Sleep training

Today I'm thankful for the joint efforts of Harvey Karp, Marc Weissbluth, Jennifer Waldburger, and Jill Spivak.  Any of you with children  may recognize some of these names.  They are the authors of sleep philosophies for children, and I have become quite intimate with them in the last coule weeks!  Well, with their books.

I've now read 3 different books on the subject, and while I'm very short of expert status, I feel quite knowledgable when it comes to sleep training.  That's not to say that I would consider myself successful just yet, but boy, can I spout off random facts like nobody's business.  So, again, while I may not be an expert, here are my feelings about each of these philosophies.

Dr. Harvey Karp is the author of The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep.  I picked this one up first when I became desperate for some answers to LM's sleep problem.  We were very pleased with his first book, The Happiest Baby on the Block, when it came to soothing LM in the first couple months of his life.  He was on the verge of colic, and we wanted to nip it in the bud before it became too late.  Our pediatrician recommended it, and we never looked back!  After great success with Karp's theories, I was naturally driven to the name when searching for new answers in regards to sleep.  I have to say, though, I was not as impressed.

Karp's book is more a compilation of other's ideas with a few of his own opinions thrown in there.  At first, I thought this was great because it gave me a taste of different strategies, allowing us to choose the one that seemed to make sense for our situation.  He also offered a few tips for helping LM sleep longer or better once we'd chosen a training strategy.  However, the problem with this book is that it's just a taste.  These overviews (for cry-it-out vs no-cry) gave us a good idea of how we wanted to move forward, so I was thankful for that.  But I didn't feel prepared, or that my questions had really been answered.  If I was going to let my child cry it out (the method that seemed to make more sense for us; I'll explain later), I wanted to make sure I was doing it right and not just causing more damage.

This led to the second book, recommended by our second pediatrician, called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth.  Weissbluth's theory is that all children are defined by how colicky they were in the first few months of life.  After identifying your child's temperament, you can then decide on the best course of action.  The idea is that all children are different, so there is no one answer to helping with sleep problems.  I fully agree!  However, as an exhausted mom who can barely see straight, all I want are answers.  Give me a program and a schedule to follow, people!

While this book was full of interesting information, it was incredibly wordy and difficult to sort through all the studies to find anything useful.  I think that someday I might like to go back and read the results of all those studies just for my own curiosity.  It may be extremely useful in helping identify LM's temperament, which I'm sure can shed some light on other topics, too.  It did also narrow down that we needed to approach this with a cry-it-out method.  Everything it said about no-cry methods used the word "patience" a lot.  We're running very thin on that around this house.  While CIO is emotionally difficult for the parents in the beginning, it's quicker and seems less painful for all involved in the long run.  Even within CIO, there are choices to be made about cold turkey, or what they call "longer and longer."

This book left me feeling more helpless because it now seemed even more likely that I could do this all wrong.  I'm sure some of you are thinking, "How do you let your kid cry wrong?"  With more reading, I found there isn't really a wrong way to do it, other than being inconsistent. The answer seems to be, choose a method and stick with it, no matter how hard your heart strings are tugged.  This led me to book #3, The Sleepeasy Solution.  I stumbled across a blog written by a mother who sounded a lot like me; at the end of her rope, reading lots of books, and about to lose her mind from exhaustion.  A friend recommended this book to her, and she says she never looked back, so I checked it out on Amazon.  The description is full of statements like, "What all Hollywood parents use for their children!"  This almost made me steer clear, but I bought it anyway.  And I'm so glad I did!  It was exactly what I was looking for: a clear, outlined schedule for the day, how to implement longer-and-longer (the method we liked best), how to handle naps, etc.  It answered all my questions in a quick, easy-to-read format, and I felt confident going into this last night.

It's only been one night, so we're far from saying the issue is resolved, but last night was amazing!  We put him down around 6:30, doing our check-ins at the recommended times, and at 7:22, LM was asleep!  Not only that, but he didn't wake up!  We were able to go to bed super early.  I "dream fed" him at 1 am, and then he slept till 6!!!  And on top of this, he's taken two naps already today, both for and hour and a half!  I'm hopeful that tonight will go just as well, and I'm excited to move forward with this plan.

Honestly, the major point I take from this is that there is no right answer.  All children are different, so it's impossible to nail down one correct way to help a child learn to fall asleep on his or her own.  You have to do what's right for your own family, thus the difficulty in finding a simple, clear program.  In the end, I think we've found our answer (at least, I hope!), and I'm glad it came in book #3 instead of #10!

It's over!

I'm a week into my 30s, so I think it's officially time to update the blog one last time. First, I'm thankful that 30 finally came so I can stop writing this blog! I have learned that I am not cut out for blogging, as all of you know. I was hopeful that it would become routine, and get easier and easier to write everyday. It went the other way... For some reason, it got harder and harder to sit down to write. I don't know if work got in the way, it was a pain to write, or if I just plain forgot, but somehow this blog just slipped away... So, while I learned some things (which I'll get to), above all else, I learned that I am NOT a blogger! Second, I'm thankful for all this blog has taught me. I shared before that having this blog hanging over my head has made me, at the very least, think everyday on something I'm thankful for. Even if I don't write about it and share it with the world, it's on my mind. Because of this, I find that I am a much more easy-going person. Overall, I'm happier, I smile more, I feel good. (That could also be the joy of the magic trimester...) I have a more positive outlook on things, and find myself worrying less. Who couldn't be thankful for that?! It's been an interesting adventure, and while I wasn't successful at writing everyday, I still feel this blog was a success!

Mad Science

Today I'm thankful for my coworkers at Mad Science. Our small group behaves more like a family in many ways, both good and bad. It's nice to have a group of people around who completely understand your working situation, because chances are, they've done your job before!
I'm also grateful at how much family is valued by all of our employees. It's comforting to know that everyone supports whatever decisions I make in the future regarding Little Junior. They almost all have children themselves, some even have grandchildren, and have web in the same balancing act of work and family. While it's certainly my intention to stay here for a few more years, it's nice to know that my decisions are respected.
Thanks Mad Science!

Today I'm thankful for all of you who read this, but don't give me a hard time about my fluctuations! I realized this morning that my 30th birthday is 30 days away, and I have been HORRIBLE at keeping up with this blog. I don't know how people do it! Especially once I got pregnant... It's certainly been fun, though, and I'm excited to continue this for another 30 days!

Chai lattes

Today is another simple pleasure morning: chai lattes.

When I worked at Starbucks, I drank them all the time. They've gone by the wayside since then, though, and I hadn't really given them a second thought until this past weekend. We went to Compote on our way to wine country, and Sara ordered a bunch of chai lattes for us. Why in the world did I give these up?!

I'm certainly not a caffeine nazi when it comes to my pregnancy, but during the first trimester, just the thought of coffee was nauseating. Now that I feel better, I've been drinking it again, but can't handle all the caffeine. So, in my quest to find good low-or-no caffeine substitutes, I can't believe I didn't even think of chai! Since its resurgence, though, Mommy and Baby have been quite happy!

Pinterest

While it has become a bit of a time suck, Pinterest has definitely helped me keep (some of) my sanity these last few months. I'm completely addicted!

It all started with cute baby stuff for one day off in the distant future. Then the baby stuff became not-so-distant. Now it's such a fun place to find ideas for DIY baby stuff, afghan patterns, and nursery ideas. I guarantee our baby will be sporting many items stolen from the boards of Pinterest!

Then I became addicted to recipes. I've even made a couple that have been quite fabulous. It's such a fun way to add a little variety to our weekly menus.

And now DH is addicted! He's had a lot of fun adding to the baby board, and getting to share in the cute ideas.i don't know what other boards he has, but I see him with his phone in his hand constantly pinning away!

Thanks Pinterest for helping me waste even more of my day!

Simple minds, simple pleasures

Tonight I'm thankful for the simplemindedness of my poochie, Charlie.

We went to Target today and purchased the economy size bag of tennis balls. These are her absolute FAVORITE toy in the entire world. But Puppy can chew through them like nobody's business, so it's important that we don't spend a lot of money on them.

As we were unpacking our bag of loot, Puppy saw me put the bag of balls away on the upper shelf of the closet where they live until she busts through one and is need of a new source of joy. She got so excited about the arrival of so many new balls that she plopped down and smiled up at them, patiently waiting for someone to get them down for her.

And there she sits, an hour later. And probably will for the rest of the night.

Modern medicine

Tonight I'm thankful for the advances in medical science. This will be a rather short and targeted list, because it only has to do with babies.

Ultrasounds - I love that we've seen our little baby's heartbeat with our own eyes. And I'm so excited for the day when we can see Little DiJulio's... anatomy.

Dopplers - While my visits these days to my midwife are short and sweet (and start to feel like a waste of time), it always warms my heart to hear my little baby's heart beat rapidly and strong.

I'm not sure what to call the last thing. Mom-in-law sent us a book of little fetuses along the way to birth, and it's cool to see how Lil Tank (1st choice of a name, regardless of gender) is growing inside. It's amazing how fast he or she looks like a little person!

The countdown continues, 22 weeks to go!

Where have I been?!

As I sit here waiting for car's oil change to finish up, I have suddenly remembered my blog. Ah yes, my love-hate relationship for this thing still going strong, I have decided it's time to update. After all, I'm in the home stretch! Only 2 more months till my 30th!

We've had much going on in the last few months, many things to help my mind stray from the elusive update. Not least of which is the fact that I'm pregnant! 17 weeks along, and I'm finally getting around to being thankful for it ;-)

In all seriousness, though, once the surprise wore off after a couple days, we were ecstatic to find out a little DiJulio would be joining us soon. We went to Costa Rica soon after and told everyone we met! We weren't ready to tell family and friends yet, but were bursting at the seams, so it felt good to share our news with someone!

It's been a pretty easy pregnancy (knock on wood!) and we're excited to see what's in store. We'll find out the sex in a three weeks, and then it's in to the final countdown! I'll try to keep everyone up-to-date, but we've all seen how that goes!

Cisco

We purchased a new router over the weekend. I love it.

That is all.