Those of you who know me, understand my passion for Christmas. I love everything about Christmas. The giving and receiving of gifts, parties, food, decorations, time away from work, etc. makes the season absolutely amazing. This Christmas was especially memorable because it was our first with the boys.
I left work for the holidays on December 14th. That meant I would have almost three weeks away from work to hang out with Jennifer and the boys. Let's just say that I was really excited and ready to get away from work and spend that many consecutive days with my new family. Jennifer and I started the holiday here in the Woodlands. We spent that entire week, just the four of us, getting the boys on the most amazing schedule. They were still waking up to eat during the night, but that is expected because Jennifer is still breastfeeding. It was usually only once and compared to the amount of sleep we were used to, only once is a welcomed occasion. The only
kicker is that if the boys stagger it just right, then it still feels like you are up all night. But again, only once is a welcomed occasion. Our days start @ 7 a.m. regardless of how the night before went. During this week we were getting them up at 7 and then playing for about an hour and a half before we put them down for the "morning nap". Those of you with children know the morning nap and love it for many reasons. If they were good the night before then you can use this time to attack your chores for the day. If the night before sucked, then you just curl back up in bed and get an extra two hours sleep. My first week at home we had the morning nap lasting about 2 and a half hours! After the morning nap is when we would run our first errand for the day. This included trips to the mall to see Santa and finish up some shopping as well as trips to the grocery store, home depot, etc. All you had to do was make sure they were home within 3-4 hours so you could feed them again. Once we got back home, we would put the boys down for another nap that was lasting almost 2 hours. Upon conclusion of that nap, off we would trek again. The list of destinations was the same. We would get home from our second outing and put them down again for what we refer to as a "SNAP". That is parent talk for "short nap". During this nap was when dinner would get started and preparations were made for the evening. Let's just say that it was one hell of a week. We were both well rested and looking forward to our time in Lufkin with family and friends.
kicker is that if the boys stagger it just right, then it still feels like you are up all night. But again, only once is a welcomed occasion. Our days start @ 7 a.m. regardless of how the night before went. During this week we were getting them up at 7 and then playing for about an hour and a half before we put them down for the "morning nap". Those of you with children know the morning nap and love it for many reasons. If they were good the night before then you can use this time to attack your chores for the day. If the night before sucked, then you just curl back up in bed and get an extra two hours sleep. My first week at home we had the morning nap lasting about 2 and a half hours! After the morning nap is when we would run our first errand for the day. This included trips to the mall to see Santa and finish up some shopping as well as trips to the grocery store, home depot, etc. All you had to do was make sure they were home within 3-4 hours so you could feed them again. Once we got back home, we would put the boys down for another nap that was lasting almost 2 hours. Upon conclusion of that nap, off we would trek again. The list of destinations was the same. We would get home from our second outing and put them down again for what we refer to as a "SNAP". That is parent talk for "short nap". During this nap was when dinner would get started and preparations were made for the evening. Let's just say that it was one hell of a week. We were both well rested and looking forward to our time in Lufkin with family and friends.
If you want to "f" up a newborns schedule, the quickest way to do so is travel with them. The boys are now in that stage where you can really see their personality starting to show through and they are also more aware of their surroundings. Before they kinda just sat around and didn't let the activities around them affect their way of doing things. Now they become engrossed in their surroundings and will not, for whatever reason, sleep through anything. Some babies will just close their eyes and go to sleep if they are tired. Mine force themselves to st
ay awake and look at everything that is going on. I think they get this from their mother. This means that the importance of nap time is multiplied exponentially because if you have ANYTHING to do, then you better have a good nap before hand or they will make the experience much less enjoyable. Well, when you travel with a newborn, then everything is new, so they DON'T sleep. We were in Lufkin for three days and did not have a single nap that lasted for longer than 45 minutes. Remember that we were having 2.5 hour naps just a few days before. That would have been bearable if we were still only waking once during the night. They both averaged about 3 times per night while we were there. Let's just say that sleep was definitely not the them for Christmas 2007. However, the theme was definitely "Family and Friends". We got to see so many people that you just can't see very often because of distance, family commitments, jobs, etc. The best part was that not only did we get to see them, but so did Cooper and Caleb. Jennifer and I have plans to keep this tradition alive, so just go ahead and plan on us coming to visit soon. They may not sleep while we are there, but we will get some good pictures.
ay awake and look at everything that is going on. I think they get this from their mother. This means that the importance of nap time is multiplied exponentially because if you have ANYTHING to do, then you better have a good nap before hand or they will make the experience much less enjoyable. Well, when you travel with a newborn, then everything is new, so they DON'T sleep. We were in Lufkin for three days and did not have a single nap that lasted for longer than 45 minutes. Remember that we were having 2.5 hour naps just a few days before. That would have been bearable if we were still only waking once during the night. They both averaged about 3 times per night while we were there. Let's just say that sleep was definitely not the them for Christmas 2007. However, the theme was definitely "Family and Friends". We got to see so many people that you just can't see very often because of distance, family commitments, jobs, etc. The best part was that not only did we get to see them, but so did Cooper and Caleb. Jennifer and I have plans to keep this tradition alive, so just go ahead and plan on us coming to visit soon. They may not sleep while we are there, but we will get some good pictures.
The original plan was to come home on the 26th, but once the Christmas activities were completed on the 25th we hightailed it our of Lufkin back to The Woodlands where schedules can be very easily maintained. Sure enough, once we got home, they settled in for about an hour and half nap followed by a night of only a single wake-up. Then today the naps started to get longer. Let's just say that it is going to be a long time before we travel again!
All that being said, Christmas was amazing. Thank you all for the gifts, well wishes and time spent coming to visit. We look forward to sharing future holidays with all of you and if we cannot keep checking the blog to see how they went.
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