Sleep Training

With a heavy heart, we decided it was in Logan's best interest to sleep train via CIO aka Crying It Out method.

Day 1: Bed at 9pm, cried for 50 mins. Woke at 2:40am, cried for an hour.

Day 2: SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Nursed at 6:20pm. Strict bedtime routine starting at 7pm (bath, play, rolling, tummy time letting out some big burps, go to bedroom, read book with the light on, nurse at 7:45pm, burp real good, rock and sang, Logan sings back to me, asleep by 8pm. Deep sleep and put him down at 8:14pm. Cried 3 mins at 9:05pm. Slept through the entire night without a single peep until I woke him for the sitter at 6:00am. He took two 2-1/2 hour naps. Much more pleasant and well rested through the day. Curious to see how long he can sleep had I not woken him for the sitter.

Night 3: Started routine late at 7:30pm which messed us up. Sleep at 8:23pm. Cried for 10 mins at 9:15pm. Slept. Cried at 3:40am for a few mins. Slept till 7:48am. Played by himself in his crib. Picked him up at 8:14 am for the morning!

I feel like posts on sleep training always come with an explanation of why I would have my baby cry it out, so here goes mine.

Our work schedule/sitter's schedule and his natural feeding/sleeping patterns were conflicting leading to a very cranky Logan who got no sleep. I was nursing him at 4am, he'd want to sleep till 8am and we're waking him at 5:30-6-30 am to go to the sitters. Then we would pick him up from the sitters at 4:30pm when he wanted to nap from 3-6pm. Then he'd nurse at 6pm and it was messing up his play/nursing/bedtime. It was getting so bad that the last 2 weeks he was napping (20 mins, 15 mins and 65 mins = 1 hr 4o mins = not enough) So I moved my work schedule to allow him more sleep in the morning and pick him up later so that he can get his 3rd nap in as well. I worked with the sitter asking her to offer him quiet time or a nap every 2 hours and it worked!

Logan is an easy baby. He went down so easily while nursing that we never needed to put him on any regiment. Usually around 7pm he'd go to bed. At first we didn't recognize that he was tired and needs to put to bed not just wait till he falls asleep. He was extremely overtired - napping only 20 mins here and there and then waking in the night (which I found wasn't hunger related because I'd pick him up and he'd doze right off again). I couldn't function on 5-6 hours of sleep nightly and waking at 4am then going off to work full time. And ulimately, I felt like he was ready. He is thriving at 15 lbs and 2 oz (at 17 weeks old) and has been gaining weight regularly. Had I had an inkling that he was hungry I wouldn't deny him a midnight feeding. After talking to many friends with different experiences and versus what Pediatricians and books say, I pulled together the best method for us.

Fingers crossed it continues to work.

Projects

New sofa cushion covers and repainted the sofa.


Foot and paw prints on canvas to hang in Logan's room.


Pocket for books and my iPhone on the glider in Logan's nursery.


Bibs using receiving blankets that Logan has grown out of.


Little burp cloths for under the chin when Logan is nursing. Fabric by Amy Butler.

Logan's Pimped out Christmas-fyed room

Logan and T1 - shirt twins

Logan and T1 are shirt twinnies! http://thatwifeblog.com/2011/12/toddler-activities/#comment-198343

2011 Christmas Card

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Logan's Nursery

I should have known that once the baby was here, I wouldn't have time to write this post. Blood, sweat and tears (of joy) but here it is! Before we found out we were pregnant, Keith sanded and restained the floors which was truly a labor of love. We knew eventually this would be a nursery so we carefully worked on this room and turned Keith's man cave into a nursery for baby.

Here's an overall view on the room from the door. Too bad I can't get the whole room into one shot. Here you get a glimsp of the shiny refinished floors.

The quilt was made by my best friend Mary's mom. The floral and dot fabric are both from Amy Butler purchased through Fabric Worm. The gray and blue fabric were chosen by her mom from the fabric store to match. The quilt made such a beautiful addition to the crib especially since we didn't purchase bedding. The crib sheet is from Babies R Us and the crib skirt is from Amazon.

The glider was a hand me down from my sister in law from when she had her children. Instead of a solid color, I chose the gray and white chevron patterned fabric to make the room more fun! The fabric was purchased through Etsy from seller Hodi and Poppi. I spent $40. If you rememeber, the side table was purchased from a thrift store for $3.40 and we spray painted it a gumball red. We spent more on spray paint than we did on the table itself. I love how it turned out.

The chandelier and the shag rug is from Overstock. Also, seen here is the DIY "stenciled" wall that I painted by hand in a scallop pattern. Keith also put up crown moulding and the chair rail for detail.

Red frame from TJ Maxx. I like the swirl pattern in it. As you can tell I wasn't going for any particular theme. I was more interested in textures and patterns which "they" say is good for babies. Wooden blocks were made by Keith's dad back when he and his sisters were babies.

Print from Etsy. It's called "Rainy Day Love" by Rosy Designs Online. $20.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/rosydesignsonline

The shelves are from Christmas Tree Shoppe. They were the cheapest price (and quality), but it works for decor in a nursery that would be temporary and isn't holding up anything really heavy. The brown leather "B" is from Marshall's/HomeGoods. The silver "123" and "abc" book ends are from TJ Max.

DIY Origami mobile. This was just some fishing line, a piece of flexible gold wire and 3 cranes which I folded from scrapbooking paper from JoAnn's. Keith has a love of birds and flight, so this was my way of working that into the nursery. Plus, I think it's way cooler than a mobile purchased from the store which I'm told is now a "no no" for babies...that and crib bumpers.

Keith's grandma's cross.

DIY yarn letters. I meant to hang these on the wall behind the crib but have yet to figure out how. Our walls are plaster, so it just makes things a little trickier. We'll work on that.

Keith's christening shoes. I might put these in a shadow box and hang it as wall art.

This belongs to Keith as well. When I was looking for decor, all I had to do was go "shopping" in Keith's man cave.

One of the first gifts we received was Sophie the giraffe from our dear friend Jule over at Duet Letterpress. http://www.duetletterpress.com/blog/

To be continued...

First Photoshoot

When BB was just 7 days old we asked photographer Brittany Pugh of Brittany Lee Photography to do an infant shoot for us. The photos turned out AMAZING and we are so glad we did it!






Here they are in action! BB was a pro model. He IS MY son after all. The key is to make sure your baby is well fed and crank that heat up in your house if you're going to strip him down for the bare bootie shot.

Here are some teasers:

Our Proudest Home Improvement of all

Before




After




Time spent: 10 months
Cost: Priceless

39 weeks Just the Two (or four) of us!

Enjoying my last week of pregnancy. (technically)



Me and the boys at the dog park


Pumpkin picking


Cinnamon donut eating


Ed and LeighAnne's Wedding








Sporting some hand me down "maternity" clothes.


My boys

More Freezer Meals

So I did another one of my cooking relays where I bought certain ingredients and used what I call a "tag team" method where I use one ingredient in more than 1 of the meals and while cooking one thing, I am prepping the next. I think this is just how you have to do it to save on time.

Here's a summary of what I cooked today: (I'll go into details in a later post)

• 4 meals - Pot Roast w/egg noodles
• 3 meals - Lemon Chicken thighs w/rice or w/veg
• 2 meals - Turkey Meatloaf with sun-dried tom & feta w/veg
• 2 meals - Chicken Enchilads w/black beans & cheese
• 10 individually wrapped sausage, egg & cheese wraps
• 1 pot of chicken stock - Chicken & Rice soup and Chicken Noodle soup
• 4 frozen chicken breasts

Because pot roast in a crock pot is a set it and forget it meal, I prepped that first. Whether you make a small batch or a big batch, it still takes hours and you still have to buy a BAG of carrots and BAG of potatoes. Utilize your time wisely and cook the vegs while they are fresh by making a large batch. Yes, that parsley is from my garden! Normally I buy baby carrots so there is no prep but today, the whole carrots were on sale and the larger carrots tend to be sweeter anyway especially when I knew I'd be using them for various meals.


Then I moved onto the chicken stock. I bought a whole roaster for $6, cut the breasts off and froze them for future use. Cut the legs off for Chicken Enchiladas, but boiled them in the stock to avoid dirtying another pot. Remove excess fat and skin and discard before cooking. Added a potato and carrot (from pot roast ingredients) for flavor.


I'll go into details later, but using the chicken drumsticks and thighs from the whole roaster (see above), I turned it into Chicken Enchiladas. Take the meat off the bones, combine with taco seasoning, cheese, black beans (leftovers) and tortilla wraps. Arrange and freeze. I put the beans on the outside on one half of the dish because I'm not sure whether they will sit well with me when I'm nursing. We had 2 enchiladas for lunch today as well.

Lemon chicken thighs - I read this recipe on Simple Recipes. I love lemon chicken and Keith is a big fan of chicken thighs. Dark meat is always an economical choice too. This package was $4 and makes 3 meals (for the 2 of us). I removed the skin because it's too fatty. I threw in the rest of my bag of carrots from the Pot Roast that I couldn't use up. Roasted carrots are nice and sweet and nutty. While that baked, I moved on and had lunch.


Straining the chicken stock. You could simmer it a lot longer and after straining, dump everything (the chicken bones and other ingredients). I stopped because I was tired of cooking and I wanted to salvage some of the meat. This was my favorite part as a kid. My mom would let me go to town on the carcass and I'd dip the meat in a mixture of soy sauce, hot sauce and seasame oil.

Back to those Lemon Chicken Thighs - Some of the thighs were much larger than others. The large ones I put in one container with some uncooked, sliced zucchini assuming when I go to reheat the chicken, the zucchini will cook. The smaller ones, I put in a container with some leftover rice I had and diced tomatoes. The moisture from the toms will recook the rice in the oven nicely. The zucchini provides a vegetable which completes the meal.

On a different note, I wanted to make meat loaf and this Turkey Meat Loaf from Giada is to die for! I had feta cheese leftover from a salad I made and sun dried tomatoes left as well which I wanted to use up. A little over a pound of turkey $3. I baked it in a shallow aluminum tray. Allow to cool. There's enough for 2 meals, so I cut it down the middle and put it in another tray. Sliced it for easy reheat and added frozen peas into the tray. That will make for one complete meal as well. I like rice with everything so I'll probably cook some rice in the rice cooker if the meat loaf by itself isn't enough.

More to come...