3 Cheers!

Annie slept for an 8 hour stretch last night!!! WHOO-HOOO!!! Granted it was from 6:30pm - 2:30am but this is the longest stretch ever! I nursed her and then she slept until almost 6am!

To read more about our sleep journey click here and here and here!

Having a child who doesn't sleep well, sleep can become an almost obsession. Wanting to read books about sleep by sleep experts (and there are many - all with different researched-based perspectives), scouring the Internet looking for tips from other people in baby/parenting forums, writing down techniques and coming up with sleep plans.... it all seems so exhausting. But not nearly as exhausting as NOT actually sleeping.

Earlier this week, I participated in a Live Health Chat via The Chicago Tribune's website which featured two of the leading sleep experts and pediatricians: Dr. Marc Weissbluth and Dr. Bob Sears. They have very different perspectives on night time sleeping.

Dr. Weissbluth, in his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child gives parents a solution to the child's night-waking (assuming that night-waking is a problem) with the premise that a baby can and should sleep well and through the night and a well-rested child is not only a happy child, but one who can function with full potential. He is the doctor who coined "sleep training." His approach is definitely met with resistance as he advises parents to let their child "cry-it-out" in order to learn to self-soothe with the aim that the child will no longer need nighttime visitors.

Dr. Bob Sears (along with several members of the Sears family) advocate for the Attachment Parenting lifestyle. In his book The Baby Sleep Book he explains that nighttime waking in babies and children is normal and that they should be parented to sleep - i.e. rocking, nursing, singing, shushing, etc. - and that when the child awakens in the night, the child should be attended to. Crying is not necessary and could trigger feelings of abandonment and learned helplessness ("Nobody is coming to me when I signal for help = Nobody cares about me"). And that the high level of stress hormone in the body (cortisol) could alter the normal brain functions of the child.

So what's a parent to do???

I'm definitely more of an Attachment Parenting kind of mom (babywearing, breastfeeding, highly attuned to my children's emotional radars), but while participating in this chat, I found Dr. Weissbluth to actually be more helpful! Even though I won't be letting Annie "cry-it-out", Dr. Weissbluth's comments on baby sleep were actually constructive and practical. One of the things I took from this chat was that Annie could be waking up frequently because I'm putting her to bed too late. She was going to be between 7-7:30. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, last night my little cherub was fast asleep by 6:30pm. And although she made a few noises and cries, she settled down by herself and went back to sleep. And she never cried for more than a few minutes (until 2:30am which is when I went in to nurse her).

I'm still aiming for Annie to be able to put herself to sleep and stay asleep for longer stretches of time, but for today, I'm going to rejoice that she got a beautiful 8 hours in a row!!

10 Months Old!

And if I'm doing my math correctly, this means that in two months, my baby is going to be 1!!!!! I'm not sure if I'm ready for that... Where's the "pause" button?
This past month has been characterized by non-stop movement. Crawling everywhere (and quickly), standing, pulling up to stand on everything, and now in the last week, Annie has started walking while holding onto things!
The other night we were all sat at the table finishing our supper. Annie wasn't quite done eating but Will went to the bathroom and turned on the water to get Chloe ready for bathtime. After Annie had finished, I took her out of her seat and set her on the floor. Within seconds she was crawling down the hall, towards the bath and started shouting, "Ba! Ba!"

Crawling after the ballwhile playing bowling with Mommy, Daddy and Chloe

She's figured out how to walk in her walker now!

Just this week, she learned how to take steps while holding onto the lion!

The look of determination!

Walking along the fireplace (not the safest place...)

She's talking a lot and can say Mama, Dada, ball, bath, more, and a few other words. She's still waking 2-3 times per night, (much to our irritation) and she has two naps during the day - a 1.5-2 hour first nap and a 45 minute one later in the afternoon. She loves to laugh and play with Chloe and go on lots of outings to the library, Barnes and Noble, and play areas. She's a great eater and eats pretty much whatever we eat - just cut into small bits. Her favorite foods are cheese and peas!

Rise and Shine

What's that, Mom? I'm supposed to be napping?

Who wants to nap when it's way more fun to stand?!

I seem to remember another little girl in this house doing the same thing at this age...

Who's doing laundry at our house?

Chloe giving Annie a ride up and down the hallway. This is a great way for Chloe to burn some energy and Annie loves it!!


Chloe - the Queen of Silly Faces :)

"Look, we're both standing in the basket!"

Before I'm 30

This year I will celebrate my final birthday in my twenties. What that means in regards to my extended family is that this is actually my last birthday and whenever people ask me how old I am, I forever get to respond, "29."
Last year a friend and I were talking about things we want to accomplish before we turn 30. A Bucket List of sorts. She decided to name hers "10 in 2" and write down ten things she wanted to do in two years. Brilliant idea. I wanted to do the same but couldn't come up with ten things. So I came up with four. Shall I call it the "4 in 1"?

Without further ado, drumroll please, here is my (short) list in no particular order:

1. Run a half marathon. A full marathon is just plain crazy, but I'd love to do a half. If you recall, my husband ran a half marathon last summer so this year we are going to run it together in support of World Vision. Our church has a World Vision partnership in Zambia so we'll be helping to raise money and awareness for the ministries our church supports. I'm currently looking for a few running buddies (hint, hint.... anyone?).

2. Learn French. Why not? French is the world's most widely spoken language (with English as the second most popular) and is spoken in many African nations in addition to France and Canada. I'm currently downloading some "Instant Immersion" cds that I got from the into my iTunes now. However, I'm a visual learner and without a book with the spellings, listening to the tracks may not be as fruitful as I hope.

3. Get my reading license. I only have one more course to complete and then the official reading licensure test before I'll be an official K-12 Reading Teacher. Yes, it's true, I've already done the job as a reading teacher and I loved it! But getting the real license will hopefully help me secure a job more easily. So, the plan is for me to take my final course and the test this summer and hopefully (seeing how the job market pans out) get a job for next school year. I'm really enjoying being a stay at home mom, but everything has a season and it may be time for me to go back to work next fall..... we'll see.

4. Compile a list of Twin Cities Bakeries and taste test their goodies! I love, love, love to bake (please refrain from comments about how my waistline proves that fact)! Writing a list of bakeries in my area, along with a critique of each, would be just downright fun!

I also had on the list to lose a few pounds, but the older I get, the less I care about the numbers on the scale. I have two pounds to lose before I hit my pre-babies weight (which once I'm done nursing, those few pounds will disappear) but I've realized that it's more about being healthy and strong and fit than how much I weigh. So that one got crossed off the list.

To tell you the truth, I'm looking forward to my next two birthdays because along with birthdays, come greater accomplishments, wisdom, and, of course, birthday cake.

Reminder

I just sent my husband a text message that read, "remind me again why i'm a stay at home mom..."
Since my eldest woke up this morning, she has done nothing but fight with me at every opportunity she can find. Getting her dressed this morning was an all-out battle complete with tears and wailing. And it was only 9am. If I said "circle", she said "square". If I said "Let's play trains", she said "I don't want to." No matter what I suggested we do, she found a reason to say NO! So at some point I stopped giving choices and said, "After Annie's nap we are putting on our shoes and heading to the Y! Mommy needs to workout!" [the subtext saying that mommy really needs to drop you off with someone else for a while before I go nutty]
After we got home from the Y and had lunch, it was nap and rest time. Well of course Chloe found every stinkin' excuse in the book to stall. She left her Cinderella doll in the car and absolutely couldn't rest without it. So she dashed out of bed, put on her shoes and went out to the car to retrieve the beloved princess. While out in the garage, she decided to open the garage door and have a little ride on her bike. Seriously?! Despite the fact that we've had about a foot of snow in the last few days, riding bikes when it's supposed to be rest time is NOT a great idea...
By the time I put her in her room with a harsh reminder that she is not to come out until her CD is over, I was beyond frustrated. Hence the text message to the husband.

Fast forward to post nap (which yes, she did finally succumb to). It was time for her to wake up so I went into her room and started whispering her name. She rolled over, all warm and sleepy eyed with hair matted to the side of her cheek. She looked at me and smiled and then in the sweetest, perkiest little voice said, "I had a nice long nap and now I'm not grumpy anymore!"

Parenting 101

From the moment I first learned I was pregnant with my daughter, well over four years ago now, I had visions of what parenthood would be like. There would be long walks in the sunshine, splashing our feet in the water of the nearby lakes and creeks, picnics, playdates with friends, teaching my cherubs about life, love and God, and lots of cuddle time while reading books. While this has all come to continuing fruition, what I failed to imagine is the rest of life.

I failed to realize that some (okay, my) babies don't sleep. This has been a huge source of frustration and contention and has caused more than a few words of anger to be uttered in our house. Neither my husband nor I are fighters. We are both peacekeepers by nature (except that one time my husband got threatened to be put on a "No Fly" list because of his demeanor towards the Delta desk assistant at the airport.... but that's a story for another day). However, in the throes of severe sleep deprivation and a baby screaming in your ear every hour and a half throughout the night, even the most gentle of creatures reaches a breaking point.

Nobody told me about the toddler tantrums that give you flashbacks from the movie "The Exorcist." A few weeks back (actually the very last time I picked Chloe up from real preschool) my firstborn had a meltdown that literally frightened me (and Annie). She was screaming, crying, thrashing about on the floor, and I thought her eyes might pop out of her scull from all the sounds that were coming out of the whole of her 32 pounds. I used all of the tricks that usually work to coax her back into stability to no avail. We had to wade out this storm - and it was tumultuous. It was because of this (and a few other reasons) that we decided to pull her out of playschool altogether and begin an interesting journey as a homeschooling family. (more on that later)

I wish I had known that with children everything takes longer and other things are impossible. To get in 35 minutes of exercise at the Y, the entire trip there and back takes at least an hour and a half. Usually 2. The getting into winter gear (keep in mind it takes near bribing to get Chloe to even put her socks on), strapping into carseats, the walk into the building, checking into the drop-off kidcare, then my workout (35-40 minutes of glorious "me" time!), back to pick them up, back into the winter gear, back to the car and then back home. I'm sweating before I even start the real workout.

Time with the husband is greatly diminished when a child or two comes into the family. Children are a great blessing and such a wonderful picture of "when two become one" but unfortunately, that means that the initial two people who started this whole thing have a lot less time together. Shortly after we welcomed our first child into our family, I had to grieve the loss of my relationship with my husband. Not that we didn't have a relationship anymore, because we did, but it was very different. He was now husband and daddy; I was now wife and mommy. When we were able to have some peaceful moments together, just the two of us, we had to learn how to see each other again in our new roles. I'll never forget our first date after Chloe was born. She was two months old and my mom came to babysit (because when you're a new parent, the only person you trust to babysit your precious newborn is one of your own family). We had tickets to see the broadway performance of The Lion King at the theatre. I was so anxious about leaving my new little baby. Questions such as, Would she be okay? What will happen if she cries and can't be comforted? Will my mother cope with this child? were swimming through my mind. My stomach was in knots. It was the first time in months that I put on makeup and got all dressed up and I was nervous. When we got to the theatre and found our seats we looked at each other, I mean really looked at each other, for the first time in 2 months. And it was like first date awkward. We had just been co-existing and trying to navigate this new chapter in our lives. We had been on survival mode. And now, on our date, was the first time we got to remember the people we used to be when we got a full night of sleep. From there, we started learning how to adjust to the newness of being both parents and lovers.

While I would never change the last four years for anything in the world and while my heart bursts with the love I have for my children, parenting is so much harder and different and tiring than I thought it'd be. I'm still learning and have a lot more visions of what I want my children to become. But, who knows? Maybe the next post about parenthood can be titled Parenting 102.