Sleep

I'm rather shocked lately with how well Bubby has been sleeping. Do you recall the days when I posted about all of the problems I was having with Bubby and trying to get him to sleep??? Well here I am feeling guilty that I have nothing to do because he's sleeping all the time!

Sleeping through that night has been quite a blessing lately. Bubby lays down for bed around 7 and puts himself to sleep VERY well and sleeps around 11-12 hours a night. He still uses his binky, stuffed puppy, and a little music box attached to his crib, but HEY if he's sleeping well I DO NOT want to try and change things, at least not yet. We did set up his toddler bed, which by the way he did sleep one full night in (and didn't fall out! I have pictures to come of all of the pillows and comforters I lined around his bed). But after that one night I could never get him to lay still in his bed. All he wanted to do was jump around. So, back into the crib he went and he's likely to stay there until he's at least 18 months. I have hopes of breaking the binky before we move him to his toddler bed, but I'm not guaranteeing anything!

Naptime on the other hand is another story. Not that he's sleeping poorly, but that he's sleeping a lot! I thought by now at 15 1/2 months he would be down to one nap per day. But nope, he's still taking a 2 hour morning nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap. Sometimes they are shorter, but usually his morning nap is just as long or longer than his afternoon one. It's really odd. I don't know if I should try to push him to just 1 nap or just let him keep doing this double nap deal. As long as he naps, it's fine with me! Another nice thing about nap time lately is that even if Bubby doesn't fall asleep right away, he's been really quiet in his crib. He just rolls around, babbles on to his puppy, or listens to his music. It's awesome! I will admit there are some days where he throws everything out and then screams for me to come get them. And there are days where he rolls around in his crib for an hour and half and doesn't fall asleep. But the majority of the time, he is a GREAT sleeper! I feel so blessed!

The funny thing is that during his nap times I find myself running out of things to do! I will get everything done on my list and then...I actually have time to relax, or read, or watch a movie or catch up on a show. It's NICE! Although, I was hoping to start doing some morning activities with Bubby, like going to story time at the Library, music class at church and possibly start going to MOPS again. We will just have to see how long this great sleeping streak keeps up!

Some days are just rough!

You know those mornings when you wake up, have your cup of coffee and think to yourself "hmm...this will be a good day" and then all of a sudden your day does a complete 180 and you think to yourself "Lord, get me through this!" and it just keeps getting worse and worse? Well, today was one of those days!

Bubby decided to wake up at 5:45 this morning, not sure why, but at 6:15 I decided to end the crying and get him up. He was a big grump (but trying to stay positive I just prayed that he would take a good morning nap). I thought 45 minutes of a nap was decent when he woke up, but turns out...he was still a big grump. We had to leave to go visit my grandma so I had hopes that his spirits would turn and maybe 1. he would be a happy boy for his great grandma, or 2. he would take a nap when we got there and THEN be a happy boy for his great grandma. However, neither of those happened. He was just a BIG GRUMP. I tried nursing him, rocking him, playing with him, feeding him lots of food, and nothing worked. It was not awful.

At 11:30 (after letting him cry for 25 minutes in the pack n play) we had to take off for a chiropractor appointment. Which by the way...never schedule an appointment during your child's nap time! I am SO BAD at this! I never ever think about his nap time when scheduling things and today I definitely learned my lesson. Bubby fell asleep immediately in the car and then I had to wake him up 20 minutes later when we got to the chiropractor, which meant he was a big grump at his appointment. Then I had to schedule him a doctors appointment (since his eye has been looking red/puffy and I wanted to avoid any weekend trips to the doctor) and since we were already in town I asked for the first appointment they had available. It was unfortunately an hour wait, so what did I do for an hour with my grumpy child? I drove around...for an hour...so he could nap and stay asleep in the car. It was not fun. Do you know how much road kill there is in Ames? I think I saw the majority of it today, including innards of a little rabbit spewed all over the road (sorry, probably too much info). And there is TONS of construction, which was super annoying. Thankfully I didn't run into any trains. There was one time that I did pull over at a park, rolled down the windows and rested my eyes a bit, but I drove the majority of the time.

After an hour we headed to the doctor to find out Josiah doesn't have pink eye (thank the Lord!) but instead a bacterial infection in his eye. The doctor thinks he may have gotten something in his eye and then it got infected, so now he is on antibiotics (so glad it's not contagious!). Well, after the doctor we headed to the pharmacy, which meant another small nap on the way there and then a screaming kiddo in the stroller as we walked through the store for 15 minutes while they filled his prescription. By the way...did I mention that I hadn't had lunch yet? So it was about 2:30 in the afternoon and I was starving. Bubby wailed the majority of the way home (probably because it had been 5 hours since he had eaten as well!).

When we got home I thought maybe things would lighten up. I nursed him, gave him his snack and then laid him down in hopes that maybe he would actually get a decent nap. But he refused and cried and cried and cried some more. And the stinky part is that we were heading to some friend's home tonight for dinner and I really wanted him to be in a good mood. So the evening was really not that good. I barely got to eat my dinner or talk with my friends. All in all, it was really nice when he went to bed tonight. I couldn't be happier to have him asleep and to have the day behind me!

Lessons I learned today:
1. Never schedule an appointment during your child's nap time
2. Impromptu trips to the doctor should be avoided, especially if you are breastfeeding and able to use breast milk as a temporary antibiotic
3. Pack a bottle! (being able to feed Bubby while waiting for his prescription would have made things easier)
4. Driving around to keep your child asleep is a good alternative to keeping them up, even if it means seeing gross road kill, getting caught in construction, and using extra gas
5. Pack a snack for yourself when leaving for the day, especially water!

*What are your suggestions on being prepared for impromptu days when things just don't go as planned?

Puff Puffs and Cake Cakes

Bubby is 10 months old now...I can't believe in only 2 short months he will be one year old! My little boy is growing up!! I have really seen his personality come out over the past few weeks. He loves to laugh, especially if you make faces at him, sing to him, or dance with him. His absolute favorite song is "Ba Ba Black Sheep" and I think it's because when we sing "Ba Ba" it sounds like Bubba (also his nickname). Sometimes I'll sing the entire song just saying "Ba Ba" and he loves it! He still crawls on his belly, but can pull himself up to stand really well and sometimes takes a few steps if you are holding his hands or if he's holding himself up on the furniture. He just learned how to play "So Big" this week and it's now a highchair tradition to play that game. His sleeping habits still need some improving despite our efforts to sleep train him, but I am very pleased that he took two naps today, one of them being 2 1/2 hours long!

And lastly, he is totally over eating baby food. I keep some on hand as a back up in case I can't find anything else to make him, or if he's really grumpy and I can't get food made fast enough for him. So he's been eating lots of table food.

Some of Bubby's Favorites:
-mandarin oranges
-peaches
-pears
-bananas
-melons (there is a great Organic Tropical Fruit Mix we like with all sorts of melons!)
-applesauce
-Baby yogurts
-sweet potatoes
-mashed or sliced potatoes
-sweet peas
-lima beans (he LOVES lime beans and will eat as many as he can get! But they do make for some stinky diapers!)
-corn
-carrots
-turkey breast
-turkey hot dogs
-spaghetti with hamburger and tomato sauce (I mixed in some green beans too because its the only way he'll eat them)
-pasta with melted cheese and butter
-bread/toast with butter (great for teething!)
-buckwheat pancakes (aka Cake Cakes)
-baby puffs (aka Puff Puffs)

One thing you should know is that Hubby and I try our best to eat All Natural and Organic food and we prefer fresh foods. However, since we are now creating a strict budget for our groceries I am having to resort to some canned and not always organic foods. I have found a few brands of canned fruits and vegetables that seem alright, like Del Monte vegetables or Dole fruits. I am still trying to find a way to give him some decent protein without having to cook up some meat on the spot because 1. meat is expensive, 2. we don't like to have lots of leftovers, 3. I don't always have much time to cook for him. I am learning to cook items in advance and save them in tupperware in the refrigerator so I can easily pop them in the microwave for him.

Puff Puffs are a pretty typical snack for him. At Wheatsfield Cooperative Grocery store they have organic puffs that I get for him. Feeding him puffs was probably how he developed his pincer grasp! And Cake Cakes are an occasional breakfast treat (served warm with melted butter). Hubby grew up eating Buckwheat Pancakes so we are going to start eating those more often. I make them with Almond Milk which makes them a little easier on my digestive system.

Sleep Training Your Child

I finally gave in and sleep trained Bubby. He'll be 10 months old next week and it was about time I stopped getting up at night with him and nursing him back to sleep. You're probably thinking "ABOUT TIME!" or "YOU WERE STILL NURSING HIM???" and all I can say is "IT'S HARD!" I had THE hardest time letting him cry it out, but with encouragement from several mothers and prayer's of protection over him, I finally decided to put him to bed, shut the door and not go back till the morning. I've done that for 4 nights now and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! Here's how it went:

Night 1: 45 minutes of middle of the night crying

Night 2: 20 minutes of middle of the night crying

Night 3: Maybe 10 minutes of middle of the night crying

Night 4: I don't know if he cried...maybe a few minutes?

It's AWESOME! He's been ready for bed by 7 or 7:30 every night and he's been sleeping till 6 or 6:30 every morning, that means a good 11 hours of sleep for him! We used to put him to bed at 7 and he'd fiddle around in his crib till 8, cry several times throughout the night which ended up with me nursing him once, maybe twice a night, and then him being up and ready for the day at 5:30 or 6. But now not only is he sleeping better at night, he's taking much better naps too! He usually manages 2-3 naps a day (sometimes he still needs that early evening nap if he didn't get his sleep out during the afternoon one) and all of them range from 1-2 hours. If he wakes up before an hour and is crying I've been letting him fuss for 20 minutes to see if he'll go back to sleep.

I must say THANK YOU to all the mom's who have encouraged me for MONTHS to sleep train Bubby. The hardest part was listening to him cry for 45 minutes the first night (and thankfully Hubby was there to hug me when I was anxiously waiting for Bubby to stop crying) but now it's much easier and I prefer to have Bubby cry it out a bit.

*Today has been an off day, I think he's already taken 3 naps today, each of them about 45 minutes and crying it out just hasn't worked. We've been going back and forth from the crib to playing for a while now and he just can't figure out what he wants to do. I think part of it is that he's just starting to cruise around the furniture and his crib so he's just too excited to lay still.