Toothpicks Please

Today I need toothpicks to prop my eyes open.  Poor Dylan has not been sleeping well.  i have been sleeping with him in the bed while Cory sleeps downstairs.  This works well except when Jack wakes up and I have to tend to both of them!

This has been going on for almost a week now, and I have finally hit a wall.  This weekend we are getting away for a few nights, gong to lay low, toast some marshmallows, read, knit, swim.  Just have fun together!

Today we'll be just surviving (making playdough, doing laundry, packing, building with lego)  until it's time to leave.  I am going to be away from this space for a few days. I need a break from everything.  I'll do my "this moment" post on Friday and see you back here on Tuesday.  Take care, and have good, relaxing day!

The Sleepless Week

an outtake from the bus station last Wednesday .... i have a whole folder of ones like this!

our late afternoon breakfast at The Dutch Bakery

What am I even doing awake right now!  it's 8:30pm!!!  JJ has been getting up earlier and earlier these days!  4am today, though I refused to get up at first.  He stayed in his bed for all of 20 minutes, then I had to haul my ass out of bed fort he day.

Tomorrow is the preschool xmas party and I have informed jack that he must not get up early, or else he'll be too tired to attend said party.  We'll see how that plays out in the morning.

And here we go for another paragraph of me whining ..... DD has been waking a lot at night, and wanting his bottle.  I am trying to ween him off of it at night, but I always cave in at around midnight.  After that he's up at least 5 more times before i get the wake up scream at 4am from JJ ..... oh the fun of a temporary single parent!

I am itching to finish up some xmas gifts and start my new dress!  I picked up some great grey and black fine hound's tooth fabric along with a nice dark teal crepe!  So my next two birthday dresses are all planned out!!

One thing I am going to do for sure is make a couple cute bow ties for the boys tomorrow.  It's rare when I get to dress them up and the xmas party tomorrow seems like a great excuse to don a bow tie!  Now what am I going to wear?!  Sleep ... just sleep now.  Goodnight!

Personal Style

this is what i've done before ....

and this is what i'd love to do .....

I had mentioned in a previous post about my birthday present to myself ...... sewing a dress every two months. HAHAHAHAHA ........

The first two months will be up in two weeks and i haven't even looked at my patterns! I do have fabric picked out, but nothing else. So I may have to settle for a simple circle skirt or a quick shift dress.

My recent style obsession has been retro hair styles. Mostly the rolled fringe and the side victory rolls. I just bought myself a book (early xmas present?) to help me with setting and styling my hair. I've been able to achieve fab retro looks on other people, but alas never on myself. This weekend I hope to try out rolling my fringe! We'll just see how that goes!

I've finished one sleeve of D's sweater today, so I'll be finished the whole thing rather soon I think! Next will be J's sweater. I am not really crafting for anyone else, though I would like to make a sweater vest for the man of the house.

Alright off to bed ..... oh and speaking of bed. It's ours!! All ours!!! We have moved D out of our bed (he's been wedged in between us for months and months now) and into his own! This is his second night. For the transition the wee bed is pushed right up against ours, so that we can rest our head on his pillow if he's upset during the night. Next we wean him of the bottle at night ..... for the millionth time!

Summer Over!

The weather is still pretty good, but the craziness of summer is finally over! It ended on the long weekend with my sister's wedding! This weekend we are taking it easy. Maybe replanting the blueberry bushes, maybe not. One thing I would like to do is start my letter to council to petition for my flock of hens!

We've been spending a lot of time in the garden and it seems a bit dull, and empty without some little feathers friends wandering about. We'll see!

Oh and on a side note ...... we are getting sleep! Finally!!! For weeks now D has been whining his was through the night, waking constantly . Teething is over for now ..... four teeth at once, poor guy! Of course D still sleeps in our bed for most of the night and sometimes J crawls in there in the early morning ...... maybe a king size would have been a good idea!

It really was a perfect day, rainbow and all! Photo by Jesse Hlady.

A photo taken by the driver of the car.

Jackson set up the tripod and took a bunch of photos. He was imitating the photographer from Chels's wedding!

The insanity that is LEGO!!!

I found this under the boys play fort .... thanks C!

Sleep Report

We've been getting sleep! The boys still wake a few times in the night, but it feels like we are getting sleep. Jack's been great with bedtime routine and falling asleep for so long I can't even remember anything different. Little Dylan seems to have gone down to one nap a day, so is not the night owl he once was. We let him fall asleep in our bed, then transfer him to the crib once we are ready for bed. Usually Dylan will sleep in the crib until 3am, then he wakes and we bring him into bed with us.

Cory has been away for a few days and is back tonight. Here's hoping the boys continue these good sleeping habits!

I have been slowly transforming by blog focus. Shoot From the Hips will continue to be my parenting and family blog. My new blog, Cute Nest, is where you will find all my creative adventures and tutorials. Tonight I did a post and recipe about our new organic delivery service from Share Organics!

To Sleep

This is our yard ..... it needs a lot of work, but we don't have the time right now.

It's been days now. Almost a week I think. For some reason Dylan won't let me put him down. Normally we put him down when he's still awake, though when he is sick, we hold him until he's a bit more asleep, then place him in his crib.

This past week we eren't able to put him down at all, without him just bawling. I even went as far as to have him sleep on me ..... for the entire night! The night after that we decided to put him down and if he cried, pick him up until he was settled, then put him down again. Cory was the one who did all this work. It took about twenty minutes, but eventually he went down. After waking in the night, Cory only had to try three times to put him down.

Over then past few nights, Cory has been able to pretty well put him down on the first try. For me this has not happened, ever. Dylan just cries as soon as I start to move my hands in preperation for putting him down. I have tried for an hour sometimes, and it always ends thesame. Me frustrated, either calling Cory at work, or just strapping D in the carrier and hoping for the best. Once I let D cry it out in the crib, when he refused to even settle in the carrier.

Tonight I tried again. Ten times I tried to put him down, until I just couldn't handle it anymore. Cory is in there now, trying to put him down. It seems as though Cory too, is having a bit of trouble tonight. Perhaps it's because D had both of his naps in the car seat today.

In other, let frustrating news, we got a new couch/bed for our spare room! Its even got a storage compartment! My friend and her husband were going to post it on Used Victoria, but I mentioned that we might be able to use it. So now here it is in our spare room, albeit in a bit of an awkward spot. We had just enough time to clear out the room to get the couch/bed in, but not enough time to really figure out the best spot to put it.

Tomorrow should be a fairly relaxing day, I don't think we have much planned. Poor little Jack has some sort of eye infection and Cory is still coughing quite a bit. It's been reported that Jack is very goos with his eye drops, so hopefully his little eye will return to normal soon! Off to bed now, though tomorrow is my turn to sleep in!!

Up For Air

It looks terrible, i know! He was however very comfy and NOT squished!

Jackson got me a pillow!

Okay we are making it through. Cory was at work all day. The boys and I spend the whole day at a friend's house. It felt so good! It's been a week since I've gone out and done anything with the boys.

Here is how D slept yesterday. It was a hard day! Last night though, D only woke once! We had six hours of sleep in a row! Unheard of! Tonight didn't go so well. He would not let us put him down and is alseep in our bed. Okay off to sleep I go!

And the Beat Goes On

La Di Da Di Da ....... We had the roughest night in a long long long time , maybe even the worst EVER. Cory did most of the settling and comforting, which is amazing! Dylan's rash has really gotten worse and he seems to be out of sorts today.

Jack's fever got up extremely high last night so we spent a good deal of time cooling him down and having our little midnight fever chats.

It's funny you know, as terrible as it is having Jack burning up; it's nice to have funny little chats with him as we apply cold compressed and fan him. He is usually in a cheery mood, and babbles about what goes on at night time. "Maybe the cars are talking!" Our other little one is a different story in the middle of the night. Not settling, needing to be held and cradled while he sleeps.

Dylan's rash is a result of a viral infection. It's the tail end of his illness from the last two weeks. It's not uncomfortable for him and it should pass in a few days. I tried to get a good photo, but Cory has snatched my good camera, so the webcam is all I've got. It looks worse in person. Raised, little red bumps all over his little body! The red spots have been getting bigger, but don't appear itchy or blistery which is a good sign.

Okay the boys are tearing apart the kitchen cupboards ...... at least they are working at it together!!

Back Again

Play Slime!

Walnut Pasta

take some leeks and slice them up. melt butter and add leeks. cook until tender and add walnuts. toss in some diced tomatoes and cook up some pasta. Once the pasta is cook and drained, toss with the walnut mixture. Serve with grated Parmesan sprinkled on top!

Little D

We are pretty well back to normal in the sleep department! yay!!!!! i couldn't be more thrilled! It had been two weeks of not sleeping and now we've had two good nights! Last night was great, with two stretches of 4 hours! Not much is going on around here. Cory has been travelling a lot for work and will continue to do so next week. He comes home in the evenings, it's just an early start for everyone!

Right now Jack is busy playing with play slime! It's an amazing thing that I found on Ohdeedoh. The site is dedicated to kid's decor and activities .... it's great! I am keeping busy with my crochet work, I'm working on a couple of orders, and have already sent out my first Baby Jingles Ball! I am looking into doing some advertising for the shop, and am just figuring it all out! Tonight I'll be tidying the art studio for another great Messy Monsters Meeting! Last week we did a rather involved craft (the night before I spent an hour cutting, hot gluing .... burning fingers) of making cardboard boats. This week it's just simply painting little models I had purchased from a craft store.

I am tying to get some reading in as well. I got The Art of Simple Food from the library and am loving it! I used to pay more attention to the quality of our ingredients, but lately I've just been grabbing whatever is on sale. It has reminded me of how important simple, good quality ingredients are to cooking! I am looking forward to the market in Bastion Square this spring! They have HUGE tables of fresh farm foods! I know I won't be doing much gardening myself, but I can at least buy local, organic goods!

Dragging My Feet

our deck, where most of the play has been happening lately. pretend dirt (rice) is everywhere!

the boys in the new bike trailer!

Things have been great. Things have been terrible. It is entirely possible to have both, especially because I feel as though I've been living two days in a row, and no nights. Poor Dylan has been sick, or something for two weeks now. He's waking a lot in the night and sometimes not going back to sleep for hours.

Last night i was up from 3am until 6am. The only reason I got any sleep was because at 6am, Cory took over and let me sleep for an hour. I require a caffeinated cup of tea in the morning now, and sometimes one midway through the day. This is one of those days. The kettle is boiling and soon the tea will be steeping..... I'll come out of my mid day stupor soon!

This past weekend I opened my etsy shop, almost completed my Ravelympics blanket, hosted a BBQ, looked after the kids while the deck was being re-enforced, cut two of my friends hair, went shopping with the family for bikes, and bought bikes, went for a nice evening bike ride followed by a quick dinner at the local fish and chips spot......

did i breathe once? no

did i sleep much? no

am i paying for it now? YES

So this week I am going to try to take it easy. I have an etsy order to fill and finish my Ravelympics blanket, but other than that, I've just got to live, oh and keep the kids at bay. Luckily the weather has been amazing, so the kiddies have been outside a lot! Tonight I think we are going on another family bike trip before dinner. Of course this means I should be preparing dinner, so we can eat as soon as we cruise home. Alright then, good bye for now.

** I will host the contest for my new etsy shop this coming weekend, I promise!**

Snuggles

Mom and Xmas Baby

The Boys Playing after Xmas Eve Dinner

Happy Present Opening!

Jackson showing Great Grandpa the new Cement Truck

I have been doing an awful lot of snuggling with the boys. Jack has sometimes needed a bit more emotion support lately and a little chat and snuggle always do the trick!

Dylan has been sick and as we are unable to put him down unless he's sleeping, we do a great deal of holding and snuggling with him as well! The poor little guy is still rather congested, so we will continue to get him to sleep by cuddles for a while. Fortunately not much has changed during the night. No extra holding other than the ten minute feeding every two hours ..... sometimes three. Yes that's right, still quite often in the night for a nine month old, but that's just how it goes. We are not ready to do any sleep training at this point.

We have some friends who are sleep training. They decided to cut out holding and the soother all in one foul swoop. It seems to be going quite well, with major improvements in just a few days. We never had such improvements with the boys ....... for some reason or another! Anyways sleep training does work for some people, so maybe when we are ready, Cory and I will try again. For now though we are fine with our interrupted sleep.

The long holiday with Cory is coming to a close soon. In two days, he'll be back at the office and I'll be at home with the boys and our injured dog. It is a bit concerning, but once the initial shock of Daddy departing is over, the days should go smoothly. Okay I have to stop typing, my hand is really hurting for some reason!

Whine Whine Whine

Oh man, I am in a rather whining mood! Jack did great yesterday using the potty, but today is a whole other story! He just stood there, in front of me, and said, "I have to pee." and then just peed all over the floor...... Before that he'd had 4 other accidents. I totally understand that he is going to have accidents as we are still in the training stage, but when he knows he's going to go and doesn't make any attempt to use the potty, it tests my patience! Today is just not a potty using day, but I am so sick of cleaning up after him! Right now he's in a cloth diaper and REALLY unhappy about it, so hopefully he'll get back to using the potty.

He told us that he doesn't like having to use the potty downstairs, so we brought it upstairs, bt stll no go ...... He;s been off all day, I have to say. Rather moody and defiant. Funny, as he had a great night's sleep and didn't wake until after 6am. I think the good night last night was due to our trip to Willows School playground in the afternoon. It was a rather blustery day, with the stroller blowing over once (no kids in!). But we braved the weather and had a great time at the park. Akay I am tired, the kids are sleeping and now it's my turn ....... D is still waking an insane amount at night!

Choices Choices Choices

Our baby tub!

The sink faucet

Matching tub and shower set

Wow!! There are an insane amount of choices for faucets and tub hardware! We were going to go with Moen as they have a good warranty, however we found some nice Kohler sets, so went with those. Originally I wanted to go with a more polished nickel look, however we couldn't find a good shower/tub set. So now we have a brushed nickel set. It will be easier to keep clean anyways!
So the plywood sheeting is in after EVERYTHING was removed from the bathroom!!

The next steps are putting the tub in and getting the plumbing in. Unfortunately the last thing to go in is the tile ..... oh my beautiful tile! I just love how this bathroom is coming together! It may not be together until January, but most of Cory's work is done! We are getting a plumber and contractor to do the rest! We were able to find some great people, friends and friends of friends. It's important to be comfortable with the people who are working in your home! Alright enough blabbering about renos!

Tonight after a nice beef and quinoa soup with buttermilk biscuit supper, we took the whole family for a walk. We ended up at the Willows Elementary School playground. They are doing seismic upgrading to he building, but it was still nice to see where the boys will attend school. It's a nice, 5 minute walk to the school, with only one serious road crossing. There are lots of old, huge trees and a nice large field. The playground is pretty good, not amazing, but good enough. I tend to think that playground lack imagination. Anyways it was a lovely evening all in all!

I will be going to bed very early today as my throat is sore and D has been waking almost every hour in the night ...... ugh, if only I knew what sleep was like! I can only imagine!

Dear Sleep

Dear Sleep,

What happened to you? What did I do to have you leave me? I hope it's not forever. I'm crazy without you!

Love Tanya

Every night I lay down and try to get even three hours of sleep in a row, yet it escape me! Usually it's little Dylan, but sometimes Jackson is calling for me as well. Last night Jack called me into his room. I thought it was something bad ..... he just wanted to tell me about his dream. Very cute, he dreamt about a pond full of frogs in our living room. Apparently he and I stepped into the pond and all the frogs started laughing. He also said something about a big mommy frog, but that was it. Mind you at 3am, cute only gets you so far.

We have been having so many interruptions due to Dylan. I put him down at 8:15pm (getting adjusted to the time change soon). It's now 10pm and he's woken up twice. He only lasts a few minutes, then is quiet again. Cory and I are afraid to go in and wake him, so we are camping out on the couches until it's feeding time. I'll feed him some time after 11pm, just hope he doesn't wake again before that. Once he's been fed at 11pm, I'll try not to feed him again until 3am ...... I can wish for 4 hours of sleep can't i??? Alright time to settle into the couch!

Da na na na na .......

"sung in a cheesy karaoke voice". Oh that's right karaoke my friends! Unlike my birthday, Cory's thirtieth, this past weekend passes with a huge ruckus! I'd planned a surprise party for him and 15 friends! We went to a cool new Japanese hot pot restaurant downtown. After I zipped home to meet my mom and put the kids to bed, I joined the rest of the crew back downtown at a private karaoke place. About twenty of us crammed in a small, ill ventilated room and sung our hearts out! Cory loves karaoke, so it was only fitting! After a couple hours I left to get a bit of sleep before getting up at 6am with the boys. Cory and the rest were going strong until the wee hours, so Cory got a nice long sleep in the nest day.

The rest of our weekend was spent visiting friends, and packing. We've been doing a bit of packing here and there, so there isn't too much to do. We're focusing on the kitchen and garage, and those are mostly complete. I also got rid of a bunch of my clothes, well packed, not gone for good!

Dylan has been a handful. He has been waking every hour, so we are back in sleep training mode. He doesn't cry for too long, but it always feels like too long. He's been quiet for some time now, but i am afraid to go back in the room, in fear that i'll wake him! Today he had some awesome 2 hour naps, so things are improving. We just have to get a handle on nighttime wakings now.

Jack has been waking a bit in the night, due to new vivid dreams. One night he had a dream that Dylan was a puppy and puppy D caught a spider and threw it in the garbage. Yesterday his dream was about some "old clouds" and himself and Cory racing around in a pick up truck. The dreams don't sound too scary, but i am sure it's hard for the little guy!

For the next few days, Cory is in Vancouver. Just one day at a time, but he's up early everyday and home late everynight. Tomorrow is going to be a 16 hour day for me! Yikes, maybe a playdate will fall in my lap! Sorry no photos right now ...... it's 1am, gimmie a break!

Quiet Passing

My birthday passed quietly. I am 30 now. It feels good as I am in a very secure place in my life. I know what I'll be doing for the next five years ..... raiding my kids to school age. Once they are in school, who knows. At 35 I will tackle that question!

Dylan has been having a lot of trouble settling at naptime and also at night. We are planning on giving him a bottle before he goes to bed, and also he is eating rice cereal now! So hopefully things will get better in the sleep department.

Today fr his noon nap, he was fussing and crying. I was dealing with some Jack drama, and by the time I'd finished with J, Dylan had settled himself!Dylan s sitting on his own right now and is a very stable six month old! He really amazes me everyday!

I have almost finished Jack's Halloween costume. Right now I am about to start the crown part of King Max's outfit. I was going to make Dylan a fly costume, but have decide he will just be a bear ..... maybe a carebear as I already have a bluish-grey bear suit for him! Less work, more packing to be done!

How Could I have Been So Wrong?

Jack is still on track. Jack is great! Better than ever. Dylan is a whole other story. Last night he fell asleep on Cory while they were walking around outside at 6pm. We put him down and when he woke at 7, we tried to just pretend it was night time, but D wasn't having it! So he was up and I took him to knitting with me. We got home at 9pm and he was asleep right away. At midnight he woke and I fed him. I decided that he shouldn't need to feed until 4am, so when he woke at 2:30am, we were unsure of what to do. He was wailing, and not stopping. This is the very first time (that I can remember) that D has been like this. So Cory picked him up (something we haven't done too much with him) and swaddled him.

Cory spent the next hour rocking, walking and hanging out in the bathroom with Dylan. Now D wasn't crying the whole time, maybe just the first half an hour. After that he was calm, but awake. However every time he was put down, the crying started again. So we toughed it out until3:45am, then I fed him. He woke several more times between then and 6am, when I broke down and fed him again. He went back to sleep until 7am and that was the start of the day.

All of D's naps have been very hard. He's going to sleep by himself, but it takes a bit of crying first. We don't like the crying to sleep business, so we go in every few minutes and give him his soother and comfort him without picking him up. I guess after breaking the "no pick up" last night, the poor little guy was confused. Eventually each time he'd quiet I would sigh in relief. The naps haven't lasted long. Half hour or less. The first time Betty woke him up with a bark. So now after 15 minutes of trying and a few tears, D is down for a nap. Jack is also asleep, so now it's my nap time. Tonight Cory's mom is flying into town, but the house will be a bit of a disaster, as things were a bit crazy (mostly good crazy) today ....... more on that later! ZZzzzzzzz.........

Pay Off

Just for the record this is "not" Jack. It's some other boy wearing a wig.

All our hard work seems to be paying off this week! Jackson has stopped hitting! This is a HUGE leap for him! Since he was one, he's been hitting and attacking mostly me, but sometimes Cory as well. I've suffered bleeding noses, swollen lips and a hurt ego in some cases. We've been working so hard to curb his violence and it seems to have worked! Now when Jackson gets upset he calls us names (pee pee is a favorite as well as babyhead) and sometimes sticks his tongue out and spits. Now neither of these behaviors are very good either, but at least the physical violence seems to have subsided! I just can't believe it!

Also our work with Dylan has been paying off. He is again settling without us picking him up, and without a fuss. We just turn on his fan, put him down and walk away. Of course he has a soother for sleeping, but I really don't mind soothers. We have soother rules as the kids get older. Only at naps time etc. Jackson has been without one for four months now and is doing great. He put Dylan's soother in his own mouth the other day, and just cracked up laughing.

Night time for Dylan is getting a bit better. We are trying to stretch his wakings from every three hours to every four or five hours. We'll get there eventually. At least we don't have to pick him up at all!

Back to Jack. Yesterday he did a full day of daycare ..... never again! His behaviour is atrocious after returning home! He just doesn't get enough from the kids and caretakers at the centre, so he's empty when he comes home. He also comes home at a difficult time in his day. Dinner and bed time are the hardest parts of his day. So we often have terrible evenings due to his "cup" not being filled while at daycare. This is his last month at the centre, and I thin for the remainder of the month, He'll just be going half days. It seems ridiculous to be spending 5 times as much as I would for preschool, and getting the same amount of time out of the day. It is however best for him.

This fall and winter I'll have to be a bit better about making play dates for Jack, as he won't be getting as much social interaction with kids his age. So if you want a play date let me know!! I'm planning on contacting some of his friends from daycare. Especially the boys as almost all my friends have little girls.

So there we go, that's what's been going on with our little family! Oh and one more thing. Real Estate!

What to do? Sell our too small house and buy a bit farther out of town? There are some neighbourhoods I'm okay with, but I really had a dream of Jack going to Willows Elementary. So the options right now are move to the burbs, or stay here, like sardines, until we can afford a larger home in the neighbourhood we want. We have also talked about the idea of a suite. We are kind of kicking ourselves for not getting a house with a suite when we first bought here. A suite in our desired location (Oak Bay) apparently is not a good idea. Cranky old neighbors constantly call and report suites ..... oh life behind the tweed curtain. Not sure if it's for us, but it may just be. They do allow chickens which I was shocked to learn! Anyways we are just window shopping for now. Slowly getting our house in a decent state in case we need to put it on the market in a hurry. So there you go, that's it. Everything!

The Sleep Issue

Our Sleeping Babies

As you have probably been reading, we have been having a few sleep issues here. Things are actually going quite well. Dylan is only feeding two times a night now, and is very easy to settle, if he wakes up between feedings. Jackson has been sleeping right through the night and waking at about 6 or even 6:30am!! We are planning on putting a digital clock in his room and setting a wake up time. We have set up a sleep and nap/quiet time, so now it's time to address those unpleasant early rises. I am shooting for 6:30am, however we may start at 6:15am. For now I am just going to be mindful of our bedtime routine, and the timing of it.

I am also making a record of Dylan's daytime sleep habits. Lately he's been having a two hour nap about two hours after he wakes up for the day. I'd like to preserve that, but try to cut down the late afternoon/evening nap. Ideally I'd like to have him on a three nap day routine, instead of a four or five nap routine. For a long time Dylan couldn't go more than an hour awake, before he was ready for a nap. Sometimes he still goes down with less than two hours of awake time, but rarely. In the later afternoon I am trying to stretch he awake time to three hours before we have him asleep for bedtime.

Right now he is having a bit of a hard time going down for his nap, as this morning he fell asleep on me when we were at the optometrist. That little snooze in the carrier, interrupted his morning two hour nap routine. I will now have to be mindful of his sleeping times as he seems to be putting himself on a bit of a schedule.

I learned so much about sleep (and what I did wrong) after started having major problems with Jackson. A book that I refer to is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It reads a bit like a text book, but is very informative. The book explains all about sleep patterns for all ages of babies and children, right up to teen years. The most in depth information s for 0 to 24 months, when sleep is critical. The nice thing about the book is that it doesn't tell you what sleep training method to use. It incorporates all sleep training schools of thought, so you can do what suits your family best.

This post stems from the problems that I have been having and a friends reference to a sleep trainer/nanny service. It's nice to know there are people out there reading my blog who care, and want to help out!

I remember when we were having our issues with Jack, we looked into a sleep trainer. I did a lot of research and talked to friends and family who had used a sleep trainer. The consensus of the sleep trainer was that the "cry it out" method was most often prescribed. There was also apparently a lot of pressure to have the baby sleep 12 hours in a row without waking at a very young age. We decided not to opt for the sleep trainer as we didn't agree with those two major points. There were some points of the sleep trainer that we did like, such as the consistancy of bedtime routine, and teaching baby to fall self-soothe. We just had to figure out a way to do those things that worked with our family.

It's so hard for new parents, or even seasoned parents. We are bombarded with information and advice from every direction. Following ones instincts when it comes to babies is virtually impossible. With Dylan I have tried to really follow my instincts and learn to read his cues. So far we're doing pretty well, and I have a feeling we'll be able to remain consistant with him and his sleeping routine. He is, afterall a superstar self soother!

And as far as little Jackson goes, well let's just say, we're still working on it!

Another Sleepless Night

Another rough night, up every hour! Dylan is usually able to settle fairly quickly, though sometimes has to be picked up. The bottle didn't seem to make any difference last night. For some time now we were transitioning D away from swaddling, though with the recent sleep issues, we are again swaddling. am considering giving him some tylenol tonight. One never really knows the issues, but maybe he is teething. Poor little guy! We'll see how things go at the beginning of the night. At least he naps still!