Not Tired!

Little miss was NOT tired and was "no sleeping!" With a good "mea nicht sleeping! Mea playing!" For good measure. 

Ten minutes later....

Xo

Bedtime Silliness

"It is of critical importance that the family bedtime ritual is a stable, soothing set of steps to guide the childrens' transition from play to rest." - sleep experts

My kids totally disagree. They usually rile themselves and each other up right before bed. It is as if they held onto a slice of fuel throughout the day 'just in case', and now they have to burn it off as loudly and as quickly as possible.

These days, they usually do this by pretending to put themselves both to sleep in PJ's bed. They bounce and flop all over the bed, yanking on the blankets, and tossing around the pillows, all while loudly calling out "night, night" and booming with laughter.

It gets really loud and really wild. And they love it. 

Sometimes bedtime can be fun. 

XO

Sleep. Glorious, Glorious Sleep.

Sleep. Oh, glorious, glorious sleep. As the kids get older this topic (or the lack of this topic!) gets less uber-present in our parenting but it sure does remain our constant friend-enemy. 

We, the parents, celebrate sleep like we once celebrated an excellent dance track. 

And our beloved kids still haven't quite figured out how glorious sleep really could be. But we are getting there. 

And I have proof:

PJ goofing around that he doesn't need to go upstairs into a bed to sleep. He'll do just fine in this plastic box, downstairs. Oh and could you just go ahead and flip on Mickey Mouse? 

Frequently we still start each morning with four Steinbachs in one bed. See those few centimeters on each side of our sleeping beauties (and aren't they just beautiful?!)?

Not sure how but the Mr and I occasionally find we really can sleep in that space alone. 

Listening to my mentor moms and my own heart tells me that as our kids grow and stop stealing our sleeping space (by choosing to sleep alone in their own rooms) we are going to look back on this time with no regrets. 

While Jelly Bean has always had the knack to knock out when and where she needs, PJ is starting to do that too. With adorable results. 

Of course little man all cuddled on his little bed, under his handmade quilt, and snuggled against his dolphin is pillow is equally adorable. 

 

Sleep. Glorious, glorious sleep. Amiright?

XO

Washing Fun x2

Babies have a thing for washers, eh? When PJ was a baby, he got really excited watching the washer. My little Jelly Bean almost instantly falls asleep.

XO

Happy Two Months Jelly Bean

Jelly bean is already two months old. In the past few days she's definitely gotten more active. 

She's also still a good eater and a good sleeper. The past two nights she's slept five hours in a row with her dad. Glorious!!

XO

Wattwanderung

The tides of the North Sea are extreme. The water level difference between high and low tide can be over three meters or darn near ten feet. During the low tide, kilometers (miles) of mud are exposed as far as the eye can see. In some places that mud is thick enough to cross during low tide in something called a "wattwanderung."

But, since the tide returns along difficult to see or track channels that can quickly and very unexpectantly trap people far out from the actual land on "earth" that will soon be ten feet below water (in other words, "you gonna drown, fool"), it is highly recommended to attempt a wattwanderung only in good health and only with an experience guide.

Yet, a wattwanderung remains a "must do" while visiting the North Sea. Sure, its deadly and all that but...well, people are strange.

The Mr. was really excited about going on a wattwanderung; I was open to it. We talked about all sorts of possibilites for how we could make it work so that all three of us could go and landed on the idea that he would carry PJ in a backpack.

But as we learned more about the challenges of a wattwanderung, how long this one was going to be (4 hours minimum), the weather turned chilly, and my nausea and body pain continued...we decided that the Mr. would join the excursion and PJ and I would hang out back on the farm.

PJ and I joined the group to send them off. To grasp just how cold it had gotten in the picture below I have on two shirts, a jacket, a scarf, jeans, thick socks, and wellingtons. And I was cold. The charming young lady next to me has on shorts and is barefoot. Turns out her outfit was sensible.

PJ and I joined the group for a few feet before we both lost interest and turned back. See how everyone has on shorts and are barefoot? In just six hours or so where they are standing will be underneath between four and ten feet of water. All of it.

PJ and I were less than impressed. It was cold, windy, and muddy. So we went home...

...and took a three hour nap together. God, I love sleep.

Meanwhile, the Mr., our host (pictured below), and the entire wattwanderung group sunk thigh-deep into mud (check out her pants for how far she sunk in...shorts would have been better), cut their feet on shells hidden beneath the mud, got rained on, froze everywhere except for where the mud had created a warm protective layer around their legs and feet...and supposedly had an awesome time together.

People are strange.

A few weeks later the Mr. and I exchanged our thoughts about our totally different days. Can you believe it? He actually thinks he got the better deal with his wattwanderung. Please, PJ and I slept for three hours.

Three. Hours.

If that isn't the perfect vacation day, I really don't know what is.



xo

How Did That Get To Be Too Small?

On September 21, 2011 I posted this picture with the caption "so...did we order it too big?"

PJ at about 2.5 months

I got some pretty hilarious answers including a hint to shove some "jagerschnitzels into him" as well as a warning that he would be out of it in no time. I laughed at the first and sorta dismissed the second.

Oh. My. God. How does time fly? Because it happened: PJ grew out of that massive sleeping sack. And the kid turned one and a half years old today. That means that tomorrow he will be closer to two years old than one year old. Who approved this message?!

Since PJ was ready to move on but mommy wasn't quite ready (and daddy too although I bet he wouldn't admit it), we ordered him the same sack in an even larger size.

PJ and his sleeping sacks.

The rub? I can already tell he'll be out of this new one far too soon. We've got one healthy little man.

Counting my blessings....


xo

A Deep, Deep Sleep

Its not a secret around here that I haven't handled the whole PJ (lack of) sleep (non)schedule very well. I even wrote him his first open letter. Sleep still isn't the easiest thing around here, but it sure is getting better. For example, its getting deeper.

Gone are the days when each and every sound startled our little boy awake. Instead, when he sleeps, he sleeps pretty deeply. We can even move him sometimes. And thank, thank, thank God for the timing: we shared a room throughout our US vacation.

So, how deeply can he sleep sometimes? I'm glad you asked. A picture story to illustrate.

While in Pittsburgh, we took a 20 minute walk to one of Pittsburgh's best cafes. The three adults walked, PJ rode daddy's back in his Ergo carrier.

It was a lovely, warn walk through a great neighbourhood.

Little PJ fell asleep, so the Mr. carefully settled down into a padded chair.

Little PJ kept sleeping. So the Mr. stepped away from the Ergo carrier.

Little PJ kept sleeping. We took far too many pictures of him in this position.

Finally we took pity and repositioned him. He kept sleeping.

So we took far too many pictures of him in that position too.

He kept sleeping.

Until he woke up and rocked the cafe.

Sleep in awesome!



xo

We Got Played

I gave birth to a player. This morning Oma came over so that I could attend my yoga class. Thing is, I woke up with a nasty headache and a throbbing throat. So, I skipped class and went to bed as soon as she arrived.

Everything went great for the first hour. PJ played happily with Oma and Oma helped him explore new toys and practice his new skills. I slept. Awesome, right?

Then he started to rub his eyes. Then he yawned. Then he snuggled into her chest. After about a half hour of this behavior - and the start of some tired sounding tears - Oma thought, rationally and reasonably, "My beloved grandson is tired."

So although PJ had only been awake for about 90 minutes in total and his normal naptime was still about 60-90 minutes out, she came into our bedroom and regretfully woke me up so I could put him to bed.

You know what's coming right?



Awake. Totally, 100%, absolutely awake.

Player was not tired. He wanted mommy. And as soon as he saw me, he was ready to roll some more. One hour later - after eating some yummy breakfast, playing more with Oma, and then sadly waving her goodbye - he took his nap at his normal time.

We got played. By a seven month old boy.




xo

Sleeping, Sleeping

After weeks and weeks of little man's night time sleeping patterns worsening, we finally took some more drastic measures to help him sleep better. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fun but it was worth it. Little man now eats one time a night and we are all getting much more sleep. In fact, I've even had to wake PJ up once or twice so that we could get to appointments on time.

He is also adorable when he is asleep. I'm pretty sure I forgot that for a while.

Open Letter #1

Dear Beloved Son,

I promise: it is not some sort of strange torture. It is not painful. Its not unfair. Actually, honey, its natural and refreshing and I swear if you just give it a try, it could even be fun.

Its called reliable, uninterrupted sleep, my love. Sleep that lasts more than 3.5 hours at the same point in time every night. Say, for example, between 1 and 6am. Or even 10pm and 4am. I know you can do both of those stretches (you've done them before). And didn't it feel great? Waking up so rested and peaceful after a good five plus hour stretch of sleep? Wouldn't it be awesome to do one of those - and if you really want to impress 10pm to 6am - every night? With just a little bit of effort, I bet you could do it. I believe in you!

Because, I promise, New Years Eve ignored, we are not throwing a party without you. We, your adoring parents, are sound asleep in our warm bed, being super boring. You aren't missing anything. Really.

I know that you're learning to crawl and suddenly able to see, hear, feel, process much more than before and your brain has to work through all the new sensations that you are enjoying. And your body is growing so quickly so I get that you need to eat lots and frequently. And I see your new little vampire tooth breaking through and that's gotta be tough. But I swear, if you could just sleep through all this you'll think it passes so much faster and you'll feel all bright and chipper in the morning.

More importantly - because lets be honest, you are already bright and chipper - mommy will be bright and chipper. She might even remember to brush her teeth or brush her hair or notice that she is wearing a shirt accessorized with your spit up before she leaves the house.

So, please, please, please, please give it a shot. Uninterrupted. Reliable. Sleep. All the cool kids are doing it.

Love,
Mommy

ps. Feel free to skip the 7pm to 1am stretch, mommy can't really enjoy that one all that much.

Sleep Training

The first few months of PJ’s arrival into our life were chaotic at best. We dealt with breastfeeding issues, post partum depression, colic, and sleep problems. From the beginning we planned on having PJ with us in our room for the first four to six months, sleeping in a side car that fastens onto our bed. We chose this semi-co-sleeping route to make breastfeeding easier, encourage sleep in the entire family, and because I was petrified of squeezing out a little guy from the coziness of my uterus and then plopping him into a cavernous (for him) room. 

But within a few short series of days the semi-co-sleeping route was history - so much for “I’ll never do that…” - and little PJ and I were sleeping together on my side of the bed.

We lay belly-to-belly with my arm gently resting against the top of his head and, at the beginning, my legs bent to rest against the bottom of his feet. As he grew, my arm stayed in position and slowly his feet, then his calves, and finally his knees rested on my thigh. Every time I woke up I had a kink in my neck, my shoulder was half asleep, and my lower back was aching. Sometimes I got to wake up to the joy of getting kicked in my tummy and then later, as PJ grew, my crotch. I got my hair pulled and the front of my chest was always cold since there was no way I was putting my blanket anywhere near his face. Anytime I moved, he moved too and most of the time he would let out a little complaining cry.

Lets just say it wasn’t easy or incredibly comfortable.

Yet, we did get more sleep than we would have otherwise and I knew that PJ needed me. He needed my smell, my warmth, my breath. And as breast feeding started to work, he needed the reassurance of my breasts, often. It was the right solution for us at the right time.

But all things come to an end.

After weeks of discussion and negotiations (and lots of conversation with other mommies), we started “sleep training” a la Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Almost two weeks ago we started with the Mr. gently putting PJ to sleep for the first part of the night in his own, beautiful crib in his own room.

When he woke for the first time, I would go pick him up, carry him to our room, nurse him, and then we spent the rest of the night together. Over the past week it has morphed into PJ sleeping alone throughout the night and for almost all of his naps. He is going to sleep hours earlier than he use to, sleeping longer than he use to, and taking significantly more naps than he use to. These changes are NOT all due to “sleep training”: he recently doubled his weight, his strength increased, he sees better, hears better, likes to play on the floor alone for short periods of time, and is just older. I think we got lucky and caught that moment in time where he was ready to sleep longer and alone.

Not that we knew that going in. It was a scary transition for me. Sleep has been my saving grace and I was really worried that we would all crash and burn. But by night two, PJ was going to sleep on his own relatively easily and I was happy to be sleeping by myself again, with both sides of my chest warm and the freedom to move whenever and however I chose. I know PJ and I are both sleeping better and I’m pretty sure the Mr. does too.

Now, just a few days after the transition, I’m already slowly rewriting history - just like with the pregnancy, the birth, and the pain of breastfeeding - I’m forgetting the ugly and remembering the wonder. The wonder of his smell, his breath, his little coos, his tiny hand wrapped around my thumb all throughout the night. The wonder of him finally waking without panic screams to look up at me and smile his toothless grin just seconds before he dove for breakfast.

Time really does fly. At a supersonic speed.

Another Growth Spurt? 10 Weeks!

Today PJ is 10 Weeks old and it seems that we are headed into another growth spurt because the little guy is showing me about every 30 minutes to 1 hour:

xo

Sleep: The Good News

Everyone told us before PJ arrived how important sleep was going to be. At the time I recall getting annoyed with how everyone (it seemed) advised us to "sleep now!" with a knowing smile on their face.

Yeah, they were right. I stand humble before the throne of Need-To-Sleep-a-String-of-Uninterrupted-Hours-Soon (and that with the Mr. taking over one feeding so that I can enjoy one extra hour a night). But the good news is that as PJ grows and gets older and the colic goes down, he is begining to sleep more often and for slightly longer period of times. Not at night, yet, but during the day naps aren't quite as rare. Today he even slept on his own for about 45 minutes. Sweeeeeet.

Yet, his favorite place to sleep continues to be on mommy and daddy.

xo
and in totally unrelated comments: Aren't my boys just absolutely adorable?!?

Week Three: Co-Sleeping of a New Art

Happy Third Week to PJ!

Congrats on driving both of your parents to the end of their nerves, teaching us what a proper scream really sounds like, and blowing through your first of many diapers. Congrats on doing an amazing impression of a chipmunk and a decent one of a little tiger, being The Cutest Thing Ever, learning to turn your head when on your belly, and twice flipping yourself onto your side during a freak out to prove your point.

All in all, we are both so happy that you joined our family and are looking forward to get to know you better and learn what you look like sleeping in your own bed for longer than half an hour. Otherwise we are going to start sleeping with you on your little play blankie more often.

xo