for whatever reason, b decided she needed to climb into bed with m.

 

it's days/nights like these where they actually love each other that i love!

comfy much?

i just went to get this little girl up from her nap.

when i put her in her room for her nap, she insisted upon sitting on her bear.

i just told her to climb up into bed when she was ready.

but she apparently didn't get that far before she fell asleep.

at least it looks like she was comfy.

bunkbeds: part two

January 2011

last week, we fixed the bunkbeds so the girls could both sleep in them.

this morning, around 7:30 (which is still early for the girls) we could hear them in their room having a conversation - something about m's doll and blanky that she couldn't find.

i figured that b got out of bed and in the process woke up her sister.  at first i thought she was just being nice and helping her find her stuff so she could go back to sleep.  then a couple minutes later, i hear the pitter patter of feet through the house.

now, instead, i think she was helping her find her stuff so she could get out of bed.

they ended up squished between the mr. and i and fell back asleep.

i hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

with my luck, it totally is.

bunkbeds

January 2011

yesterday was spent fixing the top bunk on the bunkbeds and moving b up top and m onto the bottom bunk.

we had to put up a couple boards so that b wouldn't fall out of bed.

they're loving it so far.

maybe a little too much actually.

i really thought that we were going to have big problems getting m to stay in bed (since it was her first night in a big girl bed) but she actually fell asleep in the bed.

when b was that age, she'd always fall asleep in random places.

the problem now is going to be to get m to want to take a nap.

i already can't call it a nap - it's quiet time - because if i call it a nap, she gets mad at me.

so the mr. had the idea to put the "house" on her bed for quiet time.

she loved it.

she played for a while and then fell asleep.

success.

i think this will be happening on a regular basis now.

changes

while we were visiting my parents back in july, the girls slept in the same room.

they actually did fairly well together, so we decided they were moving in together.

but that posed another problem with naps.

they can't take naps in the same room, otherwise neither one of them will fall asleep.

so the first day, m went down for a nap in her crib.

i tricked b into falling asleep on the couch while watching a movie.

then we were having problems at night with them.

b would get out of her bed, climb into m's crib, empty m's crib (mattress and everything) and leave m crying in her crib with nothing.

or, she would take everything that wasn't too heavy for her in the room and put it in m's crib.  which still left m crying because she didn't have anywhere to lay down.

so the mr. gave b some rules:

don't get out of bed

don't put anything in m's crib

don't take anything out of m's crib.

it was hard for b at first, but she knows the rules now and will recite them for you if you ask.

and we caught a cute moment while b was learning what to do/not to do.

is there anything sweeter than that?

and i continually find b sleeping in weird places.

sleep

this child sleeps in some of the weirdest places.

most nights you'll find her sleeping on the floor.

in fact, for about a week, she would just get on the floor as soon as you left, so we made a bed up for her on the floor.

she was pretty excited about that.

so excited that the floor has become her semi-permanent bed.

hey, if her back doesn't mind in the morning, than i guess neither do i.

the new wicked witch of the west?

obviously not too happy to have a picture taken of her just waking up

why i don't put b to bed at night...

last night after dinner, the mr. had to go back out to run the tractor for a while longer.

he kissed the girls goodnight (as he was going to be gone when they went to bed) and off he went.

i was dreading bedtime.

you see,  the mr. puts b to bed at night.

it's their special thing.

the times i've attempted putting b in bed when the mr. hasn't been home before have always been disastrous.

it will usually involve multiple trips into her room to either put her back in bed or to find out why she's crying this time.

when bedtime rolled around, i got them ready for bed, fed m and put her in bed.

surprisingly, no troubles there.

then i went back and read b a couple of stories and put her in bed.

no problems there either...or so i thought.

when the mr. got home, he comes in and asks, "did you know b's light is on?"

i answer no, so he goes in to check on her and turn it off.

a couple minutes later he comes back and says, "are you going to come with me to see your daughter?"

and this is what he found:

notice the ruffly socks on her hands.

and what you don't see...the ruffly socks on her feet to match.

thankfully, she didn't strip her diaper off with her pajamas too.

ferberizing, pt. 2

remember THIS post?

well, it was that time again.

only the situation was worse this time.

not only would m not go to sleep at night by herself, she would not self soothe in the middle of the night either.
she was waking up about once a night.
not a huge deal.
at first i brought her to bed, nursed her back to sleep, and then would take her back to her crib.

and now here is where i have to admit that i did some major accidental parenting.

once a night turned into three or four times a night and she'd automatically wake up when she touched her crib mattress, so she was now sleeping in bed with us because i was too lazy to break that habit.

and in the middle of all of this, then she learned how to pull herself up on the side of her crib, so not only would she cry in the middle of the night and not go back to sleep, she'd stand up and cry and not go back to sleep. 

note to future self:  i don't care HOW tired you are in the middle of the night.
do not nurse your baby in bed.
get your lazy body out of bed and take the baby back to the crib!!
if you don't it turns into co-sleeping.
you don't like to co-sleep because then you don't sleep and then you're grumpy the next day.
also, don't wait to do sleep training until they can stand up in their crib.
not cool.
i'm pretty sure they can cry louder when they are standing up.
or maybe it's because they're closer to the baby monitor.
either way....not cool.

anyway,  i put m to bed monday night, asleep.

she woke up 1/2 hour later.

the mr. (bless his heart) decided that enough was enough (even though he usually slept through all of this) and decided it was time.
she finally fell asleep after 45 minutes around 10:15.

she didn't wake up until 4:20.

yes, 4:20.
i.was.thrilled!

you see, usually by 4:20, i've been out of bed and attempted to put her back in her crib at least twice.

i really wanted to take her back to bed with me and nurse her back to sleep, but decided that we were breaking all bad habits.
so i nursed her in her room, put her back in her crib (she was awake) and left.

she cried.

but only for 2 minutes. 

i can handle 2 minutes!

and i didn't hear another peep out of her until i woke her up tuesday morning.

tuesday evening...she only cried for about 3 minutes.

and ever since...usually less than 5 minutes of crying.

hallelujah!!!

say hello to a happier, less sleepy wife and mom.

isn't this the cutest thing ever?

the only thing that i can think is cuter than this is when she's asleep with her daddy, not uncle j. 

don't they, they being the mr. and j, look freakishly alike?
i guess they are brothers.

this girl has NEVER fallen asleep during dinner.

guess there's a first time for everything.

random slew of pictures...

...to catch up to the easter post (coming soon, i promise!)

oh, how i love ruffly bums!

notice all her hair...

.

the mr. was getting his picture taken, so she wanted one too!

such a little ham!

notice there is hardly any hair left...i so wished it wouldn't fall out and it did anyway.

p.s. does this picture crack anyone else up?

sleeping beauty

i love this picture and the whole open-mouth sleeping.

so cute!

sleepy baby

just a couple pictures of m doing what she does best...sleeping!

i love the hand under the head.

it's so cute!

snow!!

on new years eve, it snowed.

 and snowed

and snowed some more.

the mr. took  bout with him one of the times he shoveled snow.

she loved it!

and of course, m slept through it :)

i've been trying to post these pictures for like a week now, and blogger FINALLY let me upload them!  enjoy!

b and the incredibly large onions the mr. brought in from the field.

she could barely carry them!

funny story with this one - well at least for me!
b NEVER falls asleep on the floor.
there are basically 3 places she will fall asleep:
1) in her bed
2) in her carseat
3) and if she's REALLY tired and/or sick, on daddy's lap.
one morning (after she'd only been up a couple hours) i realized that she was awfully quiet, which usually means trouble and a big mess.
i found this instead.
i left her there for about 10 minutes for a mini-nap thinking she'd wake up if i attempted to move her.
i then bent down to pick her up and she didn't move a muscle!
so i took her into her room and laid her down and she slept for a good 3 hours after that.
apparently she was really tuckered out!

she loves to give kisses and is so adorable when she's ready.
you can kinda tell in this picture, but she really gets those lips puckered up!

her first successful walk in the mr.'s shoe.

she'll try our shoes on, but never actually walked in them and she made it down the hall without falling!

just a cute picture of baby girl and the mr.

she was so interested in what he was looking at.

my crazy child

b never ceases to amaze me.
it's crazy to me how much she seems to comprehend lately.
a couple weeks ago she was so tired so i put my arms out like i usually do to pick her up and take her to her crip for a nap.
she instead started running to her room and tried to climb into her crib by herself.
 igot the hint loud and clear!

yesterday, i said to her as she was running away from me, "do you want to go for a walk with daddy?"
she didn't stop running, turned around and ran back to the door.
i have no doubt that she knows the meaning of the word "go."

she's also recently found out that gum tastes good.
whenever she can get her hands on it, it goes right into her mouth, wrapper and all.
i think that i have the gum put up where she can't find it and she still finds it.
i'm not sure how many pieces she's actually swallowed.

she also found out that mascara doesn't go just on mommy.
we were over at grandma and grandpa's house while d & s were here and one of these two partners in crime found aunt shanny's mascara and then proceeded to paint themselves and then the other.
i'll let you decide who opened the mascara.
i personally think it was the two year old.
luckily the mascara came right off because we found them before it dried.

cute aren't they?

the saga continues...

yep, she's still standing in her crib.
but, she's getting better at staying down and going to sleep.

 you're probably saying, "so yeah, she's sleeping, what's the big deal?"
she never sleeps on her tummy in her crib.
even after she learned to roll over, she doesn't roll over in her crib.
she always sleeps flat on her back.
well, this was yesterday.
she was (of course) standing again, so the mr. laid her back down and gave her the pacifier and covered her up.
we could hear her playing, but she wasn't crying so we let her be.
the mr. peeked in a few minutes later and this was how she had fallen asleep.
now (bedtime and another nap later) this seems to be how she's going to be falling asleep from now on.

advice please!!

the day finally came when baby girl figured out that she can stand up in her crib.

i've been hoping that she wouldn't ever figure it out, but she did.

here's the problem:

as i'm typing, she's supposed to be taking a nap.

she keeps standing up and won't go to sleep.

the mr. has laid her back down 3 times, but she keeps standing up.

what have you other mothers done for this?

right now, she's still taking 2 naps a day, usually around 10:30 am and 2:30 pm.

do we go to one a day?

do i let her play until she just falls asleep?

please help.

"ferberizing"

i've got to say, i wasn't too fond of letting my baby cry herself to sleep, but it got to the point that rocking her to sleep was ridiculous.

2 or so months ago, she figured out the "trick" that we had to get her to sleep.

the "trick" being to put her in a cradle hold with her binky, rock her and pat her bum and she'd usually go to sleep pretty quickly.

when she figured out that when we did that it meant sleepy time, she would just cry so we had to figure something else out.

so, we went to sitting her on our laps face out while we rocked in the glider.

she'd usually fall asleep within 15-20 minutes.

then a couple weeks ago, it got to the point where i was rocking her for 1 hour+ with little to no luck.

so monday, for nap time, the mr. decided to just let her cry.

she eventually fell asleep after an hour.

monday night was about 45 minutes.

tuesday night was around 30 minutes.

wednesday night was about 10 minutes.

thursday night, 30 minutes.

tonight.....she cried when the mr. picked her up and gave her the binky and blanket because she knew what was coming.

but after he laid her down in her crib and came out

nothing.

no cries.

no whimpers.

nothing!

let's just hope that this stays this way.

everything i've read about the ferber method says that babies are usually sleep-trained within a couple weeks.

i hope this is going to stay this way!

for those of you who don't know what the ferber method is, check out THIS link.

for those of you who have tried this and successfully made it work, you know how hard it is to be in the other room listening to your child cry.

(while you've probably been in the other room crying too!)