Some of you (after reading my last blog post or seeing my Facboo updates) have been kind enough to inquire after my well being. Was that mean baby keeping me up? Insomnia? Something else? Yes, yes, and yes, lol. I began the week with insomnia. The middle of the week found me struggling with an intractable project deadline. On the last night of the project, just as I was about to climb into bed at 4am -- literally, right as I pulled back the covers and lifted my leg to get into bed, GRRRR! -- Tres woke up screaming. I took her downstairs (so she wouldn't wake up the rest of the house) with the intention of nursing her back to sleep. She had other plans. She wiggled and played and jabbered until 8:30am, and when she went down for her morning nap the other girls got up demanding breakfast. Aaaaiiieeeee!
So yeah, I had a rough week. But it's over now! No more insomnia (I don't have the energy for it, lol.) No more projects (well, plenty of projects but none with hard and fast deadlines). And best of all, Tres is sleeping in her own bed these days! I have Beckle the Freckle to thank for that last one. After a year and a half with Tres as my near constant bed buddy (and by bed I mean love seat down in the basement), I finally tried her technique to easing kids into the whole sleeping alone business: I may have it slightly mixed up with other methods (my brain is a blender turned to puree without the benefit of a splash proof lid), but this is what I did:
First, we established a more consistent routine. We've had the steps down pat -- first jammies, then teeth, then stories, then prayers, then "book light time," then a lullaby, then lights out, then an hour of "HEY! STOP PLAYING! You should have been asleep an hour ago!" then several hours of dealing with a still awake Tres after the older girls finally fell asleep -- but we needed to get a little stricter on the time. We now have my cell phone set to ring a cow bell at 8pm each night, signaling time to get ready for bed, and a disturbingly loud alarm at 8:30pm for lights out. (Sadly, we still have to continually remind the older girls to stop playing.) Rather than keeping Tres with me after I nurse her while waiting for her to get sleepy, like I used to, I now put her down in her crib. Novel idea, I know.
She was not happy about the new routine that first night. But we tried Beckle's trick (possibly mixed up with others): Without picking her up, I stood right next to the crib and tried to soothe her. I'd coo and kiss and caress for a few minutes, then leave. She kept screaming. I'd come back a few minutes later and repeat the soothing process, then leave. She'd scream some more. I'd extend my absence by a few minutes, come in and soothe, leave, come back after an even longer absence, soothe, until finally (about 90 minutes later) she fell asleep. And STAYED asleep all night long. Wow!
We repeated the process the next night, only this time I sat on the spare bed next to the crib for the soothing, rather than right next to the crib. She put up a fight for 40 minutes.
We repeated the process the next night, only I stood at the door to offer my soothing words. I only had to go in once. (Dude! Why didn't I try this sooner?)
We've been enjoying this new routine for about a week and a half now; Tres's 4am wake up was an anomaly made worse by my taking her out of the crib. If I hadn't been too sleep deprived to think straight, I would have left her in there and offered soothing words and whispers rather than taking her downstairs (which apparently signaled play time).
Anyway, enough about sleep and/or the lack thereof. I'm so over that topic. ;-)
The girls don't have school on Fridays so I took them on a photo explore. You can read more about it on my plog, but I wanted to see if anyone who reads this blog can identify the snake we saw in Swan Lake:
I think it was dead -- it lay remarkably still -- but I didn't want to step on it or poke it with a stick to test the theory, if you know what I mean. So, anyone an expert? Is it dangerous? Poisonous? Did we barely escape with our lives?? I'm excited about adventuring all over this beautiful countryside now that it's spring, but this snake has reminded me that I might want to be a little cautious as I do (especially since I almost always have the girls with me).
Creepy.
[Interesting conclusatory paragraph here.]
~RCH~
8 comments:
One word: ewwww!!!! I would have run screaming had I seen the snake. Yucky. Glad things with sleep and Tres are better. Hope I hear more about your mysterious project with the hard fast deadline. Miss you.
I'm afraid I'm getting A.Marv into an awful habit. He rarely will fall asleep for naps unless I nurse him. He'd been doing fine with naps until this stupid teething business began. I try to get him to sleep without nursing but I can only handle so much hysterical crying before I give in. The joys of sleep issues ;-S but hooray for Tres figuring out the new routine!!
And hooray for you to sticking to it! :::patting your back::: I go through periods when I'm good at routine but I also go through periods where I'm routinely not in routine. Sigh...
It looked like it died trying to swallow a rock...but you are brave...I would have ran away regardless.
I don't think that's a bad habit (yet), Eliza! If he'll actually go to sleep then it's a perfectly good one. :-)
My problem with "nursing Tres to sleep" these days has been that it doesn't work; she nurses and then wants to play until midnight (and then still sleep all nestled in my arms downstairs on the couch -- which isn't even long enough to be a real couch, and my feet have to prop up and then my legs fall asleep). It used to work just fine, but when it stopped working (a) I didn't want to do the Cry It Out method (it's evil) and (b) I didn't have the energy to try anything else. I should have, obviously, and I'm glad I finally did.
But if your routine is still all good, don't let anybody make you feel bad about nursing to sleep! Make sure you go with the flow when the flow changes, but he's still so tiny and that won't last forever so I say enjoy it for now! :-)
But back to the snake: Nobody has any guesses on what he might be? Is that a diamond pattern I detect? Aren't diamond backs worse than rattle snakes or something? Eeeeek!
EEK! I don't like snakes! I agree with Jen, I thought he was trying to eat a rock or something. Aren't diamond backs just one type of rattle snake? (which I believe are the most poisonus) I don't know what kind it is though...I stay away from snakes!
Thanks for the birthday wishes! Hooray! I'm old! ;D
I'm so glad that the sleeping thing worked! As far as I can tell you did it exactly right. :) I was almost going to mail you a copy of the article (if any other sleep deprived Moms want a copy, just let me know!) but it looks like you won't need it! It has worked like magic for our babies as well. Isn't real sleep great?
What is this magical project? Is is super secret?
LOL, no it is not a super secret project; it just isn't terribly interesting. DH signed up for a college level basketball coaching class, and completed all his assignments on mini cassette tapes. It was my job to transcribe them (short answer and essay type questions) and then format it all lovely to turn in. It all had to be finished and postmarked by April 30th in order to get any credit for the class; otherwise he'd get a big fat F (a first for DH, I'm sure) and be out all the money he paid.
We have decided that next time he will either type all his crap himself or avail me of more alone time. It's not easy to do dictation with three little chickens scrambling around you all the time. For some reason the 6-and-under set is kind of needy. Go figure. ;-)
rch, larry and i believe your snake is a bull snake. they are not poisonous, just scary, but there are diamondback rattlesnakes around and they are poison. bull snakes kill rattlesnakes. bull snakes have small diamonds and no rattles. rattlesnakes have bigger diamonds and rattles on the end of their tail. they each have different heads and mouths also. we had bull snakes on the farm, so we had no rattlesnakes. just bull snakes and water snakes. those cows you saw belong to bishop brent abbott who is a very nice guy. the cabin belonged to capt. jefferson hunt of the mormon battalion. my great grandfather married his daughter. they lived in this house, also,until they built a house north of the monument that morgan evans has since torn down and built himself another house.(he tore down the house, not the monument) capt. hunt is buried in the little cemetery in back of the monument hill where you were standing to take the picture of the 2 roads. those red rocks w/holes behind the cabin, my dad said had rattlesnakes in them. just be careful and watch where you're stepping and don't reach down w/o looking where you're reaching. they are most dangerous this time of year because they are molting and are blind. i never went near those rocks when i was little, but i did go to the cemetery behind the monument. we never saw rattlesnakes on the farm, because the bull snakes kept them away. our farm is across the road about 1/2 mile north between the 2 hills. we have sold it to morgan evans, but we still call it our farm. i never heard of anyone being bitten by a rattlesnake around there, but i don't know for sure. my relatives lived in that area around red rock and a little north since about 1870. now they are all gone. your pictures are beautiful. we would love to see more. don't know if we can print them off or not. larry and some other scouts ate a rattlesnake when they were teenagers. you have the world's hardest websites to send a comment on. becky or sheri usually have to help me. but you're worth it.
Awwww, thanks! And thanks for the info! :-*
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