This week has been truly wonderful! I got a lot accomplished and got to get together with some friends too.
Cason went to Mother's Day Out on Tuesday. While he was there I stopped by Target for a couple things and then headed home to do things around the house. I cleaned the bathrooms (including the showers/tubs ... often times I skip this b/c I don't like doing it), vacuumed, mopped the wood and tile floors, wiped down the stainless steal in the kitchen, dusted here and there, and got all of the clutter put away. It felt so good to have the house cleaned all at once. After cleaning I got to shower and get ready all alone! I even had time to paint my toe nails, which I've needed to do for a loooong time. I love the time that I get to myself every Tuesday. I left around 1:45 to go get Cason and when I got there, he immediately stopped playing and walked over to the door to see me. I love that he's showing his affection.
On Wednesday, I went over to my friend Christina's neighborhood and we went on a walk with her, Riley, and her friend Joy. We walked 3 miles! It was a great change of scenery and I really enjoyed walking with other people and getting to talk. I think we'll have to start walking with them more often! Cason liked it too because he and Riley (Christina's 1 year old daughter) got to look at each other and make noises together.
Thursday morning, I took Cason and Kona on a walk around our neighborhood. We ventured outside the neighborhood and ended up walking 3 miles. I was very impressed that Kona made it the whole way without giving up. She was super tired when we got home! Later that afternoon, we met Mary and her son Rich (2 years old) at the Frisco library. Rich and Cason had fun looking at books. Cason loved watching Rich play with the puppets and watching him walk around. It was obvious that he was amazed at the things Rich could do. We stayed about an hour and a half and then I headed over to Market Street to pick up some stuff for dinner.
Today, Friday, we went up to Prosper to walk with Katie and Jessica. I am so thankful and blessed to be going on walks with my son and best friends of 17 years. It still amazes me that we all live within 10 miles of each other. How cool is it to think that back in 6th grade, God knew to bring us all together and literally give us a life long friendship! On our walk today we went 2 miles. Way to go Katie!! She is 38 weeks pregnant and didn't slow down once. I seriously would have been plopped on my butt after the first mile back when I was preggo. Since then I've kicked my lazy butt's butt though. :)
Tonight I am headed down to Waco to spend the weekend with my mom. Dad is in Colorado with Auntie Carol and Auntie Linda. I'm super excited to have a weekend away and thankful that AJ is such a good daddy!
K, well Cason is napping and I know he'll wake up at any moment so I better wrap it up so I don't run out of time and never finish this. :)
Friday, September 27, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
Teaching Cason to sleep and phasing out the bedtime bottle
OH my goodness! Seriously I cannot keep up with this Blog! I don't know how these other moms do it. I have a few friends that keep their Blog up so well and I LOVE reading them. Maybe one day I'll at least update once a month. Until then I'll keep doing this at super random times.
First off, I have to write about my recent struggle with Cason's sleeping ... yes, again. (this blog is partially for my own benefit so that I can go back and remember things in the future, so I apologize if this gets boring).
He used to go to bed SO easily. We'd do bath, pajamas, read, rock, have a bedtime bottle, and put him in his crib just as he was dozing off. He'd roll over to his tummy, squirm around, get his knees up under him with his butt in the air and settle into a deep sleep. Well, those days have been gone for almost a month! Looking back I know exactly how we got off track. A month ago he was turning 1 year old and I was going through some sadness about that. I just wanted to cuddle him all that I could. I love watching him sleep, so I'd let him fall asleep in my arms and I'd hold him for a little bit and stare at him. There were a few nights that I sat there and cried as I looked at him and thought that his first year was already over. I was in shock for a couple weeks and didn't want to accept it. Also, around that time, AJ began putting him to bed several nights a week. Cason had transitioned to formula around 11 months because my milk supply just didn't seem to be enough. Anyway, AJ fell in love with bedtime and also loves holding Cason. He also started letting Cason sleep in his arms for a little bit before putting him down. As time went on, Cason began needing to be held longer and longer each night. By that I mean that he'd wake up the second he felt us stand up to go to his crib. We were having to hold him while he slept for a good 20 minutes before we could gently put him in his crib without waking up and crying. Bedtime became a 45 minute or more ordeal. I don't mean to complain, but at the end of the day as much as I love my sweet boy, I want bedtime to be over and done quickly. I greatly look forward to my ME time and my time with AJ each night. Cason's crazy bedtime habits spilled over to nap time too. I won't go into huge detail with that, but it's been challenging to get him to sleep in his crib during the day. We are down to 1 nap that lasts 30 minutes on a good day. God gave me a cat napper ... I'm convinced of it and I'm fine with that, but I just need some consistency and predictability here!
Anyway, we are now in the process of teaching Cason to fall asleep by himself and that means more crying it out (CIO). I never thought this was something I'd have to do over and over again. This time I'm beating myself up because we are the ones to blame this time. Not a vacation, not a developmental milestone, not a growth spurt ... no it was mommy and daddy that started a bad habit. Last night he CIO for 32 minutes before falling asleep. Today at his nap he CIO for 58 minutes, and at bedtime tonight he CIO for 17 minutes.
** Just a quick side note for those that may be thinking I just leave him to cry, I don't. I go in to check on him and whisper "I love you" at different intervals that increase.**
I think we are having success, but I hope I didn't jinx it by saying that.
Also, right now we are working on eliminating the bedtime bottle. I tried giving him cold milk and that did not go well! So we started diluting the milk with water.
Night 1 - 5 oz. milk, 1 oz. water
Night 2 - 4 oz. milk, 2 oz. water
And so on ...
I'm really hoping that by the end of the week, he will be going to sleep without much crying and that he won't need his milk. I am going to Waco to visit my mom this weekend (my first weekend trip alone since Cason was born!!!). My hope and prayer is that we can be over this hurdle before Friday because I want it to be easy for AJ while I'm gone. I know he will stick to our plan and continue what I've been doing to implement these transitions for Cason, but it would be so much easier on both of us if Cason could jump this hurdle QUICKLY!
On another note ...
Who knew being a stay at home mommy would be so challenging! I mean I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I have had to learn a lot over the past year. Recently, I joined a stay at home moms group on babycenter.com and it has been a huge help for me. It's a great way to talk to other moms at anytime and I've also enjoyed being able to offer some of my own advice to others. I enrolled Cason in Mother's Day Out in hopes of meeting some other stay at home moms. I also REALLY needed some time alone during the week. Having 5 hours a week to get things done without interruptions is like having Christmas every Tuesday! I'm incredibly thankful that I've been able to do that. Meeting other moms through MDO didn't really pan out though. Everyone drops their kids off and leaves. I should have figured that. So now I'm looking for other ways to meet some moms. I may start a Bible study on Wednesdays, but I'm nervous to go alone. Plus I'm not sure I really want another commitment.
<< got side tracked while writing and am getting back to this post 2 hours later ... too tired to wrap this up with a proper ending. ... I'm off to bed!>>
First off, I have to write about my recent struggle with Cason's sleeping ... yes, again. (this blog is partially for my own benefit so that I can go back and remember things in the future, so I apologize if this gets boring).
He used to go to bed SO easily. We'd do bath, pajamas, read, rock, have a bedtime bottle, and put him in his crib just as he was dozing off. He'd roll over to his tummy, squirm around, get his knees up under him with his butt in the air and settle into a deep sleep. Well, those days have been gone for almost a month! Looking back I know exactly how we got off track. A month ago he was turning 1 year old and I was going through some sadness about that. I just wanted to cuddle him all that I could. I love watching him sleep, so I'd let him fall asleep in my arms and I'd hold him for a little bit and stare at him. There were a few nights that I sat there and cried as I looked at him and thought that his first year was already over. I was in shock for a couple weeks and didn't want to accept it. Also, around that time, AJ began putting him to bed several nights a week. Cason had transitioned to formula around 11 months because my milk supply just didn't seem to be enough. Anyway, AJ fell in love with bedtime and also loves holding Cason. He also started letting Cason sleep in his arms for a little bit before putting him down. As time went on, Cason began needing to be held longer and longer each night. By that I mean that he'd wake up the second he felt us stand up to go to his crib. We were having to hold him while he slept for a good 20 minutes before we could gently put him in his crib without waking up and crying. Bedtime became a 45 minute or more ordeal. I don't mean to complain, but at the end of the day as much as I love my sweet boy, I want bedtime to be over and done quickly. I greatly look forward to my ME time and my time with AJ each night. Cason's crazy bedtime habits spilled over to nap time too. I won't go into huge detail with that, but it's been challenging to get him to sleep in his crib during the day. We are down to 1 nap that lasts 30 minutes on a good day. God gave me a cat napper ... I'm convinced of it and I'm fine with that, but I just need some consistency and predictability here!
Anyway, we are now in the process of teaching Cason to fall asleep by himself and that means more crying it out (CIO). I never thought this was something I'd have to do over and over again. This time I'm beating myself up because we are the ones to blame this time. Not a vacation, not a developmental milestone, not a growth spurt ... no it was mommy and daddy that started a bad habit. Last night he CIO for 32 minutes before falling asleep. Today at his nap he CIO for 58 minutes, and at bedtime tonight he CIO for 17 minutes.
** Just a quick side note for those that may be thinking I just leave him to cry, I don't. I go in to check on him and whisper "I love you" at different intervals that increase.**
I think we are having success, but I hope I didn't jinx it by saying that.
Also, right now we are working on eliminating the bedtime bottle. I tried giving him cold milk and that did not go well! So we started diluting the milk with water.
Night 1 - 5 oz. milk, 1 oz. water
Night 2 - 4 oz. milk, 2 oz. water
And so on ...
I'm really hoping that by the end of the week, he will be going to sleep without much crying and that he won't need his milk. I am going to Waco to visit my mom this weekend (my first weekend trip alone since Cason was born!!!). My hope and prayer is that we can be over this hurdle before Friday because I want it to be easy for AJ while I'm gone. I know he will stick to our plan and continue what I've been doing to implement these transitions for Cason, but it would be so much easier on both of us if Cason could jump this hurdle QUICKLY!
On another note ...
Who knew being a stay at home mommy would be so challenging! I mean I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I have had to learn a lot over the past year. Recently, I joined a stay at home moms group on babycenter.com and it has been a huge help for me. It's a great way to talk to other moms at anytime and I've also enjoyed being able to offer some of my own advice to others. I enrolled Cason in Mother's Day Out in hopes of meeting some other stay at home moms. I also REALLY needed some time alone during the week. Having 5 hours a week to get things done without interruptions is like having Christmas every Tuesday! I'm incredibly thankful that I've been able to do that. Meeting other moms through MDO didn't really pan out though. Everyone drops their kids off and leaves. I should have figured that. So now I'm looking for other ways to meet some moms. I may start a Bible study on Wednesdays, but I'm nervous to go alone. Plus I'm not sure I really want another commitment.
<< got side tracked while writing and am getting back to this post 2 hours later ... too tired to wrap this up with a proper ending. ... I'm off to bed!>>
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