Top 5 Saturday Laughs 2.25.12

What a long, fast moving, super busy week!  I am hoping to get some rest this weekend since have come down with the dreaded cold that has infected my household for the past few weeks.  I am hoping the cold moves along as quickly as this past week has.  I am very excited to share my laughs with you this week!

Like always, I am joining my friend, Melissa, in her Saturday Laughs bloghop.  If you have a funny post, you should link up too!

I remembered to write down lots of laughs this week, so I had a list to choose from!!

5.  Claire and Natalie are starting to interact more and more while playing.  In the bathtub, Natalie was holding out a fake cookie and Claire was pretending to eat it.  They both got a kick out of this, but then Claire took it in her mouth and shot Natalie in the face with the water from inside.  That was seriously so funny!  Everyone laughed so hard, Claire laughed so hard that she got the hiccups!

4.  Whenever Natalie hears any type of music, she begins dancing. The majority of the time she twists her upper body and reminds me so much of the "we did it dance" from Dora.  She only dances for a little while, then it's back to playing.  It makes me smile every single time.

3.  Thursday evening I was feeling rotten and Claire was in full stall-before-bed mode.  I was tired from a really long day at work and getting rather frustrated with her.  I finally barked at her to get in her bed and lay down.  She put her little hand on my cheek and replied, "Mommy, is that how we ask for something we want?"  She was right, I had to apologize for not having good manners.  Of course, Ryan thought this was hysterical!!  

2.  Natalie is obsessed with the refrigerator.  Whenever it is opened, she crawls as fast as possible to start pulling things from the shelves in the door.  Sometimes I just let her play in there while I'm cooking since it can entertain her for a good five minutes.  This week she discovered the bottle of chocolate syrup and somehow managed to open the top.  Now she's really obsessed with the fridge!!

1.  Claire LOVES cooking.  All kinds of cooking and baking.  Lately she loves to pretend to cook and bake.  We have pretend food all over the house.  There are bowls, measuring cups and spoons in every room.  Ryan  was bathing the girls one night and Claire was pretending to cook Chinese food in the bathtub.  She had a big mixing bowl and spoon and was adding the ingredients (water).    Here is the interaction that I overheard:

R: "Claire, what are you doing?"

C: "Rubbing my boobies"

R: "Why are you rubbing your boobies?"

C: "Because I burnt them on the stove when I was cooking"

That girl seriously cracks me up!

I have a bonus laugh since it literally just happened as I was writing the others.  I have blogged before how Claire likes play where she wipes off our kisses.  Ryan asked her for a kiss goodnight and he then wiped off her kiss.  This happened three times.  On the third time, he told Claire that he wasn't going to wipe that kiss off because he liked it.  Instantly, she responded with, "why didn't you like the other ones daddy?"  Ryan told her she was just like her mother.  What a typical girl response! Ryan is still laughing about that one.

Our Sleep Training Journey :: An Update

We are now three weeks and one night into our sleep training.  Everything has been going very well.  Natalie is typically in bed by 8:00 (latest has been 8:20).  Before I go to bed, I go in and dreamfeed her until she is full.  This is a very nice way for me to settle down before heading to bed and I like the snuggles.  Eventually, we will work on cutting that dreamfeed out.

For the last week and a day, Natalie has slept until 7:30ish every day except twice.  Two morning in a row, she was up at 5:00 and 6:00.  Both days, she would lay down and be quiet but wouldn't stop fussing for long.  Her cries seemed to be ones of pain or distress, so I waited about 15 minutes before heading in to feed/rock her.  Both girls are battling nasty colds and croup.  In addition, Natalie has a bunch of teeth moving around.  Her lateral incisors are beginning to bulge so that could have been the issue.  I rocked her for a bit, fed her and put her back in bed awake. She did fall back asleep both mornings until it was time to get up.

I was concerned that this would affect Natalie's ability to truly sleep through the night.  She did stir and fuss at 6:00 this morning, but went back to sleep until I woke her at 7:40.  That was a big achievement, I was concerned the previous two mornings would set us back!

I am happy to report that we have slept through the night for over a week!!  It makes me a happy mommy!

Wordless Wednesday :: What Wonderful Weather

It's February and we are outside playing on the swing-set!  It was still cold, but the sun felt so good.

Top Five Saturday Laughs 2.18.12

This week has been super busy for us, so I am thankful that the weekend is here!  I love writing these posts and this week is no exception to that rule.

5. I don't know if you'd call this a laugh or just plain pathetic, but I finally took down all of my Christmas decorations this past week. I had taken down all the super Christmas stuff (tree, stockings, centerpieces) but I still had plenty of snowmen and garlands on the shelves.  I was just glad to get it down before Claire's birthday in a couple of weeks.  

4.  I've written about the game where Claire wipes off my kisses and I make a big deal about it.  She thinks it is hysterical and I get tons of kisses.  I made the comment that I didn't want to see her wipe off anymore kisses. She responded that I should just close my eyes and proceeded to wipe off the kisses with giggles.

3.  Natalie is becoming quite the daredevil.  The girl has no fear.  She will climb everything in site.  She was climbing at daycare one day and her daycare provider called her a daredevil.  She clapped with delight at the name and Claire said, "My daddy calls her that, but my mommy calls her a stinker."  Oh the things she must hear!

2.  Claire and Natalie were playing the movie, "Bolt" together.  Really, Claire was playing Bolt and made Natalie be Bolt the dog.  Claire was calling Natalie to her, "Come here Bolt. Come here!" Natalie just sat up on her knees and shook her head no.  She wouldn't budge as long as Claire called her Bolt.  We've got two strong willed girls on our hands!

1.  My favorite laugh of the week happened in the morning as we were getting out of the car at daycare.  Claire always has her sippy cup with juice and her breakfast during the ride since we can't ever seem to get breakfast in at home.  I asked Claire to hand me her juice cup and pancakes.  She then informed me that she didn't have juice and pancakes, she had beer and candy corn.  I have NO idea where this came from, but it cracked me up. 

Wordless Wednesday :: Breakfast Time

I love the closeness of sisters!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 14

This is the last daily blog post that I will be doing in regards to our Sleep Easy sleep training journey.  I am ecstatic to be able to report that on day 14 (2.13.12) Natalie SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still somewhat in denial that it really happened, but here is how the night went:

7:53 - I put Natalie in bed

7:56 - Asleep - she was tired!

10:40 - Dreamfeed

There were various times throughout the night that Natalie fussed, but she never even sat up in her bed.  

6:30 - Natalie woke up, sat up and proceeded to put herself back to sleep

7:35 - Natalie started rolling around and I went in to wake her up and congratulate her on her first night with no middle of the night dreamfeeds!

Now I need to learn to sleep through the night!  I was up at 3:00 and 5:15 (of course I then had to go potty otherwise I wouldn't have had to get out of bed), I guess old habits die hard.  It has been over a year since I slept all night long.  The third trimester of my pregnancy had me waking often to go to the bathroom and Natalie is just over 10 months old and had never slept through the night.

This was a very hard process for me.  I can undoubtedly say that it was worth it!  I am still amazed that in two weeks all of the bad sleep habits are nearly gone.  If (that's a really big IF) we have anymore kids, I will not be waiting this long to sleep train that is for sure!  

The difference in our family is astounding, both kids are getting more sleep due to the strict routine we are abiding by and we all have a better temperament.  I feel as though I can function again since I'm not up multiple times a night. This is good for my family, my employer and myself.  

Thank you to everyone who has read about this journey daily and for your thoughts, prayers and encouraging words!!  They were more helpful than you will ever know.  I will continue to update our progress weekly since I'm quickly learning that sleep training is an ongoing process.  

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 13

Thank you all who have been joining me on this journey.  It is nice to know there is so much support!

Yesterday was an off day for us.  Natalie didn't go down for her morning nap until 11 am and her afternoon nap was from 3:30-5:15 so I was concerned if she'd be ready to sleep at night.

Here is how the night went:

7:58 - In bed, she really didn't eat well beforehand.  She never fussed, but was quite restless.  She rolled around trying to get comfortable and just laid awake watching her mobile for the longest time.  I wasn't surprised that she didn't go right to sleep, but I was surprised at how calm she was in her bed.  It was such a great feeling!!
8:35 - Finally asleep.

10:45 - Dreamfeed before I went to bed

I took the advice of so many of you after Day 12 and decided to stretch the middle of the night dreamfeed.  Instead of getting up at 3:30 like I had (or had been trying to) on past nights, I decided to get up at 5:00 to dreamfeed.

5:00 - Dreamfeed 5 minutes (I fell asleep in the chair for a few minutes - oops!)

7:50 - Awake for the day

I am so glad that we are not even to the two week mark and Natalie's sleep habits have so drastically improved. I honestly didn't think we could get to this point in such a short amount of time.  Had it not been for Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer and her Sleep Easy recommendation I would probably still be getting up 2-5 times per night.

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 12

If everything continues this way, I will blog until Day 14 then update weekly.  I feel as though I am blogging the same thing as of late.  Last night had a minor change, but overall it was very similar to the previous days.

Here's our night:

8:20 - In bed, we went to church and got a late start on our nighttime routine.

10:40 - Dreamfeed, but she wasn't very hungry

1:30 - Screamed for 3 minutes then went back to sleep

3:30 - Alarm went off for the scheduled dreamfeed, Ryan woke me up and we both proceeded to go back to bed.

5:15 - I woke up and realized I hadn't gotten up.  Decided to just see how long Natalie would sleep because I just wanted to go back to sleep.

5:30 - Screamed
5:45 - Dreamfeed

8:00 - Up for the day

I am really tempted to just totally skip the dreamfeed from here on out, but I am concerned that she will wake early because of it.  I am torn on what to do.  She went 7 hours between feedings last night and may have gone longer.

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 11

Last night looked like many of the previous nights, however I actually got up on time for the dreamfeed!  Ryan set his alarm and I got right out of bed.  The good news is that aside from some minor fussing which she settled herself down during and two dreamfeeds, Natalie slept nearly 12 hours!

8:06 - In bed, minor fussing
8:18 - Asleep

10:40 - Dreamfeed 7 minutes

3:30 - Dreamfeed 3 minutes.  She really wanted to eat longer and was not so happy when I unlatched her and gave her the pacifier, but quickly went to sleep.

8:00 - Awake for the day

If we can just get rid of that middle of the night dreamfeed!  We will try 2 minutes tonight, 1 minute Sunday night and no dreamfeed on Monday night.  I really, really, really hope it works!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs 2.11.12

Happy weekend!  I am looking forward to *hopefully* sleeping in tomorrow morning.  I am linking up with Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles for the Saturday Laughs Bloghop.  Make sure you stop by and check out all the funny posts, it's a great way to kick off the weekend.

I hope you enjoy our laughs from the past week.

5.  I had turned on Mickey Mouse for Natalie one morning while we were getting ready.  After I got her out of bed, Claire was protesting watching Mickey and decided to take measures into her own hand, literally.  She started pretending that her hand was a remote and was pushing her buttons.  I thought that was rather creative.

4.  Both girls love to play on our bed.  Ryan was hiding under the covers with Natalie and would sit up and yell "surprise".  Everyone was cracking up, but Natalie was laughing the hardest.  She would get so excited every time the covers were whipped off, that she would jump so hard that she nearly stood up.

3.  Tonight during her bath, Claire was testing her limits.  She was being very rude and rather mean.  Everything was "NO" or "don't say that" or "stop talking".  Can attitude start already with a nearly 3 year old?! She had to get out of the bath without getting to play (again making mommy very unpopular).  At this point, I was thankful that Ryan got to deal with Miss Attitude and I took Natalie to her room to feed her.  When it was time for Claire to go to bed, she asked me to carry her like a baby.  She then informed me that she "was a mean baby in her bath, but is now a nice baby."  At least she understood that she was being mean?

2.  Speaking of baths, the girls often take a bath together.  Claire loves to blow raspberries on Natalie's back and belly.  As Claire was about to raspberry Natalie's back, she stood up and Claire's lips landed squarely on Natalie's booty.  I laughed until I cried!

1.  Claire has a large stuffed cowboy Woody doll from Toy Story.  She calls him 'Big Woody' since she also has a smaller stuffed cowboy.  That in itself is funny, but this week she gave Big Woody to Ryan to hold while she went to do something.  As she was running away, she yells, "Daddy, you're holding your favorite Woody!"  We both busted up laughing.  

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 10

I honestly didn't think I would make it this long.  Don't get me wrong, it is challenging hard, really hard.  Natalie has done a great job learning to sleep, but the challenge comes in getting up to the alarm at all hours of the night during this weaning process. I just don't want to do it.  I want to sleep as long as she does.  I want to  feed her when she wakes up at 5:00.  The only thing that keeps me going is my memories, I remember that we've been down that path before.  I went back to work when Natalie was eight weeks old and she was only waking for her 4 am feeding.  Fast forward 6-7 months and we were waking at least three times a night, sometimes as often as every hour throughout the night.  I do not want to go back there, ever.  So I keep pressing on, however I now must enlist help from Ryan.  I am starting to hit snooze or flat out sleep through my alarm for the scheduled dreamfeed.  So I have asked Ryan to set his alarm and make me get out of bed.  We are getting so close (insert wishful thinking font here) to sleeping for long stretches and I must press on.

Last night looked quite similar to the past few nights:

8:00 - Natalie was in bed. There was minimal fussing, but lots of playing with the six pacifiers in her bed
8:12 - Asleep.

10:30 - Dreamfeed before I went to bed

3:00 - Start of alarm sequence - which continued until 4:30 when Natalie fussed and I cursed myself for not getting out of bed at the scheduled time.  If I had just gotten up, she probably wouldn't have woke up! She cried off and on for 13 minutes

4:50 - Went in to dreamfeed Natalie, she had been quiet and still for 7 minutes so I assumed she had gone back to sleep.  When I opened her door, she sat right up - ugh!!  I fed her, but kept her awake.  She ate for 3 minutes, I put her in bed awake and she went right back to sleep.

7:30 - Natalie began stirring, but kept going back to sleep
7:50 - Up for the day (yes I was late to work this morning)

It is a good thing that I keep being reminded to look 'on paper' to see our progress.  I can see it on paper, I am more tired than ever so I don't feel it.  If someone would have told me 10 days ago that Natalie would soon only get up once/night I would have been ecstatic.  I need to remember that perspective to keep motivated to do this.  This is short term, even if it takes a month (written with pleading, "please no" undertone here).  When we're done she will know how to sleep and that is a lesson that will help all of us for the long term future.

Happy 10 Months Miss Natalie Sue

We have entered the double digit months!  Very quickly Natalie is growing into a toddler, right before my eyes.  The list of things that she is able to do is exponentially expanding.  

Here are some of the milestones of the month:

• She has started walking behind walkers, chairs and anything that will push.  

• She is signing "more" "all-done" and "milk"
• She often says "mu" when signing milk
• Waves and says "buh-buh"
• Natalie loves to pray at dinner.  She folds her hands and claps after we say amen.
• She blows kisses and likes to make blah, blah sounds while moving her hand over her mouth to change the tone
• Hates being told no, she gets very upset
• She will try to climb anything in her path

• That second bottom tooth came through.  She has six more on the way, but they are moving slow.
• Natalie loves to see babies.  In person, in pictures or herself in the mirror.  She sometimes says "be-be" and giggles with delight.
• She prefers to take bites of food rather than have small pieces on her high chair.

• She has recently began exploring things in her world through touch.  She loves to touch all the animals of her mobile before I lay her down in bed. She is becoming very aware of the world around her.
• The nights are getting better thanks to SleepEasy sleep training.  We are on our 10th night and beginning to see some progress.  I am hoping by the time I write another monthly update, that is a milestone that we can include!!

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 9

I can't believe that tonight will be the tenth day of sleep training.  In so many ways, it feels SO much longer.  Our whole family now has mild colds, the girls seem to have it worse than Ryan or myself.  I feel my body fighting it, so I am really hoping to get some sleep!

Our night went very well, even better than the night before.

8:02 - I put Natalie in bed, she didn't cry at all.
8:10 - Asleep

10:30 - Dreamfeed before I went to bed.

I was supposed to get up at 2:30 and dreamfeed again, however I hit snooze and finally turned off the alarm.  I woke up at 4:55.  Obviously, Natalie either woke and put herself back to sleep without fussing or did not wake at all.  She went 5 1/2 hours between feeds!  Incredible!

4:55 - Dreamfeed for 4 minutes

7:30 - Natalie happily woke up on her own.

Last night was a first for us, there was absolutely no crying throughout the entire night (11.5 hours)!  She went to sleep and stayed asleep the whole night (or at least fussed only a little since it didn't wake me up)!!!  I love being able to update with progress :-)

Thanks to everyone who is following our journey and your prayers for sleep!  The encouragement has been so helpful!

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 8

We have officially crossed the one-week mark.  For the first night in quite a few posts, I feel like we made solid progress last night!  I am so excited to finally be able to write those words.  I understand that in the grand scheme of things, this is short term, but while in the thick, it sure feels long.

Here is the summary of the night:

8:02 - I put Natalie in bed, she did not fuss at all.
8:09 - Asleep

10:38 - Dreamfeed (At this feeding I have started letting her eat as long as she wants to in hopes that she "stocks up" for the night.  I don't mind this feeding since it is nice to sit in her quiet dark room before heading to bed.)

11:14 - Cried for a minute and went right back to sleep

3:15 - Dreamfeed for 4 minutes (this is the feeding I am going to work on weaning first)

6:00 - Natalie woke up, sat up and began protesting.  She was pretty worked up but settled down after 5 minutes, laid down 3 minutes later and was back asleep shortly after.

7:15 - Pseudo dreamfeed - she woke up while eating for the day

Natalie slept with minimal interruption for 10 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now if we can just get rid of that middle of the night feeding and keep this sleep pattern, we will be in business.

Thank you for following our journey and for the support!!  I am hoping this is the start of a trend with Miss Natalie :-)

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 7

Day 7 was way more challenging than the first six days.  This was also the day where I learned my breaking point. Claire has shared her cold with her little sister and Natalie has been congested the last couple days.  So I was concerned how this would impact our sleep training.  We had a rough night, but I am not sure if the cold was the culprit or not.  Here is how our night went.

7:53 - Natalie was beginning to fall asleep while nursing so I promptly put her in bed
8:03 - Asleep, she never sat up

I was planning to dreamfeed her at 10:30.  However our challenging time began just before that.

10:20 - Screamed for two minutes.
I then wanted to wait 10 minutes after she was quiet to make sure she was totally asleep.
10:31 - Screamed again, this time stood up in full protest.
This pattern continued for nearly an hour.  The time in between the protesting was beginning to get shorter and she was not laying down as much any longer.  When she would lay down she was extremely restless and wouldn't hold still.  A minute 'quiet time'  between screaming outbursts became a long time.
11:15 - Decided that Ryan would go in for a check-in
11:20 - Natalie hadn't settled down at all and her cry was becoming more intense and sharp sounding.  Both Ryan and I agreed that something seemed wrong rather than just protesting being alone.
11:25 - I went in and held her to get her to calm down.  She was quite congested and it took a long time for her to settle down.  Once she calmed down, I fed her but I was careful to not let her fall asleep while nursing.
11:35 - I put Natalie back in her bed, she protested but quickly quieted down
11:42 - Asleep

2:45 - Dreamfeed

6:30 - Dreamfeed

8:00 - I woke Natalie for the day.

Looking back, I am unsure if she wasn't feeling well or if it was the final "extinction burst" as it is called in the book.  It is one last final push for the 'old way' before they totally give into the sleep training method.  I am still stumped today.  I guess time will tell.  At the time it was happening, I was sure something wasn't right, but now I am doubting myself.

I am encouraged that Natalie slept for over 8 consecutive hours.  That is a big accomplishment in our world.  I scheduled her first dreamfeed a little earlier today to see if she could get past that fussy time that she has had the last few days that normally begins somewhere between 10:20-11:30.

Tomorrow marks a week for our sleep training.  Natalie will be 10 months old on Thursday, I can't believe it has been that long since I have slept through the night!  I am hoping that by the time she's 11 months old, I will be sleeping again :-)

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 6

I think instead of Day 6 we should name last night, "Mommy fail". Again we are making baby-step progress, but I was not helping the situation one bit.

Here is the summary of our night:

7:55 - Natalie was in bed
8:10 - Asleep, with absolutely no crying

I put Claire to bed at 8:30, wrote yesterdays update and by 9:45 I could hardly keep my eyes open. Ryan noticed that I grabbed a blanket and put the recliner into recline mode. Since me falling asleep at this point is inevitable, he suggested that we should go to bed. He watched television in our room while I fell asleep in 3.2 seconds after my head hit the pillow. I had set my alarm for 11:00 pm, my first scheduled dreamfeed. Apparently, I was tired because Ryan said he did everything in his power to wake me up when the alarm went off and it just wasn't happening.

11:15 - Natalie woke up screaming, which woke me up and then I finally turned the alarm off (sorry Ryan!). She screamed for 4 minutes before settling back down. I was going to wait for 10 minutes of silence before entering her room to make sure she was actually asleep before dreamfeeding. I didn't set the alarm (obviously wasn't thinking there) and went back to sleep myself.

2:35 - Natalie cried, I woke up and realized that I had totally skipped her first dreamfeed. I really needed to feed her!
2:45- Dreamfed her for 7 minutes (instead of the scheduled 3) since I needed her to eat longer for my sake.  I also was feeling awful about skipping the first feeding and wanted to let her eat as much as she would have if we had done the 4 minute and 3 minute feedings.
2:52 - Put Natalie in bed, somewhat awake.  She rolled over and went right back to sleep.

6:15 - Dreamfeed for 4 minutes

7:45 - I woke Natalie up for the day.

The good news is that she went 7 hours between feedings.  This is a stretch that I didn't think she was capable of.  We also only had two dreamfeedings throughout the night.  However, I am a bit worried that I set us back with my longer feeding and sleeping through the first dreamfeed.

We are nearing in on a week since we began the sleep training, I sure hope that things really start to click this week!  We should be done with at least one dreamfeed in the next few days.

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 5

I would like to thank everyone who has been so supportive of our sleep training. It is a huge encouragement during this physical and emotional challenge. I am starting to feel fatigued from waking to the alarm clock to dreamfeed and waking when Natalie cries. Like so many of the nights, last night was a combination of success and set-back.

Here is how it went:

8:05 - Natalie was in bed, she didn't cry or complain one bit, but it took her 15 minutes to fall asleep

11:18 - She screamed for 3 minutes and was very angry

11:30 - Dreamfeed, she somewhat woke up when I got her out of bed. I wondered if I didn't let her sleep for a long enough time after the screaming

2-3:25 - She was angry, very unsettled. She was rolling around a lot and fussing quite a bit. There was lots and lots of up and down throughout the hour. However, since she kept settling herself down we didn't go in her room to do any checks.

3:35 - Dreamfeed: again, she woke up when I entered the room. I think I need to give her a longer time after fussing to feed her.

7:00 - She began to stir and since it has nearly been 11 hours since she initially went to sleep, I woke her up rather than doing another dreamfeed (we wanted her to take an earlier morning nap anyway).

She took two pretty good naps today, but again had a hard time going to sleep. Lots of playing in her bed (which is MUCH better than screaming).

I am encouraged that the feedings were stretched once again she went 4 hours twice and 3.5 hours once. I also count it as a success that there were technically only two dreamfeeds and one was before I even went to bed. However, she was quite unsettled awoke easily. The fussy time for 1.5 hours was perplexing since she had been doing better settling down. However, I read that they often have a setback sometime in the first week so I am hopeful that is now over with.

I know this system will work, it may take a little longer than I had anticipated. It will be so worth it when we sleep through the night!!

Natalie also has the signs of the start of the cold that has been plaguing her sister. I am hoping that this doesn't set us back too far, but I also know how to get us back on track.

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. I am hoping to blog about more exciting things in the very near future ;-)

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 4

Day four felt very much like days two and three. I don't know how to feel about this. On one had I am VERY thankful that she hasn't had an awful night, but on the other-hand I was really hoping for some more progress. Typical me, I am having a hard time being patient.

Here is how our night went:

7:59 - Natalie was in her bed
8:06 - Asleep

10:20 - Fussy for two minutes

10:55 - Dreamfeed for 5 minutes

I set my alarm for 2:00, apparently I didn't want to get up and hit snooze until 2:45.

2:45 - Dreamfeed for 5 minutes

4:30 - Natalie was standing and screaming
4:35 - Asleep

5:45 - Dreamfeed for 4 minutes

8:15 - Woke up on her own

There were a few other times through the night that she fussed, but it wasn't long enough to even write down. So here we are again, she fussed more times than the previous night but the duration of each time was shorter. We did successfully push her feedings past three hours as she went 3.5 and 4 hours so I am encouraged in that regard. I am ready to not set my alarm any longer. I do know that the system works, and I will continue to dreamfeed until she is successfully weaned.

I think I will try to push her feedings again tonight in hopes that she gets used to not having a full tummy and is able to stay asleep.

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Happy February!  I will call January the month of the sick children in our house.  Historically, January has been a bad health month in our family and this year was no different.  I was ready for it to leave and hopefully have healthy kids.  Claire woke up yesterday morning with a nasty head cold that made her miserable the last two days.  I am really hoping that Natalie will avoid it so her sleep training progress can continue.  I have been rather consumed with this (yes, I get neurotic over things and obsess just a little bit) so I know we had many more laughs than what I wrote down.  In my sleep deprived state, I just can't remember them all!  So I must apologize since they are a little weak.

5.  Claire finds this little game we play especially funny and it is one of my favorites.  She likes to wipe off my kisses and thinks she is the funniest thing when I make a big deal that she wiped it off.  I pretend to get all mad and hold her hands so she can't wipe them off.  Of course she always wipes them off and I get to give her more ;-)  This week, she wants me to wipe off her kisses which makes for twice the un-protested kisses!

4.  Natalie has started the "So Big" game.  She laughs so hard when you ask her how big she is.  She throws her arms in the air and screams when we exclaim, "So Big!"

3. I was putting our things in the car one afternoon after day care and Claire wanted to get in right away.  She began pushing on my butt and yelled, "Mom, move your big booty!"  I replied, "Claire, that's not very nice to talk to Mommy like that, how do you ask nice?"  Claire said, "Mom, move your big booty, please!"  I seriously cracked up.  Earlier in the day, my co-workers and I were discussing the Brazil Butt Lift exercise video. I guess it's time to invest!

2.  Natalie has started to pat my back when I pick her up.  She rests her head on my shoulder and pats my back.  It is so cute!!  I just love it!

1.  My favorite laugh of the week was told to me by our day care provider.  Claire and her friend Taylor were playing with dolls.  Taylor had a bottle to feed her baby, but Claire did not.  Taylor told Claire that her baby wasn't able to eat until after Taylor was done with the bottle.  Claire responded, "It's ok, I am feeding my baby with my booby"  I guess Taylor looked at our day care lady like this girl is crazy!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Make sure you check out the rest of the laughs hosted by Melissa at The Mommyhood Chronicles

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 3

I'm not really certain if we made progress on day three, but we did not go backwards.  I was certainly more tired today, but I am always tired by the end of a week.

Here is how our night went yesterday:

7:45 - Natalie in bed awake
8:02 - Asleep with hardly any crying, just the initial protest when I walked out of the room

10:40 - Dreamfeed, 7 minutes.  Natalie didn't wake up at all, put her back in bed with no response.

2:00 - Dreamfeed, 6 minutes.  Natalie woke up when I put her in bed, but rolled over and went right back to sleep.

4:35 - Woke up, stood and screamed in bed for a few minutes, continued to fuss on and off while laying down and rolling around
4:50 - Asleep

5:00 - Scheduled dreamfeed.  However, Claire woke up when her pull-up leaked and I went in to change her bedding.

5:12 - Natalie started screaming while wrapping up with Claire.  This was such a bummer since I was just about to head to her room to feed her!  She was fussing a little more than she had 45 minutes earlier, but not enough where we felt like we had to do our check-ins.  She was laying down for the most part.  Ryan and I agreed that it would probably just cause her to be more upset if we went in.
5:27 - She was laying still and quiet.  I decided to wait five minutes before I went to dreamfeed her.
5:32 - Headed to her room to dreamfeed.  Natalie cried as I was about to open her door.
5:37 - Dreamfeed while pseudo-awake

7:45 - Woke Natalie up

Natalie made progress by decreasing the number of times that she was awake.  In addition, she slept her longest consecutive stretch (8:00-4:30).  However when she was awake the fussing increased and it seemed to take her longer to settle down both times.  I am not sure if this is an improvement or more of a lateral move.  I am hoping to see very real progress over the weekend!

Please keep the sleep prayers coming!  I so thankful that I am seeing progress, but I know that our dreamfeeds are getting shorter.  We are getting closer to stopping them all together.  This makes me nervous, since she hasn't increased her daily calorie intake very much.  I don't want her waking out of hunger (or the habit of eating) and setting us back.

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 2

The second night went much like the first, but I would say it was ever so slightly improved.  With Sleep Easy, you are told to keep a sleep chart to help see the progress so I  was pleasantly surprised to see that Natalie was fully awake less times.  However, there were a couple times that she cried for a longer amount of time than the previous night.  These crying spells were not a constant cry though so I will again call that a victory.

Here is how our night went:

8:02 - Natalie was in bed
8:10 - Asleep

11:00 - Dreamfeed 7 minutes, she stayed asleep when I put her back in bed

11:20 - Woke up, found her pacifier and was back to sleep very quickly

I had set my alarm to wake her at 2:00 to dreamfeed, but Natalie had other plans:
1:58 - Woke up, stood up, then quickly laid down then continued to complain occasionally
2:11 - Asleep

2:23 - Dreamfeed 7 minutes

I turned my alarm off at the 5:00 scheduled dreamfeed and went back to sleep - oops
6:14 - Dreamfeed 6 minutes

7:45 - Woke Natalie up for the morning

She didn't take a morning nap again today, but laid there for over an hour.  She took a three hour afternoon nap.

For the first time in a long time, Natalie drank both her bottles in full today at daycare!  A welcomed sign to a pumping mama who doesn't like to dump milk :-)  I am hopeful that this means she is going to start taking more calories during the daylight hours, making night-time weaning much easier.

I also have noticed a huge difference in myself.  I am enjoying time with my kids much more.  I am less impatient and everyone is getting more sleep.  We are even putting Claire to bed earlier since quiet time begins at 8:00.  I am sure my family, friends and co-workers notice a difference since I'm not complaining about the lack of sleep and walking around like a zombie.

Thank you to everyone who is following our journey and all your prayers and encouragement.  It is appreciated more than you realize!

Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 1

It wasn't as bad as I originally thought it would be. It almost felt a little too good to be true!  Here is how our night went:

7:45 - Nursed Natalie and tried to keep her awake
8:00 - In her crib awake, standing and screaming when I left the room
8:05 - Laid down
8:11 - Asleep
Since she has been able to put herself down initially, I was not terribly excited at this point and I just waited for her to wake up.

10:03 - Woke up, standing and screaming
10:07 - Laid down
10:08 - Asleep
This was a victory since she had yet to do this.  Granted, I was always very quick to get her and feed her in an attempt to keep her from fully waking up.  I didn't nurse her and she went right back to sleep!

11:08 - Go in room to get her up to dreamfeed, realized that Natalie had a messy diaper and had to be changed.  Dreamfeed for 10 minutes first since I didn't want her to fall asleep nursing after the diaper change
11:18 - Diaper change
11:20 - In her crib, standing and screaming when I left the room
11:20 and 30 seconds - Laid down
11:21 - Asleep

11:35 - Woke up, standing and screaming
11:39 - Laid down, she was still a little fussy (protesting cries rather than screams)
11:48 - Asleep

2:38 - Dreamfeed - wouldn't eat longer than 7 minutes
2:45 - In her crib and asleep

5:10 - Woke up, standing and screaming
5:12 - Laid down
5:35-6:00 - Restless, rolling around and fussing but not awake
6:02 - Asleep, I went in to dreamfeed
6:09 - In her crib and asleep

7:45 - Began to move around, I went in and woke her up

I am encouraged after night one since it seems to be working.  She is actually putting herself back to sleep!!  Not only that, but she did not get up from 11:48-5:10, that's the longest stretch she's had in a very long time.  I realize that this is just the beginning and we are far from the end, but I am hoping that she gets it soon!!

For her naps today, I asked her daycare provider to wait at least two hours before putting her down for the morning nap.  She did as I requested, but Natalie just laid there quietly for an hour and a half without sleeping.    She took nearly a three hour nap in the afternoon.  I really hope that she's not over-tired tonight.  Time will tell.

As I wrap up this post, Natalie is in bed.  She went down at 8:02, laid down almost immediately and then alternated between laying, sitting and standing with some crying.  She was asleep at 8:10.

I appreciate all the encouragement and prayers!! I can truly feel the strength from them.  I am no longer anxious over the process, I have a peace that this needs to be done for all of us.  I am praying that night two is an improvement.