Holidays and Hurricanes...

They both start with an 'H,' so I'm assuming they're synonyms, right? It's amazing just how much is involved with preparing for - and cleaning up after! - the holidays when you have a little one. I'm sitting here on the couch in our living room, looking at the front window and thinking "was there really a tree there only two weeks ago?" When I was younger (*cough, before I was a parent, cough*), I wished we could leave the tree and decorations up forever. A part of me still wishes for that, but honestly, it was so nice to get my house back under control! Well, "under control" is a relative term, I suppose, when you have the world's neediest baby - and most destructive cats. Most days I feel less like a mom than a circus ringleader - and this is still with a PRE-crawling baby! Can you imagine my life once Henri is mobile?! *shudder* On the other hand, he'll tire quicker and will be less frustrated so crawling might be just what the doctor ordered! He sure is getting close! He lunges forward from a sitting position onto his hands and one knee - but just can't quite figure out how to get the other leg untucked and utilized. Once he puts two and two together, he'll be off in no time.

He's also getting close to having some teeth push through. I feel his gums every day and even though I don't feel any yet, those gums have all sorts of bumps. I sure hope we are close on the teeth - hopefully that can account for the fussiness and lack of sleep we seem to be getting.

That's the big thing going on right now that is making life a bit more on the difficult side. I know Henri is a high-need baby and that contributes to his need to wake in the night and according to my Grandma (and even Henri's pediatrician), I'm just making life harder on myself by having him sleep in bed with me. But that is where he is happiest and after all, co-sleeping sprung from the need to have him sleep close to me so I could monitor his head position (while we were dealing with his flat spot). He outgrew the bassinet, he outgrew the co-sleeper. What else was I supposed to do? In any case, the little guy is still waking up every two hours or so. If it wasn't starting to wear on me, I wouldn't care. According to (outdated) literature and (lucky/bragging) fellow parents, infants "should" be sleeping through the night at around 4 months. Well, Henri marches to his own beat, I guess. I'm okay with waking up once or twice, but five times seems...excessive. I finally opened a book my cousin loaned me called "The No-Cry Sleep Solution." She used it with her first baby, apparently with great results. I'm in the "keep a log of your current routine/bedtime activity and how baby responds" phase. We're on day three, night four. So far, it's pretty clear Henri is not quiet getting enough sleep at night - but he is getting in decent naps during the day. Here's hoping the "now that you know what you're dealing with, here's how to fix it" phase of the book holds some answers for us.

Speaking of napping, I think I hear the little one stirring now. Stay tuned for some holiday - and first snow! - photos, coming up later today!