Our little Noodle is TWO today! Hard to believe that only 730 days ago she came into our lives - and for every single one of those it has been a joy to be her Mummy.
She still isn't sleeping great...unless she starts out in our bed. Usually I read to her and rock her in her room, then she asks for our bed so we go in there and I lay with her until she falls asleep - usually not long. Then I go upstairs and do 'whatever' (laundry, dishes, clean up, facebook...veg..) until it's bed time for me and then I just carry her into her own bed and she rolls over and falls asleep. We are all getting a great sleep, no one is puking and there isn't any crying! Yay!
Last night when I was putting her down I actually fell asleep next to her (probably because I had a million things to do and my body didn't want to do any of it! lol)...but I woke up when she awoke from a deep sleep, eyes open, completely aware and said "oh WOW", then she snuggled in and went back to sleep. About 5 min later she woke again, turned and looked at me, smiled and said "Tewwwwww". It was so sweet! I guess telling her that it's almost her birthday and that she will be 2 has caught on!
This also kinda makes me wonder though if her sleep issues may have started because she is actually dreaming and remembering them. It would be pretty disorientating to wake up wondering where you were, if you were JUST somewhere else when you were dreaming and you don't understand what a dream is...
I'll post more after her little birthday party with some pictures of the birthday girl!
xo JBM
December 2, 2011
November 11, 2011
How facebook ruined our "sleep training"
Sleep, sleeping through the night, sleeping in her own bed...it all seems to be a thing of the past! Right before I returned to work (so almost exactly a year ago) Sloan started sleeping through the night, it was amazing! I was worried about returning to work as a zombie and was so happy that she finally got it!
We had a few (3 or 4) months of great sleep, she would go down to sleep after our usual routine (bath [most nights], pj's, stories, nurse, sing and rock and then in to her crib) and stay asleep all night. I felt rested! It was amazing! Then she started waking up in the middle of the night again (around 2am), so I started nursing her in the middle of the night again, but it was quick, 5 minutes max and she was back asleep. A small blip in the night, but nothing major, some mornings I couldn't even remember if I got up I was that asleep still. She was able to go into her crib semi awake and just lay there and drift off to dreamland.
Then, about 2 months ago it all changed. Nothing too major has changed...except her sleep patterns! Sloan started acting like her crib was the enemy, she was deathly afraid to go into it. As soon as I started lifting her to put her in she would just start saying 'no mummy, no no no no mummy' and going stiff as a board. We would rock and rock and rock and rock...and then stop and she would lay dead asleep in my arms, but as soon as I started to try to move her to her crib she would wake right up and start with the no, no, no-ing and cling to me. We've had some extremely late nights due to this routine of her falling asleep and then waking and then trying to get her back to sleep.
I feel like we've tried everything! Cry it out? Yup, tried it twice...and both times she threw up EVERYWHERE and we had to start the whole bed time routine all over again, fresh jammies and all. I HATE to let her cry, so that was really hard, then I felt horrible since it was all for nothing since she didn't fall asleep and I ended up going into her room and turning on the light (to clean up) and picking her up. We've tried the pat the bum while holding, and slowly move her to the crib and pat in there...but she doesn't like her back/bum rubbed or patted so she just keeps batting me away. Tried different night lights, different blankets, put her mattress on the floor...the only thing that seemed to work was to either let her fall asleep in our bed, or on the couch or in my arms and then wait FOREVER for her to be in a really deep sleep so I could ever so gently set her down. Then when she would wake up in the middle of the night I would still end up bringing her to bed with us as I didn't want to repeat that whole process again!
Three nights ago I thought I finally found a solution. We were going to try the 'keep laying her down' method (I have no idea what the method is actually called). The first night it took a looooong time. I just kept laying her down while she cried. Each time I laid her down I sat down in the chair in her room. Finally she started to just sit up instead of stand up, then eventually just laid there and kept popping her head up to make sure I was still there. By the time she was at the laying there popping up stage she had stopped crying, but was whimpering and tugging at monkey's ears hard! She finally fell asleep and I crept out of her room...I still brought her into our room when she woke at 3 though. The second night it took just as long! The crying didn't last as long, but then she started trying to talk to me, or just singing to herself. Finally she fell asleep, but again, woke up around 3.
Now, if you've read this far you'll finally get to find out how facebook ruined our "sleep training" (I hate that term!). Last night I was bound and determined to keep trying the laying down method. There was more crying and reaching for me (more than the second night for sure)...and all I could think of was the little blurb that I had read on facebook earlier that day. Someone had read an article on yahoo so it posted the headline on their page "girl age 3 comforts and feeds herself for 3 days alone after mother died" (or something along those lines). As I sat there watching Sloan cry and want/need me, all I could think of was that poor little girl crying out for her mother and not understanding why she wouldn't go to her. I lasted about 5 minutes and then I HAD to pick Sloan up and rock her to sleep. I gingerly laid her in bed and then got up at 3 when she cried out and brought her to bed with us and snuggled for the rest of the night.
As she nuzzled into my arms last night I realized that our new "sleep training" method will be to comfort her as she needs it, whatever that may be. We'll try again maybe when she's older and we can explain the whole "your room", "your bed" thing to her. But for now, it will be rocking and nursing or bed sharing for us!
So ya...facebook ruined it for us, but maybe it's for the best!
xoJBM
We had a few (3 or 4) months of great sleep, she would go down to sleep after our usual routine (bath [most nights], pj's, stories, nurse, sing and rock and then in to her crib) and stay asleep all night. I felt rested! It was amazing! Then she started waking up in the middle of the night again (around 2am), so I started nursing her in the middle of the night again, but it was quick, 5 minutes max and she was back asleep. A small blip in the night, but nothing major, some mornings I couldn't even remember if I got up I was that asleep still. She was able to go into her crib semi awake and just lay there and drift off to dreamland.
Then, about 2 months ago it all changed. Nothing too major has changed...except her sleep patterns! Sloan started acting like her crib was the enemy, she was deathly afraid to go into it. As soon as I started lifting her to put her in she would just start saying 'no mummy, no no no no mummy' and going stiff as a board. We would rock and rock and rock and rock...and then stop and she would lay dead asleep in my arms, but as soon as I started to try to move her to her crib she would wake right up and start with the no, no, no-ing and cling to me. We've had some extremely late nights due to this routine of her falling asleep and then waking and then trying to get her back to sleep.
I feel like we've tried everything! Cry it out? Yup, tried it twice...and both times she threw up EVERYWHERE and we had to start the whole bed time routine all over again, fresh jammies and all. I HATE to let her cry, so that was really hard, then I felt horrible since it was all for nothing since she didn't fall asleep and I ended up going into her room and turning on the light (to clean up) and picking her up. We've tried the pat the bum while holding, and slowly move her to the crib and pat in there...but she doesn't like her back/bum rubbed or patted so she just keeps batting me away. Tried different night lights, different blankets, put her mattress on the floor...the only thing that seemed to work was to either let her fall asleep in our bed, or on the couch or in my arms and then wait FOREVER for her to be in a really deep sleep so I could ever so gently set her down. Then when she would wake up in the middle of the night I would still end up bringing her to bed with us as I didn't want to repeat that whole process again!
Three nights ago I thought I finally found a solution. We were going to try the 'keep laying her down' method (I have no idea what the method is actually called). The first night it took a looooong time. I just kept laying her down while she cried. Each time I laid her down I sat down in the chair in her room. Finally she started to just sit up instead of stand up, then eventually just laid there and kept popping her head up to make sure I was still there. By the time she was at the laying there popping up stage she had stopped crying, but was whimpering and tugging at monkey's ears hard! She finally fell asleep and I crept out of her room...I still brought her into our room when she woke at 3 though. The second night it took just as long! The crying didn't last as long, but then she started trying to talk to me, or just singing to herself. Finally she fell asleep, but again, woke up around 3.
Now, if you've read this far you'll finally get to find out how facebook ruined our "sleep training" (I hate that term!). Last night I was bound and determined to keep trying the laying down method. There was more crying and reaching for me (more than the second night for sure)...and all I could think of was the little blurb that I had read on facebook earlier that day. Someone had read an article on yahoo so it posted the headline on their page "girl age 3 comforts and feeds herself for 3 days alone after mother died" (or something along those lines). As I sat there watching Sloan cry and want/need me, all I could think of was that poor little girl crying out for her mother and not understanding why she wouldn't go to her. I lasted about 5 minutes and then I HAD to pick Sloan up and rock her to sleep. I gingerly laid her in bed and then got up at 3 when she cried out and brought her to bed with us and snuggled for the rest of the night.
As she nuzzled into my arms last night I realized that our new "sleep training" method will be to comfort her as she needs it, whatever that may be. We'll try again maybe when she's older and we can explain the whole "your room", "your bed" thing to her. But for now, it will be rocking and nursing or bed sharing for us!
So ya...facebook ruined it for us, but maybe it's for the best!
xoJBM
November 2, 2011
October 19, 2011
More Yummy-ness
I keep seeing these cheddar bay biscuits popping up on pinterest: http://penniesonaplatter.com/2010/10/27/cheddar-bay-biscuits/
And let me tell you...they are AMAZING!!!!
Everyone comments that they taste just like the ones from Red Lobster. I don't eat seafood, so I've only eaten at Red Lobster once (and just had ceasar salad that wasn't that great) and didn't get any of these biscuits so I can't compare.
They went perfectly with our chili this cold windy night!
Make some, and enjoy!
xo JBM
Muffins!
I've been wanting to make A Muddled Mama's lemon cranberry muffins since she posted them...but I keep forgetting to get one thing or the other. Yesterday I finally remembered to get the cranberries, but I thought we had lemons at home and then didn't. I gave in and made them with orange instead and YUM-O! they are delish!
I had to make some other changes too because I didn't start baking until 10pm and Sloan was asleep on the couch because she is deathly afraid of going to bed in her own room for some reason (a whole other post). So I didn't want to use my stand mixer...and I didn't want to get out extra bowls for draining the berries and combining the dry ingredients...too much work and too noisy! I had zested and juiced 2 oranges over 3/4 of a bag of fresh cranberries and let it sit while I was trying to get Sloan to bed from 8-9:30 (when I finally gave up and let her just snuggle on the couch with me). To that I added 2 cups of flour, 1tsp salt, 1tbsp baking powder and 3/4 cup sugar (half brown half white). Then I mixed all of that quietly with a spatula trying not to spill the berries and trying to make sure everything was evenly dispersed. Then I added 2 eggs and 6 tbsp of slightly melted butter and mixed it all up. It was pretty thick, so I added a little more orange juice. It was still really thick, way thicker than normal muffin consistency, but I thought it would just give it more of a cakey/rustic texture. I spooned it into the muffin tins and then realized I forgot vanilla so I just poured a tiny bit over each muffin and topped with a little brown sugar. I baked them for 30min at 350. They came out perfect!
I made a little glaze with OJ and powdered sugar and that perfected them even more! Then Sloan and I were off to bed where she slept soundly snuggled between Matt and I...and we were struck with flailing arms and legs all night!
xoJBM
October 12, 2011
October 6, 2011
Make, Do, LEARN
Sloan is growing and changing at an alarming rate. While it is hard to see that she doesn't need us to do everything for her anymore, it is SO neat to see her learning to do things on her own.
There are times when it would be so much easier and faster to just do things for her, but seeing her sense of accomplishment when she puts her socks on herself, finally gets the lid off of a container, eats her dinner all on her own, brushes her teath (we still help after she is done), or letting her stroll around the grocery store pushing the cart...it's worth the wait.
xo JBM
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