Room Change/Sleep Training

My sweet baby girl is six months now and a couple weeks ago went through a growth spurt and when that was over, a sleep regression.  Nursing had also made me lazy and whenever she cried I would bring her into bed, latch her on and go back to sleep.  But I was ready for that to be over.  I wanted her out of our room and in with her sister.  So we did it- we decided K could suffer along with us.  I didn't want to sleep train her in our room and then move her in with K and possibly need to sleep train all over again. 

First night getting her new crib all ready- she didn't know what she was in for...

I also decided to cut out the nighttime nursing.  She really only was eating once a night (the rest was soothing) so I turned that into a bottle feed (I do both so it wasn't a big deal for me to cut out a nursing session).  We also decided Cole would give that feeding for a while until she realized there was no more nursing at night.  For every other time she woke up we let her cry and would go into her room to try to soothe her standing beside the bed.  She had music as well.  Going in to soothe her didn't work- she screamed anyways.  But we held strong and by hour 2 (she had woken up at 11pm and screamed till 1am)  she gave up- she didn't fall sleep crying.  She just stopped crying and looked around her room and at the mobile and then drifted off.  (Note: K didn't even seem to notice there was a screaming baby in her room...) B woke up for her usual feed a couple hours later and then slept again till it was time to nurse with me after 6am.  Night two she woke up again at 11pm but only screamed for 20 mins.  Night three no screaming, just her usual feed.  We just had night five so we feel pretty in the clear.

I love having the girls share a room.  I go stand at their door several times after they've fallen asleep to watch them.  I know at some point they might not love sharing a room but for now- they like each others company.  They aren't alone and they are already used to each others noises.  They generally aren't waking each other up either.  B is even napping in the room while K has her quiet time in there.  And I am so much happier now that a nighttime routine is finally set and I don't have to tiptoe around in my room at night.

Nighttime story with daddy

all snuggled, ready for bed

new room set up

B peeking at her new neighbour

loves the mobile Aunty Tanya got for K when she was a baby

Big Girl Tantrum

At bedtime a couple nights ago we were all tidying up...or- we were all supposed to be tidying up.  K wasn't cleaning her toys even after numerous warnings of if she didn't clean, she would go to bed now.  So we put her to bed.  Tantrum ensued.  Now, she's two so she's had tantrums before but this one just looked and sounded different.  It didn't sound like a baby or a toddler tantrum that we had experienced.  It looked like a big kid tantrum that I remember from growing up.  It was dramatic, it was incessant, it was LONG. 

It made me tear up a bit- not because I was frustrated, but because it was a little sad to see her as not my baby.  She is growing up and here was evidence.  Cole went into her room to help her calm down and to talk to her but we didn't let her back out to clean like she kept asking.  Fast forward to last night before bed, she was much better about putting her toys away.  And thankfully, she's still baby enough to forget how mad she was at us.  It was the first night she didn't want to say I love you or give us a kiss- even the baby.  It happens so fast- the growing up.  After she had fallen asleep, Cole and I both said this felt significant enough to record.  It was unlike all her other freak outs.  This was big girl tantrum #1.

You would never know it though....

Update

I have baby books for the girls, but I'm not super diligent about updating them.  But I figure if I'm good about it here and I can go back and transfer the information. 

I can't believe how fast the time is passing this time around.  B is already 5 months.  She is a pretty easy baby.  She's more needy than K was during the hours where she's not eating or sleeping.  She plays on her own in her exersaucer or on her mat but she has a small window where she can be left alone to play.  She would rather play with mommy or daddy.  She's a superstar during all the things she has to do: eat, sleep, bathe, travel (carseat, stroller, shopping, etc).  She has two naps: a short morning nap and a long afternoon nap.  She goes to bed between 6:30-7pm and for all her sleeping she's been really good about being put in her bed awake and falling asleep on her own: a skill K learned with much more effort because she was the first and there was so much time to hold her.  Teaching B this skill from birth was necessary since there's a toddler running around that needs to be taken care of.  And I'm feeling much more human since B only wakes up once during the night now around 4am to feed.  I'm hoping in a month or two when she's on even more solids that we can wean her off that feeding.

B loves to eat- she loves nursing, she loves bottles, she loves solid food.  There's nothing she's tried that she's refused so far.  She's tried bananas, apples, sweet potato, carrot, rice cereal, and blueberries.  Her FAVOURITE time of day is bath time.  As soon as she layed down in the tub her feet start kicking.  She has a huge smile the whole time and splashes for as long as we let her.  She's never cried during bath time (well that's not true- once K dropped something on her head, but that doesn't count), not even her first bath.  She's always loved water.  I didn't think it was possible to have a child who loved the water more than K, but I do. 

She is so alert and happy to look around and observe.  She loves her dad- they have been able to bond lately.  She was such a momma's girl from birth and loved nursing so she didn't have a whole lot of use for other people (except K- after 3 weeks, she LOVED her sister).  But now that she's getting to a playful age she is noticing her other adult family members, especially her dad, and loves to play with him.  She's very ticklish and shares her laugh quite easily. 

With K there was nothing to do but wait for her to get to a fun age.  Being home alone with a baby month after month can make a person want to fast forward a tad.  But this time I'm able to enjoy B being a baby and not feel like I want to fast forward to the more exciting stuff.  And in fact I'm hoping for it to slow down.  With K, in a matter of 10 weeks she learned to stand, crawl and walk.  It was a whirlwind.  I hope B takes it much slower. 

K has adjusted to having a baby around.  She's much more patient about the times I need to take care of B.  Although at times she pretends to be a baby so she can steal the attention.  Often at dinner time she pretends she can't eat unless we spoon feed her like her sister.  She also wants to be cradled occasionally and pretends to get boo-boos way more than she actually does. 

In big girl milestones though, K has had a significant one (significant for her).  She no longer has her soother or blankie.  But it's meant that naptime has gone away for the most part.  She is learning how to have quiet time for 1.5-2 hours in her room on her own.  She's been really good about her sleeping lately (maybe from the lack of nap).  She goes down around 6:30-7 and gets up at 6:30-7 with many nights not calling out at all. 

She now has the attention span to sit through an entire movie or stay still to have several books read to her.  Her favourite movies right now are Jungle Book and Horton Hears A Who.  Her favourite shows are still Super Why and Sesame Street.  But she now also enjoys Dora quite a bit (she calls her Dot).  Her favourite books are the Critter books and anything with animals. 

Her speaking is slowly coming along.  I'm not sure why she's choosing to be so difficult about it.  I know it's a choice, too, because on the days when she forgets to put up her guard and just parrots us like most kids do, she speaks just fine.  But most days, she has her guard up and won't repeat back or try new words.  She does it on her own schedule and chooses which words she wants to say.  She'll ask when she wants to know how to say something and then that word will be added to her vocabulary.  I'm not sure what that's about.  When we come to a word she doesn't want to try she says "do" or "that" instead.  This past week, though, she's been very interested (for her speed) at trying new words.  For example, for two mornings in a row she held up her purse and asked what it was called.  I told her purse.  She attempted (once per morning) to say purse.  By the third morning she held it up and said "purse!".  And now it's established in her vocabulary and I can ask her at any time to say purse and she'll say it.  But if I asked before that third morning she would just say "that".  Unless she thinks it's time to say the word, it's not.  And it takes even longer for her vocab words to be considered words she'll say in front of other people.  But now that we know her rules, we just try to go with them.  She's not as far behind as she was previously so we're not too stressed about it.  There's no use arguing with her either- she's so stubborn.  I've tried signing with her but I found out she has the same rules for signing as she does for speaking.  She won't try it till she decides it's time.  It's funny- she is so reserved with her words but she was willing to brave climbing a ladder at one year old.  Funny girl.

She still loves shoes.  Oh my goodness, the shoes! We've had to take away her princess high heeled play shoes.  They make too much noise and downstairs complains.  So for Christmas we're going to get her some fun slippers.  She doesn't discriminate- she just wants things to put on her feet.  She loves to play pretend now.  She loves to play with her baby and pretend to take care of her- feed her, change her, wash her, rock her, etc.   She loves to colour.  She loves to ride her bike.  She loves the playground and running outside.  She loves to play hide and seek with mommy and daddy.  She loves to visit her grandparents and aunts.  We see my family quite often so there's no more adjustment period when we see them.  She still has a small adjustment time when we see Cole's family but she loves to see them, too.  It just takes her a minute.  She's reached the age where she can play with other kids now- not just near them.  She loves to try to make new friends at the park.  She loves nursery at church.  She loves building/nestling blocks/boxes and puzzles.  She loves to pretend to cook and make meals like mommy. 

She's on the verge of potty training.  We're going to really commit in a few weeks when Cole has a break from school.  I'm really excited for when B gets mobile and the two of them can really play.  They will be sharing a room in a month.  The two kids thing feels so much more doable these days.  I love when the newborn stage is over and things start feeling normal again.

see the centerpiece...?

Hallowe'en

My sister was visiting during Hallowe'en this year.  When we were walking house to house trick-or-treating, K only wanted to hold Aunty Tanya's hand.  K was a monkey again- the costume fit for a second year.  B was a bear.  I knew I was pregnant last Hallowe'en.  It was super new so I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl (I would never know because I don't ever ask) so on Nov 1, during the big dump of Hallowe'en costumes, I bought a 6 month bear costume since I knew we'd be out trick-or-treating with K and a bear would work for a boy or a girl and provide some warmth while being cute in the stroller.  I was right.  She got lots of comments- one man was even so overwhelmed with her cuteness he felt drawn to her (not in a creepy way) and came right over, bent down and talked to her a bit.  She conked out after the first 20 minutes.  It was her bedtime. 

K was slightly hesitant this year- only because she finally realized Hallowe'en is a creepy holiday.  She didn't notice last year.  She had lots of fun- lasted an hour trick-or-treating and even hit a neighbourhood haunted house.  She was in bed just after 8, too, so it wasn't a long drawn out affair.  Next year will be cute with both of them walking house to house.

family pic before trick-or-treating

Monkey-Bear love

Aunty Tanya

my special little bear!

The weekend before Hallowe'en we were all in Vancouver visiting my family.  On the Saturday, Cole and I went out on a date and my family took the girls to a Trunk or Treat:

trunk or treat with aunties

monkey

Last year's monkey- there's starting not to be such a dramatic difference from year to year:

2012

Born This Way

Both my babies have basically been born bald.  K's hair kicked in around 9 months and then started growing way past all her little friends.  She has soo much hair.  I expect much the same for B.  She's very bald now BUT there is this funny patch of hair that is super long.  But she's so fair so it's been hard to get a picture of it.  I finally did the other night at bath time.  I wanted it recorded just because it's kind of funny and something I may not always remember.  My mom thinks there's a mole beneath her skin that is making it grow.  Maybe- nothing obvious though.  And thankfully it's right on her head so when her hair does come in, no one will be able to tell.   Sometimes, when I nurse on that side and I'm lying down, I accidentally breathe in the hair up my nose.  Weird, I know.  But that's how long it is.  I said after I take the picture I will probably cut it...but I don't know.  It's such a funny quirk.  It's something that happened while she was inside of me because it was like this when she was born.  She was "born this way" so who am I to change her? ;)

Thanksgiving Car Crash

The Friday of the Thanksgiving weekend, Cole went out to pick us up some lunch and got into an accident within view of our house.  He was sitting, waiting to turn onto our street when a lady in a van behind him crashed into him- wasn't braking or anything.  She forgot the cardinal rule of driving- look forward and if someone is stopped in front of you, don't keep driving.  She totalled our car and probably hers- not sure if ICBC decided it was write-off or not.  She had a little boy in her back seat, who seemed ok.  She was in worse shape than Cole, but both were taken to the hospital on stretchers and treated for c-spines.  Cole was cleared with x-rays but had really bad whiplash that is only just started to feel like its getting better now. 

The accident was late afternoon on the cusp of a long weekend so everything moved slowly.  The lady didn't even call in till Tuesday afternoon to make her claim.  She tried to claim that Cole backed into her- but ICBC didn't buy it, nor did the cop on scene who gave her a ticket for reckless driving (AND a ticket for an expired licence!!!). 

There was a fiasco with the car rental that I don't feel like recording because it was so stressful I prefer to forget the whole thing.  Cole bought a new car on Saturday and insured it today, so that part of it is done.  We are still waiting till he's completely better before we settle with ICBC in case there's long lasting damage that isn't apparent right now. 

This has been such a pain.  Cole has had to take time off work and school right in the middle of the semester, losing some of his momentum.  We lost a car we really liked and was working well for us, along with the $1000 of maintenance we put into it the week before.  We are saving to upgrade our vehicle to something bigger next year but we weren't prepared to make that upgrade now so we had to buy another small, cheap car in the interim and pray that it doesn't need anything substantial done to it in the next 18 months since that's all we need it for (the prayer is on top of mechanically getting it checked out before we bought it, we didn't just buy it on a prayer...). 

This is the second time in 4 months Cole has called me to tell me he's been in an accident (both times rear ended).  Thankfully he's been ok both times.  It sucks that the car didn't make it through this last accident.  We've been married 4 years and gone through 4 cars (2 were totalled).  People are supposed to be able to keep their cars longer than a year.  We've had such bad luck.  Who are all these crazy people allowed on the roads?

The car aside, this Thanksgiving I was thankful my husband was alive and that my girls weren't in the back seat when that careless lady crashed into our car!

I won't post the picture of the damage of the other vehicle because it has her licence plate in the picture and even though she crashed into my husband, didn't have a valid licence, and tried to blame it on him-  I will respect her privacy.

Bye Bye Sooze, Bye Bye Nap Time/ Introduction of Quiet Time

Cole was in a bad car accident two weeks ago (details in another post) and that night we were hanging out in bedroom before the kids' bedtime and K was searching for her soother (she calls it her sooze) so she could go to bed and she couldn't find it.  I knew the living room was a huge mess and it was unlikely we were going to find it soon.  K started having a huge fit and we decided since she was already mid-fit we would just go with it.  So she had a 5 minute temper tantrum, then we brushed her teeth, sang her bedtime songs and said night time prayers and put on her music and she went to sleep.  She was sad but we told her she was a big girl and she didn't need her sooze.  She should snuggle her baby, listen to her music and go to sleep.  We weren't expecting it to work.  We anticipated many nights of troubled sleeping and big tears.  Turns out, she just needed the five minute tantrum and she was good to go.  She looked upset and for a night or two she still asked for it, but there was no more fits, no more big tears. The cord had been cut and she decided to deal.  She's always been our trooper.  She takes new, difficult situations in stride.  The funny thing is, Cole found her sooze wrapped up in her blankets before bed but decided since we had already committed to just slip it in his pocket.

The big downfall of no more soother has been no more nap time.  She's not tired enough to fall asleep right away but when she had her sooze she could lie there and soothe herself into a sleep.  Now she has nothing to do and isn't falling asleep.  So we're instituting quiet time.  She gets the personal DVD player with a movie and a blanket set up on her floor of a few toys and she gets to either chill on her bed with the movie or play with some toys for an hour and half every afternoon.  It's going pretty good.  The set up is special enough that she looks forward to it everyday and she's getting really good about staying in her room without asking to come out.  She LOVES The Jungle Book and even though I offer other movies to switch it up, she wants The Jungle Book everyday.  I know this is typical of toddlers, but it is super nice raising kids this generation because they can watch the same movie over and over on a separate device than the family room one so us parents don't have to listen to the same movie everyday.  Today she even asked about "nap time" (that's what she calls quiet time) two hours before it was even time for it.  So she's happy, I'm happy, and I still get some peace and quiet to myself while B naps. 

Bye-bye sooze!

the last sooze picture I took