birthday stuff and sleep training

I meant to update this sooner, but we've been so busy with birthday stuff and sleep training. Better late than never, though!

We didn't actually do anything too special on the 11th...we were saving it all for his party on Saturday! It was a fairly typical morning...he woke up, we played, and then we had breakfast. After breakfast, we strapped him into his infant carseat (the one he came home from the hospital in) for the very last time, and we drove to Babies R Us. They were having a carseat inspection/installation clinic, and we had a 10:30 appointment. They were running very late, so we played on a blanket under some trees until they finally got to us. They installed his fancy new carseat, but they had to install it rear-facing since he didn't weigh 20 lbs yet, but that's OK...at least he's got more room now! He was tired and cranky by the time we finished, so we got him home and he took a nap.

After his nap, we went to the doctor for his 12-month appointment. He got a couple of booster shots, but I asked her to hold off on the MMR and chicken pox vaccines for right now. He's only in the 5th percentile for weight, which has me worried. Dr. Spellings says that if he continues to fall on the growth charts, we may want to do some metabolic testing to rule out any hidden issues. But she agrees that he looks and acts very healthy, and that he started out as a big baby, so maybe he's just dropping on the charts because he's just destined to be a small person like me and Daddy. Still, better safe than sorry. She recommended that we go ahead and start giving him whole milk, so we have been trying. So far, he is NOT interested. He loves water, so I've tried watering it down for him, and that seems to help a little. Some friends have also recommended trying a different brand of milk, so I'm going to try that, too.

Larry and Carla arrived to stay with Mo on Thursday, so we all went out to dinner at Rudy's that night. It was fun, and Ethan did pretty well, even though he hadn't napped. He finally got pretty cranky, so we had to cut the evening short.

My parents got to Austin on Friday evening. We played with Ethan a bit, then I took him upstairs so he could get some good sleep the night before his party. Jim went to the airport at midnight to pick up Keisha, so when we woke up on Saturday morning, we had all sorts of fun people at the house! Mom helped me finish decorating with streamers and they got Ethan's balloons. Jim went and picked up all the food, and everyone helped with final set-up and decoration stuff while I fed Ethan breakfast.

The party ended up being lots of fun! It was hot outside, and I wish I'd gotten an extra canopy for the back yard, but it was ok. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun splashing in the pools and playing in the sprinkler. We found a bubble machine at Target, and it was a HUGE hit! Mo gave Ethan a kid's picnic table and sand & water table, and the older kids had a blast with that. I felt kind of bad for the parents that it was so hot...but at least the kids were happy. :o)

We gathered the family and sang Happy Birthday to Ethan in his high chair. We tried to light the candle on his cupcake, but it just wasn't going to work outside. Probably a bad idea, anyway! He wasn't so interested in the icing, but he went to town on the cupcake itself! He was a gooey mess, and we have lots of pics.

After cupcakes, we all went inside (air conditioning!!) and opened up presents. He got lots of really cool toys, and a TON of outfits. Ethan is going to be a VERY well-dressed kid for quite a while! The party went way longer than we'd planned, so he was tired and cranky by the time everyone left. But he got to spend some good time with his grandparents and Aunt Keisha, so that was good! Later that evening, we went to dinner at Chuy's with some of Keisha's college friends. One of them is in our playgroup, so she's our friend now, too. :o) They are all sweet people, so it was a nice dinner.

Keisha spent Sunday afternoon with our mutual friend, and we had dinner at Mo's that evening. Jim woke up super-early to drive Keisha to the airport on Monday morning. It always makes me sad when she goes home, and I was sadder that I didn't get the chance to drive her from/to the airport. But Ethan was sleeping during those times, so I didn't get a choice. :o(

After everything finally settled down, Jim and I discussed the whole sleep situation and agreed that it was time to make a change. Ethan needs me to go to sleep, but only because he was used to nursing to sleep. Anytime he'd wake up, I'd have to nurse him back down. So, we decided it's time to stop that. We've been doing it since Monday, and so far, so good! He refused to nap without nursing on Monday, so he was exhausted Monday night. He cried and cried and cried for a couple of hours Monday night, but he finally fell asleep. I was right there with him the whole time, but I just wouldn't nurse him. He woke up several times looking for milk, but I didn't give it to him. He cried, but each time was shorter than the last. I was exhausted on Tuesday, so Jim watched him so I could nap for an hour. He actually did finally nap on Tuesday. He fought it at first, but he finally went down that afternoon and konked out for an hour and a half or so. Bedtime took a while, but he fell asleep with out too much yelling. Since then, he's been pretty good about going to sleep. We read a few books, he cries a little bit, but then he's out. :o) He still needs help lying back down when he wakes up in the middle of the night, but I put him down and he usually falls asleep again without too much of a fuss.