Weekend Update 9.20.09

Oh my gosh, busy week my friends.

The week: Scott bottled a beer (Festivus ale) on Wednesday, and I headed to the JBF Sale in Lawrence Thursday night. It was... okay. The JoCo one is much much bigger, therefore much superior. Leah and I have a pact to consign and shop the next JoCo one, which should be in March. While the Lawrence one was smaller I was still able to get some good deals. Found tons of slacks and pants for Peter, and some cool PJs and onesies. Found him a cute pair of Robeez. And a sweeeet black velvet blazer. On top of that, some foam floor mats, toys, and a costume for our dear Mahni. So, there were still deals to be found!

Friday night we just made deep dish pizza at home (I have THE BEST recipe compliments of Leslie @ Blog Soup, just like the Real Thing) and watched some TV while we tried to ignore the musical stylings of... our screaming little Peter.

Yup, we're giving the whole "cry it out" thing a try. Peter went from a Really Good Sleeper (only getting up every 3 hours, all business, then back to bed) to Bad Bad Awful Sleeper - up several times a night, sometimes for an hour or more, up for the day as early as 4am... For the past several weeks we've been the walking dead around here, all three of us.

I got a lot of information from my girlfriends, and a pattern that emerged was: (1) get the boy to bed earlier, and (2) don't end the "bedtime routine" with his feeding. Then he only will go back to bed with a feeding.

I've also been reading this book which was recommended by several friends, and the main bits I got out of it were (1) try the "cry it out" to see if it works for you, as it can be very helpful for some families, and (2) never let a baby under 6 months of age go more than 2 hours without a nap. Even if he only naps for 15 minutes, he'll need something.

So Friday, armed with our advice, Peter was in bed by 6:30pm, and went to bed sleepy after some book reading (feeding came earlier in the night). He cried for, oh, a good hour. Then off and on for another 30 minutes. Was any of that easy for us? Uh, no. But he finally put himself to sleep, and while it's probably premature (we've only had a handful of naps and one more nighttime since Friday) it appears to have helped things tremendously. Friday night he only got up twice, and for 10 minutes a pop. Saturday night he only got up ONCE, and was back in bed after only FIVE MINUTES. Oh my gosh! I feel like a new woman, it was amazing.

Anyhoo. Sad, but that is one of the biggest highlights of the past 4 months for me...

Saturday we took it easy. Peter and I made a grocery list and did some shopping. We stopped by downtown first and took a nice walk (the weather was PERFECT again, we've had a fantastic summer here). We also picked up these shoes, because I've been dreaming about them for a month now... Then got some groceries, and headed back home in time to watch KU pummel the Dookies into the ground.

While all that was going on, Scott brewed a new batch of beer (this time a Weisenboch). That evening, we headed to Toe Pee Kah to see Kate and her new house. Such a pretty house, too! She has a gorgeous Craftsman bungalow in the cutest neighborhood. We are officially jealous over here. We stayed there longer than we anticipated, but that happens in good company with good food and a gorgeous setting :) Before heading home we had some Bobo's Drive In for dinner, and I will say it is worth the hype. Yummy yum burgers and rings/fries.

Sunday we took it a bit easier. Got up a little later, as the church schedule was very different this week. Our church is celebrating their 150th year in 2009, so Sunday was their Sesquecentennial Mass. Since they wanted one mass with the entire parish, they held it at KU's Lied Center at 11am. Oh, my goodness.

I just want to say that as much as it would make my dad give me the side eye, I am going to admit that we had a big breakfast and copious amounts of coffee beforehand and I AM GLAD. We got to the Lied Center at 10:50am to get seated and such, Peter in his Sunday finest. And we scooted out a little after 1:00pm, right after Communion, with a little dude minus his hat, shoes, and his happy personality. The mass was cool, lots of stuff going on, but given the HUGE crowd, and the English + Spanish versions of everything, and the choir... It took awhile, longer than even a mellow little baby can take.

So we skipped the church lunch afterwards, instead heading home. We spent the rest of the day catching up on household chores, going through Peter's clothes yet again (oh my, but he grows so fast). Oh, yes - and Peter and I took a 3-hour nap. THREE HOURS. It was as glorious as it sounds. And yet I'm still tired, ironically...

In the evening: Peter tried some rice cereal. The results... well, check in here to see. And that's it, folks! Next week we have lots going on, so it should be a big update post as well.

Have a good week!