Dane slept through the night! We were very relieved to wake up in the morning to the sounds of an alarm, instead of cry. It's amazing what a good nights rest does.

It was hard this morning for Dane to be taken to Ann's house. I wanted to bring him to work with me. It's weird that it's hard some days and not others. I don't like him going to day care. It seems so irresponsible to take your child somewhere to be watched. It's only a couple of days a week, but even that seems like too much.

Last night, again, was a tough night for all of us. Dane could not get comfortable and we couldn't sleep unless he was. I must say that I'm not a very "supportive" husband at 3am. It's hard for me to function and extremely hard for me to be civil. I try, but I turn out to be just plain mean to Renee. I'm very sorry afterwards, but at the time it almost seems justified in my sleep deprived mind. Crazy, huh?

Today, the family went to church, the mall and back home for a nap. Renee, who needed it more, slept for 3 hours. Dane was downstairs with me during that time. He took 3 hours to nap too. I just vegged in front of the TV until the Superbowl started. After he woke up, we played for a while. It's amazing how much he pushes himself up when he's on his stomach. He looks like he's ready to crawl. He moves around like he's on the move, but he doesn't go anywhere. I encourage him and he just smiles big and keeps moving like he's going somewhere. I can remember when he could fit in my hands. I can't imagine him as a teenager or even a toddler, but I know that time moves so much faster with children and he'll be as tall as me before I know it.

Dane now has a full belly and is sleeping in his bed. As I watch the ending minutes of the Superbowl, I am hopeful that Dane will sleep through the night. Tomorrow is a work day and it will be tough if we're up all night.

The Superbowl really doesn't matter. I was hoping for an Eagle's win, although I really don't like them, I am tired of the Patriot's winning. It brings back memories of the fixed game against the Rams. Laugh all you want. It just seems too coincidental that the Patriots win the first Superbowl after September 11th. Let's go Red, White and Blue! Don't get me wrong, I love the USA. I just think it was way to get the public rallied. Well, I hope I don't get a lot of hate e-mail for my opinion.

The Patriot's just won the Superbowl... again.

Sounds like a good reason to go to bed.

Goodnight.

Well, this isn't truly the beginning, but it's the start of tracking our experiences. Dane is 5 months old and we couldn't have asked for a better child. In the words of Renee, he has been "low maintainence" since the day (or should I say week?) he came into the world. We would like to think we are just good parents, but I think we got lucky with a great child. Maybe it's a combination of both... that actually sounds better.

Right now, the little man is taking a nap. He was up last night for what seemed like hours. It's interesting how quickly you forget your past sleep deprivation. We used to get up with him every 3 hours to feed and change him.

Well, hold on a minute. That isn't entirely accurate. For those of you that aren't parents, feeding a baby every 3 hours isn't really what it sounds like. When he wakes up, you warm the bottle (10 minutes, which seems like a lot longer when he is squalling to be fed), change him in the meantime, feed him (30-40 minutes) and get him back to sleep (10-20 minutes). Then 3 hours of peaceful sleep? Nope, 3 hours from when you started. So you might get 2 hours of peaceful sleep, but only if you can get back to sleep. I will say it was easier for Renee to breast feed, she could zombie out while he ate. But she would be on-the-clock for so much of the time, I tried to do what I could and let her sleep.

Back to my original thought. Since he's sleeping in his own bed for the entire night, we have become acustom to our sleep. Last night was hard on all of us, but we still got more sleep than we did before he was in his own bed. We are all so tired!

The source of all this fussiness? We think Dane has aquired a food allergy. From what you ask? Who knows. He has been eating some solid foods (bananas, peaches, rice cereal) and breast milk. That's it. And he's been eating these same things for a couple of weeks. So no bananas or peaches for you young man!

He has a bit of a rash on his head. A little on his body. Eating great. Breathing is fine. He isn't squalling (unless we don't hold him). So we aren't worried about him. And now he is even taking a nap, which is something he wouldn't do yesterday. So, life as usual for now.

Well, he's awake.