Sleeping Beauties

Sleep is a high commodity around the Castile Household these days.

Let's start with Madison.

Our dear, sweet, amazing sleeper Madison.  Seriously, we have been ridiculously "lucky" with her sleep. She goes down consistently at 7pm and sleeps until between 7 and 8 in the morning. She doesn't fight bedtime/naptime and will play in her crib for an extended period of time upon waking.  With that being said...she's had a rough week.  On Monday we visited with some friends until 7:30, so she went down late, but I thought we were still OK.  However, she managed to stay awake until 10:30.  10:30. Never before has Madison seen a bedtime this late.  This came on the night before her first day in her new daycare class (the "older twos").  Where, she had an excellent day socially, but managed to not nap at all.  I'm not sure if she was afraid she'd miss something or it was just and adjustment, but she never laid down.  It took her being home for approximately two minutes before she started melting down.  No surprise from this mama.  She was served dinner early, where she promptly feel asleep while eating. Which, earned her a 6pm bedtime and 13 hours of sleep.

Hopefully, we are back on a schedule.  We have been talking a lot about nap time at school and that she is supposed to go "night-night."  There might have been a bribe involved, which I have no idea if she is old enough to understand, but we will see how naptime goes today...



Now Luke.

What a surprise little Luke has been since the beginning.  I would not use mellow or chill to describe this child.  He's sweet and snugly, but high maintenance.  During the day, Luke naps a variety of places.  Of course, his place of choice is being held.  But, he does great in the car seat when we are out and occasionally will nap in the bouncer.

sleeping at the pool

sleeping in the Moses basket

Snuggled in the car seat

 The biggest issue is if he wakes up before he's ready.  Whoa - what a grouch!  At night, we are sticking to the crib.  I've discovered the "double swaddle."  Google this. It is amazing and he can't break out of it.  Last night we were rewarded with two four-hour stretches.  Which, for me is 6 hours of sleep.  I've been going to bed at 10pm, Ryan does a feeding around 12 and then I'm up at 4.  I'm a whole-new mama.  A much, much better mama with sleep!!  Please cross your fingers for us that this trend continues!!!

Luke - 1 month old

Date: June 4, 2013

Weight: 7lbs 3 oz

Feeding:  Luke is nursing 99% of the time and takes 1 bottle a day of pumped milk.  Generally, he goes 3 to 4 hours between feedings.

Sleeping: Ehhh...hopefully more to come?  He would be content being held 100% of the time and would likely sleep long stretches at night.  However, Luke does not seem to like being flat on his back and struggles to get the burps out.  This has made for a lot of trial and error.  My parents bought Luke a beautiful bassinet.  That he screams in.  We've tried the crib, elevated 1 -textbook high, where he will sleep for a few hours.  My dear friend lent us her arms-reach, co-sleeper, which has worked maybe 10% of attempts.  Last night, I caved and he spent from 4-6 in the bouncer seat while I slept on the couch.  Today, my friend lent us her rock-and-play sleeper to try.  The irony is, I had big plans regarding sleep for Luke.  We created so many bad habits with Madison that I was eager to teach this child how to put himself to sleep from the get-go. Ha! I am currently just in survival mode.  Any tips from seasoned moms out there?

Likes: Being held and snuggled.  He is such a snuggle-bug!  His awake times are later in the day and he enjoys a few minutes of tummy time and playing/lying and looking at his toy mat.  Madison - Luke loves to look at Madison!  Eating.  His paci - for a few minutes at a time.

Dislikes: Being swaddled (Luke much prefers to have his hands together and often up by his face), lying flat on your back, being put into the car seat.  Luke don't love to have your diaper changed or be bathed, but is starting to relax a little more.

Fun Facts: Madison loves to hold Luke. She isn't too sure about him and really doesn't like when he cries (it often sends her into a crying fit).

As a family: Going from 1-2 children is definitely an adjustment!  Madison has struggled, mostly just being more sensitive and emotional.  The first two weeks were filled with melt-downs and whining.  I do think that things are getting better and she is starting to return to a clam state!  Ryan and I have been working on stopping the melt-downs immediately.  We've been giving her a lot of lap time and snuggles and I do believe it will all even out.  She has become such a Daddy girl and it is sweet to hear her talk so much more!  Madison will be transitioning rooms at daycare and we are both nervous and excited to see how it goes next week.

Belle of the Ball

Ryan's sister, Michelle, married Jimi on Saturday May 11, 2013.  As a family, we have been so excited about this celebration.  We love Michelle and Jimi so much as a couple.  I enjoyed hearing about all of Michelle's decisions and couldn't wait to see all her hard work and planning play out for a beautiful weekend.  And, as icing on the cake, Madison was asked to be a flower girl!

Unfortunately, with Luke's early arrival and my c-section, I was advised to miss the wedding.  After shedding many tears, Ryan took on single daddy duty and rocked it!  The pictures and stories are proof that their wedding was absolutely perfect and we couldn't be happier for the new couple!

The bride, her bridesmaids and flower girls

Madison

Dancing with Daddy

Madison loves her Aunt Shell so much and this picture melts my heart!

Madison in the middle of the dance floor!

With the bride and groom!

He's Here

We welcomed Luke Ryan Castile 5 weeks early! He was in a hurry to join our family and completely caught us off guard.  For those of you that know me well, you know I like to plan.  I have often referenced the quote "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans."

Here's the back story.  On Friday May 3, Madison and I had a fun day planned with shopping in the morning and a late afternoon play-date.  Ryan had plans to see a movie and play in a golf tournament that Saturday.  I had just finished my last day at the clinic and was looking forward to getting things together and wrapping up loose ends in May.  Madison and I went to Target for some shopping and a few stores searching for flower-girl shoes.  We came home in time to make lunch.  Just before lunch we had a few minutes to play "babies" on the couch.  At 11:30, I got up to get lunch started and in the middle of the living room my water broke.  I freaked.  Instantly.  It is probably my worst parenting moment (to date) with Madison because I could not contain my fear and emotions and I was a mess.  Which, meant Madison was hysterical as well.  I yelled up to Ryan, who luckily was working at home.  Unfortunately, he didn't understand what I was saying and told me he was on a call and he'd be down shortly (he thought maybe a pipe was leaking).  I was able to express that this was an emergency and luckily he came down.  We instantly went into "go" mode.  Between our sweet neighbor, my bff Casey and amazing Aunt "Shell" Madison was covered 100% and I quickly threw together a bag for me and Ryan.  And, off we went. I wasn't sure if they would try to stop the delivery or let it go, but I was terrified either way.  At 34 weeks and 6 days I knew we were right on the border of Luke being healthy and able to come home versus being immature and needing additional NICU/special infant care intervention.  Which, given my profession, is pretty terrifying to me.

Long story short - the OB was fine with Luke being delivered.  There was a lot of discussion about if he was to be born before or after midnight, as this was the difference between him being born at 34 weeks versus 35 weeks (crazy that an hour made such a difference!).  I got my epidural and basically things just went very slow. Overnight, we noticed that Luke's heart rate was dropping with each contraction.  Apparently this is pretty common, but with my progress being slow the OB started to be concerned about lack of oxygen over the next several hours.  Immediately, I was on board with a c-section (lack of oxygen is a scary thing).  I boo-hooed a lot when they told me I couldn't pick up Madison for 6 weeks and was generally an emotional mess!

I won't go into detail, but an emergency c-section at 3 am is not really fun.  I am sure I'm on some list of "crazy patients" as I was so emotional the.entire.time (seriously).  But the end result was so worth it.

Meet Luke Ryan Castile.  Born 3:31 am, 5 lbs 1 oz, 19 inches long

After having his oxygen sats monitored for 6 hours and passing with flying colors, Luke was able to be with us the entire time in the hospital.  Aside from some jaundice issues, there were no additional concerns from his prematurity.  We both went home on day 4!

Family of 4 now!

Headed home.  

Playing in the Dirt

As I've mentioned, Madison loves to be outside!  Ryan and I have been trying to get all our Spring planting done. This year, that included all our flowering pots and our first attempts at an herb and vegetable garden.  If everything grows, we will be very excited!  Madison has been enjoying all our trips to the Farmer's Market and Lowe's.  But, she especially loves helping out in the yard!

Here is Daddy supervising!  Our yard is pretty small, so we thought we'd start with a very small vegetable garden and see how it goes.  

Helping mix the soil with Daddy

Proud of her hard work and helping

Snack break - planting is hard work!

Catching up on Madison

I have taken quite the break from blogging, but would like to attempt to catch up. Madison turned 2 a few weeks ago and is just a delight. She has quite the strong personality, is barrels of fun, incredibly snugly and very opinionated!

Favorites: She loves to be outside.  She would be outside all day long.  Madison loves to hunt for Easter eggs (we throw them, she collects them. repeat. again.), she enjoys watering the flowers and most of all, bubbles.  She will gather her buckets and walk away, yelling, "Bye, see you soon!"  Luckily for us, our backyard is gated, so she can't make it far.

Park playdates are one of her favorites.  She likes to climb and swing.  She talks all about the slide, but generally will go down once or twice and then is done.

Her favorite show is Mickey Mouse.  Perhaps terrible that we let her watch tv, but sometimes, I need to cook dinner!  She loves Minnie and will sing and dance along.  She asks to watch "Rubies" (Max&Ruby), but is often bored quickly.  Elmo continues to be a favorite, but she won't sit to watch Sesame Street.  Inside, she is often coloring and playing with stickers. I wish I could insert a recording of her little voice when she asks for stickers (it sounds Russian).

Madison also loves letters. It is amazing watching her learn.  I cannot take any credit for her knowing and identifying all her letters before age 2, I guess they just learn what they are interested in? Hopefully she'll be a reader.

Dislikes:  Waiting.  Patience is something that Madison does not have! Please tell me this is a general 2 year old trait?  We are finding that we cannot even tell her when we are going to leave, because she becomes so frustrated with the "getting everything ready" part, she often has a meltdown while waiting.  Honestly, this tends to be the root of almost all tantrums.

Eating:  Madison weighed in at 25.1 lbs at her 2 year checkup, putting her right at 50% for weight.  She is off of whole milk now.  We have really tried to introduce her to most foods and at dinner, she has what we are having, or at least attempts to.  Veggies are not always enjoyed, but she will generally eat peas!  Madison loves blueberries and bananas.  She also has her Daddy's sweet tooth, so we will need to teach her portion control and moderation :)

Sleeping:  Madison has turned out to be a great sleeper.  She goes down every night around 7 and sleeps until between 7 and 8.  We keep generally the same routine of bath, books, and laying her down awake.  Sometimes she is asleep in 5 minutes, sometimes 30, but we cannot complain and almost never are there any tears.  At home, she naps from 12:30-2ish.  Daycare is a little rough, she generally sleeps only about 45 minutes, but it doesn't seem to have too negative of an impact on her! We think she's afraid she will miss out on any fun!  And, she gets extra snuggles from her teachers if she's the only one awake - so she may have it all figured out!  At home, there is no rush to get Madison when she wakes up.  She likes taking her time and we find if we go in too quick, she is often grumpy.

Routine: Madison goes to daycare all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She loves school and is running out the door to get there.  She spends Wednesdays with her "Aunt Shell" and they get to have so much fun.  Often they go to story time at the library and for walks to the park.  I get to spend all day Mondays and Fridays with her and usually try to attend playgroup.  Right now, we are doing a 4 week class at MyGym.  We did a Town of Cary ballet class, but at just under 2 years, were just not ready for such strict classroom guidelines - haha!  However, the leotard was adorable!

Coming Soon!

In case you missed our big news...Madison will be a big sister early this summer!

Luke Ryan Castile is due to arrive on June 8th.  We are over the moon excited and maybe just a little nervous about it!  Since most people ask, Madison definitely does not understand what is happening.  She thinks everyone, including men and daddies, have babies in their tummies.  She does like to pat my stomach and tell me "shhh" the baby is sleeping, but that is pretty much the extent of it.  Now that we are starting to work on his nursery (no judgement, we've still got 8 weeks...) we have been talking about "Luke's room" and his bed, etc. I fully anticipate that the first few weeks will be tricky.  And, I do worry about how she will feel.  I firmly believe that a sibling is one of the best gifts and I am so hopeful that she will love him and they will grow to be best friends!  Luckily for us, my mom has agreed to stay for several extra days to help with the transition.  Madison is the luckiest little girl and has such a special bond with her grandparents, so this will truly be helpful!

He is for sure, a second child.  While we are excited about him joining our family, we haven't been quite so diligent about our preparations.  Ryan just finished painting a dresser for his room and we just decided on bedding.  I'm hopeful that in the next few weeks I can start to do a little decorating and washing of clothes, etc.  My sweet sweet friends were pretty convincing and we settled on a "drop-in" baby shower for him. I am excited for all things little boy and how different this will be for us as a family!

Thanks for checking in on us!