More progress

Basement tear-out on other side has begun. I helped, along with tot and hubby, to move some stuff around to facilitate the destruction.

Hopefully B will come by next week and continue while hubby is back at work (or away fishing...his annual trip that was planned a year ago). B's cushy city job doesn't make him tired or stressed, and he's done at 3, and his commute is something like 3 minutes, so that will keep things moving for us.

After a 2+ week "break" I am looking foward to the continuation down there. Getting fed up with living among boxes and crap piling up everywhere I look.

* * *

Toilet training is continuing but I've slacked a bit. If he's without pants, it's practically done. He feels it coming, runs upstairs or to the potty, and does his business. Although, the new habit now is to "go pipi in the grass like Rusty". Yesterday, he ran to the neighbour's yard and peed on her grass....

Pooping on the potty/toilet has ceased mainly because I'm not coherent enough in the morning to keep up with him. Couple of cuppas a little earlier may bring that back on track.

Of course, since he's completely changed his pooping schedule, that has become a little bit more difficult. Once in the morning and once at night was a great schedule for me to keep up to date on...now, three times prior to lunch?? It makes things a tad more challenging.

Of course, he's eating like he's starving. His appetite is HUGE! And he's eating things like cous cous salad, lentil salad, potatoes, chicken, knackwurst with mustard, kashi cereal, berries, yoghurt...definitely good eating habits!

* * *

Second interview for hubby is scheduled for Wed. He's unofficially been hired by the dean of the program, conditional on getting his class 1 instructor rating back (aviation stuff). He's held it before, let it lapse when he joined the airlines, and now needs to get it back since he's returning to the world of aviation academics.

He anticipates a month and a half of getting it, and the flight test, completed prior to being able to give notice at the airline.

His company superiors are ecstatic for him, they all gave him glowing references. Career move is about to begin...right at the same time as the impending birth of our second child.

* * *

My 90-year old grandmother in Europe is in the hospital. She's suffered two semi-mild strokes. My mom is supposed to visit her soon, she may go earlier than planned.

* * *

There is something wrong with our toddler's sleep schedule. Not only did he give up naps, which does not please me in the least, but quiet time that is supposed to replace the nap is rather noisy.

Despite the lack of napping, he doesn't go to bed until 10 pm.

Or insists on falling asleep in my bed, preferably with me in it.

Without naps, I am done closer to 7:30 pm than 9ish...so do I go to my bed with him in it and encourage him to fall asleep earlier? Or do I sit up and listen to the noise until he learns to go to bed at a decent time in his own bed?

He's done it before, but now, two weeks before school starts, may be a good time to re-introduce a more normal, child-friendly bedtime.

Must remain up later at night, and force quiet time to happen, to preserve my sanity.

Or else, I'll just check myself into the looney bin now and be done with it.

Transition dilemma

So when exactly am I supposed to start the transition of going to bed earlier, what with the school year looming...uh, I mean, hovering?

He is such a night hawk. Naptime seems to affect bedtime. Naptime used to be from 1ish to 3ish - sigh.... the good old days. Somewhere along the line he switched the naptime to 2ish...and if I try to wake him up at 4, 4ish, 4:30, 4:30ish...well. Let's just say that he is usually awake at 5. Ish.

Unless I bribe him with smarties or chips.

Either of which we now have in the house on a regular basis.



So back to the dilemma: how am I supposed to stick a kid to bed at 8 pm when:
1) it's still light out
2) he can hear lots of outdoor noises, like ice cream trucks driving by blaring music at 8:30 pm
3) he slept three hours at naptime, which he obviously still needs at 29 months?

Some days he won't nap at all. I'm sure I've complained blogged about this before somewhere along the line.

It has crossed my mind to keep him up at naptime for a few days in a row to move the night time bed time up a bit...but then I have to deal with crankiness and accidents and at least one minor crisis in the pre-supper-bedtime hours and that does not appeal to me at all.

So the plan, at least for now, is to wake him a little earlier each day, and hope he will go to have his nap a little earlier each day, until September.

I'm new at this, I have no idea if it'll work.

I admit it

Ok.

As much as I hate to admit it out loud, there is one thing that I know I will miss tonight. And it is the nightly bedtime routine with my toddler.

Benjamin is sleeping at his grandparents' house tonight and tomorrow night.
Hubby is out of town overnight someplace in the northeastern USA.

Only Rusty is here keeping me company.

So tonight I will have no toddler to tend to.

Which is the strange part...I get to sit in front of the tv and eat dinner, watch a useless tv show, take as long as I want to finish eating, leave the dishes as long as I feel like it, have a leisurely shower at my convenience, go to bed as early or late as I wish, read any book or magazine whose target audience is not pint-sized or features trucks with big wheels, and eventually fall asleep without having to remember to carry the sleeping child lying next to me back to his own bed.

But I know that the bed will feel empty without Benjamin there. There is something about snuggling with my clean-smelling, Nuggi-suckling, Bello-clutching toddler boy at night time looking at books of his choice and listening to his never-ending babbling of ever-expanding knowledge about various construction equipment.

It will feel strange not feeling the little pudgy footsies touch the small of my back after I turn off the light and try to get my pregnant belly comfy wedged in between several pillows.

I will miss the feeling of a warm little hand reaching for mine so he can fall asleep holding my hand.

And I will miss the flood of relief when I return from carrying a 27 pound kid into his own bed at 11:30 pm-ish. (This fortunately does not happen every night, but it happens often enough that I can honestly say it is one of those catch-22, love-it/dislike-it situations.)

And tomorrow, I will miss hearing the little noises his chubby feet make when he tiptoes to my side of the bed at 7 (ok 6ish) in the morning. I especially will miss that part because he shows up with an armful of stuffed toys (Bello, Imposter Bello, Lamb and Baby Lamb), drops them on "his" side of the bed, walks over to my side, places Imposter Bello in my arms, walks back to the other side, and snuggles up against me until I wake up.

(Imposter Bello is "mommy's Bello", aka "stinky Bello". His Bello is "other Bello" or plain and simple Bello.)

I will miss all of the above.

But not so much that I won't enjoy the peace and quiet tonight will bring. Maybe I won't even do the dishes tonight. I know I'll regret it in the morning but I have no kid to tend to then either.

I'm just too tired tonight to care.

So....good night.

Sleeping paradox

When our toddler doesn't nap at all, he falls asleep a little earlier than usual at night. But he doesn't sleep through the night. He wanders into our room after about 4 or 5 hours of sleeping and wishes to continue the rest of his night in our bed. If he is allowed in (too tired to get up and put him back) he normally falls asleep immediately. And sleeps till morning.

If however he does nap at the standard nap time, odds are he will sleep through the entire night without once waking up.

Now isn't that strange?

You would think that if you're overtired you would sleep more....but not this kid.

* * * *

My brother and his wife have a 5-day old newborn. They presently have a system in place while my brother is on leave that he will stay up the first part of the night, while she will stay up the second part of the night.

They use sentences like "when the baby sleeps through the night...etc"....

If. Only.

* * *

My kid was a fantastic sleeper after the initial 6-8 week screaming fits at night. He slept from 8 pm to 8 am, consistently. That is, until the teething started.

The teething interrupted his every attempt to sleep. Or nap. He was just miserable.

Some kids react to the teething with ear infections, diaper rashes, digestive issues. My kid had none of that.

BUT.HE.DID.NOT.SLEEP.

* * *

I do not use sentences like "when he will sleep through the night". What's the point? He'll do it when he'll do it.

Blah.

The new approach to sleep in own bed

So far he's slept in his own bed through the night for several nights in a row.

The usual "I want mommy's bed" to fall asleep at night has been getting a little annoying for me. On the days that I'm tired and want to go lie down at the same time as him, the last thing I want is a bouncy, jumpy, twitchy toddler next to me.

But lately I'm abound with energy (I still slump after 4 pm but I seem to get a second wind at 8 pm) so now the new approach seems to be working. So far.

1. By 9 pm (ish) he's bathed, in pjs, teeth brushed, and with Nuggi-Bello.
2. He climbs in mommy's bed and rolls around in anticipation for me to join him.
3. I fold laundry in that room and put it away, keeping the lights dim and the conversation and eye contact to a minimum.
4. I head back to the kitchen after turning the bedroom light off to finish dishes or otherwise putter around. The kitchen is directly off his bedroom and he can see and hear me if he were in his bed as opposed to mine.
5. At some point I mention I'm putting the gate up to his room (he doesn't mind the gate at naptime), and that "mommy will be lonely in here all alone without Benjamin".
6. He comes to the gate and wants into his room.
7. I lift him in.
8. He says "mommy wanna come too?"
9. I say "yes, after the dishes I'll come tuck you in".
10. I keep puttering around and he lies on this bed. If he's really tired he rolls around with a stuffed toy or two, if he's less tired he may take a toy car and play with it on his bed.
11. He falls asleep without me present.
12. If he doesn't, I sometimes go join him for a few minutes to calm him down.

If the above doesn't happen and I get fed up I either

• encourage him to play in his room quietly as it is NIGHT TIME NOW AND TIME TO SLEEP and then to to my own room. This may or may not work. I adjust whatever is necessary.
• or, I go to my own room and slam the door and leave the screeching toddler with daddy if he's home.

Luckily the second option hasn't happened too often.

Does this mean I'll never let him fall asleep with me again? No. I like it when we snuggle together sometimes. There are times when he's just too agitated that he needs his mommy to calm down and fall asleep.

But I'm happy that he's adjusted back to the normal routine so easily. So far. If I can keep it up until he starts school again in September, this will make my life easier. I'll be 8 months pregnant by then and likely more interested in earlier bedtimes anyway, for him and for me.

Yay.

Tired

Had a lovely night of twitching toddler in bed, and kicking baby in tummy.

Mommy will need a nap later (too much caffein in system now). Feel like shopping. May go do that now.

Or, I may go down to the cool basement and look for the lost bin with the summer dresses in it. WHERE IS IT?? It's a two-bedroom bungalow for god's sake. There isn't much space. WHERE could I have put it? AND WHY isn't it where the other bins are? Could I have mislabeled it with baby gear?

Shopping sounds more fun.

Here's a quick little recipe idea for a hot day.

Not napping. Again.

He's so tired.

He even managed to cuddle with me for a bit on his narrow single bed until he bumped his head against mine.

I now have a headache.

He now is wide awake.

So now I'm going to do what any other normal, pregnant, stay-at-home mom of a toddler would do:

EAT. I have some frozen organic ground beef, some spicy salsa, and some flax whole wheat wraps. Just add cheese...

Frankly, this is not-napping all fine and dandy NOW since I am

a) not sleep deprived
b) have no newborn to tend to

I'm REALLY looking forward to the next phase, when all that insanity will begin.

Especially since it'll also be cold and wintery. We'll all be stuck indoors.

Yay.

Sanity Savers when you're extra tired

Here's what works for me when:

*toddler didn't sleep through the night,
*toddler won't nap today,
*it's raining, and
*I have a headache (or any other symptom that reduces my patience level to minimum)

1. Clean something. Specifically vacuum cleaning is recommended, but mopping will work nicely too. The trick is to do something that requires you to keep moving. If you take a breather on the couch, you may never get up again. And with luck, the whiny kid will enjoy "helping" with the broom or duster or vacuum cleaner. You can take turns.

2. Bathe said toddler PRIOR to supper. Put him in trackpants so he won't get the pjs full of doghair and then let him play or watch a video. (Or stick him behind a gate and let him whine it out while the droning of the vacuum cleaner tunes out the whine. Hey, you do what you have to do to make it to bedtime...)

3. If you suspect he will fall asleep significantly earlier than is desireable (you do after all still want him to sleep through the night and not wake up at 3 am) then prep some yoghurt with berries, put some cheerios and raisins in a bowl, slice up an apple, give him some milk, and hope to prolonge the quiet/awake time until at least not too much earlier than the regular bedtime. Leftovers work too. The point is to make sure he does have something in his tummy. Try not to miss that precious window of opportunity where he will go to sleep a tad earlier than usual, like say an hour prior to the regular bedtime (rather than three hours prior).

Note: none of the above is a guarantee that it'll work. I have found that it does most of the time for our situation, but there are days/nights when meltdowns occur and the entire plan goes up shit's creek. Those nights I simply take the cranky toddler to bed with me, even if it's only 7 pm, turn off the light, and get an extra hour or two of well-deserved sleep myself. It'll be up to daddy to move the child from his spot when he arrives from wherever he was.

To nap or not to nap

All I wanted to do was take a nap.

I'm not usually one for napping. I find it hard to close my eyes and relax in the middle of the day, especially on a sunny, warm day like today. I'd rather to go bed at 8 and sleep a minimum of 8 uninterrupted hours.

Consequently, I'm tired enough today to close my eyes and go to sleep right in the middle of the day.

Of course, that wasn't to be.

My new nickname is: "mother-of-toddler-who-had-whinefest-all-morning-and-owner-of-stupid-dog-who-barks-at-every-little-noise-that-normally-doesn't-bother-him".

Blah.

Bruises

So my toddler cries in the middle of the night, all wet and disoriented. Normally, he simply just walks over to us for a snuggle and I put him back to bed (or, if it's close to getting up time, he can stay), and that's that.

Last night he fell asleep two hours before the normal bedtime. This could be due to the fact that he spent from 8 am onwards outside with me. All day long. All that wonderful, highly anticipated spring weather finally arrived and no one wanted to be inside. Fresh air, gardening, playing with neighbour children, sunshine...but of course, no nap.

However, if a child falls asleep at 6:30, he will not likely sleep till 6:30 the next day. I anticipated a wake-up and a diaper change, but I was in for more than that.

When he woke and cried at midnight, I was too groggy to worry about getting up and sitting with him and waiting for him to calm down or try and figure out why he's upset. I just lifted him between us and tried to fall back asleep.

Seems toddlers don't sleep like normal people. I have not experienced the amount of twitching and kicking that went on with that child in all the times we've shared a bed.

All my pregnant parts hurt, and then some. Probably have some bruises to show for but was too tired this morning in the shower to inspect.

He's napping now. Back on track. I hope he keeps this napping up till after the new baby turns 2...

ha.

1 thing that didn't happen this afternoon.

He.

Did.

Not.

Nap.

Mama is very tired.

Duck toy (sleep-routine)

I bought this little battery-operated toy when I was a teenager. I kept it in my parent's basement and stumbled across it recently. So I took it home, put some batteries in it, and turned it on.

My toddler is delighted!

It has become part of the pre-nap and pre-go-to-sleep-at-night routine. He wants to see "gucks" and he wants to turn the switch on and off himself.

Personally I think it's just another delay tactic, but it keeps him quiet for a few minutes.

When we're done looking at the "gucks" we put them "up hea" on the shelf.

Whatever works I guess.

Pipi in the toilet!

It occurred to me that I harp on about the lack of pipi in the toilet.

Well tonight he made pipi in the toilet.

We clapped and then had a nice, quick shower.

Success with the pipi however does not mean that there won't be any night-time antics at bedtime. But I'm not in the mood to anecdote those right now.

Since I'm typing these words however one must assume that the child is slumbering...which he is.

Yay.

Naptime Shmaptime

Please tell me he's not done napping yet. I heard that some kids stop napping around age 2 and a halfish. He's nowhere NEAR there. Yet for some reason this is becoming a regular recurrence.

This is not helping me. Mama is not happy.

Made a mighty fine coffee cake though...didn't have chopped pecans so I used chopped hazelnuts (filberts).

PS He did finally fall asleep, to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider. Mama is a little bit happier now.