A Few Fun Finds

That is all Cash wants to eat right now. He hasn't had dinner in two nights because all he wants are....RAISINS!!!!!!!!!!!! There are raisins all over our house. In my car. In the front yard. IN THE SCHOOL PARKING LOT. He actually hoards them in his tent sometimes for emergency reasons. Raisins account for 99.9% of daily tantrums. I hate raisins. Except when I need to bribe him. Then I love raisins.

i always knew if we had a girl i wanted a boys name for her. my mom chose one for me and i wanted to continue the tradition. i googled and googled for months and kept thinking i wanted one with a ''c'' to match cash. our top choices were carson, cade (cash and cade, i mean come on), and coy.  but none of these ever felt like ''the one''. i love cade for a boy but for a girl i didn't want people to think her name was caden or cadence etc. and carson was too popular for girls lately. and then coy was going to be if we had a boy so i couldn't imagine it on her. then i asked for suggestions via twitter and a good friend wrote me a list- one of which was bennett. i had seen a little girl on instagram a few weeks before that named bennett and added it to our list but kind of brushed it off because it didn't start with a c.  rewind to even months before that when i was in austin for the ole miss game-- my bff JD and i were talking about names and be...

Bennett Suzanne Detamore was born on St. Patrick's Day, and I can't believe the amount of love I instantly experienced with her.  She was and is completely perfect and the sweetest little addition to our growing family. I wanted to write her birth story while it's still fresh in my mind because these days with two kids I forget e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.  We checked into the Woman's Pavillion around 6 AM and by 8 AM my water was broken and pitocin started. (#ihateyoupitocin) I made sure to ask the nurse the time frame it would take to get the epidural because with Cash they took FOREVER to get to the room and my contractions had multiplied a trillion by the time that doctor showed his face.  She said usually around 40 minutes.  Well as soon as I started to get uncomfy I asked for it and she said I was first on the list...after they finish up surgery. Which should be about 20 minutes. Liars. I kept asking (yelling) the poor med student when in the H they were coming becau...

WHAT CAN I DO TO GET THIS BABY GIRL OUT OF ME? I am determined NOT to be induced and I am also determined for her NOT to be born on Cash's birthday. Totally under our control right? I've tried hot wings. Spicy Chinese food. Hot mustard. Mex food.  Walking (all day). Chasing around a sort-of-walking 1 year old.  Rocking. A lot of rocking. I even tried pumping. Nothing!!!! I had one contraction at 3:25 AM and kept thinking this is it this is it! Then I fell back asleep and woke up perfectly fine at 6.  Grrrrrrr.  I feel like all these old wives tales are total BS. Maybe I just need to learn to accept that my babies are late and that's that. On the other hand, I am trying to soak up the alone time Brett & I have before another little one comes into our lives. With Cash sleeping through the night and going to bed around 7, we have time for a movie, TV shows, to cook dinner, order in...not to mention sleep. SLEEEP, I shall miss thee for a while. On the other o...

Little man has been sleeping around 11 hours straight at night so I think I can officially say night weaning FREAKING WORKS. Please please give it a try if you are having the same issues we were, I can't say enough good things about it. Of course every baby is different but I never thought 2 months ago I would be saying Cash slept through the night before his little sister was here!! Of course mom is up at 5 due to pregnancy insomnia but that's a whole other story ;) I thought I'd round up a few of Cashy's favorite things at 11 months old.  We're always looking for new, fun toys too so if you have any suggestions please let me know!! Any and all Melissa & Doug chunky puzzles: Safari THIS ELEPHANT:  It also helped him learn to stand on his own! Mega Bloks (have heard from lots of other moms that these are a big hit too):                                     ...

4 weeks from today baby makes her debut! I AM SO READY. Emotionally still scared and nervous about having two, but just really ready to meet her and for her to join our family.  I start going to the doctor every week now to get updates. She said since I was late with Cash, I'll probably be late with her. Bah hum bug. ALSO she gave me the option to induce at 39 weeks but nothankyougoodlord. I'll wait patiently until she is given an official eviction notice. Cash has officially been sleeping through the night for about a WEEK now! We had one really off night because he had a tooth coming in, but he put himself back to sleep eventually and we haven't had to hear him cry since! Then one morning he woke up at 5 AM but just played in his crib for a few hours without crying. I made it a rule to not go in there to get him until 7 AM (unless he starts screaming and it's like 6:30) but so far he's been an angel with the 7 rule.  Brett & I actually stayed up to watch TWO...

I'm sitting here drinking a cup of coffee. Watching the monitor. On which my child is sleeping. And has been since 7:30 PM last night. No crying, no nothing. Y'all, this is the second night in a row this has happened.  I didn't want to write a blog post yesterday because if I did and was all like YAAA THIS SHIZ WORKS, then he was up the next night, I'd feel pretty defeated. But 2 nights in a row calls for a celebration.  And if he goes 3 nights? Well shit, he might get his 1st birthday cake a month early. I honestly feel like night weaning worked/is working for us.  Just last month we were up twice a night and he was easily consuming 10 ounces.  And now that we KNOW he's not hungry and is capable of sleeping straight through feedings, I am mentally ok if he wakes at 5 AM and cries/whines for a while without running in there with a bottle.  I hope these good/positive posts continue for the next few days and this is a permanent thing! If anyone wants to know mor...

NIGHT 11 (SUNDAY) Bedtime: 7:30 PM Woke: 4 AM (drank: 2 oz) Awake for the day: 6:45/7 AM Last night was probably the easiest night we've had so far. He woke up squirming and whining around 4 AM (late for him!!) and we decided to go ahead and continue with the feed since we didn't want to mess up the night weaning schedule. Brett fed him 2 ounces and back to sleep he went with minimal fussiness. This made me think of what might happen next....I have a feeling he is going to start waking up early-- say around 5/5:30 and I'm scared I won't know what to do! Is that too late of a time to let him CIO? Or is he hungry and wanting to eat/go back to sleep??  Or is he awake for the day??  I feel like that early morning wake/feed/back to sleep routine is what got us into this mess in the first place.  If he wakes up and gets fed at 5AM, how is 1/2/3/4 AM any different? My gut tells me to let him figure it out and don't go in his room until a set time (aka 6:30-7) to get hi...

Does anyone actually check FB or read blogs on Sundays?? I'm having trouble remembering anything these days so I have to update now or all info will be lost by tomorrow. NIGHT 9 (FRIDAY) Bedtime: 7:30 PM Woke: 2 AM (drank: 3 oz) Awake for the day: 7:30 AM **once again we had to let him CIO but this time it was only for about 15 minutes until total silence! NIGHT 10 (SATURDAY) Bedtime: 7 PM Woke: 3 AM (drank: 3 oz) Awake for the day: 7 AM **he only cried for FIVE MINUTES last night. FIVE MINUTES!! Until total silence and back to zzzzz land.  At this point his bottle is basically water. We add half a scoop of cereal for 2 more nights then it's TOTALLY water.  These past few nights have mentally prepared us for what's to come when we don't go in with a bottle at all. But I'm still so nervous about just how long he will be crying. I know it needs to be done though.  And you know the best part right now? He woke up hungry this morni...

But today was the first day of transitioning Cash from 2 naps a day to just ONE. Uno. I feel like that deserves an entire other post/explanation since he's only 10 months old and most ''books'' say this doesn't happen until like 15-18 months. Moving on to last night :) NIGHT 8 (THURSDAY) Bedtime: 7:30 PM Woke: 3 AM TO 4:30 AM (yup) (drank: 3 oz) Awake for the day: 7:30 AM For the first time in a while, he refused to go to sleep at bedtime. After about an hour and a half battle, he finally gave in and snoozed until 3 AM. Then he was playing in his crib which turned to the usual crying for a bottle/comfort. Brett went up there with the 6 ounces and after an hour he had only gotten about 3 down and was just playing/refusing to eat. So he put him back in his crib and apparently that was just not OK. At this point it was 4 AM, we were both up and watching the monitor and made the decision to let him CIO. He obviously was not hungry and it seemed like the only ...

NIGHT SIX (TUESDAY) Bedtime: 7:30 PM Woke: 2:30 AM (ate 3 ounces) Awake for the day: 7:30 AM HE PUT HIMSELF BACK TO SLEEP AFTER ONLY 3 OUNCES, Y'ALL. HE WAS STANDING UP IN HIS CRIB AND THEN WHINED FOR ABOUT 20 SECONDS. AND FELL ASLEEP. UNTIL 7:30. I was all like, this is working!!!! You see Brett had Night 6-- I really think dads have that magic touch, you know?  But I was so confident last night I could do the same thing. Hehe. NIGHT SEVEN (WEDNESDAY) Bedtime: 7:30 PM Woke: 3:15 AM TO 4:45 AM (ate 4 ounces) Awake for the day: 7:00 AM I woke up around 3:15 to Cash talking to himself in his crib. He wasn't upset and he didn't seem bothered/hungry. I let him roll around for about 30 minutes until he was completely silent. I was staring at the monitor like a HAWK thinking that any minute he would stand up and demand the bottle. But then he was silent...for like 15 minutes!! So I got myself back in bed and started to doze off...silly mom...why would you do...

Do I complain enough on here?? I guess I should also say that B & I take turns every other night. So it's not like I'm not getting any sleep ever. But of course being pregnant I don't sleep good anyways, so when he gets up with Cash I can't help but stay awake too.  Just wanted to tell you that piece of non pertinent information.... NIGHT FIVE (MONDAY) Bedtime: 7 PM Woke: 1:00 AM (ate 3 ounces) Awake for the day: 6:30 AM **again ate a huge dinner and bottle right before bed but still woke up early in the night. this time he was wide awake sitting up in his crib crying. and did not want to go back to sleep. but he did finally after a 45 minute struggle. this time i do NOT think he was hungry since he only drank 3 ounces and chewed on the bottle most of the 45 minutes.  I started thinking about the night in our near future (5 more days) where we are ''not supposed'' to give him the bottle at all. When you ''know'' he's not hun...

Thank you to everyone who commented and reached out to me on FB for your advice and encouragement! We made the decision to switch him to a different formula. I don't want to jinx it but so far it seems like he's drinking a little more during the day so we'll so how that goes...I want to recap our nightly feedings since Friday... NIGHT TWO (Friday) Bedtime: 7 PM Woke: 2:30 AM (ate 4 ounces) Awake for the day: 6 AM ***refused solid foods ALL DAY NIGHT THREE (Saturday) Bedtime: 8:30 PM **tried a later bedtime Woke: 3:30 AM (ate 6 ounces)  Awake for the day: 8 AM!!!!!!!!!!! ***ate a big solid food dinner thanks to his god mommy Megan! ***in my head I'm thinking, OMG a later bedtime worked this time! It hasn't before but maybe that is the key, hallelujah!! but then came last night. NIGHT FOUR (Sunday) Bedtime: 8:00 PM **tried a later bedtime, again Woke: 1:30 AM (ate 6 ounces on and off). WAS AWAKE FOR OVER AN HOUR.  Awake for the day: 7 AM Last night th...

I have about 5 minutes before Cash wakes up for the day (sleeping this late is VERY unusual mind you) so I have to type reallllllllll fast. Cash started sleeping through the night around like 6 weeks old. We were shocked, naive, and all like ''well that's not as bad as people say?!?!" Literally he would sleep from like 8 PM to 8 AM. Heaven, right? Yeah, until he was around 4-5 months old. Then that stopped. Out of nowhere. Isn't that backwards? I'm pretty sure I would rather have a newborn up all night and then transition to sleeping through the night because ever since that one night he woke up during the night he never stopped...here we are 5 months later and it's gotten even worse. We have 6 weeks until baby girl comes and I'm determined to figure something out.  We have seriously tried almost e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I have ordered every book off Amazon, I have met with doctors, we have tried CIO, Ferber, bla bla bla. You name it, we've tried it. ...

9 more weeks until we become a family of four. i'm still trying to wrap my head around it all. 2 kids to feed, 2 kids to bathe, 2 kids to take to the grocery store. then i start thinking about how i never had a sister or brother growing up. and how excited i am to see cash as a big brother. and to watch him watch his sister. and to watch her love her brother. all these things make me happy. and all warm and fuzzy inside. in other news, feeding a 10 month old is HARD WORK you guys. definitely one of the biggest hurdles i've faced in motherhood so far (besides you know the whole lack of sleep thing). but planning out meals and introducing new foods and getting him to actually sit in the high chair for more than 5 minutes- it's exhaaaausting. he pretty much only likes bananas and guac at this point. and of course that donut that mom sneaks in every week from shipleys (is it so wrong?) oh and cashy started SCHOOL last week! well mother's day out, but you get the point. ...