What's on My Mind Monday

Linking up over here!


I.  As of yesterday, Madison is ten months old!  Some new things this month:

• Scooting  (really late, I know)
• Crawling  (ditto)
• Pulling up  (still kind of behind)
• Walking  (whoa!)
• "Dada"
• "Ba"(Ball)

Favorite things:

• Taking Bella outside
• Being tickled
• Hide and Seek
• Reading anything, but especially Dr. Seuss books and Duck In The Truck
• Cheese
• Walking
• Posing for pictures

 Least favorite things:

• Eggs (No worries, it was just the yolks, folks)
• Wearing bows (I've been told twice this month what a cute little boy I've got)
• Long car rides
• Afternoon naps (now officially eliminated)
• Falling down
• Being told "no"

 II.  Patrick's brother married one of my childhood friends on Saturday.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and I failed to take a single picture.  Boo hiss.  They are honeymooning in Rome and Paris for the next two-ish weeks, and they didn't offer to bring me along, so I guess they had it coming.  : )

Since the wedding kind of filled the whole day for us (his brother spent the night before at our house), Madison didn't get a real nap on Saturday.  She slept in her car seat for maybe fifteen minutes, and dozed in Patrick's/my/the bride's/my arms for all of twenty minutes.  This led to her very first high chair nap.  Notice the partially chewed puff in her mouth.  Don't notice the laundry, dirty dishes, and jacked up rug in the background. 

 III.   Remember how I said Madison loves to pose?  I think I figured out who she got it from.

Happy Monday!
-Kelli

What's on My Mind Monday

Linking up over here this morning:

I.  Madison totally tricked me yesterday morning.  Her sleep has been going like clockwork lately, so much so that I don't actually check the clock anymore when she wakes up.  I just go get her.  Well, yesterday she decided to wake up two full hours early.  Normally, I would go pick her up, hold her for a minute or so, then put her back down.  That works pretty much every time.  Instead, since I assumed it was time to wake up, I went ahead and got her up and nursed her, which threw off the whole schedule of the day.  I was so tired when we (Patrick and I) got her up from her first nap that I lapsed into an island tongue, with the off balance cadence, accent, and all: "If I go sleep now, you think she be okay?"  Weird, man.

II.  Big changes are a-brewing in the Philpot household!  That's right, we did change our daily breakfast.  We no longer have burritos (for Patrick) and eggs and toast (for me); we now start off our morning with bagels and cream cheese!  For those of you concerned about the nutrition trade-off, as it turns out, these bagels have more protein than the eggs/burritos that used to be our menu, and less sodium, sugar, and bad cholesterol.  Who knew?

III.  Madison has started a new thing.  Sometimes when we carry her, she'll raise either one or both hands straight above her head.  It looks like she's either riding a roller coaster or saying "Hallelujah", which was especially relevant when she did it during worship yesterday morning.  I would have taken a picture, but that might have been seen as a bit irreverent.  : )

IV.  Due to our (okay, my) former conversations with the local Jehovah's Witness missionaries, we've apparently been blacklisted.  Seriously, they'll knock on our left-hand neighbor's door, cross the street to walk past our house, then recross the street to knock on our right-hand neighbor's door, all with us in the yard trying to make eye contact/waving hello.  It's very frustrating.  Our grass, however, is apparently not off limits.  Yesterday, they parked two cars in our front ditch, then proceeded to use our front yard as a staging ground for adjusting ties and replenishing their stock of watchtower publications.  When Patrick went out to invite them inside/ask if they needed any help, they politely declined, saying that they were looking for Spanish-speaking people.  Apparently they've met their quota of English-speaking folk (or at least the ones who are born-again, once-saved-always-saved, worshipers of Jesus as God).  Wow.  That came across as incredibly insensitive.  For the record, I have nothing against these people who are trying so hard to please a God they have never met.  I'm just hoping for an opportunity to introduce them.

Sorry for the attitude.  I should have drank my coffee before writing my post.  Lesson learned.
 Happy Monday!
-Kelli

What's on My Mind Monday

Linking up over here!

 I.  Madison was generally fussy for so long (almost two weeks) that I was starting to forget her real temperament.  Then last night happened.  : )  Not only was she completely unfussy (nonfussy?, fussless?), she was on her sweetest behavior.  I think the reprieve was caused by a combo of her feeling better (she had been pretty congested) and a short break in her insane teething schedule.  She's a biter, so I can't be entirely sure this is accurate, but by my last count, my eight month old had as many teeth. 

II.  Praise God, that crazy-horrible night  was just a fluke.  Madison has gone right back to her 10+ hour sleep schedule with no problem. 

III.  I need to clean.  This weekend was not good for my poor house; it needs a bath.  Come to think of it, so do I.  I think I'm gonna go get on that.

Happy Monday!
-Kelli

Two things. 

1.  Madison made her second recognizable sign last night: "eat".  Her first was "milk".  She did it very distinctly three times in a row during dinner.  At first I thought she was feeding herself a rogue puff from her high chair, but it turns out that her pudgy little hand was empty, and she wasn't actually putting her hand in her mouth, just gesturing towards it.

2.  A friend asked me the other day how old Madison was when she started having sleep issues.  I dug around on here, found it, told her, and then told her about how well the pick up/put down method worked.  Well, I think I may have spoken too soon.  Madison spent the last eight hours of her night awake, mostly crying.  I did try the pick up/put down method, and she quieted down on the 39th round.  That was really exciting for the four minutes it lasted.  : /  She got about two and a half hours of sleep before she woke up and started this, and then another hour after her early morning feeding.  I got forty-five minutes.

That being said, I'm going to go see what I can do about convincing Madison that this is a good time for a nap.  Wish me luck!

-Kelli

What's on My Mind Monday

Linking up over here:

I.  For fear of jinxing it, I'm not going to tell you how well Madison has been sleeping these last few days.  I will say that my eyes are about 25% less bloodshot than they've been since last June.

II.  Patrick and I tried Starbucks Blonde Roast (the Veranda one) yesterday afternoon.  I think to know what it really tastes like, we'll have to buy a pound.  Our local Starbucks (where, coincidentally,  I used to work) brews their coffee at double strength, then lets it sit for an hour and a half.  We're currently sitting on about two and a half pounds of coffee, so I think we'd better drink it down a little before buying any more, even if I do have a coupon.

III.  My husband is pretty great; he forced me out of the house after Madi went down for bed last night.  I got to see the whole second half of the Superbowl. 

IV.  Yesterday morning, Madison woke up around 6:00, ready for her early morning feeding.  After I put her back into her crib, I got the crazy idea to go for a run.  I made it about a lap and a quarter (meaning a little over half a mile) before I turned around and sprinted back to the car.  It was so cold that my fingers hurt now, just remembering it.

V.  Looking for houses before listing/selling your own can lead to nothing but heartache.  I've got to block HAR.com .  I've already said goodbye to two different "the one"'s. 

Happy Monday!
-Kelli

PS: Whoa, I just spelled my name wrong.  That was weird.  (I fixed it)

Run, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can!

Last night, Pat and his friend went hunting.  They saw a big deer, and Patrick shot it three times.  As it turns out, the big deer was his brother, Matt.  Pat apologized over and over, offering to help dig the bullets out, but Matt said it was okay.  Then, to make Matt feel better, Pat told him that he had seen another big deer, and Matt could shoot him if he wanted.  Matt said, "No, thanks."

At this point, Matt, John, and Patrick headed for the bar at the hunting grounds, since it was time for lunch.  The old lady behind the bar tried to give Patrick and Matt a five hour energy/alcohol shot.  They declined.  After lunch, they discovered that the hunting grounds were filled with dinosaurs and crazy people, so they started running through the woods, shooting said dinosaurs and crazy people. 

They ended up in the water, with sharks trying to bite them, and actually biting other people running/swimming away with them.  One of the "extras" yelled out that they should swim in the middle of all the people, so the sharks would get the others first. 

Then, on the ship, Matt, John, and Patrick, along with all the refugees, continued running from the dinosaurs, crazy people, and monsters.  They all tried to hide in a lifeboat attached the side of the ship, but realized after climbing into it that the monsters could still see them.  They moved to another lifeboat, into which everyone jumped.  With everyone in the lifeboat, the ropes started to break.  Thankfully, Patrick was wearing his harness, which he clipped to the side of the ship.  Once he was clipped on, he started helping people back onto the ship.  As soon as the last person got back onto the ship, the last rope holding the lifeboat snapped, and the lifeboat fell out from underneath him, leaving him dangling against the side of the ship.  He had to hold on with one hand, because his harness was trying to fall off.

Then, on the ground again, still running from the crazy people (with a few monsters and dinosaurs to boot), they found bullets for the automatic weapons they were now carrying.  They hid behind a big mound of dirt and prepared for the final stand.  The crazy people brigade arrived, and the battle commenced.  Patrick thinks he and the other refugees won, because then they were alive and heading back to the bar at the hunting grounds.  Upon getting to the bar, Patrick realized that someone had already consumed his energy/alcohol shot, but that was okay because he didn't want it anyway.

What did you do last night?

The BIG Trip

 As I mentioned Monday, last week we traveled to San Antonio to see our friend John graduate from basic military training.  The trip was stressful, to say the least.

On the way to San Antonio, Patrick drove a friend's car (who otherwise would not have been able to come) while I drove Madison in the Explorer.  That meant that no one was available to pick up dropped toys, make funny faces, or pacify Madison in the backseat.  Thankfully, Madison slept for the first two hours of the trip, which was a miracle considering she had already napped for three hours before we left the house.  The next hour and a half, however, was far from miraculous.  That is, unless you consider me not having a full blown nervous breakdown a miracle.  In that  respect, it was a miracle indeed.

She cried.  And cried.  Then she slept, woke up, and cried some more.  I pulled over once to give her a chance to breathe.  It was that bad.  After an eternity of that, we finally arrived at the hotel.  At this point, it was about 7:30, a full hour after her typical bedtime.  Usually, that would mean relentless screaming, but the new environment was interesting enough to keep her curious and quiet.  Here she is with Patrick in the hotel lobby, waiting for our room keys.

 It probably took us forty-five minutes to get all our things into the room and start on her bedtime routine, meaning she went down for the night almost two hours late.  I expected to have a difficult time getting her to sleep, but she was all tuckered out. 

To minimize noisiness, Patrick stayed in the adjoining room with our friend.  We figured one of us would be half as loud as two.  Actually, I'm being generous here.  That boy is loud.  I wish I could say the whole night was uneventful, but she woke up crying three times, probably with flashbacks of our terrible drive.  She ended up staying in bed with me after the third time, at 4:45, a mere fifteen minutes before the alarm was scheduled to go off. 

 As I mentioned Monday, it was cold that morning.  We weren't sure what to expect, or how long Madison would have to be outside, so we dressed her as warmly as we could.  First up was the most adorable thermal underwear I've ever seen.

  Then black pantyhose right over the thermals,

Notice my jeans are tucked into my soccer socks.  If that's not classy, I don't know what is.

 And a long-sleeved dress on top.

 Once we got to the graduation, we added a crochet cap, "fur" hooded coat, and our stroller blanket (which, by the way, is probably one of the most useful gifts we've gotten, diapers excluded).

 Immediately after this picture was taken, we realized that the graduation didn't start for another hour and a half, so the three of us got back into the car and chilled toasted until it was time to head for the stands.  Why do the best photo ops always turn out fuzzy?  Oh well, this is still a favorite.

 By the time we were ready to walk to the stands to watch the graduation, Madison had fallen asleep.  She slept through most of the ceremony, but woke up in time to see be completely oblivious to the fly-over.  Patrick was really impressed with it, though.  : )  There were three C-something-something gunships.  Or something like that.

 While that was one of Pat's favorite parts of the graduation, my favorite part was when the graduates took the Oath of Enlistment and recited the Airman's Creed.  The last part was them screaming, in unison, "We will not fail!"  Hello, goosebumps.

 The closest I came to crying (not counting the drive there) was watching Janese, John's mom, "tapping" him out.  The soldiers stood at attention until a loved one came and tapped them out by touching them.

 I love that John and Patrick are smiling at Madison, and she's not even paying attention.  I think she was still in a sleep state.

We all went to Saltgrass after the graduation.  While waiting to order, Patrick was trying to take a rare picture of me with Madison, and said "Wow, that was a bad one of Madison."  I argued that there could be no such thing, but then he showed me the screen.  I think this is Madi's first truly unflattering picture.  Maybe she is my daughter, after all.  : )

And here's another cute picture to balance things out.  You're welcome, Madison. 

The return trip was almost identical to the first, with one huge difference.  Our friend stayed in San Antonio for the weekend, so Patrick and I took turns driving the Explorer.  Madison did cry for about an hour on the way back, but it never grew into a full blown fit because we were there to distract her. 

If I had to sum the whole trip up in one sentence, it would be this: I am so glad we went, and I am so glad it's over!

Have you ever been to a military graduation?  What's the longest you've driven with a crying baby?  Do you tuck your jeans into your socks, too?  Yeah, I figured that last one was just me.

-Kelli

What's on My Mind Monday

Linking up over here!

I.  I know I usually leave my Texans comments toward the bottom of the post so as not to alienate my demographic.  But since this one consumes a large portion of my thoughts, I figure it deserves primary placement today.  GO TEXANS!  If only I could have watched the second half.  Stupid  DVR me who forgot that the DVR was set to record two other shows when I left to put Madison down for the night.  Imagine my dismay when I came back and found Fox News playing where Foster, Johnson, Yates, Cushing, and Watt rightfully belonged.  Oh well.  At least I'll get to watch 'em stomp on the Ravens next weekend.

II.  Excluding last night, Madison has been sleeping really well for us lately!  Praise God.  I do not function well on insufficient sleep.  Seriously.  For a while there I thought I was getting depressed.  After a couple good nights of sleep got me right back on track, I realized that lack of sleep was the only problem.  What can I say?  I love me some sleep.

III.  I have three weeks worth of pictures that have not been posted.  I've got a feeling my Facebook friends will be receiving an overload of Madison images during her afternoon nap.  Unless I decide to take an afternoon nap, too!  : )

IV.  Are you ready for this?  You might want to sit down.  No, we're not pregnant.  We finished the fence!!!!  Bella loves having a backyard, Patrick and I love not having to see a half finished fence when we get home, and Madison loves...well, Madison loves milk.  Which is not in any way related to the completion of the fence. 

V.  We are excited (and nervous) to go see our good friend, John, graduate from basic training.  We're also nervous to spend our first night away from home since having Madison.  I could spend the next two weeks packing and still probably not have all we'd need.  Any suggestions (or offers to come do it for me) are welcome.

Happy Monday!
-Kelli

Wow...I feel like it's been a lifetime since I've posted here.  I'll chalk it up to being sick last Thursday, busy for Christmas, and Madison not sleeping through the night even one time since.  I woke up with her seven times last night!  SEVEN.  Some call that the number of perfection or completion.  I think it's more like Satan's number plus one for good measure.  Ask me again tomorrow and I might feel differently.  Or I might not.

Now for a list of things I had planned to post about this week had I not been too busy throwing a pity party for myself over the lack of sleep:

• Christmas recap
• Six months
• (Finally) painting the thrift store lamps
• Making Madison's hand-print ornament
• 2012 Resolutions

Hopefully the catching up begins tomorrow.  Or maybe even later today...we'll see how it goes.  In the meantime, I think I'll go daydream about really dreaming.

-Kelli

Happy Thursday!

The "I Was Right" Song

We think Madison is teething again (the prime suspects are her upper middle teeth), and she has woken up a few times over the last couple of nights.  We had kind of gotten spoiled by her sleeping10 1/2 hours at a time norm, so this hit us on our blindside.  Last night, after Tylenol and holding/rocking didn't even begin to soothe her (about nine hours into her night), Pat convinced me that I needed to bend the rules and nurse her earlier than usual. 

So I did, reluctantly.  I figured that if pain was the problem, nursing would only calm her down temporarily.  Well, as I write this three hours and forty-five minutes later, I guess I should admit I was wrong.  Yeah, yeah.  You were right and I was wrong, now you can sing the you were right song. 

As painful as that last paragraph was to admit, Madison more than made up for it.  As I laid her back in her crib, I swear she said "Thank you".  Okay, not audibly, but she looked deep into my eyes and smiled sooo gently before turning on her side and going to sleep.

That turned my "bad night" right around.

Happy Friday!
-Kelli

An Update on the Pumpkin-Eater

Actually, she hasn't tried pumpkin yet.  We do have some squash for later this week, though. : )

One of the nurses in the hospital took to calling her "punkin", and somehow I got in the habit.  Strangely enough, I alternate between calling her "punkin" and "punkin eater".  Every time I make the switch, her Daddy reminds her that cannibalism is not acceptable.

Two weeks ago, I decided enough was enough when it came to Madison's poor nighttime sleep habits.  While researching solutions online, I came across what sounded like a crazy method to teach her to soothe herself.  I resolved, for the first three nights, to try the method, which involved picking her up every time she cried, then immediately putting her back down into her crib.  I planned to evaluate it after the third night.  In all honesty, I expected it to fail.  Two weeks later, I'm about thisclose to calling it a miracle.

She still wakes up probably as much as before the "training", but now instead of cries, we hear her soothing herself with little coos.  It definitely didn't work overnight, and there have been some exceptions.  Like when Pat's mom stayed the night with us.  Ms. Dorothy, I'm sorry you had to share a wall with my little screamer!  She also still occasionally gets gas at night, and we have to give her mylicon, but then she settles right back down.

In other news, today Madison is five months old!  She sits up really well, she can grab anything in reach, and she insists on feeding herself.  Sometimes she gets the spoon in her mouth better than I can!  She still refuses to roll over anymore; I think she's decided that would only encourage me to keep doing tummy time.  Don't worry- I still have more red hair than she does.  I fully intend to win this little stand-off. 

Regardless of how rough her day has been, she always has big smiles for Daddy when he gets home.  She loves to pet Bella, and grins ear to ear every time Bella shakes.  Nana (my mom) insists that yesterday in the car she identified her nose when prompted.  I'm (more than) a little skeptical.

She threw her first fit on Sunday.  She really wanted to get a smiley faced sun off of one of her toys, and it wouldn't come off.  Probably because it's not supposed to.  First she started throwing her arms frenetically, then she tried and failed one more time.  Real tears and loud sobs ensued.  Mommy put the mean toy in time out.

We've been using baby signs since she was born, and she recognizes "milk" and "eat" already.  Sometimes while she's nursing, she'll continuously sign "milk", but she has still never used the sign to ask for milk.  She doesn't even notice when we sign "Mommy" or "Daddy", but I guess she's got her priorities.  : )

I don't have her five month picture yet, because hallelujah she is still asleep, but I will definitely share tomorrow!

What nicknames do you use for your kids or loved ones?
-Kelli

Thankful Thursday

Today, I have so much to be thankful for. 

I've got an amazingly selfless husband who has completely fallen in love with our beautiful daughter.  I love watching them together.  He earned his first sustained giggles from her last night.  I could get used to that. 

I've got a daughter who always smiles when she first sees me(or anyone, but it's usually me) in the morning.  And her smile is more than contagious.

Thanks to the aforementioned amazingly selfless husband, I've got the privilege of staying home with said beautiful daughter. 

I've got a God who saw fit to coincide my first time being sick as a mom with Madison's first week of sleeping through the night consistently.  And that rocked my socks off.

I've got family (near and far) that loves our sweet girl and is ready to help with her when we need it, or sometimes just because.

I've got two large cups of Guatemala Antigua every morning.  This is the one and only thing that Patrick and I splurge on, and every day, it makes my day.

I'm betting you guys have a lot to be thankful for, too!  Have a great day.
-Kelli

One

That's it!  Just one.  We put her down a little early (6:15) last night, because her schedule was kind of weird yesterday and she was tired earlier than usual.  In what I thought was a bad start to a bad night, she started crying at around 7:30.  With my puppy-dog eyes, I asked Patrick to do "this one" since I would be up all night doing "the others".  I expected him to be gone about twenty minutes, so I was planning to pay close attention to Survivor in order to give him the summary when he returned.  But then he came back before the commercial was over! 

He said he picked her up, held her close, then put her down.  And then she rolled on her side and started babbling to herself.  I think he picked her up, dosed her with Benadryl, then put her down.  (Please don't call CPS; I am joking.  We never give her Benadryl 'til after midnight.  [Again, kidding.  This is why I shouldn't write posts before 6 o'clock.])  By the way, did I do those parentheses correctly?  For the life of me, I cannot remember what (if anything) you're supposed to change when you have parentheses within parentheses.

Anyway, that was the only time we had to go to her last night.  That means Monday night had 61 pick-ups,  Tuesday night  had 64 or 41, depending on how you look at it, and last night had 1.  I'd say that's a pretty big improvement, wouldn't you?

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that she did still wake me up a few times last night.  I heard her whining/talking/yelling, but never crying.  Every time I thought she was about to work herself up to crying, I would hear her soothing herself.  It was the sweetest thing!  Well, I thought it was the sweetest thing until I started writing this paragraph and tried to come up with a way to describe it.  The first comparison I thought of was one of those Gollum/Smeagol scenes in Lord of the Rings!  Still, I think I'll stick with thinking of it as sweet.  Although she has been known to bear a slight resemblance...

No, she's much too chunky to be confused with Smeagol.  She's got the posture down pat, though!

I'm not calling our sleep training "done" quite yet; one good night does not a good night-sleeper make!  But I am praying that it sticks.  It kind of seems too good to be true, but I guess God can probably make it happen if he wants. : )

-Kelli

Mmm. Mmm. Good?

Last night just before bedtime, we gave Madison her first "food": rice cereal!  We used plain cereal with her milk.  I'm not convinced she actually swallowed any of it, but she didn't scream, so I think we'll call it a success.

I love the stink-face she made after every "bite"!  This girl cracks me up.  Oh, and make sure to at least watch from 0:50-1:00.  At 0:54, Pat thought she was wanting him to protect her.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that she wanted him to feed her.  For some reason, he tends to take that as an attack on his manhood.  

In other news, last night could best be described as two steps back, one step forward.  She woke up more than the first night, as in six times, but she soothed herself before I could get to her two of those times.  That never happened before (at least not during this three-week long nightmare).  She also took less pick-ups during each waking session than the first night.  It went a little like this:

1-23x

2-7x

3-11x

4-23x

Total-64 times.  

Yes, this is three more times than the first night, but the last 23 really shouldn't count.  See, she had been asleep (well, in her crib, anyway) for ten and a half hours at that point.  If she had slept straight through, I would have called it a night and fed her.  Instead, owing to my brain-deadedness (I do realize now, after typing this out, that this doesn't even resemble a word, but I think it nicely demonstrates the level at which I'm functioning right now), I tried to get her to go back to sleep.  After 23 pick-ups, she did settle down, but only for about ten minutes.  It didn't click for me that the poor baby was hungry until my stomach growled.  And I had eaten about an hour after her last night!

With that being said, I think I'm going to call it a 41 pick-up night.  I guess that makes it a step forward without any steps back.  Oh, and I almost forgot!

It is my great pleasure to present this award to: Emily, Amanda, Becky, and Dorothy!

29+29+13=One Tired Mama

After writing this post, I decided it deserves an award.   So I did what any humble blogger would do: I made my own!  If you'd like a tutorial in Paint, just let me know.  You too, with a little guidance, determination, and perseverance, could make something this amazing. 

With that being established, I might suggest that anyone not looking for ways to get their baby to sleep through the night  stop reading here.  Just come back tomorrow, okay?  See ya then.

If you've been keeping track (like I have), you'll know that Madison and I have not had a good night's sleep for over three weeks now.  She's been waking up at least three times a night.  Night before last, it was more like five times.  And that was the last straw for me.

Our strategy was kind of thrown together.  First, I knew I shouldn't feed her every time she woke up, because that would cause long-lasting problems.  Second, I thought that the best thing I could do was to comfort her until she fell safely asleep again.  So that's what we did.  Either Patrick or I would rock her until she was in such a deep sleep that her arms were limp, and then get up and lay her in her crib.  Unfortunately, I'm apparently not very good at either patience or stealth, because I was never successful in the transfer (I'm not sure if I wasn't waiting for her to be in a deep enough sleep or if I woke her up with jerky movements).  Meaning Pat always had to get her back to sleep unless I fed her. 

I seemed to notice things getting worse instead of better with this strategy.  Or maybe it was just emotionally worse for me because I'm so sleep deprived.  Either way, it was time for a change!  While trolling through babycenter.com yesterday, I found an article on "no-tears" (yeah, right) sleep training.  This appealed to me for two reasons:

1. I knew sleep training (meaning teaching her to soothe herself back to sleep) was what she needed.  She doesn't wake up more than any other baby, it's just that many other babies get themselves back to sleep without help, and she needs us to do it for her.
2. I'm not okay with letting her cry without me.  I actually tried to make myself do it, and couldn't.  From everything I read, cry-it-out would have gotten the best results, and it would have worked almost immediately.  And I know she would never remember it happening.  And she would get better sleep at night.  <shrugging> But what can I say?  Logic doesn't always win with me.  

There were three methods of no-tears sleep training mentioned in the article. 

The first was the ever-popular Dr. Sears attachment parenting.  He's all about helping your baby learn that sleep is a happy, safe state to enter.  You teach that by rocking, nursing, singing, or cuddling baby to sleep.  That pretty much describes what we had been doing up until now, and it (obviously) wasn't working so well for us.

The second was based on Elizabeth Pantley's The No-Cry Sleep Solution.  Her method differs only slightly from Dr. Sears- instead of rocking/nursing baby to sleep, you rock/nurse baby to drowsiness, then put the baby in the crib to fall asleep on his/her own.  This describes what I (inadvertently) did every time I rocked her in the middle of the night.  Again, it didn't work for her.

That only left the third method, by registered nurse Ima Tracy Hogg.  Her technique, written about in Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, is considered a middle-ground between Dr. Sears and the Ferber method (cry it out).  I was shocked to read that she actually suggested picking up your baby every time she cries, then immediately putting her down once she quiets.  Then repeat ad nauseum.  Apparently, Hogg used this method for her own children.  For one child, the first night she had to pick her up 126 times.  The next was 30 times, the next 4, and before long, the baby slept through the night. 

This seemed just crazy enough to work! 

I decided to try it out last night.  I kept count as I picked her up.  She woke up three times last night.  The first, I picked her up and put her down 29 times in 20 minutes.  The 29th time I put her down, she miraculously turned to her side and closed her eyes!  I could hear angels singing.

The second time she woke up, I again picked her up and put her down 29 times.  And again, the 29th time I put her down, she decided to go to sleep.  (The OCD in me was willing her to cry just one more time to make it an even thirty!) 

The third time, I was all set for another round of 29.  But my sweet girl is anything but predictable!  This time, it was 13, and she was out for the rest of the night.

In all, it was a much better night than I expected.  I plan to try this at least three more nights, and I'll reevaluate from there.

-Kelli


PS- If you read the entire post, you deserve your own award.  Just comment below, and I'll make you something special!  : )

What's on My Mind Monday

Oops!  I forgot to mention that I'm linking up here!

I.  It's just a phase, it's just a phase, it's just a phase.  It won't last forever.  I will sleep again. 
II.  Madison was soooo good for her cousin Lila's birthday party on Saturday.  She missed TWO naps, and she was nothing but sweet the whole time.  (Maybe just a little bit cuddlier, which is okay by me)

Madison getting reacquainted with her Grandma at the party

III.  The Texans made my day yesterday.  Just imagine the way they'll dominate once they add Andre Johnson to the mix!

Madison finished up her nap with us on the couch during the second half.

IV.  Tummy time is, in Madison's estimation, the devil.
V.  We had better find a back up for Mr. Binks SOON.  She spends more time gnawing on him than she does sucking, and that does not bode well for his lifespan.

Mr. Binks is the monkey.  When she's sleepy, she'll hold him really tight while she sucks on the binky.  Sooo cute!

VI.  This is probably TMI, but while I was typing this list, Madison successfully picked her own nose.  That is, if if success is measured by long, slimy- never mind.  At least she's not putting small things in her mouth yet.

Happy Monday!
-Kelli

My New Bed Set

Isn't it lovely?

Why am I sleeping in the kitchen?  Because if I leave the room, there is screaming.  Lots and lots of screaming.  The score: separation anxiety-248, me-0.  It's times like these that I would give big money for an identical twin. 

Sweet dreams
-Kelli

My Pinterest Challenge

I'm beyond excited to link up over at Young House Love and Bower Power for their Pinterest Challenge!  The idea behind the challenge is to motivate themselves (and their followers) to actually DO something they've pinned.

I racked my brain for what pin to make my own.  I dug through all my boards, rediscovered a lot of great ideas, and then found a few that had me all, "what the Hagrid was I thinking when I pinned this?"  After a bit of hemming and hawing, I stumbled on a picture one of the most inspiring projects I've found in blogland.  Is anyone surprised that I found it on YHL?  Yeah, me neither.

Here it is:

Source: younghouselove.com via me on Pinterest

After I finished cleaning my puddle of drool off the floor, I started thinking logistics.  I knew I had one week to complete the challenge, and this was no small project!  Fortunately, I had a head start; I had already spray painted most of my frames a bright white, and I had painted a few more frames the same off white color as our breakfast table and Madison's changing table.  I had also already used John & Sherry's newspaper trick to determine where to hang the frames, as well as facilitating an inconclusive vote on which arrangement looked the best.  I had even filled the largest and smallest frames with some sentimental "art".

All that remained was to fill a few more frames and actually hang everything!  It made sense to me to hang the frames before filling them; that way I could see how everything was getting along.  Part of the beauty of using newspaper to map out the wall was that the newspaper dummies doubled up as templates!  I just laid each sheet on its corresponding frame, then felt for and marked where the nail(s) should go with a highlighter.  I did this one piece at a time, replacing the newspapers on the wall as I went.

I also labeled each sheet with a description of the frame that it was standing in for.  This one, obviously enough, was for my plain frame.  After marking and replacing all the pieces of newspaper, I started hammering.

 Insert Mitt Romney joke here.  Maybe, "I nailed Mitt Romney?"  Nah, too easy (ha ha).  For the record, I have never "nailed" Mitt Romney, and I have no way of knowing his level of easiness.  I'd hate to get any character bashing started too early in the campaign process!

 One helpful tip I wish I had known before starting this project: when hanging multiple frames, go from the bottom up!  I had to remove almost every one of these to hang the bottom ones first.  Dope!

Next would be the part where I fill the rest of the frames with beautiful and meaningful art, except that I ran out of time steam.  See, my daughter Madison is four months old, beautiful, sweet, funny, and smart.  She also seems to be part owl, meaning that I've gotten about one halfway decent night of sleep in the last two weeks.  Yeah, I did just blame my procrastination on my four-month-old.  And yes, my dog did eat my homework!  

Here is the (not so) complete frame wall.  Out of the fourteen frames/objects on the wall, only four are definitely staying as is.  Most of the frames just have temporary filler, and some, as you can see, are completely empty.  As unfinished and imperfect as it may be, I LOVE it!  I smile every time I walk through the hallway. 

 The four "done" items are, in no particular order:

Well, done except for making it level.

I'll be posting about this tomorrow.  This is my new favorite frame!

  

Are you participating in the Pinterest Challenge?  Do you ever go through your Pinterest boards and wonder what you hit your head on the day you pinned something?  Have you ever used "Hagrid" to fill in for a curse word?  Most importantly, do you know any good Mitt Romney jokes?  

Happy Hump Day!

-Kelli

Happy Halloween!

 Last night we hit up the fall festival at our church.  I haven't come to the event for a couple of years, and I was really surprised to see what a big turnout we had; there was less parking than Easter Sunday! 

Here I am with our little cupcake. Oh, and the tree we're standing in front of has not fallen; it's actually still alive and growing!  It has been leaning pretty severely for as long as I can remember, but Hurricane Rita pushed it down to pretty much parallel with the ground.

All the activity at 6:45 at night was a little more than she was used to.  Pat and I kept grabbing her from each other because she was being so much more cuddly than usual!

Madison's first piece of candy.  I need to remember to get that out of the diaper bag before our weather man remembers this is Houston! 

Madison's typical bedtime is somewhere from 6:00 to 6:45, and we usually let her wind down slowly.  After all this craziness, I expected her to have a difficult night.  Nope!  For the first time in two and a half weeks, she actually slept pretty well!  She got a total of eleven hours, with one feeding about six hours in.  Then she woke up this morning, ate, and fell right back asleep! 

I hope this means she's back to normal.  I'm not sure how many more nights I could handle.  The night before last, the second time she woke up, I was trying to calm her down.  I remember thinking, "I could handle this if her cries weren't so red.  And square!"  That's when I decided to get Patrick's help.  Thanks, honey!

On a side note, I was very disappointed in Nancy Grace's performance last night on Dancing With the Stars.  I have always hated her show(s).  I think it's terrible the way she judges people in front of America before they have their fair trial.  However, since she's been on DWTS, I've come to actually kind of root for her.  I would still never willingly watch any of her shows, but I think the way she gets excited about good feedback is kind of sweet.  That's why I was so upset when she was forced to dance the jive to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".   There was no way a 52 year old non-athlete would be able to move fast enough to do justice to the song.  I hope she makes it through, anyway.

How was your Halloween?  Have you ever seen a sound?  Who (if anyone) are you rooting for on DWTS?
-Kelli

What's on My Mind Monday

I.  My Halloween pumpkin just became a fall pumpkin.  Which is solely because I haven't finished it yet.
II.  I seriously doubt that I'm gonna put together the costumes Pat and I had planned to wear tonight. 
III.  Madison has not learned what "scary" looks like yet.  She had no qualms whatsoever about going to see her Aunt Vira!

Note: on non-Halloween themed days, Aunt Vira looks completely normal.  And no, that is not the real color of her eyebrows.  : )

IV.  Madison cannot sit up by herself.  The problem is, no one seems to have informed her of that!

V.  Any given morning after a (new) normal night, Madison wakes up laughing/squealing.  I wake up with a (her) crying-induced hangover.
VI.  I am thankful beyond words that, as sad/angry/(I hope not) hurting as she may be at night, she is (almost)always a happy girl during the day.

Happy Monday!
-Kelli