We did it!

Okay, first just let me tell you that, as a stay-at-home-mom of a toddler, when I just typed "We did it!" I heard Dora (the Explorer, of course - a cartoon character, in case you don't know) singing it as she does in every episode. Ha!

All cartoons aside, we really did do it ...finally... we put Bentley in his crib to sleep last night! It was weird. I missed having him in our room and both Bob and I slept lightly all night as we listened to the baby monitor scrolling between Bentley's room and Bailey's room. We took turns going into Bentley's room to give him his pacifier a handful of times overnight. He woke up to eat about 1:30am and 7am but that was pretty typical of his usual routine.

Here is our darling little guy asleep in his crib:
And here he is this morning, happily stretching after I freed him from the swaddler:
Oh, and another point of interest, Bailey slept in this morning. Til 9:30! That's two hours later than usual! Weird. Needless to say, she woke up happy and well rested!

To the Crib ... or not?!

We are so close to moving Bentley into his room. We almost did it last night, except that he was really upset at bedtime (his bedtime snack was delayed due to bath) so we decided not to risk further stressing our sweet boy with a change of sleep venue.

He's been sleeping well in the pack 'n play in our room overnight. He usually only wakes up once a night to eat. We still swaddle him but he's gotten really good at getting his hands out despite our best attempts at a tight swaddle.
To date, he still doesn't have a predictable nap routine. He just dozes on and off all day. I'm fine with that because he's still sleeping well overnight. The location for his naps varies depending on where Bailey and I are in the house (pack n' play, swing, bouncy seat, etc.).
Today, however, I thought we would do a trial run in the crib so I attempted to put him in his crib for a formal mid-day nap. I put him down in his crib while Bailey started her lunch so he would have a head start on sleepy time. He kicked and flailed his arms for some time with an occasional whimper. I'm not sure if he was excited about his new surroundings or if he was seeking attention. I waited until his whimper turned into a cry and I went in to give him a pacifier. We repeated that cycle a few times and then he was asleep!
Bailey ate lunch and she went down for nap, too. I proudly announced to Bob that both of our children were asleep in their cribs!

...and then Bentley woke up crying. Shucks. I tried to console him but had no luck. Bob changed his diaper and I fed him and he was calm ...until I put him back in the crib. Bob and I both tried rocking him and he was content ...until we put him in the crib. Hmm, there seems to be a pattern here!

We gave up for the time being. I would say he slept maybe 30-45 minutes in his crib before he woke up so I guess that's a start. We moved him to his swing and, what do you know, he's asleep! Of course, we'll keep trying (with naps and overnight) and I will let you know how it goes.

Three Months Old

Bentley is three months old today! I don't mean to brag but, oh my goodness, he is the sweetest, happiest baby ever! Seriously.

He dozes on and off all day, with long periods of alert, awake time which he likes to spend smiling at anyone or anything in his line of sight...including, but not limited to, mama/dada/Bailey, the bears on his mobile, the button on the side of his swing, etc. In addition to those big beautiful smiles, he has the cutest little chuckle. He kicks his legs and smiles up a storm when he's excited, and sometimes his bottom lip quivers with excitement too. ADORABLE is an understatement!

I can't believe I'm saying this but he still hasn't had formula yet! Bailey had formula before we even left the hospital with her so I'm pretty excited that Bentley has been exclusively breastfed for three whole months. Don't get me wrong, I anticipate we will be introducing formula in the not-too-distant future (for the sake of convenience).

Bentley has slept through the night on a few occasions but, more often than not, he wakes up to eat about once in the middle of the night. We aren't complaining! We still haven't moved him to his room yet but I think we will soon. I guess we're not in a hurry because everything is going so smoothly as is. If it's not broken, don't fix it - right?! Seriously, though, we will transition him to his crib soon and you know I'll blog all about it. So check back often!

Below are what you really came to see...Bentley's three-month pictures!

Serious Bubby:

Smiley Bubby (and, for the record, I got so many smiley pictures of him that it was nearly impossible to pick just one...so I'm sharing three!):

Introducing...

Bailey's new toilet!

We're not officially potty-training yet because we don't think she's ready, but Bob and I did decide that it might be a good idea to casually introduce Bailey to the toilet. So today, after her nap, I showed Bailey her new "big-girl diapers" (pull-ups).

Then we went downstairs to see her new toilet. She thought it was pretty neat and she sat on it willingly ... for a few seconds. Then she looked at me like "now what?'.

The toilet greets her and plays music when she sits down. It also has a sensor in the bowl that is supposed to know when she actually goes potty and it will congratulate her. Ha! She did seem to like the music but, again, not enough to really care. She sat on the toilet twice total today but the only pee and poop that occurred was in her diaper. Go figure! We're not worried about it and will continue to casually encourage her to use the toilet. No pressure.

On a completely unrelated topic, we went to the Comets game Saturday night and Bentley wore this ridiculously adorable winter coat/suit that a friend gave us. How cute is he?!?

12-week old baby Buck's

There have been several times this week when I looked at Bentley sleeping in his bouncy seat and I saw a striking resemblance to a picture of Bailey sleeping in the bouncy seat when she was young. I dug up that picture of Bailey and it turns out she was 12 weeks old ... which is how old Bentley is this week!

Here they are:


Oh how I love those chubby-cheeked beautiful babes!

Christmas - Part 4

Yes, you read that right. This is another Christmas post. And no, I haven't been slacking on the blog. Our holiday celebration with some of Bob's family was postponed due to illness so today was Christmas all over again. More times with loved ones = A Happy Buck Family!

By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I can't believe we are already seven days into 2012. Or that this is my first blog post of the year. I thought I would have blogged earlier but honestly not much has been going on. We've been recovering from a busy December! Here are two cute miscellaneous pictures of Bailey from the last week:
Okay, back to today. Grandma and Grandpa Buck, and Great-Grandma Buck came up to visit today! Aunt Lesli, Uncle Gene and cousin Alex also came over. As usual, Bailey was LOVING all the attention. She was really excited to open more presents - after all, it had been nearly two weeks since she she opened her last present. Gasp! Needless to say, she did a mighty fine job ripping into all her presents...and Bentley's...and even one for Grandpa (oops!).
She was so happy to have cousin Alex here. She parked herself in his lap for quite some time and had him read book after book after book. SO cute!
Sweet Bentley was awake for some of the festivities but mostly he slept. Have I mentioned what a sweet boy he is? The sweetest! **SIGH**
We have talked about moving him to his room soon so I will keep you posted regarding the transition.