Happy New Year!

Wow, I can't believe I am starting out the year as a mom! How crazy is that?

Update on the swaddling: we used the HaloSack again last night. He was REALLY pissed going to bed last night...I let him stay up a little later than usual, but still gave him a bath and used that Johnson's Bedtime wash and lotion and then wrapped him up, fed him again, and tried to put him down. He wasn't having it. I don't know what kids Johnson's did their studies on, but the Bedtime stuff doesn't seem to have any impact on Brendan. He was WOUND UP. The worst thing about that (other than the staying awake thing) is that he kind of hyperventilates while he's eating, swallows a bunch of air, and then spits everything back up all over the place. Yippee. Anyway, I put him down just before midnight, and he stayed down for about 40 minutes and then woke up hollering. I went and fed him again, and this time he popped off to sleep and stayed that way. I put him back down at 12:50, and he stayed that way until almost 6:30. Almost scared me to death. I unswaddled him, changed him, fed him, swaddled him back up again, and put him back to bed. He slept until nearly 10 am. I don't know if he was just really tired or if the HaloSack has had a positive effect on him. I do know he's terribly congested, with a bit of a runny nose, and that may be contributing to his waking up angry--when he snorts, he gets mad, and he seems to snort a lot more in the mornings than the rest of the day. The more he snorts, the more he cries. The more he cries, the more he snorts. You get the idea. I've been putting Baby Vicks on his chest and feet and running the humidifier in his room, but he's still congested. I sure hope it goes away soong.

So anyway, he slept great last night, after the initial false start. That stretch from 12:50 to 6:20 is officially the longest he's slept since he was born. I really hope this is the start of what will (sooner rather than later) become sleeping through the night. I know, we've still got about 2 1/2 hours to go before I'll consider it a success (I really need 8 hours of sleep to function appropriately the next day), but we're getting there. Hallelujia. I have ordered a HaloSack in a cotton fabric rather than the fleece (and the next size up), so hopefully it will help him sleep even better. It should arrive early this week, so I'll let you know.

One of my New Year's resolutions is (as it is pretty much every year) to lose weight. I've got just over 10 lbs to go to reach my pre-pregnancy weight. And then about another 60 lbs to go to reach the weight that someone my height and build should actually be, a weight I haven't seen since I got married, I believe. I didn't do much about it today, since we're just sitting around watching football, although I have eaten way less junk today than I have pretty much since before I have birth. We've managed to all the cookies and most of the candy in the house, so I've eaten a lot less of those things than I have been. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can get going on an exercise program. It's a little easier to do when I'm the only one home, so the next couple of days since my husband will be home too I'll have to make an extra effort.

Here's to 2011 being a great year!