Less Sleep

Well, we have had a few good days/night with sleep and a few bad ones. Yesterday was a wonderful day. Brody slept so well all day long; it figures, since I had ample help (mom, grandpa and even Trisha were here almost all day long!). Last night was a different story. I'm not sure what was going on, but Brody was up most of the night. Not much crying (thank goodness!) but lots of grunting. So we decided to give him a bath this morning and lots of quiet time (i.e., Darren took Caden to the store and out to breakfast). This was, unfortunately, to no avail. He was tired, and would fall asleep while nursing, but he would not stay asleep and it didn't matter what I did. I tried putting him down in his crib, on our bed (both with and without me laying next to him), and in his swing. I tried letting him sleep in my arms while rocking him, walking around with him (both in and out of the moby wrap), and in the stroller. We did find out that he really enjoys music. During Caden's lunch I put him in the swing and played a CD with soft lullabies. He didn't really fall asleep, but it gave me a good hour to put Caden down for a nap without fussing. Caden, by the way, was my saving grace today; he napped for over two hours! Brody did finally fall asleep, but for only about an hour (he normally sleeps at least 8 hours in the day and another 8 at night - not all at once of course). So we are all tired! When Darren came home he took over Brody duties (after I fed him)... they both fell asleep about 2 hours ago! How much do I love that man!?!

On a different note, the top 100 baby names are out for 2006. For a little history, in 2004 Darren and I took a long time picking out Caden's name. We wanted something a little different since we have such a common last name. We went back and forth with a myriad of names, finally deciding on Caden (we also liked Aiden, but it had been within the top 3 names the last few years). Never meeting or hearing of a Caden, we were pretty confident that we choose a pretty unique name. So to our surprise when the top 100 baby names came out that year, Caden's name was not only in the top 20 but was called out in the narrative as being an up and coming name! Fast forward to this year. Darren had come up with Brody's name well before he was even conceived although we didn't settle on it until a few months into the pregnancy. We were sure this time that it wouldn't even make the top 100 (and we checked the to 100 for the last few years to make sure). Here's what I just read on BabyCenter:

"In 2006, Emma and Aiden were still holding court, although in 2005 parents preferred Aiden spelled with -an. Meanwhile, seven newcomers entered the Top 100. For girls, Aubrey, Juliana, Maggie, and the intriguing Nevaeh — heaven spelled backward — made the list; for boys, Brody, Miles, and Peyton rose into view."

OK, so it's only number 89, which isn't bad at all, but it's just funny! By the way, as you know from our blogs, one of the other names, Payton, is JD's son's name!

Here are some fun pictures from the last few days:

Caden loves his trucks!

He also loves wearing Daddy's shoes around the house.

Brody sleeping in the Moby wrap the other day. Brody's baby acne is at its peak now and should start getting better within the next few weeks.

Brody not sleeping in the stroller today (although looking quite cute)