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09.13.07

Healthy Sleep

Van is 6 months old and he was not sleeping through the night. At all. He was napping all night long. 4 to 5 hour naps, each punctuated with a quick nursing session and then he’s back down for another few hours. Thiswent on from 7 p.m., when I put him down, until 7 in the morning, when he wakes up. And I go to him, willingly. he is my baby, and so I actually soaked him in during those feeding sessions at night. I rock with him. I smell his head. I kiss him. I think about how wonderful life is going to be for him. And then I lay him back down into his crib and climb back into my bed. And think. And toss and turn. And make “to do” lists in my head. And plan the dinner menu for the week. And then, I finally fall back asleep. I needed some sleep. Desperately. I had tried everything. Finally, we agreed upon a method from a book called “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” In three words: cry it out. And before you roll your eyes and say to yourself “what kind of a mother does that?” let me tell you that it works. And when you’ve tried other methods and they haven’t worked for your child, you try another one. Well, this happened to be our other one. No two children are alike, and what works for one may not work for another.

So this is the one we are trying for now!

09.11.07

My Song

09.10.07

Transformation



I get these daily Om emails everyday and most of the time I skip over them and don’t read them but today I felt compelled by the title –
Useful Transformation.

It seemed to call to me. I have heard this same message in many different shapes and sizes this past week, and it seems I am now listening. I am letting go of any resistance to change and accepting that with transformation & growth comes discomfort.

As I watch Van go through change and growth I watch him struggle too, the natural human way to deal with growth is to fight it until we realize it is a natural state of life and it is when we truly let go and go with the flow we are so much more able to cope with it.

Transformation is a universal constant that affects our lives from the moment we are born until we leave earthly existence behind. At the root of all growth, we find change. Occasionally, change and the circumstances leading up to it are a source of extraordinary joy, but more often than not they provoke feelings of discomfort, fear, or pain. Though many changes are unavoidable, we should not believe that we are subject to the whims of an unpredictable universe. It is our response to those circumstances that will dictate the nature of our experiences. At the heart of every transformation, no matter how chaotic, there is substance. When we no longer resist change and instead regard it as an opportunity to grow, we find that we are far from helpless in the face of it.

These past 6 months have been filled with change and adapting to a new way of life, Conner started a new job, I left mine, we have a baby, and on and on. So this message was a nice one for me to absorb.

us last weekend at the beach!

A moment.

09.08.07

Sweet Dreams…


Tonight I am tired, Lola has a cone on her head because the groomers cut her little girlie neck. Our house is clean, I got pulled over this week for almost running a stop sign and managed to spew so much random information when the cop came to my window that I scared him into not wanting to give me a ticket. I just kept talking I couldn’t stop. And the first words out of my mouth were ” I stopped Sir, I did”.

I feel like I try to do to much all of the time, and I don’t take a moment out to have any breaks. I rarely ever watch TV and Van doesn’t either. But I have put him in front of the TV to watch manny on the Disney channel here and there when i can’t seem to separate my self from those sheets in the am. I am simply tired because I can’t seem to get Van to sleep through the night. I am not going to be one of those mom’s that is like oh and our baby sleeps 12 hours a night, it is so wonderful. He wakes up twice a night for two feedings, and I have tried everything. I have read 4 books on sleep training and fed the boy 3 meals a day but nothing has worked so far.

It’s really hard to explain how hard this task is, I know I would be a much more sane person if I was sleeping through the night, and I could focus during the day. Lately I have felt like I have ADD going through the day aimlessly doing 8 projects at once, and wondering where the day really went at the end of it.

On a positive note Van’s physical therapy is going well, and they see improvements. I do too!
I thought this picture was funny because all of the ones of Van are of the front of his head, but this one gives you a little looksy at his mullet that is disappearing a little bit every day. He has the softest little blond downy fuzz on his head now. I love to rub his head at night after his bath when he is all snuggy next to me, falling into a slumber.

I love the time I have with Van each night before he goes to bed cuddling in his rocking chair, It makes my heart warm. Until 2am then we do it all over again!!!