The Holidays Are Over.

We had an absolute blast with Everly for her first Christmas. I honestly can not remember a Christmas that has been more fun or meaningful for me. Every single thing was new and magical again. Seeing the reflection of the lights in her eyes and watching her tear open gifts and laugh as she played with the B*ll*s*it button (oops, lol), was awesome, I am grinning from ear to ear now just thinking about it. Everly was very lucky and received so many generous gifts. I think that we probably have double the amount of toys in our house right now, which is okay because half of them are ready to be packed away anyway because she is too old for them- so these Christmas toys could not have come at a better time Our family is very blessed and for that we are so thankful. 

Our tree!

 

The holidays were also eventful. Everly started to say mama with meaning, clap her hands, wave bye-bye, sign for more and she began to get on the move by crawling and pulling to stand. When she was born, my dad said that Everly would be crawling by Christmas and he was right. She doesn’t have the most graceful crawl and sometimes she still face plants but boy does she move! The pulling to stand skill is more recent. Once she realized that she could go from her hands and knees to sitting and from sitting to hands and knees, she spent an entire day perfecting the art. In this perfecting, she found that while on her bum, she could get on one knee somehow and if there was something close to grab, she could pull herself up- now she tries to pull herself up on everything that she can reach. My dad also said the she would be walking by my birthday (March) and as much as I don’t want to stunt Everly’s development I kind of hope he is wrong because I want her to be a little baby for just a little bit longer! 

Baby on the move!

 

During the holidays we all took a break from life as usual. We let our routine go and just rolled with the punches… and now we are getting punched for it! Now that isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have done what we did, I totally would have and would do it again, it was worth it; I wasn’t about to let schedules and routines get in the way of the holidays and having fun! Everly had a great time too! She got to stay up past her bedtime for many nights in a row and she was nursed to sleep because by the time she was going to sleep she was so overtired and cranky it was the only thing that would work! Oh the holidays were fun. 

Now that the holidays are over, we tried to resume life as normal and as you could have probably guessed it didn’t really work. Last night was our first attempt at bedtime as we used to know it, well she would have no part in it, she wrestled with us the whole time. I ended up rocking her to sleep in the rocking chair, which only took a swift 45 minutes. B voted that we put her in the crib and let her cry it out again, that lasted 5 minutes and I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore. If we can avoid all that crying again I really would like to. I can’t honestly say that it worked all that great because once there was a change in routine we had to start all over again, so it feels like she really didn’t learn anything at all and just got used to it. This realization made me feel kind of crappy, kind of like wow, she just gave up on us coming to get her so she went to sleep. I don’t know that I want her to feel that way, but I also want her to know how to self soothe and put herself back to sleep. Is there a way to do both? I have no clue but I have decided to try to learn. 

When I started the sleep training research I read quick outlines of the different theories out there. Most of them said that they involve some crying, but the way in which you let the baby cry differs. So, after much deliberation we went with the Sleepsense Program and well if you have been reading this blog you know how that worked out! After nearly 60 days in the Sleepsense Program we realized that it wasn’t working, if it had worked we would have used it again now! Honestly I just can’t see putting Everly and I through that again. As a result, we have decided to revisit some of the other theories and possibly give them a chance too. Or maybe, combine many different sources and come up with something original that works perfectly for us. I know that you are supposed to choose one method and stick with it, so we don’t intend to flip flop, we stuck with Sleepsense for 60 days afterall! So after the reading, it will be time to make choices. The choices I refer to will be based in reality, none of this nonsense about her sleeping 12 hours uninterrupted every night without fail. If she does end up doing that, well that’d be great, but really, I don’t mind getting up once a night to feed her. I realize that in the grand scheme of things she isn’t really that challenging though the night, more than anything I just want to be able to lay her down in her bed, say goodnight and have her asleep contentedly. I want to watch her peacefully drift off to sleep, feeling secure and happy.  In the end, I don’t want this to be about anything other than Everly and her parents getting a good night’s sleep and going to bed happy! So here begins that journey.

Motherhood In All It’s Shapes And Forms…

New post on the Kids in Victoria Blog… Click Here!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

This has been a busy and eventful week for us- hence the limited blog postings!

I had my first day back at work on Wednesday. Yes Everly is just 7 months old, and yes I am still on maternity leave technically, but I have decided to go back one day each week until I have to be back for good. I say have to be back like it is a bad thing but it is not. Today I realized how much I really love my job and how much I missed wearing this hat in my life. When I was driving to the office this morning I was giddy, yes actually giddy, isn’t that weird. I guess for some people that is probably the weirdest thing that they could imagine- being giddy about going to work. But when you are off for a bit of time and really haven’t been engaging your brain in the same way for 8 months it is really exciting. Oh and I guess you have to actually like your job too.

Having Everly I think has enabled me to be so much better at my job too. I am not saying that you have to have kids to be good at what I do, but it sure puts everything into perspective. When I visited a foster home today with 4 children under the age of 4 I had an increased understanding of what their days look like and how tired that foster mom must get sometimes. I pictured bedtime routines and the possibility of night wakings from all 4 children at all different times. I thought of what it must be like to be handed a newborn baby, care for it and then 7 months later have the child be adopted. I don’t know if I could do that. Obviously with Everly being my daughter I know she is mine to keep, but does knowing a baby is not yours to keep, stop you from loving them any less.

This week Everly also started waving bye-bye again, clapping her hands and she even signed for more a few times. She was waving bye- bye a little while ago and then she stopped it was the weirdest thing. She started back up again about 10 days ago and is still pretty inconsistent and she waves backwards (towards herself), but it is the cutest thing ever. When she signed for more I thought I would be hesitant to believe she really signed, but the way in which she did it left me no doubt- she looked up at the bowl of Cheerios with her mouth wide open and brought her fingers together. She has only done it a handful of times again, but it’s there in her brain, I saw it! She started clapping on Tuesday when we went swimming. I was clapping my hands together to make splashes and she started doing the same and there you have it- she would not stop, lol! The first time my dad saw it he was just beside himself as he has been trying to get her to patty-cake for a few weeks now. She looked at all of us smiling and clapping at her and cheering and she had the proudest expression on her little angel face (makes me get a bit misty eyed thinking about it, lol!)

Baby had her first Christmas party this weekend! Usually B and I throw an evening event for adults, but this year, with the new addition we had to tweak it a bit. We decided to go with a daytime kid/baby friendly event and it went really well. We had tons of kids (and their parents) here, we had great food and yummy hot chocolates with peppermint schnapps! I knew it was a hit with the kids because none of them wanted to leave- bless their little hearts but we are not yet ready to become the Duggar family, lol! I do not have one ounce of Michelle Duggar’s patience!!!

After our kids party we headed to an evening birthday/holiday party at a friend’s house with Everly in tow. I wasn’t sure how she would do as she was going to be out waaaay past her bedtime, but you know there is only one way to find out and we could have come home if things went South! I was so amazed by her. She had a little nap on the way over there and then was happy as a darned clam the entire time. What am I saying, I was amazed, who am I kidding- there were people there fawning over her, of course she was happy the entire time, lol! If I have learned anything about my kid it is that she is a giant ham! People say to her, oh you are so cute and she looks back at them with either her award winning toothless grin or the eye flutter where her eyelashes sweep the floor. I always said I wanted a kid who knew how to work a crowd, lol!

At the party Everly may have done something pretty eventful… she has been saying the sounds mama and dada for a while now but up until recently really did not have an understanding of what the sounds meant. In the past week we have been able to say to here, where’s dada or where’s mama and she will look for the appropriate person and then smile when she sees them, with this burst in receptive language I knew that the connection to her expressive language would be soon. At the party I happened upon her sitting with her daddy whilst charming one of the guests. I walked into the room out of her sight and when she looked up and saw me she said it, crystal clear, plain as day MAMA and smiled at me. B and I both had a blank expression on our faces as this was the first time she had uttered the sounds in the correct context. The guest said, wow, she says mama already? B and I said that may have been the very first time, that’s why we are both stunned like deer in headlights, lol. I was like the Grinch in that moment, my heart grew. It’s not like I even had an heart deficiency problem and that it needed to grow, but it did anyway and it broke the heart measuring thing too, I know it did because I heard that, bwong-ker-snap sound. End of paragraph point- I was proud. We will see if it continues and then I guess we will know for sure if she really meant it and I guess real or not, it sure meant the world to me.

Today is Sunday and we are off to see my mom. My mom has not seen Everly since July so this should be fun. Did I mention that she has no idea we are coming to see her either…

Quote of the day, “I feel like a prize asshole, no one even mentions my casserole,” heard on Flight of the Conchords (The Tough Brets), Hurt Feelings rap.

The 30 Minute Alarm!

After our return from Seattle we were going to start the sleep training at full speed again once the crib was lowered. Well the crib was lowered, by none other than myself who got tired of waiting for her busy hubby to get around to it! I just decided that my original gut reaction to feed her at the 30 minute mark and one night waking was not that bad at all for a 7 month old baby. I was seduced by sleep training programs, I will admit that. I looked at them and was like, wow, 12 hours of sleep in a row, how wicked is that. I fell hook, line and sinker because I wanted to believe. Well believe I don’t anymore and now I am doing what seems to be working right now. There may come a day where we have to put some of that training stuff back into effect, but I don’t feel like we are in dire need right now. She is sleeping in her own crib, so sleep training served the purpose that we wanted it to really if you want to get picky about it. 12 hour sleeps would have been the bonus.

What is funny to me is how the bonus slowly and sneakily became the focus. Seduction is a sneaky thing, oh yes it is. If I really look back at my original goals, I can see that we were successful in doing what we set out to do- Everly now sleeps in her crib at night and for naps. But no, I am greedy, I would not be happy with that, and in fact completely lost sight of that original goal and when we met it, I didn’t even acknowledge all those involved. So I would like to take this moment and congragulate my little family for our success in getting Everly into her crib for sleep times- CONGRATS to Everly, Brandon and Jessica. There, done, that wasn’t so hard.

I have given up on feeling like a failure because my child does not sleep for 12 hours uninterrupted at 7 months old. The sleep books would tell me otherwise but I am not listening to them anymore, they are not my friends; friends don’t let you feel like a failure! Before I decided to leave the hard core sleep training out of our family plan I did email the Sleepsense people. I let them know what problems we were having, hoping that I might get a quick tip or word of encouragement. I also told them that I was not impressed that everywhere on their website and in there book there are examples of families that went through the process of sleep training in 2 weeks, and that it was really only going to be hard for 2 weeks (well we were at 8 weeks at this point). I said that I don’t think this is supportive for families that might find it takes longer. Instead of help or tips or words of encouragement I was told that I should upgrade to a package that costs hungreds of dollars. Yeah, because that is something that most parents can afford right. Seems like preying on weak victims doesn’t it. I bet some people out there are so tired they would pay hundreds of dollars. I thanked the tech support person and let them know that I couldn’t afford that and she wrote me back asking if I would like a refund. I replied that yes, I would like a refund please and I am currently waiting upon it.

And Back To Reality!

While we were away I told B that I just wanted life to continue just as it had for those 3 days, he said, what? you want to move to Seattle? I said no, I would love it if it were the three of us doing whatever we wanted every day. A girl can dream can’t she? My girlfriend that I was travelling with said it best- there is nothing to do but spend time together; no chores, no house, no cooking just you and your family. Well we are home now and arrived home to all of the unpacking, a semi dirty house (as seems to be the usual these days) and a pile of Christmas stuff that needs sorting/wrapping. Hello reality, why do you have to be so mean? LOL. Really, I know I shouldn’t complain because we are lucky to have a home and things to unpack and Christmas gifts to give, I get that! What I don’t get is why the human condition has to involve the Billy Goats Gruff Syndrome?

Baby and Santa!

On the brighter side our trip was great. We had such a fun time with our friends and as a little family. We took Everly up the Space Needle, to the Aquarium, on many shopping trips and to the Pike Place Market. We did so much walking my ass was sore for the 2 days following. There are some sweet hills in Seattle, especially to push a stroller up. We figured that the walk would do us good though and it was sunny so why not. Baby was bundled up as snug as a bug and I think the fresh air was good for her! I think it was also good for her to have these experiences and her dad and I are really looking forward to exposing her to as many different places as we can! She took to travelling like a fish to water, she’s like her mama, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Next up NYC… if mama has her way, lol!

Baby and mama at some pier or other!

Us 3 on the deck of the Space Needle

Mama and baby at the Aquarium

And now the nitty gritty, her sleep. Well let’s just say that she was all over the road during our trip and that was okay with us. We knew there was no way that we could expect her to maintain everything the same when we were not at home. Also, we didn’t want to be tied to a routine, we wanted to get out and explore! She was great during the day, had good naps in her stroller- one day she napped for 2 hours in her stroller which she has not done since she was under 3 weeks old! She was likely pooped from the scary boat ride the night before!!! At night she didn’t sleep well, but that is probably because she was sleeping next to me. The hotel brought up a crib, but there was no way she would sleep in it of course and I didn’t want to force the issue because what did it really matter. I think I got about 10 – 15 hours of sleep total in the 3 nights we were there. She got more because she caught up during the day- no fair baby Needless to say I was pretty tired when we got home.

In baby jail!

Now that we are home we are trying to get back into the sleep groove. She has been going down really welll with no fussing at all, but she still wakes up 30 minutes later. I have decided to just pick her up and feed her and put her back to bed now. If I don’t pick her up and feed her she will protest for up to 2 hours. The way I see it is that it’s not a bother at all for me, who cares really and it helps her, so why not. I haven’t found that doing this affects her night waking at all either, in fact she has not woke up at 2:30 am since, she has been going to sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 am.

Baby is going through lots of changes at the moment and so right now I am just going to her right away and feeding her if she does not go back to sleep within 10 minutes. She has mastered getting on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, she is also starting to try to pull up from hands and knees- so her crib needs to be lowered. I get anxious thinking that she could learn to pull up and fall over the side; her dad is lowering it today. She is getting really good at transitioning from sitting to tummy and has begun to learn how to go from hands and knees, or tummy to sitting. Babies learn so fast it just amazes me. She also has two tiny tooth buds on her lower gums, the teeth that have been threatening to come out for 4 months just may make their debut in the next week or so.

I went through all of her toys and made piles of 0-6 month stuff that I have to sell because she doesn’t use it anymore. There is also a Rubbermaid bin full of clothes that no longer fit and new, bigger clothes now fill her drawers. She is 7 months old. Where has the time gone?! Doing these chores today (as was suggested for me to do by a good friend before Christmas!), made me a little bit sad. Slowly but surely she is griwing up and getting bigger and there is nothing I can do about it. I get so excited for her when she learns new skills, it’s the best thing ever to listen to her talk to herself in the back of the car, but each new skill brings her farther away from being a tiny baby. You can’t stop development, but we aren’t rushing it over here either!

Go baby go, or don't!

The Ride To Seattle

Click   HERE   to read about how the boat ride to Seattle went… a reader’s warning… it was not pretty!!!

The link above will take you to the Kids in Victoria website where I am now a featured mommy blogger! I can’t double post so days that I post there I will post links here!

A Vacation!

We are taking a family vacation, yahoo! So blogging will be on hold for the next 4 days. I think we are going to have a lot of fun and I am super excited

JINX!

Yes, I did in fact jinx myself. When will I learn, lol? Okay, I realize that what I write might not have an effect on the real world in such a way, can I really be that superstitious? In a word- yes. Do you ever notice that when things are going really great or really tough we find reasons why things are great or why things are tough and then we become superstitious about it. Kind of like before when I talked about sports teams not shaving or changing their socks, maybe I should start doing that. But in all seriousness now, I just have completely lost the ability to determine what events lead up to us having a good night as opposed to a more challenging night. I have written everything down for 42 nights; every nap time/duration and every bedtime and sleep amount for the night. I wrote down what time we started our routine at and tried to correlate it with length of sleep or night wakings and there is no pattern. Seems to me she just makes up her mind to have a rough night and then does it like a champ- nothing is half-assed in our house, if you are going to do something, do it up right!

I was “collecting” all of this “data” over these last 42 days just for the pure and simple fact that I may be able to see a pattern emerge and then start to follow it. This doesn’t mean that I think this whole sleep thing is an experiment, but rather that I am trying to get it over and done with as fast as possible and if I can see a pattern and replicate it to ease the challenges for everyone why wouldn’t I? Sounds great in theory, but you know what it hasn’t really played out that way. While we are on the topic of theories, I had the notion that it would take 42 DAYS  for sleep training to fully commence. I choose this number because it takes an adult brain, which is (arguably) fully mature, at least 21 days to make a behaviour change. So I figured that a developing baby brain would take double that for sure. Well here we are at 42 days and baby maintains that she will not be sleep trained. Maybe it’s at least 42 days… who am I kidding, this is going to be an ongoing thing isn’t it!

We had a couple of really good weeks, so when she woke up tonight at 2:30am, I knew immediately what we were going to face and I was dreading it. I got up and looked at the couch- hello old friend, barely dry from 2 weeks ago’s frustrated tears, it’s me, I have come to sit on you again while my baby does her thing. And baby did her thing, well honestly, she is still doing her thing but it has been downgraded from a code red to green with the occasional yellow.

The colour codes come from our baby monitor. Since our place is pretty tiny there is really no need for a baby monitor with noise, we just keep her door open a crack and our door wide open and I can pretty much hear her roll over from my bed. I keep the monitor on but the sound off so all we see is lights. The lights lit our room up like Vegas tonight- flashy yellows, oranges and reds! You can probably guess that red does not mean that baby is happy. Wouldn’t that be funny to see on a monitor- a smiley face or a sad face. Now an even better thought, wouldn’t it be great if baby came with a manual that had a trouble shooting section that told you how to maintain that smiley face. Maybe that’s what I was trying to do by writing everything down, maybe I was trying to create an Everly manual?

So I am at a bit of a crossroads, like Britney- not a girl and not yet a woman, only different. Do I continue to write all of this down and keep track or just throw caution to the wind and let what happens happen… what ever happens is going to happen whether I write it down or not, but maybe writing it down gave me that little bit of control that I was craving in this whole situation. With our first family vacation days away (yeay!), I knew that things were going to fall apart a little bit and that our routine would be a little messed up but I am okay with that because we are going to be somewhere new and different. I guess I just think that because we are home things should have some continuity if they are going to be same old, same old.

I just want to point out that I don’t blame Everly for these sleep challenged nights and I don’t think that she is a “bad” baby or a “bad sleeper.” I think that she is a wonderful baby and a great sleeper, she just doesn’t do well with conformity, lol, no just kidding. I think she is like every other baby out there in that they will do what they are going to do according to their internal clock. When Everly wants to sleep through the night without waking she will and on nights that she won’t she just won’t, there is nothing that I can do about it and it doesn’t mean that she is bad or to blame. As adults we all have a crappy nights sleep every now and again and we are not trying to process the entire world as a brand new thing while developing a mountain of skills. Baby work is hard work. What we are trying to do with the sleep training is to help her learn how to get the best night’s sleep that she can. And as anyone who has tried to learn something knows- it isn’t always easy to pick up a new skill, especially when you are learning 100 others at the same time!

Oh blessed silence… I think it’s time for me to go to bed. 4:29 am, exactly 2 hours from when she woke up. The good thing about tonight though was that the protesting did not start until she was up for an hour and 15 minutes, the time before this she protested for nearly the entire 2 hours- make way for progress! Ah, how I love this baby of mine

Is This A Routine?

So it’s been how many days since I last blogged… did I take a hiatus without even knowing it? I think so. Kind of like Gray’s Anatomy and their rip off episode a few weeks ago, oh well at least I have all the Christmas shows coming up to take it’s place. Yes I am a little bit addicted to some tv. I can admit it, I don’t care. I know that some people are all like, I don’t watch tv… well congrats to you, you don’t watch tv, I do and I like it. Right now the PVR is my best friend. I don’t know what I would do without it. I think the reason I actually like tv still is because of the PVR, if I didn’t have one, I would miss everything and then maybe I would be one of those non-tv watchers. I just like the fact that I can press play and zone out for 30 minutes and not be responsible for anything other than sitting on my ass. Not a lot of people will admit that, but I have no problem. I am pretty much “Shaw On Demand” for my baby; always entertaining and trying to be new and fun and exciting with great graphics (of course I have great graphics!). So I think it is only fair that I should be allowed some time in my day where I don’t have to use my brain. I always thought that staying home with a baby would leave me using less of my brain. I have found that in a way it might, as I am not thinking as hard, but I thinking more so it feels way more exhausting. This is way more tiring brain work for me than University. That might have something to do with the kind of Unviersity student I was though; minimal attender, crunch studier and last minute paper writer. At Uni I only had some days that were like that amongst many that were smooth sailing. Everly is a crash course everyday!!

A crash course in CUTE!

In the last 4 days that I haven’t written Everly has kept on truckin’ at this little schedule of hers that she may be developing. I say MAY because I don’t want to jinx anything. Sometimes when I write about how well things are going, things get tough again, so I start to wonder, am I jinxing myself or does my head get inflated with confidence and I think I can do anything? Who knows, but at any rate, things are going really well. She is to bed around 7:30, up at 5:30am to eat and back to sleep again until 8:30 or so. Today I was a bad, bad mom and I brought her into bed with me to sleep in, we slept in until 9:30 because we were really tired. Well Everly may not have been but I was. Now that she is sleeping good I have to work on sleep training myself. Parents- why did you not sleep train me? I hope that things continue on this positive path. Well, at least until our trip to Seattle this weekend, will be interesting to see how that one goes? UGH!

Baby is leaving the country.

So I have been getting sideways glances and “feedback” about the way we have chosen to introduce solid foods to Everly. Being as fortunate as I am to have the job that I do, I have been able to take many different training courses and attend various conferences on infant/child development. One thing that I had the opportunity to learn about was the history of puree baby food and the concept of baby led weaning. Like pretty much everyone else out there I had no idea that baby food puree was invented when formula was invented to provide nutrients that the formula was missing out on. Now because such young babies were eating the baby food it had to be pureed and strained so that they would swallow it. Very young infants have the reflex to push out anything other that liquid from their mouths with their tongues… as formula started to be more complete (and mothers fortunately started nursing again- another can of beans that rots my socks), the age at which to introduce solids became older and then older again until finally experts settled on the 6 month/milestone related reference that we use today. The funny thing about all of this is that how we introduce solids to babies has not changed. We still introduce them as though they are tiny infants! By 6 months a baby is ready for some lumps and bumps and they need these things to help them develop speech sounds and to learn how to NOT choke on food. So with this in mind, we decided to go the baby led weaning  route with Everly. We don’t puree her food and we let her feed herself as much as possible. I still spoon feed her cereal because she can’t feed herself with a spoon yet and she needs the cereal because we don’t have enough iron rich foods worked in her diet at the moment. A lot of  people don’t like this way of going about introducing solids, especially older people. They shake their heads and make that tut-tut sound that basically means you are a terrible mother and your baby WILL SUFFER. Well tut-tutters, what did people do before there was jarred baby food to buy? Oh that’s right, they fed them tiny pieces of food from their hands or a tray, hmmmm, we are all still here and we learned how to eat, funny thing that is.

Yes I feed myself and it gets messy!

How is it that nearly everyone I know has almost finished or has completely finished Christmas shopping, decorating and wrapping. I tried to start wrapping stocking stuff last week but it just didn’t happen and I won’t be putting my tree up until it is December. I know that my “mom” friends have to jump at the opportunity when it presents itself so they got everything done while they could. I am a “mom” friend, why have I not jumped at the opportunities when I have had them? I always thought I was the festive one. Maybe not. Christmas is really stressing me out this year, probably because I have less than half of the amount of money that I used to be able to put towards it. Now I know the Christmas is not about the gifts and blah, blah, blah, but it kind of is. Do we really thing that so many people would enjoy and celebrate Christmas if there were no gifts? I am here to play the devil’s advocate and say that no, no there would not. To me, the real fun of Christmas is getting things for everyone that you know they are going to like. I love hunting for gifts and watching the reciepient’s face when they open the present and see that it’s just what they wanted/needed and there is this moment where they look and you and are all like, you were listening to me when I spoke. I listen and I like to deliver. This year I have had to be a bit more creative. What we are giving might not have been on everyone’s lists, but I can guarantee there will be no returns and no unhappy reciepients, they just didn’t know it existed and that they could ask for it… sneaky, sneaky, sneaky!

Christmas Baby!

That’s Called Sleeping Through The Night!

The last 3 nights have been really good! She has slept from about 7:30 to 5:30 each night, when she wakes at 5:30 I fed her and then she went back to sleep until sometime between 8:00 and 8:30. I have come to realize that I can’t really ask for much more at this point I have decided to just keep the 5:30 am feeding and let her eliminate it on her own as I am sure that she will; over the last few days she has creeped closer and closer to 6:00 anyway. Honestly, I have to admit too that I would rather get up at 5:30 to feed her and go back to sleep until 8:00, than get up for the day at 6:30 or 7:00, selfish mommy decision. Well I guess it wasn’t fully my decision, this is what is working for her and we decided to go with it- don’t they call that a babyled schedule, lol! Whatever, it works, we are sleeping and we are all pretty happy (excuse me while I go to knock on some wood).

Happy indeed!

We are at day 36 for anyone who was curious. 36 days! All the information you read on infant sleep training says it takes about 2 weeks, what planet are those people on- the planet where they still give their babies rum to help them sleep through the night (do not try that at home!). Honestly, I think that all of these programs need to give us the gory details because it is debilitating to only hear about the “winning successes” of some assholes that you don’t even know. Yes, I called those people assholes, that’s how angry it makes me, lol. I want to hear a story about how hard it was on one family and that it took them 8 weeks, because maybe that will make me feel better when we hit day 36. I think that they are setting you up to quit if they don’t paint a realistic picture. You are going to think oh well this isn’t working… the thing I found interesting about the sleepsense program’s follow along manual (where you chart your progress), was that there were 30 pages for charting 30 days of “progress.” So why is there space for 30 days if it takes 2 weeks. Yes they tell you in all of the programs that every baby is different and that two weeks is an average- well tell us the worst case scenario too, not just the two week situations.

I think I have finally (knock again on wood) solved the protesting at bedtime thing. A few weeks ago we were not letting Everly have a third nap, we just would let her stay up until it was time for the bedtime routine. Some nights this meant that she was already up for 3.5 hours before she went to bed. She is usually ready to sleep after 2 hours during the day, so that kind of gives you an idea about how tired she might be! I thought that her being more tired would make her fall asleep faster, yeah no, did not work that way. What I have found is that starting bedtime routine 1.5 hours after she has been away is the hot ticket. She is just tired enough at bedtime, not so overtired that she is wound up and can’t relax into a deep sleep. We stumbled upon this haphazardly when we went out for dinner and noticed she went to bed better, so the third nap is back and in full effect!

Speaking of naps, they are going great also (make this the third knock on wood!). We put her down and she falls asleep quickly. It’s all about timing for Everly, not so much about sticking to the same schedule. I wait until that 2 hour mark hits and just feed her and put her down and she sleeps. Usually it’s a 30 minute power nap, but these past 2 days she has had a couple 1 hour naps. It amazes me how little recharging she needs in order to be ready to go again!

Happy wake ups!

She is so close to being mobile! She does the commando Mowgli crawl (elbows on the floor, toes on the floor and legs and tummy in the air) and will push herself backwards. She gets on her knees and on her hands, but not always together in one coordinated movement, lol! I am not encouraging it right now, but her dad is and you can’t stop development, so it’s just going to happen.

Getting ready to take off!!!

We have also noticed that she has become a music lover. We bought her a little piano and xylaphone and maracas and she just plays with them all day long. As soon as she hears music her face lights up and she just gives ‘er, it’s too funny to watch (which you could HERE and HERE). We have been told that she will be a musician, I think it might be a tad early to plan our retirement on her rock star paychecks, but who knows, I did play a lot of RockBand and SingStar when I was pregnant, lol!

Linus

We had her 6 month well baby check up today! She was in the 90th percentile for her height and the 75th percentile for her weight, not to shabby baby! When she was born she was in the 25th percentile for her height and the 50th percentile for her weight, so she has done A LOT of growing. The doctor was very happy with her health and development so far, she was impressed by her skills thus far- every mother wants to hear that! So right now I am feeling pretty good about my job as a mom so far and I am so proud of Everly! To check your baby’s growth click here, that calculator is American though, am not sure if that makes a difference but it might, I think it’s handy regardless

Chubby monkey!