Toddler Transitions

Oh, Mr. Toddler. It was time for us as your parents to help you grow, but it wasn't easy.

Over the last month, we have really been watching Calan grow and watching him change even more from our little guy to a big boy.

A month ago we began our potty training journey. It was a stressful time for both him and I. As a mom you feel like you are banging your head against a wall over and over and over again. I am sure as a toddler you are just plain confused as to why anything needs to change at all.

For us, it took about 3 days for Calan just to start to grasp the idea of potty training. It took another 4 days for him to ask to go potty. And it took another 3 days for him to actually poop in the potty.

After about 10 days, Calan was fully potty trained. Except for a few nap-time accidents, he has been accident free. Every once in awhile like if we are at a play date, I have to make him go pee rather than waiting for him to ask me, but other than that, he is in control.

And then Saturday night, we said goodbye to the crib and hello to a normal bed. We are still transitioning, but it is going pretty well. The first night was the worst so far, so if every night is better, I figure we are getting somewhere.

To transition him, we did all the normal stuff of getting him excited about the bed. When I brought home construction truck sheets, all he kept saying was wow, so I figured I choose the right set. Then the big night came. We put him to bed telling him to stay and that it was time to sleep. We explained that sleeping in his big boy bed was a privilege and that if he did not go to sleep that he would have to sleep in his pack-and-play.

Well, warning after warning, we tried to hold off putting him in his pack-and-play because as his parents we wanted him to sleep in his bed. However, I wish we would have been more firm that first night. Around 9:30, we finally set up the pack-and-play and put him in there. He of course FREAKED OUT, and after he calmed down, I did give in and put him back in his big boy bed. And he went right to sleep around 10.

Nap times have been a little more difficult, and he has kind of chosen to sleep in the pack-and-play  instead of his bed the first few days, but yesterday he started off in the pack-and-play, but wanted to be in his bed about halfway through and he went right back to sleep.

Last night, he was asleep a little after 8:30 and I had to wake him around 7:45 this morning. So, I feel like we are getting somewhere. It is still early to say that we are transitioned, but we are getting there.

It isn't perfect. At night, it takes longer for him to settle down. He needs water or another toy or some other excuse that has Bob running back and forth from the kids' room for about 20 minutes. We also had to make his pack-and-play less desirable since he started wanting to sleep there instead of his bed. So, we told him that if he sleeps in his pack-and-play, he couldn't take any of his stuff animals with him. Just his blankets and a pillow. That helped make him want to sleep in his bed more.

So what have I learned through the last month of toddler transitions:

Remember who your kid is

We read a book and watched a video for potty training and while the information was great, I forgot to factor in who our kid is. He hated being forced to sit on the potty over and over and over again. Once I started to space the time out to every hour rather than 30 minutes, he (and I) were much happier. Also, even in his diaper, he never pooped in front of people. The kid likes his privacy and I needed to understand that. He was never going to poop on the potty under my watch.

For the bed, I have had to remind myself that it is all about transitioning and that it is OK not every night or day will be perfect. However, Calan is a kid who needs sleep, so if his pack-and-play is needed to make sure that happens, so be it. I just needed to figure out a way to make his bed the better option. It is still early with the whole bed transition, but overall it has been pretty painless and I think as long as we keep it relaxed for him, sleep won't be compromised.

As Calan's mommy, I have been pretty proud of my little guy. I have been happy that these transitions have worked and that he was ready for them. A part of me is pretty sad that he is growing up, but overall, I'm pretty darn proud of the little guy he is becoming. (OK, enough mommy pride).

His first night in his bed and raring to go. It would be another 2 1/2 hours
later before he actually fell asleep.

A little story time after a nap time. He does love playing and laying in his bed. 

A quiet moment after a nap. When he snuggles in his blanket, I get a
glimpse of my baby still. He is getting big, but a mom needs these
little moments too.  

Anything goes Thursday: 18 month / 5 month update

Phew! We made it through Christmas and the kids were champs. It was a nice holiday. We felt a bit rushed and actually Maisie didn't open her presents till the 26th because of us rushing around visiting family.

Our kids were of course spoiled by family and Calan is loving all cars, trucks, and trains. Total boy. Maisie has discovered her feet, so little is competing with those, but I am sure that she will love all of her toys as well soon enough.

We are visiting my parents right now, finishing up our holiday celebrations. And of course, Calan is sick. I had a good 18-month streak of healthy kids, but yesterday Calan had some kind of stomach bug and today he is just whiny. We are surviving and he seems to be doing much better. And thank God for baby Tylenol.

Here's what the kids have been doing this month:

Sleeping

• Calan -He is still half waking up a couple times in the middle of night, so between Maisie and Calan I am up quite a bit for short periods of time. It kind of stinks, but not sure what else I can do other than ignore it. However, when he got sick the other night, I did not rush in at all and wish that I had. I am so use to him waking up that it is hard to know when something is really wrong. Because of the holiday, his naps have been a bit off too. I am hoping when we get home they go back to being 2.5-3 hours. He needs it, and so do I.
• Maisie - She successfully sleeping in her pack-and-play for all naps. She is longer sleeping with a blanket on her head. She sleeps so well for naps. I love it. I just wish her night sleeping was as good has her day sleeping. She wakes up each night at 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. mostly to just comfort nurse. I am realizing that now that she is gaining weight and eating a lot during the day, it is officially time to start training to get her to sleep through the night. We are hoping that it is just going to take a few nights and are going to try this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Eating

• Calan - Veggies are still a struggle, but I just keep offering them and I just don't give him more of what he likes unless he eats some of the veggies. He is doing better. He isn't starving to say the least. Over the holidays, he obviously was not eating very well and was pretty distracted with all the people around. With him still a little sick today, we are sticking to the BRAT foods (Banana, Rice, Apple, Toast).
• Maisie - SHE IS GAINING WEIGHT! Yeah! Maisie is breastfeeding and drinking formula at most meals. She nurses and then drinks a 4-oz. bottle. In the middle of the night I am just nursing and if we are out, she just gets formula. Our doctor would like us to start solids, but I think that we are going to hold off a little longer. She just doesn't seem ready to me. Probably by the end of January though we will start. Calan was 5.5 months when we started with him and I am going to probably wait till at least then too with her.

Milestones

• Calan - He is learning every day. He just seems like a toddler and not a baby anymore. His vocabulary continues to expand by leaps and bounds. He is getting really good at following simple instructions. We have really started to utilize time-outs for him, which isn't a milestone that I am too happy about.
• Maisie - Maisie's feet are her pure enjoyment right now. Little is competing with her feet. She is loving her voice as well and is laughing and smiling all the time. We are loving it as her parents. She just gets so excited and happy that she shrieks with joy. Love it. She is so close to rolling over back to stomach. She gets 3/4 of the way over, but just can't seem to get her arms out of the way to get there completely. Hopefully soon she will be rolling all over the place. I can't wait till she is taking toys from Calan.

Activities

• Calan - I have been doing a lot of little crafts with Calan. Some he has likes like bath paints and some he has not. But I have noticed that he is getting better with painting and coloring than he was in the past, so something is working. He is pretty cute with his toy golf clubs. We say "1 hand, 2 hand, Swing," and he holds the club with two hands and hits the ball. He is so cute looking like a little golfer and Bob just loves it. He even lets the club slide through his hands like his dad. Love it.
• Maisie - She is getting really active with her floor mat and hanging toys. She loves to grab toward them and batting at everything. We have tried the exersaucer, and she likes it a little bit, but still looks a little uncomfortable in it, so we haven't been using it much at all.

Schedule

• 7 a.m. - Maisie wakes up and eats.
• 7:30 a.m. - Calan wakes up
• 8:00 a.m. - Calan eats breakfast has milk.
• 8:30 a.m. - Calan playtime in his pack and play. Maisie starts her nap.
• 9:30 a.m. - Calan dress, helps with some chores with me.
• 10 a.m. - Maisie eats, Calan sits and "reads" books or puzzles
• 11:30 a.m. - Maisie naps / Calan eats lunch
• 12 p.m. - Calan blanket time
• 12:30 p.m. - Calan naps;
• 1 p.m. - Maisie eats / Maisie & mom time
• 2:30 p.m. - Maisie nap
• 3 p.m. - Calan wakes up / snack
• 4 p.m. - Maisie wakes and eats
• 4:30 p.m. - free time (this could be errands, dinner prep, sibling time, anything to fill till dinner)
• 6 p.m. - dinner
• 6:20 p.m. - bath time
• 6:40 p.m. - Calan gets ready for bed; drinks milk
• 7 p.m. - Maisie eats
• 7:30 p.m. - Calan and Maise bedtime
• 10:30 p.m. - Maisie eats
• 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.- Middle of the night feeding for Maisie

Overall

• Calan - Calan was so good during the holidays and with so many different schedules and environments. We were a little exhausted chasing him around, but with everything said and done, he was so god for an 18-month-old.
• Maisie - Love her and love the fact that she is breaking out of her hermit shell. She is full of smiles and laughs. She is growing so quickly now there is no stopping her. I can't wait to see all the milestones she hits this month. Can't believe that next month she will be 6 months. Crazy.

Sleeping doesn't come easy

Do you have a good sleeper? Did it just come naturally for your child or children? Or was it, like me, a fight to the finish?

I have mentioned many times in blogs my napping up and downs with Calan. It seems every time we get into a routine something like teeth or a growth spurt or Calan's just plan stubbornness got in our way.

I am a believer in sleep training. I do think our children naturally want to sleep, but they don't know how or when and that is where parenting comes in.

There are a lot of sleep transitions in a baby's first year. It seems like you are always preparing to drop another nap. Currently, Maisie takes four naps that with three about 90 minutes long and an evening nap about 60 minutes. Calan takes one 3-hour nap. Obviously, in the early months napping is directly linked to eating. By that I mean, how many times I feed Maisie during the day is basically how many naps she has up to 7 p.m. After that, it is night sleep and just eating and sleeping without waketime.

At our house, our days are based on an eat-play-sleep cycle. This breaks the needing to nurse to sleep that many mothers get trapped in. However, with Calan, he was never one to go down for a nap without a fight. If I put him down to early or to late, he would play in his crib for his whole nap. This literally started around 4 months when he discovered his feet and couldn't get enough of them. Maisie is actually a pretty good day sleeper naturally. She does require a few extras like a blanket in order for the nap to go smoothly, but for the most part, if she plays during her waketime, she is out like a light when it is nap time.

On the flip side, Calan was and is a pretty good sleeper at night where Maisie's night sleeping is less than desirable. But, until her weight is where it should be, I'm not working on extending her night sleep. I take it for what it is.

It took me awhile to except the fact that I just can't make my children sleep. I can do everything to make sure that they have the best opportunity to sleep (well fed, dry, comfortable, etc.), but I can't make them sleep.

Calan is a decent sleeper (minus his annoying body-rocking thing), but I wasn't a lucky mom. It was hard fought. It took time and consistency.

My advice is to hang in there for any mother who is struggling with naps. Don't let your children decide their naps. You know how important sleep is for them and they need it. Even being in their crib playing is more restful than being overstimulated with their toys, and let's be honest, you need the break too. Don't stress if there are ups and downs with naps. As long as you stay consistent and expect age-appropriate napping, things should work out.

Now I'm off to get Miss Maisie to sleep.

Which didn't take long and didn't require a blanket over her face. 

17 month / 4 month update

The holiday season is upon us and life is getting pretty busy around here. The days just seem to wiz by between meals and naps, it is getting a little harder to get out of the house. Plus, I'll be honest the rainy, cold weather hasn't helped.

Thanksgiving went really well. The kids were pretty adorable and behaved very well. Calan wasn't the biggest fan of turkey, but since I can't stand turkey, I didn't blame him.

Here's what's going on with the kids:

Sleeping

• Calan - He has successfully transitioned to one nap a day. He usually sleeps from 12:30 till 3. It is great how consistent and predictable that nap has become. However, it does limit my time to run errands in the morning, as well as lunches with Bob during the week. On the bright side, he wakes up pretty happy, rested, and content. It also gives me a full wake time with Maisie just her and I. At night, Calan is still rocking way too much. He seems wake up to a half sleep and rocks back and forth against his crib. He wakes up happy and does seem rested in the mornings, so it doesn't seem to affect him there, but I just wish he wasn't doing it all.
• Maisie - She is getting a little harder to get to sleep. She is starting to not want her blanket on her face, which I would totally be OK with if that meant she could fall asleep with out it. We are about half and half falling asleep with a blanket over her face and half without it. Hopefully by next month, she will totally not need it at all. You can tell she has developed more of an awareness to her world because it is a little harder to get her to sleep and she is very much more awake when she is awake. As for night time, she is no where close to sleeping through the night. Because of her lack of weight gain, anytime she wakes up in the middle of the night, I am feeding her even if she probably does not need to eat. It is important for me to give her as much food as I can until she starts to show gains. I usually feed her 10:30/11 p.m. before I go to bed and she is waking 1:50ish and 4ish in the morning. She then wakes in the morning between 7 and 7:30.

Eating

• Calan - His appetite seems to have tapered off a little. He eats pretty decent meals at breakfast and lunch and then a smaller dinner meal. His dinner meal is probably smaller because I try to feed him more vegetables during that meal and he usually fights me on it. However, he is still a fruit lover and bananas are definitely his favorite. He can down a whole banana in about a minute.
• Maisie - If you are following along with the blog, you know that Maisie is not gaining weight like she should be. She has only gained 4 ounces since Sept. 27. We are now supplementing my breastfeeding with formula. She is nurses and then I give her a 2 oz. bottle after her day time feedings. I just nurse in the middle of the night. We are suppose to also be mixing a little cereal in her bottles, but she refuses to drink a bottle that has cereal in it. Since it is more important for her to take the formula, I have forgone the cereal for right now. But, my mother just offered a new way to try and get her to take the cereal today, so I will try to give her the cereal again tomorrow. Hopefully, it works. We go in for another weight check Dec. 14.

Milestones

• Calan - His vocabulary is jumping leaps and bounds. He seems to pick up a new word every day. He is really working on communicating with us and is realizing that words get him what he wants or needs much better than whining. We have also transitioned Calan to a booster chair for meals. It isn't too much different from the high chair, but it is nice to have the 3 of us around the same table and I don't have to sit sideways to feed him as well.
• Maisie - She is really becoming aware of everything around her. She is exploring touch and grabbing things pretty easily to her mouth. She takes her pacifier out and holds on to and then tries to get it back in her mouth.

Activities

• Calan - He is successfully doing blanket time for 30 minutes. He stays and plays and reads his books and I rarely if ever have to remind him to stay on the blanket. Our next step is to test blanket time out in public to see how well he listens. Calan loves to sing and dance as well as play with his golf clubs and trucks.
• Maisie - Her activities are still a bit limited. Because her feedings take a bit longer and then so she doesn't spit everything back up, she is still not on the ground as much as she should be. However, she does love to play on her floor mat and playing with the toys. She is getting pretty good at grabbing the toys with both hands.

Schedule

• 7 a.m. - Maisie wakes up and eats.
• 7:30 a.m. - Calan wakes up
• 8:00 a.m. - Calan eats breakfast has milk.
• 8:30 a.m. - Calan playtime in his pack and play. Maisie starts her nap.
• 9:30 a.m. - Calan dress, helps with some chores with me.
• 10 a.m. - Maisie eats, Calan sits and "reads" books or puzzles
• 11:30 a.m. - Maisie naps / Calan eats lunch
• 12 p.m. - Calan blanket time
• 12:30 p.m. - Calan naps;
• 1 p.m. - Maisie eats / Maisie & mom time
• 2:30 p.m. - Maisie nap
• 3 p.m. - Calan wakes up / snack
• 4 p.m. - Maisie wakes and eats
• 4:30 p.m. - free time (this could be errands, dinner prep, sibling time, anything to fill till dinner)
• 6 p.m. - dinner
• 6:20 p.m. - bath time
• 6:40 p.m. - Calan gets ready for bed; drinks milk
• 7 p.m. - Calan bedtime/Maisie eats
• 7:30 p.m. - Maise bedtime
• 10:30 p.m. - Maisie eats
• 1:50 a.m. and 4:30 a.m.- Middle of the night feeding for Maisie

Overall

• Calan - I can see why toddlers are so exhausting, but it is still such a fun time. I love that he is talking more and more. I can't wait for the day when we are having conversations. He is still very much a daddy's little buddy. He loves me, but there is no one like dad for him.
• Maisie - We will continue to feed, feed, and feed some more till Maisie starts gaining weight like she should. While eating formula has made her a little more fussy, she still is easily settled by me. Just like Calan adores his dad, Maisie is quite the mommy's girl and I am loving all the cuddles and snuggles.

After a little bit of a battle, Maisie is taking a bottle from me.

Calan loves playing outside. I, however, can't stand the cold. 

Calan looking through and singing with his favorite book. 

She might be little, but she is pretty cute.

Always trying to be like daddy. 

16 month / 3 month update

Well another month has flown by and my babies are getting bigger by the day. I feel like I just did this for 15 months and 2 months and here we are another month older. They are doing so well and I love every moment (well almost every moment, I am human).

So here is the round up:

Sleeping

• Calan - Overall Calan is still a great sleeper. He was still taking 2 great naps of about 1.5 to 2 hours each everyday, but he was waking in the middle of the night and playing or rocking for long extended periods of time. I think that he was getting too much sleep during the day and it was effecting his nighttime sleep. This week, I have started to transition him to one nap. Out of 4 days of doing it, 2 were great, 1 he didn't nap well and ended up going to bed early, and 1 he needed 2 naps. So it is just the beginning and we are taking it on a day-by-day basis. If he seems like he needs 2, he gets 2; if he needs 1, then he gets 1. It is making it a little hard to plan things right now, but overall, I think he is ready to go to 1 nap, so I don't think we will be in limbo for too long.
• Maisie -  She is still a sleeping champ once I get her to sleep. She is very particular and if something isn't quite right, it can take awhile to get her to sleep. She still sleeps with a blanket over her head. I am sure I am setting up some bad habits that won't be easy to break her off, but she naps so well when everything is done right. It is the difference between a 20-minute catnap and a 2-hour glorious nap. At night, she is still waking up once or twice. This past week she went through a crazy growth spurt and woke up a ton, but that seems to have settled down and we are back to the regular once or twice. Hoping that my night waking days are numbered. I hope she is getting close to sleeping through the night.

Eating

• Calan - He is still eating a ton. I actually had to increase our grocery bill to keep up. He loves most foods, but he is still particular about how they are cooked or seasoned. He is a carbohydrate addict, so I try to give his other foods first. We are also eating out more and more with him. He behaves really well for the most part. It is nice to know that we can go out to eat and not worry how he is going to act. Since he eats so many things, there is always something we can give him when we are out and about.
• Maisie - She is still nursing really well. With the growth spurt, I could barely keep up with her. She was eating basically every 2 hours. She also has had a little bit of formula to fill in when I wasn't around. She took it just fine. When I was nursing Calan, I tried to keep up an extra supply for when I was gone, and it was horrible having to figure out when he might sleep well and I would be able to wake up and pump some. This time I decided that I wasn't going to drive myself crazy. If I need to, she will have formula if I don't have extra breast milk around. This past week was the first time we had to and she did fine.

Milestones

• Calan - He is doing a lot of the same things he did last month, just better. He is saying please for everything and not just in sign language. He says please for everything from getting out of his pack-and-play to opening the gate to more food. It is great that he is doing it, but he doesn't quite understand why sometimes please doesn't get him what he wants when he wants it. However for the most part, "please" has cut down on tantrums.
  The last of Calan's incisor teeth came through this month. Thank goodness! We should be done with teething till his 2-year-molars. Kind of crazy to think that last Halloween Calan's first teeth popped through and now we are finally done for awhile.
  He is picking up on so many things so quickly now. For example, Bob taught him how to show the touchdown hand signal in one day. That would have taken me a month to teach before.
  He is climbing up on furniture pretty easily now and for the most part doesn't roll off. He understands that he has to climb down carefully. 
• Maisie -  She isn't rolling over as much as she was last month. She gets her arms in the way and can't figure out how to get over them. She is blowing raspberries, batting at some close toys and pulling blankets up to her mouth.

Activities

• Calan - Calan is still doing pack-and-play time in the morning and he is up to 15-minutes of blanket time each day. We are working on matching colors and focusing on red, blue, and green. He is doing pretty well with it and says blue. We have also started coloring. We are attending playgroup on Thursdays and he does well sitting on the rug for story time and listening to the instructor. 
• Maisie - Her activities are about the same. Cooing, smiling and floor time. I hope to be a little more specific in my activities with her. I should be doing more floor time than I am. 

Schedule 

• 7 a.m. - Maisie wakes up and eats.
• 7:30 a.m. - Calan wakes up 
• 8:00 a.m. - Calan eats breakfast has milk. 
• 8:30 a.m. - Calan  playtime in his pack and play. Maisie starts her nap.
• 9 a.m. - Calan playtime/reading time
• 10 a.m. - Maisie eats, we play together
• 11 a.m. - Maisie naps
• 11:30 a.m. - Calan eats lunch
• 12 p.m. - Calan blanket time (15 min.) / devotionals
• 1 p.m. - Calan nap; Maisie eats
• 2 p.m. - Maisie naps
• 3:30 / 4 p.m. -  Calan wakes up / Maisie eats 
• 5 p.m. - free time or errands
• 6 p.m. - dinner
• 6:20 p.m. - bath time
• 6:40 p.m. - Calan gets ready for bed; drinks milk
• 7 p.m. - Calan bedtime/Maisie eats
• 7:30 p.m. - Maise bedtime
• 10:30 p.m. - Maisie eats
• 3 a.m. - Middle of the night feeding for Maisie

Overall

• Calan - He is definitely transitioning into a full blown toddler. He is learning new things everyday and starting to really interact and play. He is a handful, but he is such a blessing and I love watching him grow and evolve into a little boy. 
• Maisie - She is so smiley and happy. She loves watching Calan play around her. She never seems to care when he is poking at her. She does get frustrated quickly and has little patience. She loves

Don't mess with a sleeping baby

Yep, that is my daughter sleeping soundly under that blanket. Yes, I let her sleep that way. Yes, I know that it is a huge mother no-no. Yes, I would never had done this with Calan, but somehow this time I feel like "it is what it is." And that is just the way she naps. I don't know what else to say about it.

I realized early on that Maisie was pretty light sensitive. She could care less about noise around her, but light and movement will keep her eyes open and her not sleeping. One day as she was crying and having a fit because she was over tired and I was tired of rocking her trying to get her to stop crying, which seemed to be useless, I put a blanket over her and she stopped crying almost instantly and fell asleep in my arms.

I thought maybe it was a fluke, so the next time I was in the same situation, I did it again and again she quieted almost instantly and fell asleep. And now, well, she naps with a blanket over her head.

I wonder now if some of Calan's napping issues might have been due to the same light sensitivity, but I would never even had tried putting a blanket over his head. And to be honest, I am not sure what made me try it this time, but it was just what she was looking for.

She doesn't seem to need it at night, but during the day, it is what she waits for to go to sleep. She will start to fuss a little. I put her in the bouncy chair, give her a pacifier, and cover her up. She is out quicker then you can sneeze. If i put her down too early, she pulls the blanket off her head, and when she wakes up she pulls the blanket off, so I know that she knows how to uncover her face.

I check on her through out her naps and she just sleeps soundly. I have tried taking the blanket off once she is asleep and that usually wakes her up, so I have let it be and come to terms with the fact that "it is what it is."

What are somethings you would never have tried or done with your first child, but somehow do often with your second?

Life update!

I know, I know .... I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get a new blog up. Life has been moving along and I just have not made time to sit down and write everything out. So here is hopefully a quick version of everything that is going on this summer.

I am still pregnant. My estimated due date is this Saturday, July 23rd. Can you believe it is already here? I know I can't. Though I am ready to meet our little girl, I am definitely having worries about being a mom of two young children. Calan was born 7 days past my due date, so the doctors do not think that I will go early this time either. Since I am now 2 days away, I too have finally except that I will be pregnant for a little while longer.

All and all the pregnancy is still going well. I have very little to complain about even with this extreme heat wave that is hitting our country right now. I am only waking up once in the middle of the night. I am pretty mobile still; however, picking up Calan's toys is getting a little more difficult. I have just a little bit of swelling that has increased just a little this past week or so with the hot temperatures, but I still have ankle bones and veins, which last time, I didn't have any as of 36 weeks.

I am hoping she comes soon, but I know that she will come when she is ready. We are ready for her arrival. There isn't really anything left to do before she gets here.

Calan is doing great. He is almost 13 months and doing great on a lot of our pre-toddler goals. He started walking this past week. He takes about 5 or 6 steps in a row before losing balance and deciding that crawling might be a little faster, but he is getting there. I had really hoped he would be walking by a year, but 13 months isn't too bad either.

He says dog, dad, mom. Dog was his first word, so you know where Bob and I stand in his priorities. He basically only says mom when he wants food, so you know where I stand in his life. He babbles all the time. I swear once he really does learn how to talk, he isn't going to stop.

Sleeping is going pretty well. We have our good days and our bad days. "Crib parties" have snuck back into nap times. Some days he goes right down, while others he can be there for an hour or longer just babbling and walking around his crib. I think walking has him too excited to sleep. I have heard that sometimes when babies are working on a new skill or developmental stage, sleeping can go awry and I would say that is exactly what is happening.

He is eating everything. I swear most meals he eats more than I do. He is basically on all table foods and hand-feeding himself everything. I would say bananas are still his favorite food. But he really does eat basically everything. He is eating his vegetables better now as well. He doesn't like things plain. There definitely needs to be some flavor, but I wouldn't like plain broccoli either, so I really can't blame him.

Calan moved really quickly and easily to whole milk. However, we are still working on using his sippy cups. I have gotten rid of his morning bottles and he gets milk and water in sippy cups instead. Not quite ready to rid of the afternoon bottles yet. I just want to make sure that he is still getting enough milk from the sippy cups before I drop those bottles. He is getting close though, but I think that now that we are so close to Maisie's arrival, we will wait to drop the last two once she is here.

Playing with and loving his water table.

This summer Calan has loved playing in the water. From swimming to his water table, he loves being wet. Before the weather got insanely hot, Calan and I were also enjoying walks and visits to the zoo, but we will have to wait for it to cool down a little before we can do some more.

Not sure if Calan is ready for Maisie's arrival. I really can't explain to a 13-month-old what is going on, but hopefully the transition goes pretty smoothly. I am starting to have some sad feelings that soon it just won't be Calan and I anymore. I am sure that I would be having these emotions no matter how close they were  in age. I just don't know what it will be like and I hope that he is OK. He loves being around people and playing, so I think that he really will adapt well. But you never know.

Hopefully, my next post will come sooner rather than later and include a birth announcement. I can't wait for this journey to begin. I am sure that I will have lots of things to blog about once she is here and how we handle everything, so stay tuned.

I promise a nap won't kill you

Oh the last two days have been pretty trying for me. Calan was doing so well napping perfectly and he was a rested and happy little guy. However, that was until he learned to pull himself up. Now, it seems all hell has broken loose in his crib and the last two days have been miserable trying to get him to nap.

I thought I was over the hump of nap issues. I was wrong. It feels like such a set back. I am sitting here listening to him cry and it is killing me. He was never a cry it out kind of kid. When we were having issues with naps in the past it was because he was just playing happily in his crib and just not napping. Well, that was then and this is now. He tends to play for a little while and then once he realizes that I'm not coming in to play with him, he starts to get pretty upset. I have tried soothing him. I have tried changing him. I have tried most everything, but what it boils down to is not giving up.

I hate feeling helpless and having to hear him cry. I know that this is just a phase, but can it be over soon? The last two days have been breaking my heart.

I am a strong believer that consistency beats anything, so I don't want to give into this. I don't want to go backward when we were moving forward. I want to maintain where we were at. So, what does that mean when it comes to Calan and me? It means that I, as the mom, decide when naps begin and when naps end. Calan might have times when he is pretty upset in there, but all of it is temporary. I have faith that as long as I give Calan what he needs (well fed, dry, and not overtired), he will eventually get back into the swing of things. For Calan, this probably means a few days of not being so happy, but it also means that he will once again nap. I truly believe this.

When he has himself fired up, I do try to calm him down, but each time I leave his room, crying begins again. I can't decide if going in is helping or hurting. I have tried both ways and both seem to have the same outcome. He cries and isn't napping.

As I write, he has finally fallen asleep after about an hour of playing in his crib and 40 minutes of fighting the nap. Not sure how long he will sleep, but I know that anything is better than nothing. I just hope tomorrow is not the same struggle. I am ready for a nap myself!

Napping is such a pain

One of my biggest battles with Calan is napping. Why does it have to be so hard? From birth, he was always a pretty alert baby. He learned pretty early how to play with his feet and sing to himself to stay awake in his bed. I know I should be happy that he is just happy and content, but as his mother, I know that he needs his sleep.

Early on, he would not nap in his crib and took almost all naps in his bouncy chair. Which I am sure sounds good, but it was usually a struggle for me to get him to do that and then to try and keep him asleep in it was even more ridiculous. He is an incredibly light sleeper, which let me tell you is pretty annoying. I would love to sneak in his room and watch him sleep, but the second I turn his door knob, he is up. He is amazing.

After realizing that naps in the bouncy chair were not a solution, I began trying everything to get him to nap in his crib and to have good long naps. As a stay-at-home mom, I feel like I have 2 main jobs: Make sure he is fed well and make sure he sleeps well. I was pretty stressed out for awhile, not knowing if I would ever get him to sleep well.

I can safely say he is finally a good sleeper. It took a lot of patients and being consistent, but I can now get him to sleep 1.5 to 2 hours per nap. At 8 months, he takes two naps a day and sleeps between 3 and 4 hours during the day.

I had to figure out my son. I had to realize his sleeping pattern and figure out the perfect wake time amount in order to get him to sleep. It is amazing to me how even if I am off by just a little bit, naps become a struggle. When he was younger, I realized he needed very little wake time between his morning wakeup and his first nap. If I put him back down after just 45 minutes of being awake, he would sleep 2 to 2.5 hours. Now, I have realized that 2 hours is the perfect amount.

Like everything, naps were a huge trial and error and learning experience for me. I can only do so much, but I can't make a baby sleep.

I have decided on a few things that hopefully will help me when there is 2 of them. Obviously, my baby girl will need more naps than Calan and Calan will need a quiet place to nap. So, even though they will be sharing a room, I will have a pack-n-play setup in the spare bedroom for either child to take their nap in (whomever's turn it maybe). I also think that while I am sure our baby girl will nap sometimes in her swing or bouncy chair out with us, I am going to make sure to put her in another room sometimes, so that Calan and I can have some true one-on-one time.

Hopefully, some of the lessons I learned with Calan will carry over and like a lot of things, I am sure that I am not going to stress over it. I know that if I am consistent and patient, it will work out.

If you are having troubles with naps, I loved this blog on troubleshooting: http://www.babywisemom.com/2009/12/naps-troubleshooting-revised-and.html.