Happenings

The Hicksters went to the beach over Labor Day weekend. It was Gray's first vacation. He woke up the morning we left with his first cold. It was just par for the course with the way things have been going lately! He had a pitiful runny nose and was sneezing like crazy. He screamed off and on the first two hours and finally gave up and slept the last two-ish (it takes quite a bit longer to travel these days). We only ended up taking him down to the beach twice but he seemed to like it. He was not bothered by his cold one bit and in fact, he was the happiest baby we've seen in quite a while. I don't know if he's turned a corner or if the cold took all of his fussin energy away. Or perhaps he knew he was at the beach and it did something magical to him. It sure does to me! It was a very quick weekend but it was so nice to be with family and Daddy and I got to relax on the beach quite a bit. It was the first vacation I felt like I could fairly say I needed. If you love the beach, you may or may not want to know that Matthew (my oldest nephew) and Paul both got stung by a jellyfish. Those suckers must have been everywhere because the lifeguard that was just on our little stretch of the beach said there were 25 people who got stung that he knew of on Saturday, and 10 already on Sunday morning when Paul got stung. Needless to say, we didn't go back in the water the rest of the time.

Gray's cold still seems to be lingering around. He was so good yesterday and hardly fussed at all. I had so much fun playing with him and enjoyed every little smile and coo. And then bedtime happened. He was ready for bed at 8:00 and went down like a champ. 45 minutes later he was up and cried until midnight. The night before last he slept 12 hours with getting up only one time to eat. As hard as I know it will be, I am ready to start the "sleep learning" process and get him on a consistent bedtime and sleep schedule. According to my pediatrician and the sleep books I've read, you aren't supposed to start sleep learning until babies are four months. Surely we can make it another month!  We did finally let him cry it out last night because he had been fed, changed and we'd rocked and walked and bounced and sang songs until neither Daddy or I could see straight anymore, all with very temporary success. We weren't going to let him cry for more than 15-20 minutes (which might sound like a lot for a non-colicky baby but for him that's nothing) and after about 12 minutes he had worn himself out. I think we'll try that a little earlier tonight if need be.

I went back to Bible study this morning at my church. Of course Gray screamed the whole ride there but he was pretty easily calmed down as soon as I got him out of his car seat. It was hard for me to relax because I wondered what he was doing and if they would be coming for me again like they did last week. I made it through the whole two hours and couldn't wait to pick him up. He was being held when I got to his room but he was still crying, which was so heart breaking for me. I asked if he'd been fussin the whole time and her response was, "Not the whole time. He didn't fuss while he was sleeping, which was about 15 minutes." Then she told me that he refused his bottle which I thought was very odd because as I've said before, eating is not usually an issue with our chunky boy. When I got him home he refused to take his bottle for me too. He was beyond tired so I wasn't worried that anything was wrong. I was able to get him to nurse with no problem though. I guess he wanted to be soothed and maybe he just missed his mama ;) So there went five ounces of liquid gold right down the drain. On a happier note, he has been back to an awesome napping routine and has been taking a 3-4 hour nap every afternoon.

My brother took some great pictures of Gray at the beach so as soon as I get them I'll  be back to share!