Stop growing!

Check out my cheeky boys! They will not stop growing and time is just going far too quickly for my liking. Lucas is two and a half years old and Flynn is 4 months old. I've been thinking about my births with the boys a lot lately and decided to go back and read Flynn's birth story (found here). I remember it like it was yesterday but I look at this huge baby of mine and I can't believe it has been 4 months already. Some days I wish time would stand still so I can enjoy my babies at this age a little longer, but I love watching them grow and turn into these little people with big personalities.

Lucas has well and truly settled in to the role of big brother and he is amazing. He gets quite protective of Flynn. It's a beautiful thing to see this little boy standing up for his baby brother simply because he loves him and wants to protect him. My favourite time is the morning when Flynn and I have just woken up and we are laying in bed and in runs Lucas. "Mum I wake up!!!" he says, then jumps into the bed with us and says "Hi Bubby" or "Hi Pynn!" (he hasn't quite got the hang of the FL of Flynn's name just yet) and Flynn will give Lucas a grin.

Our smart boy has finally mastered counting to 10! His auntie Mimi and I witnessed it just a few days ago and I've been trying so hard to get him doing it on video but he is just as stubborn as his mother. And I got it from my mother, so we'll blame Nanny. We have just started a new pre-bedtime routine (part of our sleep routine, but more about that later) where we lay on the couch together for an hour and read/look at lots of books. I'm not sure who enjoys it more, me or Lucas but it is something we both look forward to every night.

Lucas is using the toilet every day while we are at home. He is so clever with his toilet training! We're going to try night training when Summer is finally here. His speech has improved dramatically over the last few months and he is such a little copy cat. He is constructing lots of different sentences and its like music to my ears (apart from the "why cause?" over and over, and over again) as I was starting to get worried about his speech. I am so proud of everything he has achieved so far!

Oh, my cheeky little Flynn. He is such a smiley, happy boy most of the time. The poor poppet has been teething for over a month now, but the last week has been hell for both him and myself. He has gone back to feeding every 2 hours overnight and after 2 days I was exhausted and wondering what I could do to help my baby get some sleep. I started reading the No-Cry Sleep Solution (thanks Sarah P!) by Elizabeth Pantley hoping to find some solutions. I done a nap log for the first day and a night waking log to find out just how much sleep Flynn was getting. It turned out he was getting roughly 12 hours total with naps included when he should be getting 15 hours. I learnt about sleep associations too, and I think Flynn has associated boobie with going to sleep and every time he wakes he thinks he needs it to sleep again. 

The next step was to choose which of Elizabeth Pantley's techniques I would be using to help us get some sleep. We have introduced a whole new pre-bedtime routine for both of the boys and it focuses on winding down and relaxing before bedtime. We dim the lights in the lounge room and grab a whole stack of books. Flynn has a feed while Lucas and I start reading. The aim is to feed Flynn so he is content, but not to the point where he has fallen asleep. If we can achieve this, with some time he won't be associating boobie with sleep and should be sleeping longer than 2 hour blocks.
I never had a problem with Lucas and his sleep when he was a baby so this is a whole different experience for me and I'm grateful for it. Flynn can be at times, challenging but he is encouraging me to be the best I can be for him. He is teaching me how to be patient. My boys are always teaching me new things and I can only hope I am giving back to them tenfold xx