Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Elijah's First Christmas

I have felt an incredible need to document everything about our lives right now.  I know I am going to want to remember what our lives were like when Elijah was really little.  It will be fun to read back on this when he's older.  And maybe a good idea before I decide I'm ready to have another baby!  Of course, I have to write all about Elijah's first Christmas Day.

He woke up very early at about 5:30am.  Daniel got up with him and let me sleep in a little bit.  Elijah went back to sleep before long, and then we all got up around 7:30am.  Elijah looked adorable in his red "Ho Ho Ho" PJ's.

We opened presents while on facetime with Daniel's parents.  There was light snow falling most of the morning.  Elijah took a long nap from noon until 3pm, so I got a little nap in then too, and got to watch a movie with Daniel.  We spent most of the day just hanging out and playing with Elijah.  Daniel made ice cream with his new ice cream maker.  Elijah took another nap from 4:30-5:30 so we took that opportunity to shovel the snow off our driveway.  And he cooked a delicious roast for dinner.  Elijah sat in his bumbo seat with a few toys while we sat at the table and ate dinner.  Just over the last few days it has seemed like Elijah is going through a developmental growth spurt.  He is now grabbing toys and bringing them to his mouth.  He can almost hold his own bottle.  It's like he's noticing the whole world for the first time.  He stares at Jackson, reaches for things, and whines when we take a toy away. He is also outgrowing his pacifier quickly.  It doesn't soothe him like it used to.  He really only wants it while he's falling asleep.

The day ended disastrously.  We have him a bath, put on his PJ's, and read one of his new books that he got for Christmas.  Then we swaddled him up, and he started to cry (like usual).  But instead of calming down and drifting off to sleep, he just cried.  And cried.  And cried.  For 2 hours we tried to get him to sleep and he just wouldn't.  We tried feeding him, we unswaddled him and reswaddled him.  We tried the swing, we tried white noise and music, we turned the fan on and changed him into cooler PJ's.  Nothing worked.  At 9:00 we just put him in his crib and let him cry.  After 15 minutes we regrouped and tried again.  Daniel let me go to bed around 9:30 and he took over.  At 10:30 he came into bed and Elijah was asleep.  Daniel thought it was teething.  Elijah chewed on Daniel's fingers and after he got some tylenol, finally went to sleep.  He was up again at midnight though.  We gave him a bottle and he went back to sleep after a little while.  But all night I could hear him.  at 1:30am he made noise, but went back to sleep.  Then again at 3:00am.  And we had to be up to go to work at 6:00.  So I didn't get much sleep at all.  It was a miserable night.  The worst part is that we have no idea why it happened!  And we still don't.  Hopefully it was just an "off" night.

Today I am taking a day for me.  I called into work sick, and I'm going to stay home and sleep as much as I want.  Elijah is at day care, so I get the day all to myself.  I feel a little guilty, but also like I need this for myself.  So I am going to try to enjoy it as much as possible.  Here's a few more pictures from our Christmas:






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