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Something tells me that I should have stuck with these monthly letters…it’s going to take a while to sum up what has happened in the past THREE months. I can’t believe that my little girl is a year and a half already. Wow! (more…)

Gabe and I had come to several conclusions about co-sleeping, night nursing, and sleep in general. We felt like night weaning was necessary, but we didn’t want to make any changes before our cruise in May. We decided to take on the challenge during the first free weekend that we had after the cruise.

After several weeks of the new routine, things are looking quite promising. If you’re a regular reader, you should be well aware that Maddie is not the best sleeper. Up until recently, I have pretty much posted as a separate post each time that she has slept more than 6 hours in the past year! Let’s just say that these posts have in no way cluttered up the blog.

The first week of night weaning was rough. I had done quite a bit of reading on the subject, and one of the suggestions is to remove Mommy from the nighttime equation. Dr. Sears was one who makes this recommendation. So, I slept on the couch for that first week (and maybe almost one more week after that).

The first night involved quite a bit of loud crying when she awoke as usual at 11pm. We weren’t going to fight the co-sleeping battle at the same time (not to mention that the co-sleeping isn’t an issue exactly…the NOT sleeping is our issue. The constant nursing has recently been a bit of a problem as well.). Gabe would bring Maddie to the bed as usual, but I was unavailable. Maddie was not thrilled about this, and she cried and cried for Mommy. It was difficult for all of us since I was not far away in the other room. Gabe was finally able to get her back to sleep, and she woke several times throughout the night looking for me and crying about it. I joined the family in the bed at around 6am, which is a suitable time for nursing. Maddie nursed quite a bit at this point.

The next night, I was on the couch again and Maddie cried a little less when Daddy brought her to bed. I had my first night terror in a LONG time and was convinced that the couch was an unsafe place to continue my night (I couldn’t convince myself that the big spider that I saw wasn’t in my imagination, though I’m almost sure that it was). I went to the bed, and a little while later I had another night terror. This time I was pretty sure that the same (or similar) spider crawled over Maddie onto Gabe. I have no idea how I was able to convince myself that it was a night terror and my imagination and NOT REAL. But I did, despite the fact that I thought it entirely possible that the spider had gotten trapped in my hair and followed me to the bed. I tried to push that thought away in my head and went back to sleep.

Maddie woke up several times, and it was rough to deny her requests to nurse. She cried a lot. I tried to comfort her in other ways. I told her that we would nurse when the sun comes up. I held her off until the light came through the windows. Things went a lot smoother when I was on the couch. She was upset the previous night, but not as upset as she was when I was there and I denied her requests to nurse! Oh, and on top of the two night terrors, I dreamed that the whole family was in a plane crash (fortunately, we somehow survived as we crashed on water and we were trying to figure out how to get off of the plane and into the rafts). Can you say stressful!?

Maddie nursed a lot at 6am, and she also nursed more than usual during the day on both Saturday and Sunday (we started on Friday night).

The third night, Gabe and I went to a movie while Aunt Kristin babysat. We were shocked when we came home and found Kristin in the living room without Maddie! When Kristin took her to her room, Maddie requested to be put in the crib. Kristin patted Maddie for a few minutes, and she went to sleep. We were even more shocked when she didn’t wake for almost 6 hours!!! She had not done that in ages. I slept on the couch, and Maddie didn’t even cry when Gabe took her to the bed. We were starting to see definite progress, but we weren’t ready to get our hopes up just yet. Once again, I joined the bed at 6am and Maddie nursed a lot.

We encountered some setbacks over the next few nights as our efforts were poorly timed. She FINALLY cut her 3rd tooth and seems like she may be getting the 4th at any moment. A few nights were rough due to the teething, presumably.

After those few awful days, we got into a routine. Maddie was fairly easily soothed by Daddy when waking up and coming to the bed. At first, she woke up in the crib and was ready for our bed around the same time as usual, shortly before midnight. She threw in a few 5 and 6 hour stretches for good measure and even a few 7 hour stretches. Things have certainly been improving. About two weeks into the night weaning, she slept a miraculous 10 hours straight! She has not repeated this feat, but we finally have hope.

Aside from last week’s midweek fever and ear infection (awful, awful nights), her worst nights have involved a 5 hour stretch of sleep. This may not sound like much to many of you, but for Maddie this is huge. She’s added more 7 hour stretches to her record. Sometimes, we have to go upstairs and pat her once or twice to get her back to sleep, but this was something that wasn’t even possible two months ago. Usually if she woke up, she would not accept any answer except “take me to your bed.” Attempting to pat her back to sleep and get her back into the crib resulted in a Maddie who wanted to stay awake for two hours. It typically wasn’t worth the risk.

She has been difficult to get to sleep initially on many nights. For example, as I am writing this Gabe is upstairs putting Maddie to bed, and she is protesting (I’ll likely schedule this to post on a different day as I usually do!). She’s very tired and needs her sleep, but she fights it very hard!

She doesn’t ask to nurse when she gets into the bed, and I’m able to sleep in my bed all night (hooray!). She sometimes wants to be very, very close to me (even laying on my chest like she did when she was a newborn), especially when she’s sick. Other times, she doesn’t even seem to know that I’m there! I’m not complaining one bit about the co-sleeping. I know I’ll miss it when she sleeps the entire night in her crib, but I’m not going to complain either. For now, I’m happy to get some extra sleep and my morning snuggles. It’s a very sweet compromise.

The months really go by quickly. It’s time for another letter to Madeline. (more…)

Time for another monthly installment of letters to Maddie. Enjoy. (more…)

I think that I will continue with these letters each month until I don’t have enough to say in a month. Somehow, I think it’s going to be a long time before that happens. (more…)

I felt inspired to write another list. I am really enjoying reading everyone’s lists on Facebook!!! They keep making me think of more things that I could have written, so I’m going to do it. It’s my blog, and I’ll do what I want. So, I’ve decided to post another 25 Random Things About Me.

1. I’m excited that Gabe is actually working on his 25 things list. I really didn’t think that he would. I can’t wait to see what he has on his list!
2. I like dogs…other people’s dogs. I have fond memories of my childhood dogs, and I enjoy my parents and sister’s dogs. I do not want my own dogs. I don’t want the responsibility of a pet. Cats are out of the question as I am allergic.
3. I could *possibly* be convinced to get a small dog later for my kids, but I’m not planning on it. I know that no matter what they say, I’ll be the one that has to take care of it.
4. If we get a gerbil, I will make sure that we get ONE gerbil or two same sex gerbils. My sister had gerbils when we were younger. We started with two. We ended up with hundreds of gerbils over the years. At one point, my sister’s room had over 120 gerbils. I’m not exaggerating. True story.
5. I took art lessons when I was a kid. I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, just like my Aunt Frances. I still have a few pieces of my artwork.
6. I also thought it would be cool to be an archaeologist. The digs and study of ancient people sounded neat to me. I’m way more fascinated with ancient history than modern history.
7. Around the time that I was training for the triathlon, I decided to be a vegetarian. It felt healthier. I can’t remember how long this lasted, but I want to say it was around a year or so.
8. According to the Myers Briggs personality test, I’m always an extreme extrovert – almost 100% on their little scale. This does not mean that I like public speaking or to be put on the spot in any situation unless I’m very prepared and know exactly what I’m going to say. I cringe when everyone has to introduce themselves and say a few words in a large group setting and desperately hope I don’t have to go first.
9. The only time that I have spent the night in the hospital in my adult life (aside from giving birth to Maddie) was last year for my kidney stone when I was 8 months pregnant. I missed my own baby shower, though I hear it was awesome.
10. I said multiple times that I would never, ever co-sleep with my child as recently as when Maddie was 4 months old. Maddie spends the majority of the night in our bed. It works great for our family, though I look forward to when Maddie regularly sleeps through the night. For now, I’m enjoying the extra closeness that I have with my daughter.
11. I started having intermittent night terrors in college. I think that I will save this for a separate post. It’s kinda like a combination between sleep walking, talking in your sleep, and a panic attack.
12. New Zealand, Greece, Egypt, and Italy are near the top of my travel list. I think it would be neat to go to Antarctica, though I doubt that I will. I would like to see most of Europe. The only countries outside of the US that I have visited are Canada, Bermuda, and Mexico. Mexico barely counts as I only crossed the border into Tijuana.
13. I want to see the world, but I am a little nervous about visiting non-English speaking countries without some sort of guide or tour. I am also scared to drive a car in a foreign country.
14. I have a fear of heights especially when there’s an open railing or floor to ceiling glass. Somehow I have always loved rollercoasters, airplanes never bothered me until recently, and I’ve done those really high free fall and swing things that you see at amusement parks. I’ll have to admit that those scared me every time, but it was awesome! After the third time, the falling was not as exciting and not worth the fear and anticipation. I won’t do it again. Somehow, I walked on the glass floor at the CN tower and even laid face down and looked at the tiny people below me. It was a little scary, but I had to trust the engineering. I loved rappelling the few times that I have tried it. I want to try bungee jumping, hot air ballooning, and skydiving, but I might be too chicken. Time will tell.
15. I laugh easily. I’m not a bad person to have around if you need someone to laugh at your jokes. I might be a bad person to have around if you don’t like people laughing at you now and again. I can’t help it. I find a vast array of things to be funny.
16. I’m particular about where I need to sit at a table in a restaurant. I think I need to face the majority of the restaurant with special emphasis on the exits. It’s more complicated than that, but I think that’s the general idea. I also have a strong preference for which bed and side of the bed to sleep on in a hotel room. For both, I feel unease if I’m not in the right spot.
17. Autumn is my favorite season. I love the fall colors and temperature change.
18. I have never broken any bones. I am a little superstitious about stating this. Guess I better knock on wood.
19. I will pick up pennies (or any coins, really) that I see on the ground as long as they are showing heads. I admit to occasionally kicking coins until they flip over so that they are safe to pick up.
20. I make every effort to not walk under ladders or step on cracks, yet I have no issues with the number 13. My birthday is on the 13th. Friday the 13th does not phase me.
21. I have a hitchhiker’s thumb. My thumbs bend backwards a full 90 degrees. This sometimes creeps people out a little bit. One day, Gabe got very concerned about what had happened to Maddie’s thumbs. Turns out that she also has the hitchhiker’s thumb. Awesome!
22. I can not only roll my tongue, but I can cloverleaf it as well.
23. I owned a Galaga classic upright arcade game for almost 6 years. It got to be a bit flaky, and I didn’t know anything about fixing old arcade games. I sold it before we sold the old house. I miss it. I would have kept it much longer if it had functioned properly.
24. I wrote my first computer programs when I was 6 years old. I wrote programs throughout my grade school years in BASIC, LOGO (go turtle go!), and later Visual Basic. It didn’t occur to me to pursue a career in computer science until I toured the computer science department at NC State’s Open House as a senior in high school.
25. I met my friend Melissa in 3rd grade. We became friends after I asked her on a bathroom break if she would be my best friend. Life was simple then. Her family brainwashed me into being an NC State fan. Melissa and I decided in 4th grade that we were both going to go to NC State and we were going to be roommates. About nine years later, we did just that. We’ve been friends now for about 25 years!

That’s the question that Gabe and I have been asking ourselves. The biggest difference on Friday night is that Maddie slept for an unbelievable 6 uninterrupted hours for the first time since September. According to my archived twitters, I believe that she only did it once then and before that it had been months. She’s only slept more than 6 hours a handful of times in her life. This was a big deal.

Ironically, this does not mean that we slept well. First of all, we were worried about her. It’s just not normal for her to sleep much past 11pm before she wants to wake up and join us in our bed. Gabe must have checked on her four or five times. Secondly, we chose Friday to catch up on the two hour Lost premiere. We figured we’d get through only part of it before Maddie called us to bed. We were shocked that we could watch the whole thing and she was still sleeping well past midnight!

So…we went to bed around 12:30am, and Gabe woke me up when he was panicking about Maddie’s absence at about 1:30am. Usually I’m the one to have the middle of the night freakout, so it’s cute that it was him this time. Of course, his freakout made me freak out and we were both frantically searching for our baby girl. Logic eventually kicked in, and we realized that she was still peacefully sleeping in her crib.

She didn’t join us until close to 3:30am. Crazy! And then she slept until 9:15am, which is almost equally shocking. Unfortunately, I woke up at 7am and was unable to get back to sleep. So, the one night we could have gotten plenty of sleep…I didn’t. It does give us some hope that it could happen again.

Unfortunately, almost everything was different on Friday night. Gabe had to work late, and this threw our routine. Some of the differences included me giving her a bath by myself, Maddie eating two dinners (one early, one late when my food was ready), and the TV was off while she was awake. If it wasn’t a total fluke, the most likely reason for her extended slumber would be the two dinners. We tried two dinners last night, but it didn’t seem to work. She slept slightly longer, waking around midnight, but nothing extraordinary. The rest of the night was actually worse than usual. Oh well. At least we have a glimmer of hope.

It seems that I have written the longest letter to Maddie yet. I don’t expect that many of you are reading all of this! Oh well, at least I have posted some new photos! Hopefully, Maddie will enjoy reading the letters someday. (more…)

I mentioned a while back that we had ordered a Snug Tuck Pillow to keep Maddie safe while co-sleeping. As I said in Maddie’s 7-month letter, we love it! We are so much more comfortable with her safety when she’s in the bed with us (which is the majority of the night).

What’s sweeter than sleeping next to this little angel? The Snug Tuck Pillow is pictured here behind her. It matches our sheets pretty well, doesn’t it?

Maddie turned 7 months yesterday. I wrote this letter late last night, but I wanted to take time to add the photos today. Enjoy this installment of the Letters to Maddie series. (more…)