Names. sleep and Christmas

It is pretty funny that we agonised so much over choosing Levi's name. We searched for names that had meaning and that spoke something specific over our little man and yet since he has been born we rarely use it, instead around here he is known as;

Buggy
Bug
Bugadoo, Bugadoodle
Toots Magee
Rooty tooty fresh'n'fruity
Stinky McCute-butt
Farty Stink Bum
Fussy Fusserson
and my personal favourite, Farty McFly

Yes, there is a certain gassy theme. It seems that continues to be an issue for the little man. He can get really uncomfortable and it interferes with his sleep, but once the flood gates open and he has well and truly emptied his bowels he sleeps like a champ. Hence the 9+ straight he did a couple of nights ago. I woke up after about 8 hours in a panic and just had to turn up the monitor to see if I could hear his breathing - I could and then I laid awake for an hour until he woke up. Of course, he had gone to bed at 7pm so I didn't get the full gift of 9 hours of sleep but I got some, and Jeremy and I managed to have some time together to just talk and catch up on life which was special too.

The early bedtime is working well for Levi and for us and he is doing well sleeping in his crib. The 9 hours was certainly an anomaly but he has been sleeping pretty well without  any crying it out. After more conversation and books reading we decided that we didn't want to do that intentionally until he was 4 months old and he is still a couple of weeks out from that. The more I thought about it too the more I felt like sleeping in his crib at night was a big enough adjustment. Without the sleep training, Levi doesn't take naps in the crib longer than 25 or 30 minutes, much less that the 1.5-2 hour he was doing in the swing. We decided that we would let him sleep in the swing if he was struggling with naps so he has taken his last nap of the day in the swing a few days this week to make sure he got some good rest before going down at night. The sleep book we have been referencing makes the point that children learn sleep routines as much as learning to sleep by crying it out so we are hopeful that the consistent nap-time and bedtime routines will help Levi anticipate sleep and hope that that will help when we do more sleep training in the near future.

I am loving the internet for my Christmas shopping. Usually trawling the mall at this time of year is something that I love. I think I am one of the few people who would say that but the hustle and bustle is all part of the holiday fun. This year however, the boy makes it less enjoyable. Having him on slightly more of a schedule makes outing of any substance pretty tricky. It is just a season and one that I am embracing fully but it means that I am having to shop a little differently. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in our house and I am excited to introduce Levi to lifetime Christmas movies soon. I am really enjoying all the creative Elf on a Shelf happenings I am seeing in my FB newsfeed and so look forward to future years when Levi will be experiencing the magic of that and so much more through this season. Right now, the tree lights are just about more than he can handle!

Here he is watching us put them up, and below we get up close and personal with the lights!