Let the Holidays Begin!
For years I have both dreamed and dreaded of adding kids to what I consider holiday madness. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Christmas holiday season. I’m one of those crazy people that are ready to listen to Christmas music the day after Halloween and my house is usually fully decorated by Thanksgiving (not so much this year). I love Christmas so much that I had a Christmas wedding. The problem is that things for us are crazy during the holiday season. We have lots of family get together traditions and holiday parties, and that doesn’t even begin to touch the whirlwind that is our four days of Christmas craziness that starts with our anniversary, includes multiple meetings with both sides of the family, and ends with early morning day after Christmas shopping. It’s exhausting for us, and now we have to add a baby into the mix. We’re still new at this, and learning as we go, so I thought I’d do some holiday updates on how things are going. Maybe what we learn may just help someone else. So ready, set, GO! Let the holidays begin!
The holiday madness started with Thanksgiving. We go to Jason’s mom’s house for Turkey Day. We were supposed to eat at 6, so we got to spend a relaxing day at home. Jason’s family was meeting at his grandmother’s retirement home at 11:30 for lunch, but it was decided that two things in one day would just be too much for Nick, so we decided not to go to that. Since dinner was at 6 we had planned to leave after Nick had finished his afternoon bottle (which was at 4:30), but by the time we got out of the door it was 5:15. I’m glad we didn’t get there too soon though because by the time everyone arrived, and the food was finished, it was 7:30 by the time we were sitting down to dinner, and Nick was overcooked. Evenings are not his best time of day, and it’s sometimes a battle to keep him calm at home. His usual evening feeding is at 7:20, so I fed him as I was eating. I tried to let him eat some of the dinner first, planning to give him his bottle second, but that did not work at all. This meant that I had to feed him his bottle after I had gotten my food, so by the time I got to eat my food was cold. After dinner we changed him, gave him a quick cleaning with some wipes, and put him in his jammies. Then we loaded him up and headed home. We left around 8:45 and bedtime is 8:30, so we did pretty good there. He fell asleep right away. When we got home we carried him in his car seat all the way into his room where we transferred him to bed, turned on his sleep sheep, and kissed him goodnight. He woke up a little as we put him to bed, but he really didn’t stir much. He didn’t sleep great during the night though. He woke up a lot, but luckily he never cried. He would wake up and talk for awhile and eventually fall back asleep. He was also up bright and early the next day.
Lesson Learned: I should have fed him his bottle a little earlier. That way when it was time to eat we both could have eaten, and he would have been a much happier little boy.
What Worked: Taking him home all ready for bed worked out really well. He got to bed almost at the same time as normal.
The next day was of course Black Friday. I never do a ton of shopping, but I do go to JcPenny’s to get Jason new work shirts. Since Nick woke up at his earlier time we were able to get out the door by 10:30. He took a little snooze on the way to the mall. After shopping we went for our annual family girls day lunch. Nick did a fantastic job at lunch. The only problem we had was he gave a high pitch squeal when he saw his bottle and it startled a waitress and she lost a plate off of her tray. I felt awful! After lunch we went grocery shopping. Nick was so exhausted he fell asleep almost immediately in the car, and slept for a little of the time in the grocery store. His two little naps weren’t enough for the day though, so he needed an evening nap, and it was a bit difficult to get him to sleep because he was so exhausted.
Lesson Learned: Doing so much after a big night was a lot for Nick. He really could have used a good nap that day, and he didn’t get one. I’m not sure I could have done things differently though.
What Worked: I’m glad I had taken my stroller with me to the mall. Once we got there Nick slept for about 10 or 15 minutes more in his carseat once we went inside. I must say I love my travel system.
As if the we hadn’t been busy enough the past few days, on Saturday we had been invited to a University of Michigan/Ohio State football party. Luckily it was a low key party, so Nick didn’t have yet more crazy stimulation to deal with. He did really well. He mostly sat on Nana’s lap, but he also played with some of his toys and another little boy that was there. At one point he fell asleep, but this turned out to be another day that he didn’t get good naps.
Lesson Learned: Three crazy busy days make for a very tired boy. Nick spent most of Sunday sleeping. Luckily we didn’t have any plans that day, so he was able to catch up on some much needed sleep.
What Worked: We gave Nick a new toy on Saturday. It gave him something new to focus on, and that helped keep him occupied during the party.
Look for another update next week. This weekend is my mother-in-laws huge Christmas party. Fingers crossed it goes well!