Taking The Plunge

The other weekend we bought Ellie some adorable Little Miss undies, which she chose herself, with the intent to start toilet training. So, for now I've been putting her in undies when we go outside for morning tea to kind of 'phase' her (or maybe me) into it. Yesterday, I put them on her and we went outside where we played, had morning tea, I hung clothes and then James called and we decided we needed milk so the girls and I went out... I got to the shop and picked Ellie up to cross the road and realised she was still only wearing undies. So, I told her "Don't do a wee" and we did our shop. When I was putting her in the car I reminded her "Don't do a wee until we get home." And she didn't. We got home and she was still dry, so I popped her on the potty. She sat there forever. Reading. Singing. Telling jokes. Eventually she was no longer happy to sit there so I figured she really musn't need to go... but she'd not been in AGES.

I got her off the potty and reminded her to come and tell me if she needs to do a wee.

Of course, she didn't. I'd barely turned around and she had wet herself. This is how it seems to go. For whatever reason she will no longer go on the potty. She will sit there happily until she really needs to go and gets off. If I try and get her to stay she throws a fit. I don't want potty training to be an issue, so I think we'll leave it for now. The two things that frustrate me most about this are 1- she was doing wees on the potty, but I couldn't commit to full-on training at the time as Kahlei was still very demanding and 2- she hates to have her nappy changed. She wants to sit up instead of lying down and once the nappy's off she wants to get up and run around. Grr.

I am thinking we'll just wait it out and see if she starts showing signs that she's ready. Again.

I'm also trying to wean Kahlei off being wrapped for bed. During the night she wakes herself up when she wriggles and unwraps herself and she's getting too big to be wrapped tighly enough that she can't get out, so I decided yesterday it was time. Ellie stopped being wrapped at a very young age and had no issue with the transition, mostly because she wanted to be able to move but Kahlei has trouble distinguishing that it's bed time if I haven't wrapped her up. She will lie in bed and talk to her animals or play with the mobile. Once she does go to sleep, though, she sleep better. Last night she only woke 3 times for feeds, as opposed to 5 or more because suddenly her arms are free...

To help her figure out it's bed time, I have chosen some words to say to help her. Obviously, I always say something but it's never exactly what I said the last time, so I have a little nighty night saying to help her associate that with bed. Once she's got that we should have some better nights...

Anyway, I should get going, we're going to visit my grandparents tonight/tomorrow as my parents will be there so we can pick up Caleb. He's going to come visit with me for the holidays :)

AND if you've been loving the kits I've shown you from Color With Caryn, sadly,  she's having a closing shop sale at all three of her stores, so you should go and pick some awesome deals up - Digiridoo, Enchanted Studios and Scrappity Doo-Dah



OH!!! And I wanted to say thanks for those of you who commented and answered my question on Tuesday. All your answers made me think I should start expanding my cooking repertoire!! If you haven't yet Answered Me This but you'd like to, you can do so here :)

5 Months Today

Ellie is 5 months old today, how time has flown! The poor thing is
currently in her cot having a cry because we've started letting her cry
to sleep. Believe me I know how horrible that sounds and it is the
worst sound to a mother's ears but it's been working. I tried the
gentle solutions, I tried rocking her, I tried anything and everything
to make it so she wouldn't have to cry to sleep but in the end nothing
was working. She would cry anyway.

The first few times were
the worst, now she just whinges on and off until she goes to sleep and
the times of crying are getting shorter and shorter. At first I felt
somewhat like a failure, having been so opposed to doing this from the
very start but I just had to accept that what I did want to do wasn't
working and that if I didn't want to still be having issues at 9 months
then I would have to do something about it. Generally she takes about
15 minutes to settle, which is good, though when she's crying 15
minutes seems like forever.

We've been out in the backyard
today, I am loving Scraps being away it means Ellie can come and sit on
the grass while I hang the clothes and then we can play with a ball for
a minute and James has put in our clothes line and some plants, it's
starting to look so good out there. I'm starting to worry about Scraps
coming home and ruining everything...                    

She is sitting so well now and is working on figuring out how to crawl.
I can put her on her knees and hands and she'll stay there ans rock for
awhile then she'll try and move her knees. Eventually she gets whingy
because nothing's happing.

Speaking of nothing happening...
James and I aren't pregnant yet. We kind of assumed it would be easier
than this. We both imagined we would be expecting again by the time
Ellie was 6 months old, however that is looking unlikely right at the
moment. Oh, well... I guess our kids just won't be as close in age as
we had hoped.

Oh!! On the weekend we went to Campbelltown and went shopping. We found the cutest little shirts for Ellie we

bought the one in the photo --> that says I <3 Mum we also got Dad Rocks, Lock Up Your Sons and Grandpa and I have the same hair. They're adorable as. We have so much fun buying clothes and dressing her.

My
beautiful baby girl has inspired me to get serious about scrapbooking,
traditional and digital. I am loving it. James can go do his gardening
and when Ellie's asleep I will have my own hobby to pursue. I'm very
excited about it all, I will start putting up my digital pages here
soon.

Anyway, I had best go do something while Ellie is sleeping, she's a good girl :)

Before I go, I have uploaded new YouTube Videos... See them here

Oh My Gosh...

... My baby girl just went to bed without crying!!!

Why is this so shocking to me? Well, we have had two horrific nights with Ellie. We start going along so well and for a moment in time she responds to what we implement in regards to sleeping and then it all changes and we're at square one all over again.

I would be happy to rock her to sleep for all her sleeps if she would just stay asleep when we put her to bed. But, it doesn't matter how we put her to bed at the moment, she cries and cries. Last night she was screaming, so we got her up and took her to bed with us to calm her down, which eventually worked.

The most frustrating part in all this is that I have made a conscious decision to not go down the path of 'Control Crying' or 'Cry it Out' but we're still having her basically cry to sleep even though I'm there to soothe her. The closer to sleep she gets the more she fights, I can tell when she's going to drop off and have to grit my teeth and bare her cries while whispering 'Shh' and patting her bottom. It's horrible. Most of the time she doesn't stay asleep for very long before I have to re-settle her.

I have hope, though. We had ordered 'The no-cry sleep solution' by Elizabeth Pantley from Amazon, it feels like forever ago and it came on Thursday and I really have a good feeling about this. So, I am slowly making my way through it whenever Ellie's sleeping (which, actually isn't all that often).

Her day sleeps last up to 45 minutes if I'm lucky and her night sleeps don't tend to quite make it to the three hour mark, at the moment. Sometimes they barely go past an hour long. So, I'm tired and finding it hard to deal with her sleep issues. Lucky I have James to help me out and give me a hug when it all gets too much. I try hard to stay patient and calm but lately I have had to walk out of her room to have a breather because I am just so tired and all I want is a sleeping babe.

Well, she's awake again, I'd best go.

Zombie

Last week I took Ellie to the doctor for our 6 week checkup and I was told to try Gaviscon Infant for her reflux, so I bought it and started trying it but since then we've had a nightmare time. Her bad wind has returned and when she eventually poos they are monster!

We've gone from her waking three times at night for a feed and going straight back to sleep or needing a quick settle afterwards to spending anywhere from 40 minutes to get her settled and staying asleep in her cot. And it's started for her day sleeps, too. All the settling techniques I try don't seem to work... she even cries while I am patting her and soothing her in her cot, which she hasn't really done before, at least not to this extent. It took me over an hour to get her to sleep today and then it lasted only 20 minutes. So, now she's in her pram - fast asleep - and I am rocking her, which is the last thing I want to be doing but it's the only way she will sleep soundly at the moment. I was hoping to start her settling herself to sleep every sleep, so that it's a nice transition for her without crying and distress and here I am ...

The past two nights have been really tough, I have ended up in tears both times. It's been frustrating and upsetting, especially when I am unable to sleep in the day because I have to be physically rocking her for her to sleep. To top it off I have been feeling sick for the last two days. I feel like a zombie.

There are so many ideas out there about babies sleeping and settling.