We got really lucky in this department with Q. He started sleeping through the night around three or four months. I have many friends and relatives with kids so I know this is not always the norm and something to be envied. So much so, that people give you the side-eye when you tell them that your baby sleeps through the night. I totally understand.
During those first few weeks I really understood why sleep deprivation is a form of torture. I was dead on my feet much of the time. But after awhile, the human mind and body really shows what it’s made of! By the end of those first four months I was able to sit up in bed at 3am, wide-eyed, and not be tired at all. And not only that, but I could function normally during the day on only four hours of sleep! Take that college days!
Last night, Q had one of his rare bad nights and ended up in our bed around 5 a.m. only to whine, and toss and turn and chew on my shirt, and smear his snot all over my pillow until 7 a.m.! It really made me appreciate that, in general, he is a really good sleeper. However, all those super awake-on-4-hours-of-sleep powers that I gained during those first few months pretty much disappeared after he started to sleep through the night.
So, since we’re on the topic of sleeping, I’m hoping to get better pictures of Q’s crib soon so I can post those. Made with love by his Papa! Here is a sneak peek:
Enticing, isn’t it?
-c.
I totally forgot that I never posted about this! Most likely because it happened during the worst drought of blogging that we’ve had yet. Slowly, things from that period are coming back to me that I wanted to post about but never got to.
Around Thanksgiving of last year my family decided that we wanted to start taking yearly photos of all the Grandkids. We figured Thanksgiving is really the most reliable time to take the portraits since we are all together. My brother, Tom, was the one who had the idea of taking the portraits and how they should be shot (he also handled the color correcting of the pictures.) Between my brother and I we tag teamed taking the photos and making sure the lighting was sufficient. With the help of sisters and husbands and grandparents we were able to wrangle this gang long enough to get decent shots.
I think they turned out really beautiful (though I am bias) and really show the personality of each kid. Falcon with his boyish, yet silly attitude (top row, far right). Arwen with a bruise on her chin (middle row, far left). Q looking like a deer in headlights with a cut on his nose. This year we’ll be adding another portrait of my sister’s new baby, Sofie, who was born in April.
Hooray for growing!
-c.
Ok, this is the last video I’ll post for a little while, I swear! I posted about Q’s First Birthday a little while ago and it’s overall success. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t take more video. This video might be a bit dull to a lot of you since there isn’t too much going on other than mood shots of the decorations and Q eating his cupcake in hyper speed! I had to get all artsy-fartsy with this one because of the lack of footage. Ah well, they can’t all be winners!
Enjoy (hopefully)!
Music: “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence & the Machine
-c
I’m movie making crazy! Just try to stop me. I was feeling inspired and decided to go ahead and make a Q’s Christmas video AND a Q’s First Birthday video. I’m only going to post the Christmas video today since I need something to post about tomorrow (ha!) so I’ll save the Birthday video for then. See how I keep you coming back for more? Bwuahahaha… sorry. I’m tired.
So, in the meantime, enjoy!
Music: “Ghost” by Gregory and the Hawk
-c.
Ever since we posted about our co-sleeper, over the past year we’ve been receiving emails from readers looking to build something similar. Some people have even asked if we had thought about making them and selling them. We don’t have any plans of selling them for two reasons:
1. It doesn’t feel right. We based our co-sleeper on the Culla Belly design and it doesn’t feel like it’s our idea to sell.
– and –
2. Ideally, every one we make would have to be custom fitted to the bed it’s going to attach to and to the baby it will hold. It’s just not a construction that lends itself to mass production (at least with the materials and methods we are using). Maybe that’s why the Culla Belly has yet to be produced.
With that said, we are in the process of trying to put together a guide of sorts on how to make one yourself. It won’t contain any specific dimensions because everyone’s bed set up is a bit different. But the guide will lay out the things to consider and the options you have when building it yourself. Hopefully we’ll be able to get this together in a timely manner!
One last note. We are happy to share our process and make recommendations, but in the end it will be up to you to make sure it’s safe and secure for your baby.
Stay tuned…
-c.
Here are the last two installments of Q’s first year in video! Awhile back, after making a video of his first three months, we decided to do a video recap every three months for the first year to document his cuteness. And also as a reminder for when he is 16 and full of angst that for a brief moment he was our baby boy who needed us and wanted to hang out with us and wasn’t embarrassed by our weirdness.
Music: “Slow Dance” by Art Sorority for Girls
And here he is being all big and stuff.
Q: 9-12 Months from Crystal Madrilejos on Vimeo.
Music: “Go Outside” by Cults
If you haven’t seen the first two, you can view Q: 0-3 Months here, and Q: 3-6 Months here. Enjoy!
-c.
They weren’t kidding with the whole “April Showers” bit, were they? Yesterday was quite horrible. Walking to my car after work, I was almost that person with the inside-out umbrella. I definitely was that person who wore the wrong shoes and had silt and all matter of disgusting things washing over the sides of my ballet flats. So much so that I looked like I had hobo feet by the time I got in my car. Anyway!
Thanks to our good friend Rachel, this boy can now weather all types of… weather! Isn’t this raincoat awesome? It is a hand-me-down from our friend Rachel’s little boy (who is now getting to be a big boy) and was sent to us when Q was a wee one. I remember thinking “it’ll be years before he fits in this!” What the heck? When did our baby boy become a little boy with little boy things like raincoats and jeans? Sheesh.
-c.
This hoodie was another great find from the Kids Garage Sale I posted about the other week. Elbow patches? Hell yes.
Q is modeling his new look in front of our Tetris screen door.
-c.
