Sorry for the Blog post delay.. it seems i spoke too soon. Literally the night i posted my last blog about how great DD was sleeping. She decided to change. She went from sleeping 11-7 to waking up again at night and needing nurturing... a lot of nurturing. Sometimes being up for 1.5 hrs. SO... i panicked a little. Calling Debbie to try and figure out what happened and where i went wrong in our process. Thing is... i didnt do anything wrong. I didnt change anything. BUT its hard to believe that when things go right and then change. I had to be reminded (because even i need the reassurance) that shes only 8-9 weeks old and shes doing better then my son or most 9 week olds do. She is learning amazing great habits and is able to self soothe. Its funny because i am also a Paramedic and if i need to treat a patient i can do that no problem. When it comes to treating and diagnosing myself... not so easy. I call my medic friends. looks like im in the same boat. What was wrong? it could have been gas, it could have been the 9 week growth spurt, it could have been, it could have been. In the end it doesn't matter. We kept with the program. Its all she knows. 

It was a long and exhausting week. We potty trained my son last week. He did amazing barely any accidents and we were taking him out for outings by day 3. He is still accident free. YAY! My DH worked full days and a lot of shifts. DD was a cranky pants from lack of sleep. At one point we were all having a good ol family cry. Yup, All 3 of us. Hey its stressful, im definitely no supermom. Sometimes the only thing that makes you feel better is a cry. And it DID!

Well fast forward a week later and things are looking up. DD went back to her 11-7 sleep last night and great daytime naps. She has been smiling up a storm and is cooing. Her smile melts my heart. A big toothless smile. Her eyes light up and she stares right into my eyes. LOVE! Makes me forget my horrible week. Heres to things looking up. . . keeping in my mind that its ok.. she's 9 weeks old. Doing great and i cant expect perfection. There will be bad days that she needs me more to nurture her.. i can do that. Thank you to Debbie for reminding me of that. Just keep pushing on. 


ON A TOTALLY NON sleep update... Take a look at this AMAZING idea i got off of pintrest. Yes.. i love pinterst. Mason Jar salads. (google it) Right now finding time to make a proper healthy (calorie conscious) meal in little time is next to impossible so what do i do.. reach for something fast which is usually a carb. I need to be a lot more careful as we have a destination wedding in november and i have some lingering baby weight to lose. Well.. in just over an hour (DD's last nap) i made a weeks worth of SALADS. So simple and kept in the fridge. Shake, put in a bowl and eat. Salad dressing on the bottom hearty veg or meat on top, any other ingredients you have and then salad on the top. Put the lid on and keep in the fridge for 5-7 days (or eat them as i had one for lunch and one for dinner tonight)
I just had to share cause its such a simple idea but awesome. 

Well here i am. 8 weeks into my sleep nurturing journey. Incredible how different parenting is this time around. First im not so scared of screwing everything up because ive learned that making mistakes is how you learn. Second I'm so much more rested. 

DD is sleeping from 11pm-7am Almost always. She may have the odd off night where she wakes sometime around 3 and i must "nurture" her back to sleep. Most nights however, i give her her last feed and see her in the morning. She is amazing me. Ive helped sleep train many babies for over a year now but my area of knowledge was for babies 4 mos plus. A lot of what i teach i also learned first hand from doing and being in my clients shoes. Anytime we got an email for a newborn less the 16 weeks, i always passed it on not feeling comfortable since i had not done it my self. WELL... i feel comfortable now. 
DD is a great napper. she has her off day like all babes do. Shes not one to fall asleep ON anyone. Its so different. She likes to be put down to fall asleep on her own. 

Shes almost hit her goal of 11pm-8am. ONE more hour to go. Then we get to move on to her next schedule and getting her to a much earlier bedtime. Im hoping before she's 4 mos old to help her learn to sleep 9pm-8am (a later bedtime then most but its something that i have had to alter to make work with our personal family life). Im scared of moving schedules. More cause im afraid of change. I get use to my ways and then to change them takes some getting use to. 
Right now shes only awake for an hour and napping for 2.  Doing so amazingly well. I know she will have her off days both for naps and overnight and need some help. Thats ok. Thats what mommy is here to do. help guide her along the way.

I am so proud of her and myself. . . my DH too. He wishes he could do more but he knows how dependant she is on me for food right now - he is my go to for diaper changes though. We have a lot more confidence in ourselves and in her. We know that if she cries just give her a minute, she will figure it out. She almost always does and all we can do at that point is SMILE. Shes learned a lifelong skill already and shes only 8 weeks old.

My daughter is an odd ball. Yes i know im mean but she is the baby that i didn't believe existed. People would tell me that their children would wake in the car or stroller when they slowed or stopped and i would secretly laugh in my head thinking "NO way... thats impossible." My son... well he never ever did that. He would ALWAYS sleep in the car or stroller. Just not in the crib or when we wanted him to sleep until we trained him of course. Well, i guess i now know first hand. I was foolishly wrong. I now have THAT baby. The one i believed never existed and i apologize for ever secretly laughing. Its tough, especially for an anal sleep training momma like me. I know that when i go out (cause i cannot be captive to my home all day) that theres a 75% chance of a bad nap. If i use my white noise machine i can SOMETIMES get a proper nap out of her - i also get asked a million times whats that noise but quite frankly i dont care as long as she sleeps. Ive tried all my tricks. NO luck. So i forge on.. going out when she wakes from a good nap and knowing that its a long shot that she will sleep on the go. i have to tell you though... it URKS me ... and i hope she changes soon. i need her to be a good on the go sleeper. DS only naps once a day and ive gotten use to being able to go out in the morning, being back for his nap (which is now ALL of our nap time) at 1pm-4pm and then back out at night. 
Im a very scheduled person. My iphone is filled with appointments, reminders, playdates, daycare etc. (otherwise the mommy brain forgets) my kids well... they are pretty regimented. Same meal times nap times bedtimes. It works for us. I like knowing whats next. i think they do too. 

Anyways. My next dilemma The swaddle. I have always believed a baby needs to be swaddled. I still do. BUT i have never met a child who fights it so fiercely as my DD. i know she s=would love nothing more in the world (besides milk) to be unswaddled. Im deathly afraid of it though. She sleeps so well (until she realizes she cant move her arms) then struggles and fights till she gives up and goes back to sleep. With my DS i kept him swaddled till after we sleep trained him. Then i had to train him again. Ive tried with one arm out and with both out and she flails around like shes doing a dance.  Ive tried the woombie and the swaddle me. the swaddle me is tighter and the woombie she gets her little arms out of.  I have an internal debate of what to do. I havent figured it out yet. I keep saying "ok next nap im gonna let her be free" then i chicken out and put her in it. AHHHH.... i hate change. Im so scared of it. Mainly cause i know shes doing so well that i dont want to screw it up. Sometimes she just screams because she's confined and fights harder then ive ever seen a child fight (guess i now know what people mean when they say their kids hated to be swaddled... ANOTHER lesson learned!!!!) except i refuse to give it up. (yet) 

When did you unsawaddle?