finally

This is a good day. Rider slept all the way through the night last night! Gosh, what a difference a consistent night of sleep makes! And it hasn’t been horrible- Rider has always been a very good sleeper and has only ever woken us up once maybe twice during the nights to eat. He always goes right back down to sleep and so we’ve been relatively rested since he was born. Well, I’ve still been exhausted but it hasn’t really been because of a lack of sleep. It’s just hard when you aren’t getting consistent sleep, you know?

Last night I fed him around 10:30 and put him to bed. I was fully expecting to wake up around 3:30 or 4 to feed him. But I woke up at 4:30 am, jolted awake wondering why I hadn’t heard from Mr. Rider yet. I went into his room to check on him just to make sure that he was still breathing, and of course he was. He was swaddled in his blanket, sleeping away in his comfy little room. I was for sure that I was going to crawl back into bed and five minutes later he’d wake up. I went back to sleep and didn’t hear from him until 6:30 am!!

We were so excited that he did it on his own. And he’s not even quite seven weeks old yet! I’m so happy that we chose to do Babywise with our kids. Given that if you approach it with balance in your life, it can work for most kids. I am confident in that. Our kids have both gained healthy weight and learned tremendously good sleeping habits through this method. And sleep is something that is SO important for kids and adults. We are a happier family when everyone is sleeping well.

I am aware, however, that it was only ONE night so far. We’ll see how tonight goes. I am grateful for today, however. Jason and I are rested. Cruz and Rider are rested. Everyone wins.

balance

Both boys are actually napping at the same time, so I actually have a few minutes to write! I’ve been meaning to write since my last post, but as you can imagine, I’m still trying to figure out life as a mommy of two. Everything has changed about our schedule and the amount of time I have to get everything done! Yes, balancing my life has been a challenge these days and I’m still trying to get the hang of it.

Rider has started sleeping longer stretches through the night, which is HUGE. I just don’t do well without much sleep, so these first couple weeks have been especially hard. I am doing Babywise again, like I did with Cruz, and it’s getting Rider on a schedule/routine of sorts. I LOVE Babywise and believe in it wholeheartedly, I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks or says about it. It’s worked wonders for our children and they have completely thrived on it. I think mostly because I approach it with balance, always feed them when they’re hungry, and wake them during the day to eat. It’s been awesome. So finally Rider is going from about 11:00 pm to about 4:00 am, waking only once to eat in the middle of the night and then we’re up for the day by 7:30 am. So now that we are at the beginning of some good sleep habits, I am finally trying to figure out how to balance everything ELSE in my life, besides sleep.

There’s so much to balance as a mamma. There’s the kids, which is obvious. Balancing everything they need IS a full time job within itself. Then I have my actual full time job that helps provide for us. Finding time to edit and answer emails and process photos is a challenging new task for me. Before Rider was born, I had a very scheduled day, every day, with times allotted for work, play and other things. Now that Rider has turned out schedule upside down, we are trying to figure it out and I’m trying to stay on top of it! It’s HARD. Being a stay at home working mom is very exhausting. THEN, there’s cleaning, laundry, meals AND making time to get out of the house and do fun things with family and the kids.

There’s seriously not enough hours in the day. I wish I could hire a maid to do the cleaning/cooking. I would if I could and I’m serious. Finding time to shower is a challenge, let alone CLEAN.

I am trying to find a balance in this new life we are living these days! And it’s hard work! I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I knew that I would be exhausted. And I knew that life would be different than it was before Rider was born. So I’m now trying to adjust to a new normal routine/schedule and way of doing things. It’s an exhausting job. BUT, at the end of every single day, I am ever so grateful that I can work from home. That I’m here to take Cruz and Rider out to run errands or go outside and play. And that I am able to work at an art that I deeply love. So while I am so exhausted, I am once again trying to keep it in perspective that I am a very fortunate girl. I gotta stop trying to be ‘super woman’ because there isn’t anyone in the world that actually is that. It’s OK if the laundry piles up and if we eat macaroni and cheese an extra night a week.

Finding a balance doesn’t mean things have got to be perfect. I’m learning that it just means making sure that the things that are important are taken care of first. And everything else sort of takes care of itself.

Sort of. Ha. It’s a work in progress.

fun with chalk

I had to go down to the DES office the other day to take care of some insurance stuff. You know how that goes. You pull a number, and wait in an endless line in a room that smells like urine. True story. I got there at 8:30 am and there was already a huge line that I was going to have to wait in. So I grabbed a seat and pulled out a short book to read to pass the time, which was Toddlerwise by Gary Ezzo. If you know anything about me, you know that I am a Babywise mom. I love Babywise and have implemented their theories and methods ever since Cruz was born. I know and understand the controversy behind Babywise, but it totally worked for us and I stand behind it 100%. I’ll be using it in the same way with Rider once he’s born. It totally made our life with a newborn so much easier in so many more ways than one.

This post isn’t all about Babywise, I promise.

When I was at DES, I brought my Toddlerwise book to read. I’m severely behind on my reading and should have completed Toddlerwise a long time ago. But I’m still slowly reading it and using bits and pieces of it in our every day to day routine with Cruz. One small part that the book focused on was structured play and how important it is for YOU as the parent to pick activities that your kids are going to do throughout the day. That is shows them that THEY aren’t the only ones who can pick what they want to play with and that you are in control by guiding them in choosing activities for them some of the time. As I read this, I realized that I don’t really do this enough with Cruz. Sometimes he’ll color or we’ll go swimming etc. But I don’t have activities for him to do on a daily basis. But not only that, he hasn’t really shown much of an interest really. So I read all about it and then my number at DES was called and that was the end of that.

I get home and Cruz and Jay had spent the morning swimming. It was almost lunch time and they were drying off and changing clothes. There was probably about a thirty minute time span before it would be time for lunch, and I didn’t even really think about how I would fill the time. Jay jumped in the shower and I started picking up/tidying the house a little bit while Cruz played. At one point, I looked over and saw that Cruz was just picking up toys and throwing them for no reason. He was kind of wandering around the house, moaning a little, throwing toys.

He’s bored, I thought. It totally dawned on me. He’s never really acted bored before, but I knew he was bored.

So I searched the cupboards for crayons. Then I remembered that I had to throw those away because Cruz was EATING THEM. I don’t have paints because, well, he’s not even two yet. Then I came across some Easter egg chalk that my sister gave to Cruz at Easter time. They look like eggs, but are chalk that you can draw on the sidewalk with. At Easter, he was still to little to understand how to color, but recently he’s shown more of an interest in it. But I had never thought of how COOL chalk would be for him!

So I pulled it down and asked him if he wanted to color. He started giggling with glee and so I grabbed a sheet of paper and prepared to have him color in his highchair. He lasted for two minutes with this set up.

I’m not sure why I thought he’d want to color with chalk on paper. I’m kind of new to this and I honestly didn’t want to put shoes on the kid and go outside twenty minutes before lunch. THEN, it dawned on me again! Our porch! He can play with the chalk on our porch and we can just wash it away afterwards.

I mean, seriously, you’re probably reading this thinking, “Wow Jess. This isn’t rocket science!” and I know that it’s not. But it literally never occurred to me that he might be ready to start doing different kinds of crafts and such. I should have thought of it, but I just didn’t. So I asked him if we wanted to go color outside and his little face knew EXACTLY what I was talking about and couldn’t wait to get onto that porch fast enough!

HE HAD SO MUCH FUN.

So I grabbed the camera, of course and snapped a few pictures of him experimenting with chalk and having a blast!

Then he started making a mess and all of me was cringing inside at the chalk that was covering his clothes and legs and arms and hands. And all of me let it happen because let’s face it, getting dirty as a kid is what it’s all about and it’s fun! And after all, it was just chalk!

Then he started getting tired and hungry. So we wrapped things up to go inside. But we were out there for probably a good thirty minutes, just playing with something as simple as chalk! It made me realize how important structured play is for a kiddo his age and how I need to start thinking of ideas that would entertain, nurture and teach him new things. Wow they grow up fast, huh?

If you’re a mamma or have any ideas or thoughts of different things you do with your kiddos, I would love to hear them! I need some inspirational and age appropriate ideas for crafts and structured play that I can begin to do with Cruz. Please leave your comment below!

one nap

I can finally, and officially, blog about the fact that Cruz is officially down to one nap! It finally happened. I thought he was going to hang onto that morning nap until Jr. High. Good grief! But after several weeks of taking a morning nap one day and skipping it the next, he has finally given in up and is completely down to one nap. So our days now look like this:

7:30 am- Cruz wakes up and has breakfast. He plays or we run errands or go to the park until lunchtime.

11:00 am- Lunch

12:30 pm- Nap time

4:00- Wakes up, has a snack and plays

5:30 pm- Dinner

7:00 pm- Bath time

7:30 pm- Bed time

Yes, you read all this right. He naps for 3.5 to 4 hours and he sleeps 12 hours every night. It is awesome. I completely attribute his healthy sleeping and eating habits to Babywise, which is quite controversial, I know. But it worked for us and Cruz thrived on it, gaining healthy weight and was sleeping through the night by the time he was 12 weeks old. That means, I have been sleeping through the night since he was three months old.

Bring on the hate mail. I don’t care what anyone says, Babywise is amazing. And like anything, there is a healthy balance you have to find and figure out the needs of your child. That’s exactly what we did while implementing Babywise, and we have had a fantastic experience.

And I am fully aware that there are many parents who don’t use Babywise whose children thrive brilliantly. I am aware.

But this post isn’t about Babywise. I was wanting to share that he is officially down to one nap, which totally frees up my morning with him. It allows us to get out and about and not have to rush home for this nap. Then he sleeps so well in the afternoon, which equally allows me to get a lot of work done. I’m so happy with this schedule and it only took 17 months to get there! I’m glad that it will be here to stay for a while.

I’m a big believer in naps and Cruz will nap until he’s 5, if I have anything to say about it! Ha!

4 hour schedule… finally

We made it!

To the schedule that I have been working towards- the amazing 4 hour schedule! We have finally arrived.

Aside from Cruz thinking that it’s a good idea to wake up at 5:30 am, we are on a pretty consistent schedule.

A schedule that makes him seem more like a kid and less like a baby.

(Do I need to say once again how this makes me happy and sad at the same time? I didn’t think so.)

His schedule looks like this:

7:30 am- formula & solids

9:30 am- nap

11:30 am- formula & solids

1:30 pm- nap

3:30 pm- formula (he skips the next nap)

7:00 pm- formula & solids

8:00 pm- bedtime

It’s awesome. It gives me more time during the day to get stuff done. He eats more at each feeding, but less times during the day. He’s awake more.

He’s such a little man.

So all the work and patiently waiting for him to achieve this schedule on his own was totally worth it! I wanted to make sure that if he needed more naps or feedings during the day, that he got them. I didn’t want to drop naps and feedings until I was sure that he was ready. The transition has been seamless.

I really love this schedule and plan to stick with it for a while.

He’s still waking before his scheduled waketime. But he just babbles in there happily, dozes, wakes & babbles, dozes etc. At 7:30 am I go in there no matter what to get him or wake him up to start our day. As long as he’s happy in there, I let him be until it’s time to get up. It’s working so I’m just rolling with it.

He’s happy. I’m happy. Jason’s happy.

When we’re all content and happy, it’s glorious.

* This is a picture of Cruz with our dog Audio. To say that Cruz loves Audio would be an understatement. They are buddies for life, I’m pretty sure. 

disrupted nights

*Sigh*

Cruz is doing weird things. I’m tired of him doing weird things because it’s difficult to keep track, keep count and keep UP.

Cruz has decided that he only needs 10 hours of sleep at night, instead of the usually 11.5-12 that he has been doing up until now. Not a big deal, right?

Well, when you put your baby to bed at 7:30 pm expecting him to sleep until at least 6:30 am, it’s a rude awakening to hear him babbling in his crib, ready for the day… at 5:00 am.

Now, I realize that I am blessed. Cruz is and always has been a champion sleeper. With the exception of a few naps, he’s mostly always slept well and has been sleeping through the night since he was 6 weeks old. I am spoiled. Along with being spoiled, I am NOT a morning person. I’m learning to be more so, but it’s really hard for me to get up any earlier than 7:30- and that’s a big stretch.

I put him to bed last night at 8:00 pm. And at 5:30 this morning, he was talking and playing in his crib. He never cried, so I left him there to see if he would go back to sleep. He must have. Or I did.

Either way, I woke up at 7:00 am to the same little babbles coming from his room. (aw… he’s so cute) So I’m grateful he let me sleep in, but is it really necessary for him to be up at 5:30 am?? I just don’t think there’s ever a very good reason.

Needless to say, I am not sure how to “trouble shoot” this one. Should I cut out a nap? Maybe. Should he have a later bedtime? Possibly. Is he not eating enough during the day? I don’t see how that’s possible. Should I just get up earlier? Nope.

It’s frustrating when they change their schedules or just suddenly do new things and you have no idea why. It’s even more frustrating to try to figure out how to fix it or not fix it. By the time it fixes itself, he’ll just be doing something else new and confusing.

I think he does it on purpose.

babywise 2

I don’t care what anyone says about these books- I love them.

I just got Babywise 2 in the mail yesterday… I ordered this book used from Amazon.com. It cost me .01 plus the shipping. So $4 total.

I love Babywise because it really has helped us to lay the foundation in teaching Cruz how to sleep and eat. I know that babies already will do this out of instinct BUT- it is important to teach them proper eating habits, which lead to healthy sleeping habits. Cruz has been sleeping through the night since he was 6 weeks old. He would sleep 6 hours straight which for a six week old is considered sleeping through the night. He takes great naps and is a well adjusted little kid.

I am all about Babywise despite the controversy- which to be honest- I don’t get anyways. Anything can be harmful for your kid if taken to the extreme. If you’ve read the books then you will understand that Babywise is all about finding balance in your child’s life.

At least that’s how I’ve interpreted it. So has Jason. Anytime anyone brings up the controversy of Babywise we just look at each other like ‘they must be crazy!’. Simply because it has worked so well for us.

I started reading this last night and I am sure that I will have a lot more to say once I get further into the book. If you haven’t read Babywise, you should. If you have read it and hate it, that’s fine. It’s working well for us and for Cruz. Cruz is the healthiest, most alert, energetic little man ever. So I have found no problems with this method. But at the end of the day it’s important to find something that works well for you and your baby.

And if it’s not Babywise, then that’s OK.

sweet peas

I don’t know if I was supposed to introduce a green vegetable yet, but I went for it!

Yesterday, Cruz had his first shot at sweet peas! Man, this little guy can eat anything. He scarfed it right down smiling the entire time! It was too cute!

I love introducing new foods into his diet because then we have more options! I try to only introduce one new item and stick to that food for a few days to make sure he’s not allergic. So far he’s not allergic to anything and eats everything. He’s not picky in the slightest.

I’m getting ready to purchase the next Babywise book, ‘On Becoming Babywise II, Parenting Your Pre-toddler- 5-15 months’.

Pre-toddler?? Oh Lord. Time is flying!

Cruz will be 6 months old on Sunday and he’s already a complete master of rolling over. The first time he ever rolled over, it was from his back to his belly. Now he can roll from all directions, so even though he’s not crawling or scooting yet, he is somewhat mobile! I found that out the hard way when I put him on the floor to play upstairs before his bath… I was running the water and he rolled onto his back, onto the tile, and bonked his head. That’s the moment I knew that it had begun- the beginning of chasing him around and making sure he doesn’t bonk his head. (no tears though! He’s a trooper!)

So we’re rolling over and eating green vegetables these days. And we are getting ready to take him to California for his first look at the Pacific Ocean! That should be an experience since it will be our first long trip since he was born. We went to Flagstaff and Payson when he was 2 months old, but it wasn’t hard since it’s only a couple hours away. So it should be interesting.

dream feed no more!

I am happy to announce that Cruz has been sleeping 12 hours each night since this past weekend! I’ve been threatening to drop his dream feed (the last feeding of the night- he sleeps through it!) for quite sometime now. But I have been afraid to because I didn’t know if he would wake up in the middle of the night hungry. The dream feed would ensure that his little belly was full for the entire night which has been enabling him to sleep through the night.

I really didn’t want to risk ruining his schedule just to drop the dream feed.

We’ve had to wake him up for this feeding for quite some time- which is a sign that they are ready to drop it. He’s never been “mad” before- always a little disoriented but he eats, we change him and he goes right back down with no problems. But this past Sunday night he was angry, to say the least, that I was bothering him. I fed him, changed him (he screamed the whole time I changed him) and I left his room telling Jason that that was the last time that we are doing that.

He was so ready to drop that feeding. I mean, he’s almost 6 months, so he should be able to go the entire night. But I didn’t know if he was ready.

Boy, he told me!

So Monday night I fed him at 7:30- he always takes a feeding right before bed. Jason and I went through the normal routine, laid him down, walked out and didn’t look back. I just prayed that he wouldn’t wake up at 3 am starving.

7:00 am the next morning was the next time I heard from him! So I am happy to say that Jason and I finally have our entire evenings to ourselves (well, from 7:30 on) and I was able to get more than 8 hours of sleep.

Glorious. I am so glad we are there.

Then it reminds me that he’s growing up so quickly. That we are already at 6 months- which isn’t that long- but it’s gone so fast.

I’ve never been happier to have followed the Babywise principles. Cruz is such a great sleeper and eater and I credit the habits that Babywise offers. It just makes so much sense to me and I am watching the effects of the scheduling that we put him on.

He’s just such a great little guy. Truly, I don’t know what I did right that God would give me this little boy to take care of.

I couldn’t have asked for more.

napping secret?

I wish I had the secret to taking great naps. The bottom line is, Cruz is a person with a somewhat different rhythm to everyday. But I still do not understand why he takes great naps some days, and not so great ones on other days. I try to stay very consistent with what I do every day to keep his routine similar each day. Plus, when I put him down I try to do the same nap time routine as well. But still, some days are better than others and I just don’t get it.

His morning nap is usually always the best nap. He hardly wakes up early from that nap and tends to sleep two hours or more. It’s his afternoon nap that is hit or miss.

But if you know that it’s not hunger, dirty diaper, gas, or room temperature, then what wakes them up early?

I do know that 45 minutes into their sleep cycle they can tend to wake easily due to the type of sleep cycle that they are in. Maybe something outside woke him? Maybe a car driving by?

Who’s to know?

It’s difficult to stay on a schedule when your little one doesn’t feel like cooperating!

PS: As I was typing this I was listening to Cruz begin to ‘wake up early’, but I left him alone and I think he went back to sleep! (knock on wood!)