and your heart falls into your stomach??

I didn't get that. I was like "Holy shit!" (in my head, not out loud), and just picked him up and checked him out to make sure he was okay and started breathing again (he had kind of a hard time starting up breathing again for a couple seconds, but he didn't even cough or choke or anything, so he must have held his breath the whole time). My heart was pounding harder, but I didn't have that intense feeling that I usually get when Noah is in danger.

I was talking to my mom about how I didn't get that feeling and how I thought that was kind of weird.  But she kind of clarified it for me.  I grew up around a lot of water.  I was always around pools and on docks, and I saw little kids falling into the water off the docks fairly frequently (I also hear the stories fairly frequently).  And my parents/aunts/uncles would just reach in and pull the kid out. So it is just an idea that I am used to, I guess.  Sometimes kids fall into water when their parents are there, and you just pull them out again.  No big deal.

Plus I knew that Jenn told me that it happened right when it happened. If I had randomly looked and seen Noah floating under the water I would have had a friggin heart attack, because it would have been unknown. Like, was he dead? How long had he been down there??? But because Jenn told me right when it happened, I knew Noah had just slipped under, and it wasn't really a "near drowning" experience. So I didn't have that panic feeling. I just knew he was okay, because he was only under for seconds.
Anyway, that was our excitement for the day!  You can bet that I will be keeping an even closer eye on Noah when we're around pools from now on.  It's not like I was ever negligent, but now that I have actually had the experience of being right next to my kid and not even realizing he had slipped into the water, it makes me much more aware of how accidental drownings can happen, even when there are tons of adults around.

Tornado = Power Outage

Mid to late July seems to be bad for our household.

Last year at this time we had a lightning strike that caused us many many issues and took quite awhile to iron out with our insurance.

This year, on Saturday July 23, a freakin' tornado touched down about 6 minutes away, taking out 8 hydro towers.  This happened at 7:30pm, as we were finishing up dinner and about to start bedtime.  I didn't know what had happened, and our power has never stayed out for long, so I really hoped it would be back by the time I put Noah to bed.  I even postponed bedtime a little bit, to 8:40 instead of the 8:00 on the dot I was hoping for. 

I managed to get Noah to sleep after rocking and nursing for a long time.  I had his Cloud B Gentle Giraffe going, since he is used to white noise in order to fall asleep and drown out the rest of the noises in the house (we have a new house, and the walls of our bedrooms are not sound proof at all).  All evening long I snuck into his room every half hour to press the button on the giraffe again, since the stupid thing only goes for 40 minutes.

Throughout the evening I was texting with my friend Trista, which is how I found out it was a tornado.  She lives in the main city, 20 minutes away.  She said power was out for quite a ways.  However, her power, along with the rest of the city's, was back on at 9:15, less than two hours after it went out.  This gave me hope.

By midnight I had pretty much lost my hope.  I had Noah's fan set to turn on if the power came back on, and did the same with my own fan.  I require white noise in order to fall asleep and stay asleep.  So I knew unless the power came back on, I would not be getting much sleep that night.

And I didn't.  I could hear everything.  With the doors closed I could even hear Noah just turning over in his crib.  It was ridiculous.  And Noah did not sleep well.  He had no fan, and he had no night light, so I think he was actually pretty scared of the pitch black room when he woke up.  I tried co-sleeping with him, but all he wanted to do was climb on top of me and bounce up and down.  I ended up putting a flashlight in his room as a night light and just shutting his door.  He screamed pretty hard for about 2 minutes and then went back to sleep.  But he did have several wakeups overnight, and because of the no fan or night light, I felt I should comfort him each time.

I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, all broken up.  When we woke up for the day at 8 a.m. there was still no power!  At 11 a.m. there was still no power.  At this point Justin was miserable, and the temperature in our house was climbing.  [Sidenote: I haven't mentioned that we are in the middle of the biggest heat wave Canada has ever seen.  Thursday was literally the hottest day in Canadian history, with highs of over 120 degrees (with the humidex) where we live.  And every day this week it has been over 100 degrees.]

We hit the road and went to my parents' house, who also experienced less than 2 hours of power outage.  I packed enough stuff to stay overnight, because the hydro company projected that the power in our town would not be back until 10PM SUNDAY.  That would have been 27 hours without power. 

Luckily the power came back on around 4.  Unfortunately, our fridge's freezer was definitely affected, and we have that to deal with.  But oh well.  I still can't believe we were without power for 21 hours.  I have never experienced that in my life, nor have my parents.  That is absurd to me.  And frankly, it really chaps my ass that our town was third last in priority for getting the towers functional again.  I guess I should be glad we weren't one of the last two towns, who aren't projected to get their power back until 11am on Monday!

One good thing came from all this.  We were basically forced to put Noah down for a nap at my parents' house in one of their cribs, which we have not attempted to do since he was 9 months old.  It went really well!  He slept his full hour, which is great.  I was actually getting pretty keyed up about the sleepover.  I was going to have air conditioning and a fan running!  Then we found out the power was back on at our house.  I was slightly disappointed.  Oh well, another time.  At least we know now that Noah will nap at my parents' house.  This gives me much more freedom, since I can now go to town before his nap instead of only after it (which ends up with me not getting there until 3:30 or later).

So, that was our excitement/misery this weekend.  I hope you all did better than us!

Still Can't Comment

I have tried all of your suggestions, but I still can't comment on a lot of blogs.  Some blogs I can, but others I can't.  Some of the blogs allow anonymous and name/url commenters, so those ones I can comment on if they don't allow me to use my google account.  But a lot of you guys don't allow anonymous or name/url commenters (Baby to Be and The Latest Adventures are two blogs I can think of specifically right now who don't allow that), so I can't comment on your blogs.

It's still driving me nuts, by the way!  And I'm still reading...

For Pete's Sake, Kid, PLAY WITH YOUR TOYS!

I've heard there are children who hardly ever do things they aren't supposed to do.

I would like to know what that's like.

Noah is not a "bad boy."  But 97% of the time, all he wants to do are things he knows he's not supposed to do, or things I'd really rather he not do.  Apparently these activities are more interesting than playing with his toys.  Such activities include:

1. Opening cupboards I am unable to lock and pulling stuff out of them.

2. Opening closets and playing with the contents.

3. Opening the dishwasher and playing with knives.  And dirty dishes.

4. Climbing on top of the kitchen table to gain access to what lies in the middle of it.

5. Taking the floor vents out of the floor and putting objects down there.

6. Opening dresser drawers, taking fistfuls of clothes out, and depositing them elsewhere in the house.

7. Opening the wipes warmer and taking the wipes out.

8. Destroying my neat piles of diapers/blankets/laundry/etc.

9. Taking anything off of any raised surface (counter top, dresser top, table, whatever).

10. Unplugging a monitor/fan/lamp/whatever and playing with it.

11. Turning on all the fans in the house.

12. Playing with/chewing on the TV remotes.

13. Playing with the satellite receiver and all of the cords attached to it.

14. Opening the fridge and taking food or condiments out of it.

15. Opening the pantry and taking food/candles/unused toilet brushes out of it.

16. Opening the pantry and playing with the crock pots stored on the floor.

17. Are you getting the picture?

Now, all of these things may not seem like a big deal in and of themselves.  Or you might even read the list and think "Oh, big deal, those things aren't that harmful, except for the playing with knives part."

But if 97% of your child's activities were doing these things, do you think you might end up SCREAMING??  Sometimes Noah will go from restricted activity to restricted activity, staring at us to see what we will do.

He almost NEVER wants to play with his toys.  He seriously ONLY wants to do things he either really shouldn't do, or he knows he's not supposed to do.  And 9 times out of 10, he ignores me when I tell him "No." 

Trust me, this kid's verbal comprehension is fantastic.  He knows exactly what "No" means.  He just choses to ignore it.  He has selective hearing, apparently.

I'm not even going to get into the whole "discipline" thing, because trust me, I have tried everything.  And Harvey Karp might be a genius when it comes to infants, but his Happiest Toddler on the Block book is completely irrelevant when it comes to my toddler.

I have tried baby proofing my house as much as I can, but the only thing left for me to do is to somehow put everything out of Noah's reach, even the things that are behind closed doors.  Because, as I mentioned when Noah was 12 months old, he can open closed doors.  And closet doors.  Unfortunately, I have too much stuff to keep everything on shelves that are at least 5 feet high.  And Noah, being the child that he is, wouldn't be stopped by things being out of his reach.  He would literally drag a kitchen chair over to the closet or cupboard, climb up on it, and then reach the forbidden items.

Besides, I can't keep all of our clothes, food, and other belongs on high shelves.  It's just not practical.  The only things still out are the things that have to be out.

I am tearing out my hair.  Nothing is working.  This morning I finally resorted to doing something I didn't want to do by putting Noah in his crib after he had a string of misbehaviour.  He screamed, and I didn't care.  I didn't want to do that though, because we have had enough of a struggle getting to where we are with his sleep.  I don't want to make him hate his crib because he keeps getting put in it when he misbehaves.

I'm reaching the end of my rope.  Actually, the past couple of days I am at the end of my rope.  I want to scream.  I want to tear out my hair.  I want to bang my head against the wall.

I want to put Noah in a padded room that has NOTHING in it that he can misbehave with.

WHEN WILL IT END?!?!?!

16 Months Old

At 16 months, here is where Noah is at:

-He is a little over 23lbs.

-He is about 34 inches tall.

-His head circumference is 20 inches.

-He is in size 4 diapers during the day and night.

-He wears size 4 shoes.

-He wears 24 month clothing, for the most part.  His shorts are still 9 month, although he seems to have had a growth spurt in the past month and would probably finally fit into the waistband of 12 month shorts.

-He nurses on demand, probably 8+ times a day.

-He still enjoys a balance of feeding himself and being fed when he eats solids. He eats mostly grown up food, but sometimes still has purees.

-He is getting better at using a spoon and fork, but it is an extremely messy process.

-He has 12 teeth that are fully in (front 8 teeth and 4 molars), and his four canines are in the process of breaking through.  A few tips are already poking through, and the other one is just about to break his gums.

-He has one nap a day, usually about an hour long.

-He sleeps 11-11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse once. Bedtime is between 8 and 8:30pm most nights.

-He signs to nurse (the sign for milk), for water (waves his hand up and down), and to eat (sticks his finger in his mouth). Those are the only signs I'm consistent with, otherwise I'm sure he'd sign more.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words, now at 16 months he is saying 42 words.

His old words that he's still saying are: Mama, Dada, uh oh, more, this, that, cat, night night, hot, up, yes, woof woof ("what does a dog say?"), baa ("what does a sheep say?"), moo ("what does a cow say?"), car, ball, shoes, cracker. 

His new words are: Noah, water, orange, clock, blech, hi, done, dirt, Bert, puff, swish, fluff, book, buzz, Papa, Nana, boo, fish, phone, again, home, sunglasses, Nana, Gramper, sit.

-When something is hot, Noah waves his arms around and says "Hot!  Hot!"  The oven, a candle flame, water, food, the weather... he knows exactly what "hot" is in different contexts and circumstances.  This past Sunday at church Noah saw the candle flame at the front of the church during prayer and wouldn't stop saying "HOT!"  My Dad and I were shaking with silent laughter.

-His verbal comprehension continues to amaze me.

-Noah can get into anything.  Doors, closets, cupboards, drawers, fridge, stove, freezer, dishwasher... He is just one of those kids.   He's well behaved, but at the same time he tests the limits constantly.  Seriously, constantly.  It can be sooo frustrating. 

-He climbs on everything now.  He can even climb up on our high pub chairs, and therefore can get on top of our tall pub table.  This is an unwelcome development.

-Noah loves power cords.  Anything that has a cord and plug attached to it is fascinating to him.  When we went to the cottage I didn't even need to bring toys.  Just hand him a hair dryer, alarm clock, or even just an extension cord, and he's good to go.

-He's still very cuddly and affectionate.  He is getting quite good at giving hugs and kisses to people when we say goodbye.  Especially my parents, his Granny and Gramper.  He doesn't do this very readily for my inlaws, though.

-Noah has become much friendlier in the past few months.  He will flirt with, smile at, and wave to strangers now.  He likes strangers better if he can seek them out, though, and usually from the safety of Mommy's arms or shopping cart.  If you seek him out and he doesn't know you very well, he will still look at you like "Who the heck are you and why are you looking at me?"

-No illnesses this month!  Still sitting at 12 illnesses in his 16 months of life.


I am making more of an effort the past couple of months to take Noah places and do activities with him.  As he gets older he seems to need this more.  He loves to visit people and do things out of his ordinary routine.  If we go somewhere outside of the house, he will be so happy and distracted, he won't whine or cry or anything the whole time we are out.  I really wish we didn't live in the boonies.  It makes getting out of the house much more difficult.

Noah did wonderfully this month when we went on vacation to the cottage.  He had a total blast in his new surroundings, and all my fears about his sleep were unnecessary; he slept great! 

Since we have gotten home, though, his sleep has not been great.  Normally he only gets up once a night to nurse.  In the past 9 nights we have been home, he has gotten up twice (or more) probably 5 or 6 of the nights.  I've been understanding and not made him CIO, because he is teething hardcore.  But if this continues on too much longer I think I'll have to take a bit of a firmer line.  I don't mind nursing him once overnight, and I know he sleeps longer than he would if he didn't nurse.  But he doesn't need to nurse twice.  Not for hunger purposes, anyway. 

Speaking of teething, I think it is very interesting how Noah teeths in such huge spurts.  His first spurt was from 5 to 8 months, when he got 8 teeth in 3 months.  Then he had a 5 month break, and at 13 months he started teething again.  He got his 4 molars, and 3 of his canines are showing (one is about to).  So basically he will have gotten another 8 teeth in about 3 months.  It's rough, but if I could chose it, I would chose this.  If he's going to be in pain from cutting teeth, he might as well cut a whole bunch of teeth at once, rather than one tooth at a time.

Noah hasn't been a big fan of vegetables for the past several months. But this month we figured out how to get him to eat them again - give him a utensil to eat them with! He will eat all sorts of less-than-yummy stuff if he's feeding himself with a fork or spoon.

This past weekend Justin and I were able to go out for dinner for the first time since Noah was born.  We drove into town, and dropped Noah off at my parents house at 4:30 - it was a very early dinner.  We went out for almost an hour and a half.  Noah did really well.  He asked for Mama a few times, but my parents just reminded him that I was out for dinner and would be home soon, and he accepted it.  This is huge, because he has had such horrible separation anxiety for most of his life.  So have I, for that matter!  Justin and I already missed him when we were still in my parents' driveway.  Despite this, we really enjoyed our early evening date, and I'm glad Noah did well.  He loves my parents, though.  He wouldn't have done as well with anyone else.

This month Noah has really gotten into imitating his Daddy.  He tries to copy Justin by doing pushups, situps, squats, and deadlifts, making grunting noises while he does each movement.  He also copies Daddy's big overhead stretch, groaning while he does it.  It just melts me to watch him try to be like his Dad.

This past month Noah has used the word "Mama" more than ever before.  For instance, when Justin goes into his room in the morning to get him, Noah will immediately say "Mama??  Mama??"  Like "What are you doing here, Dad?  I want my Mom!!!"  If I walk in there, he just smiles.  I love hearing him say Mama.  Maybe it's because a "Mom" is such a special thing in my mind, so having him call me by my appropriate name almost makes me feel like he recognizes what a special person I am in his life.  I have always been his favourite person by FAR, but still, it just feels so special to hear him call me Mama. 

Cycle #4

Cycle #4 has come and gone.  It was incredibly similar to cycle #3, which is guess is probably encouraging.  I'm hoping this means that despite the fact that I now have very long cycles, my reproductive system is, in fact, working.

-It was a 39 day cycle.

-CD 1 was Friday, May 27.

-I had EWCM from CD 25 to CD 28 (June 20 - June 23).

-The one OPK I took on CD 28 was extremely positive.

-I had sore nipples on CD 29 and 30.

-My period came on Tuesday, July 5.

-My luteal phase was 11 days (this is assuming that I actually ovulated, which I'm guessing I did since my body gave the exact same signs on the exact same days during cycle #2)

My nipples didn't hurt quite as much during this cycle.  The three cycles before this the pain was excruciating, although the number of days with excruciating pain was less each cycle.  This cycle I was sore, but it wasn't terrible.  I think I probably neglected to write down some of the sore days because of this fact, but it probably doesn't really matter.

We really tried this month, and felt fairly optimistic.  However, I was not surprised that it didn't work out.  I'm pretty sure I'm ovulating, but we still have crappy sperm to contend with.

I'm still not sure at what point we will be moving on to fertility treatments.  However, I have an idea that would be easier for us to implement.  My clinic usually has everyone come in on CD 11, no matter what, and then the size of your follicles determines when the next time you come in is.  If your follicles are all small, you take two days off and then go in for another ultrasound.  Rinse and repeat until something shows up or they put you on BCPs to start a new cycle.

Well, I'm not having any fertility signs until CD 25, so this would be a big waste of time for me.  I was thinking it might work for me to wait until I have EWCM, and THEN go in for an ultrasound, and if I was actually ovulating we could just do an IUI with a natural cycle.  This would mean I wouldn't have to stop nursing and wean Noah before he's ready in order to take the fertility drugs.  I would much rather weaning be a natural process that's led by him.

So that's what I'm thinking at the current time.  Although despite that plan, I'm still not ready to rush to the RE.  I'm not looking forward to another HSG, more appointments, long drives... I'd be more than happy to get pregnant naturally at this point, but I'm not ready to jump through hoops yet.  I'd rather Noah be older before I start with the hoop jumping.

Vacation 2011

(I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes; I'm exhausted and just need to get this posted!)

July 5-9, 2011, was Noah's second "vacation" up to the cottage in Muskoka.  I was dreading this trip.  For weeks I couldn't stop thinking about it and what a disaster it would be.  Since December Noah has refused to sleep anywhere but in his own crib (except when he falls asleep in the car), so I was very afraid of both him and I getting no sleep while we were up there.  I was fully prepared to drive the 5 hours there, and basically turn right around and come home the next day.

I prepared Noah for quite some time.  His pack 'n play is always set up in our living room.  Noah wouldn't ever go in it without dissolving into tears, but I used it regularly when I was babysitting Aubrey.  Everyday I would bring Noah's attention to the playpen and say "When we go to the cottage, this is where you're going to go night-night.  This is where you're going to sleep at the cottage!  Mommy will still be there when you're sleeping."  Etc. Etc. 

We arranged it so that we wouldn't be at the cottage with anyone else, besides my parents.  I would have liked to try to be up there the whole week, but we didn't want to be up there with my siblings and their spouses.  Arranging it like this meant that Noah actually got to have his own room, which I was pretty sure would be better for both of our sleep (knowing my child as I do, I had visions of him standing in his playpen in the middle of the night screaming at me for hours, just because he could see me).

So we left Tuesday morning at about 10:30.  This was nowhere close to Noah's normal naptime (which is usually around 1pm), but he had been awake long enough (about 2.5 hours) that being in the car made him fall asleep within 10 minutes.  Unfortunately, that nap lasted all of 30 minutes.  And he didn't nap at all the rest of the drive.  However, the drive went really well.  We powered through with lots of food for all of us, new toys for Noah, and we didn't stop once on the way up there.

We had a brief visit with my younger brother and his wife when we arrived.  Our time at the cottage overlapped with theirs by about an hour.  My Dad brought Noah down to the beach pretty much immediately, without Justin and I.  Noah wasn't too sure about the sand at first, and when I arrived down on the beach after Noah had been down there for about 45 minutes, he started pouting for me and then all he wanted to do was sit in my lap.  Oh, and nurse.  He asked to nurse about a million times. 

Our family rents several cottages at this resort, so besides my parents, my other relatives up there were my Uncle Pete and Aunt Sonja and their four children Jake (14), Claire (11), Mia (9), and Lucy (5), my Uncle Rick and Aunt Joanne, and my cousin Steve, his wife Kristina, and their kids Lukas (5) and Jackson (2).

When we got up to the cottage Noah had fun exploring his new space.  I showed him his bedroom, and told him that this was where he was going night-night, that his playpen was like his crib, and that was going to be his bed for a few days.  I showed him where Mommy and Daddy would be sleeping, and assured him that we would not leave him here alone, that we would be here when he was sleeping and when he woke up.  I wasn't totally convinced that all this talking was being fully understood by my 15.5 month old.  He has excellent receptive language skills, but this was all pretty abstract.  It was definitely worth a shot, though.

I had also brought things that were normally present in his crib at home and put them in the appropriate places in his pack 'n play, like his lovey and a quilt that I always have hanging over the end of his crib.  And of course I had brought his fan, which we always have at home to drown out noises.

He wanted to play in his pack 'n play suddenly (so weird, since he hates it at home).  I put him in there and sat on the bed in his bedroom while he played in his playpen for about half an hour.  I hoped all the playing in there would get him comfortable in the area, and lead to him sleeping well.   Then we had dinner.

Noah had to go to bed relatively early that first night, since he had been awake since 11:10am.  I nursed him to sleep and he went to bed at 7:30 with zero fuss whatsoever.  A long time went by with not a peep from him.  At one point I went into his room to do something (I don't remember what), and while I was in there Noah woke up and sat up in bed, looking at the door.  I was crouched in an awkward position on the bed, hidden by the quilt and super uncomfortable.  Luckily Noah didn't stand up or he would've seen me.  He ended up just lying back down.  I stayed crouched there until I was pretty sure he was asleep again, then snuck out of the room.

I went to bed early, not convinced that he would be sleeping well, despite the fact that he had sat up, awake, and then gone back to sleep.

Noah ended up waking up at 10:30 and crying.  Not crying hard, but pouting crying.  I gave him a few minutes to sort it out on his own, but when he didn't, I went in and nursed him back to sleep.  I wanted him to know that I was still there, I hadn't left him.

I went back to my cramped double bed that I was sharing with Justin.  And I didn't sleep.  At all.  Noah slept until 5:30am.  I nursed him again, and put him back in his bed awake.  He didn't make a peep.  I went back to bed.  I maybe dozed for half an hour.  I'm not sure.  Then I was awake for awhile.  Then I dozed for maybe 20 minutes.  Then I was awake.  Noah got up at about 8am.

And that, my friends, was all the sleep I got in the first night. 

Did you know that when two adults are sleeping in a double bed, they each have the size of a crib mattress to sleep on?  I am quite possibly the world's worst sleeper.  I can't even sleep well in my king-sized bed with my husband.  Screw a double!  Double beds are NOT meant for two people to sleep in.

For the second night I took an extra single bed mattress and put in on the floor of our room.  I was going to sleep on it, but Justin insisted that he would.  He sleeps better than I do, and wanted me to be as comfortable as possible so I could maximize my sleep.  I did sleep much better the second night.  Not well, but much better.

After that one extra wake up at 10:30pm the first night, Noah slept exactly like he sleeps at home.  In fact, he probably slept a little better.  Just one wake-up to nurse each night, not a single episode of crying.  Not one episode of crying.  Not at nighttime, not at naptime.  And every nap was an hour long, just like at home.  No stupid half hour naps.  No going on car rides to get him to sleep.  No taking long walks in the middle of the day so he might fall asleep in his stroller.  Just a normal, cry-free nap in his playpen.

It was amazing.  I was flabbergasted.  I prepared him to be sleeping in the pack 'n play; I assured him I would not be leaving him alone; I went to him at the first sign of distress that first night... it all worked!  Seriously, I was shocked.  I'm still shocked.  My mom kept saying it was because I never leave him and make him feel scared and uncomfortable, so he feels secure that Mommy will always be there. 

Anyway, the good sleeping on Noah's part made it easy to ignore the crappy sleeping on my part, and we had a fantastic time at the cottage. 

One of the first things we did was go to the falls... without Noah's paranoid Daddy:) (This batch of pictures at the falls was taken with my Mom's cell phone).

Noah really enjoyed himself!

Noah loved the beach.

He was not a very big fan of the actual lake, though.  It freaked him out.  So everyday Justin dug him his own little beach pool.

He liked the little family of ducks:

Here's Noah getting ready for the beach on the last day:

This picture kills me.  He's like "Rock on!!":



In the car going out for ice cream (except that Noah isn't allowed to have ice cream.  He had cheerios):

In the stroller, tearing apart the ice cream cone napkin:

This face makes me laugh:

Excited to be at the Falls again:



"Mom, let me go!  I want to explore!!"

Okay, enough of the pictures!

We left to go home on Saturday morning at 10:30.  Noah fell asleep before naptime again.  And this time, he slept just 23 minutes.  Not another wink for the rest of the trip home.  And the trip home was not nearly as successful as the trip there.  There was a lot of crying.  And sometime in the last hour of the trip, Noah ended up with a mysterious large bruise on the left side of his jaw near his ear.  It almost looks like a hickey.  Justin and I are completely baffled by it.

Noah's sleeping has been a bit of a disaster since we got home.  Apparently he preferred it at the cottage.

Why Can't I Comment?

Blogger won't let me comment.  I can't even comment anonymously.  What the heck is going on?  It has been like this since before we left for vacation (which I have been lazy to blog about).  It's driving me nuts!

Please know I am reading your blogs and I continue to TRY to comment, even though it doesn't work.  It's making me nuts, especially when someone asks a question that I really want to respond to.  I feel like I'm in a dream where I'm trying to run but I can't move forward.

I will try and write a vacation post soon.  We had a great time!

My Anniversary! And Trip Prep

Today, July 4th, is the anniversary of the day I married my best friend!

I could write a long flowery post about what a wonderful husband and friend Justin is (because he is), but I'm not feeling very sappy or sentimental right now.  I am PMSing (AF should probably be here tomorrow, a.k.a. I'm probably not pregnant), my kid is cranky, and I am super busy preparing for our cottage trip.  I'm not miserable (although I am kind of bummed about my upcoming period), I'm just not feeling 'flowery.'

Yesterday I went shopping for new toys for Noah for the 5 hour car ride.  I bought him a Leaptop (they're so cool because you can personalize them to your own child), Travel AquaDoodle (have you ever seen/used that?  It's so cool!), some new books, kids DVDs, and a little keyboard/piano thing.  I think the car ride should go decently.  We'll stop at least once for something to eat and for Noah to stretch his legs.  He'll hopefully sleep for an hour.  I'll feed him snacks and stuff while we're driving.  And then we have the new toys.  I think it'll go okay. 

I am still incredibly nervous about the sleeping situation, though.  

Last night I made lists of things I need to pack for myself, for the family, and for Noah.  You should SEE these massive lists.  I was reading them to Justin to see if there was anything he thought I could take off.  Nope, there's not.  I'm hoping all this stuff will actually fit in the back of the van!  Last year we had stuff packed in the seat beside Noah so I couldn't sit back there with him.  That was a mistake we will not be repeating.  Something will have to stay behind if that seat isn't available.

Noah has been an absolute BEAR the past couple of days.  Just constant whining.  I don't know what's wrong with him.  I keep thinking I want to cancel the trip because of it, but then I think "Do I really want to be stuck at home with this whiny kid for the rest of the week?"  Ultimately I'm hoping a change of pace will stop the whining, since it typically does for him.  He loves to go new places and do new things.

So I guess I probably won't be using the excuse I had drummed up in my head.  "Oh, I'm so sorry Mom and Dad, we can't come.  Noah has terrible diarrhea and we can't go on a road trip when he's pooping every 10 minutes!"