Story of my life..

Right now with 2 young kids life has some major challenges and major rewards, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster everyday. You never know when there will be an up, down or a big loop. 

One of my challenges we are going through right now is NOT sleeping. My 2.5 year old has always been a HORRIBLE sleeper, she didn't start sleeping through the night until around 18 months and it hasn't really stuck with her. Some weeks she does great and will sleep with no problem but other weeks she's up 2-5 times a night! She's also in a toddler bed and can open hers and our bedroom door so she wakes up and comes barging into our room, so the whole just let her cry it out in her crib doesn't work anymore. 

Then my 6 month old isn't sleeping through the night either. He is such a major eater that he wakes up nurses  (completely empties out my milk) and goes right back to bed no problem. He wakes up 2-3 times a night, it wouldn't be so bad if his sister would sleep but she's not doing so well with sleeping so mama is up ALL night... Lucky me. 

We are currently living in the basement of my parents house and there is only 2 bedrooms down here, so KJ is in our room still.. Ahh.. So when Kaili'a wakes up and comes barging into our room she wakes him up.. Often. So thinking about sleeping training KJ to just cry it out a little bit to see if he will go back to bed is just not an option because if he crys he wakes up Kaili'a, then if Kaili'a crys (say if daddy tried putting her to bed and she wants mama so she throws a Major fit until I go in there) she wakes up KJ. It's just a horrible cycle right now. 

I would love hear what you've done to help your toddlers sleep and your baby's sleep. I'm ready to sleep though the night again :-) I haven't done that since mid way through my pregnancy with Kaili'a.. Once she started sleeping I was pregnant with KJ so was up from pregnancy dis comfort... 

We started a bedtime routine that really seemed to help for awhile. We start it about 20-30 mins before bed. All four of us go into Kailias room, we clean it, then she picks out two books for us to read, we say our prayers and then she gets one song. That routine turned out to be golden until recently and it still gets her to go to bed really well but the girl won't stay asleep. When she wakes up she usually is asking for water or juice or she just wants to be tucked back in. 9 out of 10 times its that easy but it still requires for me to get up out of bed and wakes me up. Then there's those times where it's a huge major fit to get her to go back to bed. 

My dad says that I should get use to it because there's not much I can do and I really hope that's not true lol. Luckily I am a SAHM so if I'm tired or slow starting its fine but no one wants a tired mommy because normally for me anyways when I'm tired I'm moody. 

Thank goodness for all of the up parts of the roller coaster days to make the downs not seem so bad. Kaili'a is talking so much it's so much fun to listen to her, she knows her primary colors and her normal shapes that she just amazes me. She's extremely independent and that helps when I am busy with her little brother. KJ is on the verge of sitting up by himself, he's a champ when it comes to eating and he's one of the happiest most chill babies I've ever seen. 

We have so much fun throughout the day that it can help me not focus on the not sleeping issue at night so much. Life can be super crazy and super busy but I wouldnt change it for anything. I love being a mom which I never thought I would. It's the most rewarding thing I have ever done, I have been able to witness sacrifices for others so much that it's humbled me.. Extremely.. Putting someone else's needs before my own helps me be able to practice delayed gratification daily :-) it's also made mine and my own mothers relationship much stronger! 

I feel like 50% of my day is spent changing diaper :-) 

First time in the saucer 

Good thing sisters only 10lbs heavier than brother because she wanted a turn too. 

Funny faces 

Thank you for reading, 

The Cancillas XOXO 

These two are my everything. 

Getting the hang of it... Sort of...

Alright so we have survived our second week of this new chapter, I think I'm getting the hang of it, we'll sort of. 

I'm a breastfeeding mom and I'm happy to announce that it's going really well. We are past the "ouch" phase of where every time your sweet baby latches on you think you're gonna die from the pain. Kj nurses a little differently than Kaili'a did and it's not bad or good, just different. Kaili'a normaly ate every 2 hours (like clock work) and only ate off of one side. My milk was never over flowing or anything like that, it was just the right amount that she needed. (Fun fact: did you know that your baby is  in control of your milk? You help with your diet and fluid intake but your baby is the one that controls the majority of it) now with Kj, during the day he can go every 3.5 - 4 hours and he eats off of both sides but then again sometimes he will eat only off of one side and needs to feed more often. He's more of a go with the flow type of baby when it comes to eating and my milk is totally over flowing, I cannot believe how much milk my body is producing and I'm extremely thankful for it. 

This pose is what he looks like after he's ate, it's his "Drunk off of mamas milk" pose :-) makes me laugh every time. 

I think this week has been a little harder on Kaili'a, she's been acting out A LOT. She's got a little "attitude" anyways in her personality but man it's been rough. I know she's just adjusting and I was expecting at least these first couple months to adjust. 

She isn't rude to her baby brother, it's more towards me and as a mom it breaks my heart but I know she will get through this and I can't blame her for feeling left out or angry that she's not the only one anymore. I'm sure I acted the same way when my sister came into the picture. 

I'm really trying very hard to put KJ down in his bassinet when he sleeps so he can get use to the bed and he knows that's where he sleeps plus it gives me a chance to give Kaili'a all of my attention and we can play, color or watch a movie while Kj sleeps. It blows my mind what Kj can sleep through, it's true when they say your second kid can usually sleep in the room that everything is going on in. He doesn't even flinch most the time when Kaili'a throws a huge fit and screams right by him. It's actually really nice that he can sleep through loud noises because he's in the room with myself and Kaili'a so I can keep an eye on him but we dont have to be quiet. 

With Kaili'a we couldn't do anything without waking her up, she also had to sleep on mine or my husbands chest for the first 10 weeks. It was extremely rough that I made myself a promise to really work on making sure my second baby was able to sleep on their own next to my bed, not in it. 

We still have a lot to learn but I feel like we're getting the hang of things and starting to form our morning routine which will be nice when I can wake up to my alarm like I was before Kj was born. I would set my alarm 15 mins before Kaili'a woke up to get up get dressed, go to the restroom, brush my teeth, eat some cereal and get us both a drink and be back downstairs by the time she woke up. Then I could just get her up, change her bum and turn on her morning show with her juice and snacks. 

I'm almost back to it, I mean I have to wake up when she does anyways that you would think that 15 mins earlier wouldn't be so hard. But with a newborn I guess I'm trying to squeeze every last second of sleep in. 

Like I said, we're  getting the hang of if... Sort of. :-) 

Here are some pictures from our week :-) 

We did some newborn photos of Kj this weekend. It's funny because he has his binkee in his mouth but every time I took it out he would squirm and moved all over. So I kept the binkee in his mouth because I mean he loves it and it's apart of his newborn lifestyle so it works :-) 

Thanks for Reading, 

The Cancilla Family