It all started when we were on our trip to Texas. Our kids seemed to do well gradually adjusting to jetlag. Then we made our way to Seth’s parents lake house and “it” happened. Seth and I put Owen down for a nap and headed out for a walk with Jackson. Seth’s mom was sticking around so she could hear Owen when he woke up. Halfway around the lake I heard Owen’s voice carry across the water. But looking across the lake I could see my mother-in-law out front. That could only mean one thing….Owen got out of his crib. by. him. self.  He was a free boy with this new skill and has made our lives extra interesting ever since. He did it one day after his 2nd birthday which was EXACTLY when Jackson did it. Only difference is that Jackson wasn’t so graceful and scared the living daylights out of himself so it took him months to try it again. Owen on the other hand had finesse and made it look easy.

By the time we got back to Bern there was no keeping him contained.  A stern scolding, taking his pacifier, you name it we tried it, and it didn’t matter, he still climbed out.  So, a few days after we arrived back after Christmas in early January we removed the front rail on his bed so that he now has a toddler bed.   Take away the novelty and the habit will diminish right?!

helping daddy unscrew the bed.

Well, the novelty did not wear off. After the first week home we were so over the jetlag excuse. Owen was waking up all throughout the night…sometimes 10-15 times a night walking out of his room. He wasn’t fussing or fighting or screaming he was just wide awake and out of his bed. We started out with getting after him, telling him to stay in his bed, one of us lying on his floor, etc. We would lock the door and stand outside of it hoping he would go back to sleep and give up on opening the door and coming out. We have the typical stack of sleep books so we went through the gammat of suggestions. One of which was terrifying to try but actually worked to break his cycle. We would go in just before his typical say 2 AM wake up and we would re-situate him, give him his blankie, etc. Basically we did just enough to not wake him fully but to have him restart his sleep cycle.  We had to and continue to have to unscrew his light bulb at night to remove that element of excitement for him. We have transitioned into not talking at all and just walking him back to his bed. Those have gradually been the things that we have seen changes come from.

When all else failed our friend lent us this Swiss baby sheet that is a bit like a straight suit sheet. You zip the baby in to a fitted sheet. By the following picture you can tell how Owen felt about it. He was jumping with so much resistance that he was pulling the sheet off of the bed. Needless to say we didn’t get beyond this  initial attempt with the sheet. (sidenote: see the blue fabric wrapped on the rail of his crib….that was from his gnawing on the wood while teething phase)

So between early January and nearly March we have made slow, slow progress. The nights have gradually gotten better but the mornings have remained very early. Owen typically wakes up for the day at 5:30 AM if not earlier. That is when he begins to come out of his room, over and over again. Seth and I tag team and put him back in his room. He now has “the bunny clock” from Jackson’s room that shows him a picture of bunny sleeping or playing.

When asked the sleep rules at bedtime Owen will tell you “stay bed”, “no door”, “wait for bunny” and “no light”. The boy knows the rules….and ever so slowly we are moving towards obeying the rules. Slowly we are getting more rest.

The thought of another round of jetlag and the boys sharing a room starting in July is enough to make me cry after what we have been through. But we will just push through and do what we gotta do. Maybe being together will actually help?! Humor me. No need to reassure me that for years and years kids have shared rooms. I am aware. But I am also aware of our sleeplessness and my own kooky kids and they might not be stellar adapters with sleep. The transition to a shared room will only provide us a “Sleep Sage Part 2” in the future.

If you think of us, say a prayer for some great sleep. And pray for me this week as Seth heads back to the US. the thought of the early morning marches back to the toddler bed solo is a bit daunting knowing I will have the rest of the day sans assistance.

Good Morning!

Well, night before last was a better night…Owen was only up at 3:45 and 5:30. And then slept until 6:15. Baby steps. We celebrated by me hopping out of bed and making banana nut pancakes for the crew…not a Monday normal around here.  Last night if I am remembering right he only started getting up at 5 AM so it was an even better night. Tonight should be golden! Pretty sure this jetlag bout could be enough to stop this FS life with a screeching halt. Now I know why husbands go to Baghdad unaccompanied around their 3rd or 4th tour-so the wife and kids can stay put for a bit and avoid dramatic time zone changes!  Buckle up Seth, we might be sending you to the green zone.

We had a very low key weekend. Seth survived the commissary run and we even unpacked and organized all of the groceries when he arrived back. He shopped for 3 hour and 3 carts. He got everything on the list with a few brand downgrades Way to save, babe. It normally takes me a couple of hours the next day to put everything away but we pushed through, did it Sat evening and it was such a relief.

A friend bought me the book “Beyond Chocolate”. I heard about it when we arrived and have meant to read it since but I was too distracted by Swiss culture to remember to track it down So I am hoping to get into it this week and gain some insight for our last months here. Thanks, Daniela.

And this is the boys favorite read of the week… “The Amazing Adventures of Bumblebee Boy!”  by David Soman and Jacky Davis. If you have never read it and you have kids you have to get it. And when you read it you now can sum up what our days look like around here. I am living in a Bumblebee boy house…and when we read the book the character Sam is named Jack because it only seems appropriate.

We are drinking lots of hot chocolate and hoping for some snow around here. We had some beautiful heavy snowflakes on Friday afternoon but they turned into rain within the hour. I had hopes of a cozy snow day. Now I am not asking for a big enough snow to be pretty for a day and turn into a month of sludge….I want a pretty snow that comes on a Friday afternoon and things clearing by Sunday evening 😉

House hunting is fun and not so fun. The market is picking up. Houses on our list are starting to go under contract within days of going on the market. Hmmmm. This could get interesting. I think I am looking forward more to the paint chip picking. Although knowing me I could make that stressful too. But in the end at least my stress might result in pretty color?! right?!

My 30th birthday is creeeeping up and it is making me a wee bit sentimental. Honestly, I think we have been through some big things that I wouldn’t have expected until later in life so lots of days I feel older than I am. I could probably afford to use a few years of my 30’s for pure fun. More on turning 30 coming soon.

When we were in Texas Owen hopped into the Barber’s chair (or rather a little ride in car) for his first hair cut. I know, I know he’s 2 so this should have happened long ago. But for me it still felt too soon. For those of you that don’t know Owen he has the softest, sweetest curls and I am a sucker for them. Jackson didn’t have hair until he was 2 1/2, well he had it but it was super short and practically white so it didn’t get much credit and it didn’t need to be cut until after he was 3. Owen was born with hair and had some very awkward hair for quite some time and once it came it so curly I just couldn’t fathom cutting it.

In the back of my mind I thought by the time I would have to cut Owen’s hair I would have another baby on the way which would mean I wouldn’t have to hold on to those sweet baby curls. Well, the day came, no baby on the way, cheaper hair cut than Switzerland and we went for it.  His favorite word these days for disagreement is ouch! So he fussed at the lady and said “ouch” the whole time. All in all it was painless.  I am not sure we got our moneys worth because I begged her to just trim it and leave some of the curl.

see what I mean?!  love these curls!

So for now I am thankful we still have some of these “firsts” left and I am embracing this big boy phase. They grow up WAY too fast. When it’s the right time (if ever) to have another little one we will embrace the firsts again. Until then I am watching these curls grow and I am going to try to postpone the next hair cut as long as Seth will let me.

When I was 15 I went on a church trip to Guatemala (with many of you that read this blog!). It was an amazing experience. We all worked on different teams doing camp for the kids, construction, etc. For the most part I spent my week helping in the clinic. It was so humbling to see what these people were dealing with. Mothers brought babies in that were clearly “failure to thrive” but these moms were doing their best to provide for their children. Moms were breastfeeding babies when they had hardly a bite to eat themselves. Kids were sick with diarrhea almost permanently from drinking amoeba-filled water and parents were unable to mask their deep needs with fancy clothes or even a smile to convince us that everything was okay. At the time I wasn’t a mom yet but I could see that their maternal instincts weren’t enough to make their socio-economic situation any better or their children any healthier.  They wore despair in their countenance.  The clinic had a newly acquired ultrasound machine. Now in the US we would have fussed that it wasn’t 3D and that it didn’t even offer a visual but for these mothers the concept of hearing their babies’ heartbeat nearly knocked them off the examining table. We saw them smile and regain hope that they were a part of growing new life!

One of the mornings we heard that there was a pregnant woman coming down from the mountains nearby and that she was ready to deliver her baby.  I was so excited and certainly naive at the thought of experiencing the miracle of birth. I remember riding in the bed of a dirty beat up pickup truck down the road to the clinic.  The road was so uneven that we banged against the metal sides as we rode. While we made our way in the truck a young mother made her way down the mountain. I imagine the rocky path while in labor was far worse than our jostling ride on the mud road.

I stood back as the nurse and my friend prepped the mom for her baby’s birth. I remember the look of terror on the mother’s face like it was yesterday. It wasn’t just the anticipation of sleepless nights and the loss of being alone as a couple with her husband, it was a matter of life and death for her. I am certain she had many friends and family members who experienced births that were a far cry from a sterile hospital. While I prepped my camera and anxiously fidgeted this mom worried that something terrible might happen in childbirth. I imagine she was completely overwhelmed at the thought of taking care of another family member when resources were scrapings from the dirt floor. The birth went smoothly and soon the mother and father were cuddling their sweet boy, beaming with pride and relieved with his health. And for a couple of days they remained there in the clean clinic with cheerful turquoise walls, but after those days they had to hike back up to their mountain hut and carry on with life as they knew it.  She didn’t dream of giving her cupcakes with sprinkles on his first birthday or a shiny new tricycle; I imagine she hoped to be able to feed her boy and help him grow into a strong young man. Isn’t that what we all hope?

Nearly 15 years later I find myself with 2 little boys of my own and living in Switzerland. I have experienced miscarriage, having a sick baby and many a medical procedure but all with the best medical care and resources at my fingertips.  Sometimes living in Switzerland I fail to see any need. It’s clear that providing meals and clean clothes here is not the primary struggle but I bet there are moms that struggle with Postpartum depression, have babies that don’t breastfeed like they had hoped and struggle with sick children that they can’t make well. Moms around the globe have the same heart to have healthy, happy children. I am reminded of the quote from Ravi Zacharias’s book “Recapture the Wonder”, “To think that he was once a baby, held in the arms of his mother while she dreamed great dreams for him”. What would it look like for moms around the globe to have their dreams become a reality instead of losing their little ones to preventable diseases?  Zacharias goes on to write, “A baby throbbing with life is embodied promise. The birth day gives birth to more than a life-it gives birth to new hopes”.

ABC news has launched a Million Moms Challenge in conjunction with the United Nations Foundation. World Moms Blog Bloggers are getting involved to spread the word.  They are looking to raise awareness for mother’s and children’s health around the world. It is super easy to sign their petition and for the first 100,000 that that sign up Johnson & Johnson will donate $1. This money will be used to provide for the needs of mothers and children to give them things like vaccines. (The vaccines I cringe about but save my children’s lives!)  I often feel like there isn’t much I can do…this seems like a simple way to help! Just click here to sign the petition and read more about the situations of mothers and children around the globe.