Monday, April 30, 2007

Five Reasons to be Happy

Reason #1: The sun finally poked out this weekend after a week of dreary rain. It was much appreciated! Erik and I were able to paint and put up the moldings around all the door frames. We still have baseboards to do in all the main areas (and some painting), but it'll all come together eventually. We finally got a chance to watch The Pursuit of Happyness and both nearly cried the whole way through. A definite must-see for those who haven't seen it, especially parents.


Reasons #2 & #3: The weekend brought with it some more sleep solutions for both of the kids. Disclaimer --> I realize I've been blogging about sleep issues a lot, but I suppose it’s because that’s what’s on my mind the most! If you don’t want to hear about it, go ahead and skip to Reason #4 :)

Anyway, I was kind of half-heartedly thinking about taking Keziah’s soother away for sleeping and then it just sort of happened over the weekend. On Friday night she was unusually relaxed and content right up until her bedtime so I decided to try putting her in her crib without her soother. She started crying but it wasn’t a really serious cry – more of a sleepy whiny cry – and I felt I was able to tolerate it. I decided I would give her the soother if her cries started to escalate. Well, they never did and 10 minutes later she was quiet! I snuck in to see what was happening. She was still kind of awake – rubbing her blanket in her face and lifting up both legs and slamming them down on the mattress which, oddly enough, seemed to be soothing for her. I let her be and she was sleeping soon after. She woke up once during the night at which point I just let her have the soother since I was too exhausted for a fight. The next morning around 5:30 I heard her again – just kind of fussing and doing the mattress foot-slam – but she fell asleep without me giving her the soother! Ever since then I've been putting her down without her soother. She usually fusses a little bit, but I don't give her the soother unless she's really crying (then take it away when she calms down). She has surprised me with how well she can fall asleep on her own. And dare I even mention it, the last TWO nights in a row she has slept straight through the night without so much as a peep! Makes me wonder why I didn't try this sooner...

This is way easier than waiting until she’s 2 :) So, what do you say, Kelly? Your turn next!

And we found a sleep solution for Micah that is (possibly) working. He’s been routinely waking up before 6 every morning, so we gave him his own clock radio in his room and told him he couldn’t get out of bed until he heard the music turn on. Well, wouldn’t you guess that the first couple of mornings the alarm actually woke him up! After extending the alarm for another half hour (to 6:30) we tried again. Sat. morning he still got out of bed a few times before 6:30 but I just kept bringing him back with the excuse that the clock didn't say it was morning yet. When the alarm finally went off I made a big deal about it being morning - opening the blinds, etc. I hope he got the point. This morning I heard him cry a few minutes before his alarm, but he stayed in bed until it went off - and then even a bit longer while he listened to the music :)

I would just like to know how many hours of sleep your toddlers get in a day. Micah sleeps about 9 or 10 hours at night and 1.5-3 hours during his nap. Is that enough? I really feel like he needs a longer sleep at night, but it's so hard to get him sleeping any sooner than 8:30.

Reason #4: Keziah started giggling a lot more over the weekend. Micah really got her going one afternoon. There is nothing more precious than watching your children laughing together! (Except watching them sleep!)


Reason #5: Erik had talked about taking a few days off this week so we could have some family days and on Saturday night we made the spontaneous decision to turn it into a trip to Edmonton! I'm excited about getting away - but also a little stressed about the logistics of traveling with two kids. We are planning to drive through the night on Wednesday so they can both sleep the whole way. We'll spend Thurs & Fri nights in a hotel and then drive home Sat. night. We'll hit West Ed, of course, and probably spend awhile at the waterpark. We have lots of stuff to do to get everything ready so I will sign off now in order to get started! I hope you all have a fantastic week!

12 comments:

The Keowns said...

Have fun in Edmonton. Our kids LOVED the water park. I actually cashed in airmiles for free passes. The drive wasn't too bad, we drove throught he night and the dvd player helped alot!
We are planning a trip to Calgary in July (because Steve's work will be paying for it!) probably for about 8 or 9 days. How far are you from Calgary?
as for the sleep thing, Liam gets about 10-12 hours of sleep at night and sleeps for 3 or 4 hours in the afternoon. The other kids don't nap and sleep about 10-12 hours as well. Aidan is usually up just before 7 but the other kids usual sleep a little later.

Ej said...

Hey Jamie - J-man has always done the foot kicking thing too - it soothes him - I actually read about it somewhere. He still sometimes does it. Have fun in Edmonton!

rachel joy said...

What a brilliant idea about the alarm clock. I think we just might try that with Max. I'm not terribly consistent with his bedtime but on a regular night he should sleep from about 8pm to 6:30-7:00 am. He usually sleeps 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon. Sometimes more, which makes for an early wake-up the next day. These days and nights have been far from normal lately. Yesterday he slept for 3 hours, we woke him up at 5pm. He was up at 6:30 today. Not cool. I have to be better at getting him napping closer to 1:00 so he's more tired when bedtime rolls around.

And yes, I'm looking forward to meeting your little family when we move to Abby this summer!

Kimberly said...

Hi there. So good to hear that you are getting more sleep! My almost-2 year old sleeps at least 12 hours at night and 3 in the afternoon. He's usually 8-8 with a nap from 1-4. He has always been a kid that needs his sleep, but most kids that age that I know get between 10-12 hours at night. You may find (we sure did) that as he's getting better sleep he'll also sleep longer. When Aiden was transitioning to his one afternoon nap he was only sleeping 1.5-2 for his nap and being super grumpy all the time, but now that he's more able to handle just one nap, it's moved to be 3 hours. Sleep is such a funny science!

Cheri said...

Hey Jamie: That is sooo awesome!! We would love to see you guys if it suits on your way by or we could meet you for coffee or something if you want. We literally live 15-20 min. from West Ed.!! Anyway, if it does work, give me a comment on my blog and we can try to connect. I can put my email address on the blog for a bit or something so we can communicate. Let me know!

Nathan & Rosanna Toews said...

Hey you - so glad you get to get away this week! Hope to see you soon. I miss you guys!

Bonnie said...

Have a GREAT time in Edmonton! I was actually just there this weekend, visiting my two best friends. We had a BLAST at West Ed...its always fun to shop in a mall of that size :) Got some great stuff! And I'm sure the waterpark with be tons of fun with the kids. Enjoy your get-away!!

KDees said...

You do have many reasons to be happy! We all do, don't we? I'm so glad that your kids' sleeping habits seem to have turned around! Yay! And, how fun to get away to Edmonton! Too bad it wasn't Calgary and we could have gotten together! But, have a TON of fun! Take lots of pictures and be sure to blog about it when you get back!!!

kelly ens said...

five wonderful reasons for joy!!!!
i am so glad things are working well in the sleep department for both kids - how WONDERFUL!!!!
I'm sure you guys will have a great time away, even with the uncertainty of traveling with two babes :)
as for the soother thing...I am going to get rid of Taeya's once she gets over this cold. Then...NO EXCUSES!!! we'll cut the tip, and just be persistent regardless what comes. *sigh* Laura Toews is also cutting out her youngest daughters soother once she's over her cold too. yippee!

Anonymous said...

Have fun on your trip!!

Michelle said...

Hi Jamie. One thing that might work for Micah to sleep longer is to cut out his nap all together. I know that's horrible to think but when my girls were around 2 I started cutting them back b/c they too were getting up early or staying up late. Supper time was always hard to get through at first as they were so tired but it was too close to bedtiime to let them sleep. But once they get used to it, they could usually get 12 hours of unintrerupted sleep! Just a thought...

Janelle said...

awww....we should have let you know when we were in Edmonton & we could've spent the weekend together!
as for how Kamryn sleeps - yikes...not so well lately...
She goes down around 9 p.m. and is up around 8:00 a.m. though it's getting earlier because of how bright it is out. then she goes down for a 2 hour nap around 1:00.
i wish she'd sleep a little more...she used to sleep in until 9:00 - those were the days!!! :)