Since we currently only have 3 bedrooms, the challenges of sleep training an infant have been.. well… challenging! Bode has been sleeping in our room in the pack-n-play so that he won’t wake up Colty in the night. Unfortunately, that means he WILL be waking up mom and dad. If you see us in person, please ignore the shadows under our eyes!! Coffee is sometimes the only thing that keeps me from falling asleep where I stand. I dare not sit down!
Putting and keeping Bode on a schedule (which we did shortly after his birth) has not really inspired the child to start sleeping through the night either. In fact, he regularly wakes up 2-3 times in the night. He, like the rest of my children, clearly requires time to scream it out in order to break the wakey-wakey habit he has in the wee hours. This “scream time” has been brutal to say the least. The pillow I pull over my ears only provides minimal sound blockage. Bode is very similar to Kinley in this way… neither of them would give it up.
Sooooo… that leads us to the sleep experiment. We had to figure something out that would allow Bode his scream-time-habit-breaker and not totally sap our sleep time (i.e. we HAD to get Bode out of our room). We decided to temporarily move Colty in the girls’ room so that Bode could have the crib in the boys’ room and work out his issues without waking everyone else up. Colty has been sleeping in his toddler bed for the past couple months and so we figured he would be fine with this change. We were right! The last two nights he has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the girls’ room like a champ. We put him to bed first so he is sleeping before the girls get in there. It’s been great for keeping the girls quiet at night too! Bode had his fuss times last night, but I didn’t get up with him to feed him until 3:00 a.m. Hopefully we’re working toward a full night’s sleep in the near future!! Depending on how long this takes, Colty just might not want to move back into his room… hehe.
There are some things that you never thought you would own…well this is one for us. To be honest its HUGE…I mean I thought the double jogging stroller was big. This is an RV for little people. Does it serve it’s purpose?…yes. Does it give you a work out?…yes.
Wow, life sure does get crazy. I can’t believe how neglected our blog has been! Sorry to all you faithful followers~! You probably aren’t that faithful to follow anymore!! ha! I really hope to start posting more regularly. Life with four little people certainly does make the day fly by and before you know it, you are exhausted and near unconscious (well, at least til baby man starts making his screaming demands).
Bode is growing so fast. I can’t believe he is four months old already! He is a very sweet, smiley, cuddly, social baby.. but his alter-ego is a demanding yeller and he has no problem revealing this side of himself on a daily (maybe hourly?) basis 
He reminds me so much of Kinley in a lot of ways — both looks and personality! Despite being on an eating schedule, he refuses to sleep through the night, so it makes for some tired parents! Hopefully he’ll figure it out soon. As much as I love snuggling with him, I’d rather just do it during the day! ha!
In my last post I mentioned my weight loss goals.. and I’m proud to report that I’ve lost the first 10 lbs of my 25. Just 15 to go! It’s definitely taking longer this time, but I’m determined nonetheless. Billy and I found a triple jogging stroller on Overstock.com and so in the next day or so, I will have a way to walk or run in the mornings while Kinley is at school! I’m really looking forward to getting out and getting some exercise and fresh air every day. I do enjoy my Wii (and some P90x) workouts… but nothing beats being outside!
As an fyi… it took me all day (filled with steady interruptions) to complete this post! Sheesh!
I am embarking on the weight loss journey yet again! The arrival of our fourth baby has once again left me with pregnancy pounds. Blah. This is the fourth time in 5 years that I’ve had to get myself back in shape! Each time I have lost 25 lbs. and I am once again on track to lose the 25. With the first three I was able to get rid of those pounds at/around the 6 month mark and I’m hoping that will be the case again! This pregnancy was totally different and the c-section I needed (breach baby) lengthened my recovery time significantly. However, after the “ok” from my doc and at about 7-8 weeks I felt good enough to start some fitness and was ready to get this weight-loss show on the road! However, it’s not an easy road. It takes lots of exercise and good eating, but it’s worth it. Of course, it gets harder to make time for exercise with the addition of each little person! For now I’m working out with my Wii Active in the afternoon when I get all of them napping at once – doing 20 or 30 min strength/cardio workouts, and combining that with power walking a few times each week. As soon as I get my new running shoes I’ll be starting with some shorter runs as well. I tried a couple of runs, but realized quickly that the shoes I have (that I ran the marathon in last year) have reached the end of their life — and my knees felt it! I also will be doing some of the P90X workouts that Billy does… I’ll focus mostly on the abs, core and maybe yoga.
I’ve lost a few pounds so far and am hoping that I can update you each month with some success! Baby butt/belly be gone!
There has been a whole lot going on around the Almaguer house. Kinley is in Pre K five days a week from 8am until 11:30pm. Myleigh has been spending lots of time dressing up like a princess and learning. Colty has been developing his potty skills, or maybe we as the parents have been developing his potty skills. Bode is smiling lots and is becoming more aware of his environment. We have been running around chasing our kids and loving them every chance we get!
Those of you who follow our blog may have noticed that it hasn’t been quite the “same” the past couple of months. Unfortunately, our hosting provider at the time made a HUGE mistake and overwrote our whole website with OLD data (from July 2008). They didn’t have a current back-up of the site and essentially lost everything since that point. All of the posts from the last year are gone. We have since moved to a different hosting provider and are now in the process of rebuilding the site. With the addition of baby #4 I have less time on my hands to work on it! Hopefully it won’t take too long to get it into complete working order.
We’re looking forward to keeping up with all of you again! Stay tuned…
It’s been an emotionally charged past few weeks… to say the least!
It all started with the excitement of having my mom fly into town to stay with us (again) at the end of June, then sad to say goodbye to Billy while he was at camp for a week. When mom discovered the fact that Colty’s soft spot was VERY tiny (while giving him his first haircut), my first reaction was feeling fear. The subsequent exam and Dr. ordered X-rays fed that fear even more. The pediatrician was concerned that Colty *might* be experiencing an early case of craniosynostosis. Researching this problem made my stomach turn flips. The remedy for this condition is a very invasive surgery that entails removing part of the skull, re-shaping it, and then putting it back in place with screws. When they called us back to tell us that the X-rays seemed to show that the sutures in his skull were NOT fused, I was elated. However, they said they still wanted to see him in the ped. office again to follow-up. At that time they told me that while the sutures weren’t fused, they were extremely close together. That, coupled with the very small soft spot, gave them cause to order a CT scan of his head. They still hadn’t ruled out craniosynostosis. Ugh. The fear started to well up in me again. As believers, we know the way to combat fear is to focus on our God and His provision. We know that “perfect love casts out fear”. So as I prayed about it, I sensed God’s peace. Billy had that same feeling. The enemy used this situation, however, and continued to borage me with subtle and destructive thoughts –trying to prevent me from resting completely in God’s hand. We did the only thing we could — prayed steadily and invited others to pray too!
Amidst all this, my mom had to leave and head back to MN. I was sad to see her go. We miss her so much after she leaves! However, a couple of days later, Billy and my sister surprised me by arranging to have her (with her baby Gracie) fly in to stay with us for a week! I was definitely and shocked and certainly thrilled that they came to see us!!
So, with my sister here we prepared for Colty’s CT scan. I was thankful that it went so well. He really did great. Then it was time to wait again. Waiting is like torture! Thankfully, my sister and Gracie made the time go by quickly. We had so much fun every day just enjoying each other’s company. We’ve posted LOTS of pictures on our website of our happy time together.
Then, on Wednesday morning as we prepared to take Em and Grace back to the airport, we got the call we’d been waiting for. Our ped. let us know that the CT scan showed Colty’s head to be completely normal! So once again we were elated and relieved, knowing that God answers prayer! Then it was off to the airport to see off Em and Grace. It was so sad to see them go – since we’ll miss them SOOO much.
Through all the ups and downs we just learn how to better trust our God with the biggest or smallest of things. We always become better people and know that we will be even better prepared for the next thing that life throws at us!
I am not certain if reading your Bible will help you grow facial hair but what it did for me today was put into perspective the importance of spending time with my family. In this episode of “Daddy Comes Home From Work”, I entertained my young princesses joining them in a face painting session. Although it was tempting to go with other popular looks like “butterfly man” or “Darth Maul”, I decided to go with a little 5 o’clock shadow. Kelli says I look like one of the village people. I digress…
I had a blast today at work. The church is looking fantastic…the Lord is really blessing us! Moving back in will be bitter sweet to me. I love having us all under one roof at the same time…however I like the fact that we are coming back home.
For weeks we have been planning this.
I told Kelli that I had to pick up a missionary at the airport last night at mid night. The missionary family ended up being her sister and niece. We rolled in about 2:30 am (for reasons that will require another post…I dislike in the strongest sense the construction occurring on I-95). This video captures the next few moments. I called Kelli about 15 minutes before we arrived and told her that the missionary family did not have a hotel so they would be staying with us… enjoy!
Ahh…it’s been forever since I have written. I have been swamped with student ministry (www.612students.com) and with life.
Kelli and I have been running a zone defense for over three months now and a legs are a bit tired .
The kids are awesome though…I couldn’t think of a better gift from the Lord (well besides my wife but that’s to be inferred since she was needed to make the kids…anywhoo).
I have just wrapped up most of my summer events with the students. We had summer tour with Calvary Chapel Jupiter and just finished up camp with Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio. Now that we are back I am preparing for my fall activities and planning for move into our church facility.
A bit of random news is that I got personal (via skype) instructions from a certified Starbucks coffee master on not only which type of coffee would best suite me but also how to make it. I have given it a whirl and plan to do a short video on it soon so that the masses can be educated.
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A peek into the life and adventures of the Almaguer clan! -
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