What's new with us....

Considering the last thing I wrote about what our sleeping I will touch on that!

Tyler is doing great. He has been night weaned for a couple of months now and he has actually moved to a twin bed off our bed. He goes down there between 8-10 depending on his nap and then climbs up with us between 5-7. I like having him in the room as his room would be on the other side of the house with how our house is set up. I think it's a natural step to get him out of the bed and but still close to us! It is working out really nice as I am having far less back,neck and shoulder pain! :) In relation to this we have cut back nursing to before and after bed and  his nap. I believe it is still a need of his that I need to meet but I was getting a little agitated with him being on me all day so this is a good compromise in my mind!

Tyler has continued to do well on his potty all day. He will use it all day long with no accidents but we have to keep him naked all day! The second I put underwear on him he thinks its ok to go. So we just put it on hold for a couple weeks and started again this week and he seems more interested in his underwear with monsters on them! So hopefully we will be on the next phase of potty training.

I am really worried about Tyler's teeth though. We took him to a pediatric dentist when he was one and she advised that we wipe his teeth down with some wet gauze every night to get the buildup off so we did that for 6 months and his teeth started to decay. We took him back about two months ago and she gave us a fluoride gel and  we put that on a night but it has continued to get worse. We brush his teeth and floss daily but his top four teeth are continuing to decay regardless of what we seem to do. I am going to contact the dentist again to see if there are more proactive measures we can take before it gets worse. I have a serious fear of having a child with silver teeth.... but we have been on top of his oral health from day one! We used the little finger brush as soon as he got teeth!

As for me. I have become a vegetarian again. I was enjoying having a wide range of things to cook but I continued to gain weight. I had previously lost 17 pounds and then I added meat back to my diet in November while changing nothing else and proceeded to gain it ALL back. I have started a couch to 5k program yet again! I ran the first week but was unable to run all of the intervals and my shin was hurting after my third run so I am taking a couple days off and will resume tomorrow.

Perhaps the most exciting thing going on is that Tim went to Minnesota to interview for a promotion. This would mean us moving to Albertville, MN which is about 45 miles outside of Minneapolis. While I am happy for this opportunity for Tim and the prospect of not having to struggle as much financially I am rather stressed. I am worried about moving away from the state I was raised in and to the cold which I have never lived in and most importantly leaving our family. I also am upset about the fact that we would have to leave our church that we truly love. I am so happy that Tim is starting to have a relationship with God. It was a day that I hoped would come! We are excited about raising Tyler in the church and all of the principles he will learn.

We will find out by the end of the month if we will be moving. I leave you with some pictures of Tyler.

Sleep Schedule Night 1

I really try not to complain about lack of sleep and the other things that go with nursing and sleeping with a two year old because MOST of the time I am ok with waking every couple of hours to get him back to sleep by nursing. Some nights are worse than others of course but for the most part it has been manageable. But now, my insomnia has reared its ugly head again and I have decided that 1-2 hours of sleep each night for the past two weeks is unacceptable. I am fighting to go to sleep for about 5 hours and then by the time I get to sleep he wakes to nurse again and then the cycle begins all over again with me trying with all my might to get back to sleep. It has SUCKED!

I also have not rushed this because there was really no need. I felt like he needs to nurse and sleep with me through the night and I need to meet that need and not take it away from him. But yesterday I realized I still need to "help" him get better sleep habits now. For he is not a little baby anymore that just has BASIC needs of comfort and food.

We also are trying for another baby and I am pretty sure I would have a nervous breakdown if I had two to nurse all night. So I think this will be better for all of us in the long run to not put this off anymore. 

I have put it off again and again because there is always something. Sickness, travel and teeth are the main things. But even though we are going to a wedding this weekend we decided to start the routine last night. 

As you know I do not believe in crying it out. I think its wrong. It also would not work at all now because 1. He is in our bed 2. He would just run around and cry and no sleep would come from it. I read the "No Cry Sleep Solution" a while back when he was younger so I broke it back out to see what it said.

I am not a routine/schedule person. Never have been so this will be a learning experience for me as well. But one of the major parts of successful sleeping is a bedtime routine. So we are going to start it and stick with it. Another thing I am really guilty of is having the TV on all night. With insomnia the TV is my friend at 3am when I can't sleep but I know this can't be great for his sleep cycle. He never wakes up and watches it or pays attention to it but I know its not a good thing to have going on in there....

Last night was a good night to start an early bedtime because his day before we like this.
Bed 10pm
Wake at 4am
Nap from 9:00- 9:20
Nap from 2:00-2:15

Yes..... those were his naps. So he tried to go to sleep nursing at about 5pm and we just held him off.... So he was ready for bed much earlier than normal. I think we are going to shoot for 8pm as his bedtime. Not too early to where we have to start his bedtime routine the minute Tim walks in the door and also not TOO late. He has been going to bed between 9-11 for his whole life depending on when his last nap was.

My first goal is just to establish regular bedtime and nap time and wakings. I orginally wanted to night wean first because I have been getting really aggitated at night when nursing and it has been frustrating. But that being said.... the trying not to nurse was what caused the 4 am wake time. If I don't nurse him back to sleep. He doesn't go back to sleep. He gets off the bed and wants to get up. It is impossible to keep him in bed if I don't nurse him aside from holding him down to the bed and making him cry... yeah I am not doing that.

So I need to get a bedtime/routine going before we attack that monster issue again. The suck-sleep association has always been his thing. He can not fall asleep with out nursing. If I had known it would present such and issue at almost 2 I would have tried to break that cycle earlier. As it is I plan on not developing such as strong suck-sleep issue with future kids. It is one of the hardest things to break.

So bedtime and regular naps are what we are working on now. Hopefully I can just push past the agitation when he needs to nurse at night for now.... I can't promise that as it is about the most frustrating thing in the WORLD.

So last night we start! We decided to start a bedtime routine that would get him in bed at 8pm. I started last night at 7 but it was just too long. Bath, books and teeth brushing only take so long. So last night we were in bed at 7:30 and he was alseep by 7:45 but he had been wanting to sleep for hours so I am not calling it a sucess just from the quickness.

So we are doing the following.
Turning off the TV about 30 minutes prior to bed. We don't have TV for him but it can still be stimulating
Bath
Teethbrushing ( which is a struggle nightly)
*last night I rubbed his feet for a moment with some lavender oil*
I tried to read a book but he just wanted to nurse because I had been making him wait.
Got in bed with no tv or lights on
Played some white noise/nature sounds
Nursed

He made it about 4 hours I think. I actually slept last night too so the night waking/nursing didn't bother me! Its the nights I can't get back to sleep that I have an issue with! So we nursed back to sleep as he needed through the night.

We got up for the day around 7am.

I am trying to hold his nap off until at least 12 but hopefully later so we can make sure he only takes one nap. I plan on going straight into the bedroom around his naptime instead of nursing on the couch etc. I am going to turn on the sounds again so hopefully he will associate it with sleep.