sleep training

I posted the following on my facebook status a few days ago.

Tara Burton is wondering if I should start letting Jo cry it out when he wakes up in the middle of the night (yes, the boy still nurses once at night).

My girlfriends gave me a lot to think about. I ultimately concluded that Josiah needs to learn to sleep through the night. Ellie was sleeping thru the night between 6 and 8 months of age and the only reason Josiah hadn't yet was mainly because of him & Ellie sharing a room. It was very difficult for me to let him cry in the night when his sister was in the crib next to him! About a month ago we put the kids in separate rooms so I KNEW It was possible - just wasn't quite sure HOW do go about it! I just knew I didn't want to do the CIO (cry it out) method - at least to start with. The next night I spoke with my mom for quite awhile and we came up with a "plan" for getting Josiah to sleep through the night. . .

When Josiah wakes up in the middle of the night to eat instead of nursing him I would pick him up and try to get him back to sleep in other ways. Rocking, giving him some warm milk, and as a last resort putting him in his jumper - just no nursing until morning!

That was the plan and this is how it's been going... the first night Josiah surprised me and didn't wake up until 5am! I went ahead and nursed him and then put him back down. He then slept until 8:15

The 2nd night Josiah woke up @ 3:30. He was standing up in his crib. I picked him up and brought him into the livingroom to try to rock him back to sleep. I could tell he just wanted to nurse. So I warmed up 4 oz of cows milk and fed it to him from his sippy. He took about 2 or 3 oz and then laid in my arms as I rocked him for about 10 minutes. I laid him back down while he was awake. He did the "butt-wiggle" which usually means he's content, and he fell back to sleep on his own. He didn't wake up again until 7:15!

Last night Josiah slept until 4:40. I went in, picked him up and tried immediately to rock him back to sleep. Nope, not interested. So I gave him some warm milk again, held him for a few minutes and had him back in bed by 4:55. He was up @ 6:30 though!!

I have noticed a few things through this process. The first being that he is eating MORE during the day. Today all he wanted to do was eat - and he drank more milk than usual! The second is that I can't SLEEP after he wakes up. Both nights I just tossed and turned after putting him back down - aaaah!!! And the third is that I think my milk is starting to dry up . . . we may be finished with weaning earlier than I was expecting! However I feel fine with that and more importantly I think that Josiah is doing well with the transition. He still has ME and I think that's the most important thing right now!

Now it's off to bed so that I can be ready to give that little boy some love tonight should he wake up!

nutella and brownies

when I was pregnant w/ Josiah I ate a lot of nutella. Not just by itself though. I would put a pile on my plate, along with some peanut butter and then dip green apple slices for a late night snack. YUM!! But nutella's expensive - and it's not that "good" for you. SO . . . I was going through a couple of my favorite blogs when I found a recipe for cinnamon-hazelnut brownies and then a recipe for nutella! Now, the nutella is not as creamy as the nutella you buy in the store - but hey, when it tastes just as good and is at least better for you I won't complain! And the brownies . . . my little sis was here when I made them and we were blown away by their deliciousness!

Also, in case you didn't know I LOVE to bake. Cooking, not so much. But give me a recipe for a dessert, bread, casserole dish, and you've made my day! That's probably why the kitchen is the hardest area for me to keep clean - as soon as I clean up after dinner I get an exciting recipe to try and all my pots and pans come out again!

So Sugar Plum is one of my very favorite food blogs and steph chows is another. Steph has an AMAZING whole wheat pizza dough recipe. The first recipe I've found that actually cooks all the way through! I HATE doughy pizza! One trick she gave was to invert the cooking sheet. Brilliant idea! I tried it and it worked wonderfully! I also inverted the sheet when I made focaccia bread the other day - I have NEVER had my focaccia bread turn out as good as it did then other night. Even Chris agreed - it tasted just as good as the bread you get at Macaroni Grill - not joking!

I feel so inspired tonight. I can't wait to go see the movie, "Julie & Julia" and become even more inspired!

one reason I love cloth diapers

They look so beautiful on the line!

on to the poops

I bought some fruit leather and put it in a jar 2 weeks ago (kind of looks like poo itself, come to thinkf of it). Nothing happened for the past week except for Ellie continuing to go to her corner in the playroom and doing here "business" there. Finally, just a few days ago, Ellie was in her bedroom taking her rest and I was my bedroom napping. I didn't have the monitor on so it was awhile before I heard her yelling. I finally woke up and rushed out to see that she had climbed out of her bed and ran to the potty. She didn't make it in time but I praised her for her efforts and we've had 90% success since then! I really have to watch her when I know it's "time" and keep her from running to her familiar spot. But most of the time she is going all on her own w/ no coaxing from me. She waves "good-bye" to her poo-poo, which is always going to where mommy & daddy's poo-poo goes! And the treats are working great as incentives! Once we are going to the potty chair 100% of the time I plan on transitioning her to the BIG potty (we've got a seat for that).

I do not miss changing diapers ONE BIT!

potty training #2

so we had 2 days of successful #2 in the potty chair and then it's been back to pooping in her panties. I figured out that she likes to go into the playroom and poop in a particular corner. At least she's consistent BUT it's kind of gross!

That being said this morning I knew she was due for a bm and was trying to make sure to "catch" her before she went in her panties again. I was changing Josiah's dirty diaper when she ran into his room and announced that she needed to go poop. OF COURSE she would need to go when I was in the middle of changing a diaper! I told her to go to the potty and ran out to see how she did as soon as Josiah had a diaper on him. The potty chair was untouched and there was Ellie in her favorite "pooping place" in the playroom - again!

I've decided that tomorrow I'm going to get an "incentive jar" filled with fruit leather . . . I'll see how that goes!

Potty Training

I really thought successful potty training was never going to happen. Ellie loved the various movies that we've watched over the past few months and she seemed interested from time to time but I could always tell she wasn't "ready". I was lamenting my situation to some moms who had made it through the potty training years successfully and one of them highly recommended the dvd "Once Upon A Potty" based on the book by the same name. Finally 2 weeks ago I rented it from our local library. Ellie LOVED it! She sat on her potty in the livingroom while watching it and even went and put her pull ups on after watching it. It is about 15 minutes long with the story as the first half and a "potty song" as the second half. After a few days of watching it she was going pee a few times a day, but wanting a diaper on when she had to go #2. We went 2 days with no pee in diapers, except naptime and nighttimes and then on Sunday she went #2! I was amazed and she's been only using the potty since then! It's like the lights just came on and she realized that she was ready! Today she hung out w/ Grandma and they went around town doing errands. She used the "porta-potty" in the back of Grandma's car and did just fine! No accidents!!

I'm using "potty scotty" underwear (decided that potty patty wouldn't be good for Jo to wear when he's potty training) and they are so easy for her to pull up and down. She will go all by herself w/o me reminding her - most of the time! If she's too busy with friends then I do have to remind her. I'm so happy that it's going this well so far!

Next up, I have to figure out what panties will be most comfortable for her . . . we had purchased some Dora ones awhile ago and they were cheaply and poorly made. Any recommendations?

A child's perspective of discipline

This morning I told Josiah "no" when he was throwing his food. He made his sad face (which I need to get a picture of) and Ellie said to him, "It okay Josiah . . . sometimes it happens". I believe the "it" she was referring to was discipline!