A ray of sunshine

It looks like there may be hope on the horizon!!

So... while we have been dealing with sleep issues on the surface, it seems the culprit of our stolen hours of slumber was buried a little deeper.

Our cupcake has pretty much always been such a laid-back mellow baby. But these last two weeks had us thinking that we were turning another corner of our little girls personality. She was constantly fussy and in need of someone to entertain her. Just not herself.

While we had a house full of company for Christmas, E gradually started eating less and less than she usually ate. At the time I just assumed that it was the distraction of everything going on, that she just wasn't used to it.

Then her sleeping started to become disturbed, with wakings from every 1.5 -1 hrs through out the night. She would wake with a cry, almost seeming to be in pain and we would only be able to sooth her with a bottle. At first she would drift back to sleep while finishing the bottle. But as of late, she would instead by wide awake and to get her back to dream land involved about 30-45 min of bouncing. I would be able to get her sleep in my arms, but even then as soon as I laid her down in her crib she would wake again.

With that issue, being that I was exhausted and anxious to get back to sleep myself, I would just bring her into bed with us and she would sleep... but only until the next fussy waking would make it's appearance. A vicious cycle to say the least.

What really began to be the brutal part for me is that on top of my obvious frustration and stress, I was becoming more and more sleep deprived. These to combined were causing me to feel resentment towards little cupcake and that is not acceptable. It's not her fault, and I know that she was obviously feeling the effects of it all as well, with her being more fussy and all.

I finally started unraveling the mystery when I realized that E was struggling to have a bowl movement and was only having one every other day... ah ha! It finally hit me {isn't it just dandy that looking back it seems the solution should have been more obvious much sooner?!}

We switched to soy formula about a month ago and ever since then her stools have become like a thick paste {sorry if this disgusts you, something about becoming a mom that seems to strengthen you stomach} and she wasn't passing even half the amount as before.

Hello! I don't know about you but I know if I am constipated, I don't really feel like eating... With her eating less it's no wonder she would wake up to eat through out the night.

After I got the idea that this could be the issue we drove down to Babies'R'Us to get the milk version of Earth's Best formula. We came home and she drank a bottle without issue and soon after had a bowl movement {which I think was already in the works, doubt the new stuff worked that fast!}. It wasn't too long after that...

And cupcake had a TWO hour nap! If only I had know that she would sleep that long {and not the 30 min or less naps that she's been fashioning} I would have partaken in a nap myself!

Not only did she nap great, but she is now in bed. Sound asleep. With out a peep! {YAY}

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No sleep

We need a solution!!

Stud Muffin and I are desperate to find a way to help our cupcake sleep through the night, but honestly even more importantly than that, we would love for her to be able to go fall asleep with out us having to swaddle or bounce her. I believe that if she can fall asleep on her own in the first place, the issue of her waking up in the night will also be resolved. I say that because if she wakes up in the night and she is able to fall back asleep on her own then she won't fuss and wake us up in need of our assistance. {If she wakes up because she is hungry, that is a whole-nother story and I am happy to feed my baby.}

It seems that the hardest part lately is that starting at 6 weeks, cupcake was 'sleeping through the night' {10 pm - 7ish am} with out a peep! She did this for a month or two and then, probably due to a growth spurt, she would wake up maybe once or twice to eat. BUT she would go right back to sleep after nursing or drinking a bottle... These last couple of nights, she is wide awake after finishing a bottle. It takes at least 20-30 min to get her back to sleep, depending on how much she fights it.

My husband and I are both opposed to the idea of letting our baby cry it out {CIO}. I won't take the time to get into all the details of why {but I would be happy to explain it to anyone interested :D}. But I will say that falling asleep is something that is learned, just like being potty trained. Would you 'ignore' your toddler, when they are trying to learn how to go potty in a toilet, with the attitude 'they just need to figure it out or they will never learn!' {Doubt it!}

We did some looking and found this book 'The No-Cry Sleep Solution' and we are in the beginning stages:

Right now we are taking a log of her current sleep schedule {or lack there of!} broken down in to her nap times, pre-bedtime routine and her actual night time sleep.

After we get an idea of where we are at then we will read on in the book to start trying different techniques, eventually getting her to be able to fall asleep on her own. Every 10 days we will do the log again to see how we are progressing and adjust as necessary.

The woman who wrote the book has 4 children of her own and developed these techniques with her own children, as well as with a group of 60 moms desperate for a solution that didn't involve letting their child CIO.

I plan to post our progress and hope to be able to report positively :) Thanks for the support from all of you who love cupcake as much as we do!

Your prayers would be heartily accepted :D

I'm in love!

With my new Beaba Babycook! It's a baby food cooking/pureeing/reheating/defrosting gift from heaven.

I heard about it from my step-mom {thanks cheri} and found one slightly used on ebay for much less.

This thing makes baby food making a piece of cake. {Well, not really a piece of cake, I wouldn't give cake to my 5 mo ;p } But it's seriously so easy...

Step 1 --> place chopped food of choice in the cooking basket and add right amount of water according to what you are cooking.

Step 2 --> turn it on to cook. {The cooker will turn off when water runs out! Appr 15 min}

Step 3 --> pour out water from cooking into another bowl and put the cooked food into the processor.

Step 4 --> Turn on to blend and add the water used to cook as needed to reach desired consitancy.

Ta-da! Baby food in 20 min. And the parts are all dishwasher safe {and BPA free :) }

I made sweet potatoes and bananas today. Looking forward to the infinite possibilities ahead.

I'm in love!

Tea Time

E and I went to our first tea house for a friend's birthday. It was a lot of fun!

They served us two different kinds of tea, our choice of soup or salad...

... and then they brought us a yummy tray of delicate finger foods.

They we delicious! I have to say, I believe E and I had fun at our first tea outing! I look forward to going on mommy-daughter dates at the tea house.

"Cream and sugar, darling?"

"No NAP!"

For any of you that have seen "Honey, I blew up the kid" you have an idea of what I mean...

For those of you who haven't or don't remember, I'll explain.

Ok, so my situation isn't exactly like it was in the movie, but it's what I keep hearing in my head. Of course my 5 and a half mon. old can't talk yet, so she doesn't say "No nap!" with real words. But her actions are saying it loud and clear.

I am well aware that our current sleeping issues are most likely a result of choices we made early on but I am at a transition point and I don't know what to do.

From the second night that we had E at home, she has slept in a 'SwaddleMe' {every night in the hospital and our first night at home she slept in one of our arms. We were new parents what can I say!}. In fact, for her first couple weeks she spent a lot of time in the swaddle because it's soothing for a newborn, it feels similar to the womb. As she became more and more alert during the day we stopped using it as much. But we have always put her in it to sleep. For nap times and for sleeping at night. With it she is able to take longer naps and she sleeps for longer stretches at night. I think because it keeps her from rubbing her face and waking herself up. It's been great!

She eventually outgrew the size Small, so we bought the Large size. And it still fits her fine.

So the problem: now she rolls over on to her face, but when she is swaddled she doesn't have her arms. It just seems cruel. Plus I know that one day, gasp, she will out grow it {right mom?!} and then what. I know in my mind that she has to learn to fall asleep with it out at some point.

My fear is that we may have waited too long for this to be an easy transition. So now are we going to have to pay for those longer stretches of sleep? Most likely yes.

I'm also having to deal with the problem that I can get her to fall asleep in my arms {in the swaddle} and then when I go to put her down in her crib she wakes up and I have to start all over again. It's getting really frustrating.

But I'm not sure how to go about fixing it. I'm not strong enough to let my baby 'cry it out'. Call me a weak parent. But I can't do it. I can only take it for 30 seconds and I'm in there picking her up and calming her down. I've tried longer, I've even tried the "let her cry for 3min, then go in for 1 min, let her cry for another 5, then go in for 1min and then let her cry 10 min, etc" but that is just cruel to me. She just gets more worked up anyways, how is that fair to either of us. Now I have to calm down an even more worked up baby...

But I also know that I can't rock {actually it's bounce with our daughter, we have to bounce her while sitting on an exercise ball because she could care less about rocking} her forever. But I also know that I won't be able to rock/bounce her forever. She will grow up someday and be too big for it. And then I'll miss being able to. So do I just continue and wait for her to grow out of it on her own? If she ever does... {I know she won't be 13 and want to be bounced to sleep... but do I want to wait til then?!}

So if you see me out I will probably be the mom with dark circles under my eyes and a mega size coffee cup in my hand {heck, maybe I'll just carry around the whole pot of coffee!}.

For now, I'm off to bounce my baby to sleep.

Resolution: 2010

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time."

It's that time of year again.

For resolutions that is. I usually skip it. Making resolutions that is. {you can't really skip time, can you?} It's not that I don't believe in them or think that they aren't a good idea, I think they are a GREAT idea. Striving to improve myself, or rather striving to allow God to improve me, is one of the main purposes for my life.

My problem always lies in the fact that I can be indecisive and to have to choose one resolution for the whole year seemed hard to do. {I know you can choose more than one but really that just complicates things more.} I also think a whole year is a really, really long time {anybody with me here?!} and I just don't know if I can commit to something that I might not be able to get done.

In fact, I know myself and I would probably give up after January!

But, this year I think I'll try a different approach. Instead of choosing a resolution that will probably wear off, {like exercise more, or eat healthier, etc. Not that I won't do these things... just don't want to commit to it. Verbally.} I would rather choose something I know that I won't ever necessarily complete in this life time (that is until I am perfected in my death by God} but wish to improve in continually.

As Oswald Chambers puts it in the quote above, "faith is confidence in the character of God."

Over and over again, in the past couple of weeks, this has come up several times and I believe God has confirmed this as a theme for me: to learn, know and understand who the character of God truly is. And then to claim it. Especially when the lies of the devil are creeping in causing me to fear.

Whether or not you know me as a fearful person, I have become more of one over the past couple of years. You could even say that it has intensified with the birth of E. I know every parent is protective of their children and wishes to protect them from harm in any way. But the fear that I have been battling goes beyond the common dreads of the average parent.

I won't go into detail {it's not the point} and I won't claim to be better than the average parent. I am by far NOT better. But the point is that only God can protect any of us. Of course there are obvious, everyday things that we can act upon to keep safety in our lives. But I'm not talking about those things really. I'm talking about the no good, down right evil that exists in the world we live in. Even accidents claim lives, we are always in a hurry and have to have everything right now. We live in a self pleasing world, myself included. Lets just face it, all anyone has to do is turn on the tv to see the latest terrorist attack attempt or even kidnapping that has taken place. We live in evil times.

God though, my God, is so much bigger. He created all that is living! He is a HUGE God! But He is also a loving parent to His children young and old. Only He can take perfect care of us.

So this next year, and even beyond that, I am committing to learning, knowing and understanding the character of God. I will be happy to share my discoveries along the way, but some things I may choose to keep between my family. I don't know, we will see what God has in store for this next year!

I can't wait.