Merry Christmas!

Here is Georgyana in her new toy for Christmas. She loves it (can't you tell?) It is a jumper and a walker, with lots of bells and whistles. The steering wheel has buttons that play songs. The front hood of the car comes off for a snack tray.

The big girls got a lotof games, including the Game of Life (a very highly desired game, talked of constantly for the past 2 mos). It gives my girls another creative avenue for arguing. But that's why it's called "Life", right?

Georgyana was hit with a 2week bout of diarrhea, a cold, and thrush (again). The cold was shared with my husband and me. My husband is on vacation, and I think the yearly tradition is to get him sick during his time off. Poor guy:(

I'm starting to feel human again, although I think I could sleep and sleep and sleep, should the opportunity arise. I'm starting to notice how very behind I am, having neglected everything that didn't involve frequent diaper changes, nose wiping, and lying around moaning. The end of the year brings a ton of paperwork for the home business, and I noticed my toilets have become an aquarium for some interesting new lifeform.

I think we're through the worst of it (saying prayers). Being sick at Christmas lended me a different perspective of Christ's birth and just what that meant for mankind. Because of Him, we can look forward to the resurrection. That means a new body, a new creation, and no more sickness and death. Hooray!

Sleep Training

Lil' Georgie's sleep was getting worse and worse. She was miserable (and yeah, I was miserable). Things snowballed: I tried nursing to sleep out of desperation, and it worked for a few days. Then she started getting frustrated because it wasn't working so well. And then she started waking every 30mins at night in order to nurse back to sleep. Anyhow, long story short, I decided that our sleep struggles that began on Day 1 of her day home from the hospital needed to end. It wasn't healthy for her. And I was becoming unhealthy, as well, from lack of sleep. I've been a pretty relaxed, loving, "answer every cry" attachment mom with my kids, so the decision to sleep train wasn't easy. It's still not easy, and we're not 100% where we need to be, but it's getting much better. I've seen big improvements and a happier baby. In my journey for answers, I read a lot of different sleep training tactics. Here is a good assortment of methods:

No Cry Sleep Solution (Elizabeth Pantley): keeping a sleep log and trying gradual changes - if baby cries, give in but try again. Should notice small changes within 10 days on the sleep log. It is a series of small steps, small changes that get re-evaluated every 10 days after reviewing sleep log. (A lot of different sleep issues are detailed, with different techniques to solve the problems).


Baby Whisperer (Tracey Hogg): shush-pat until age 4mos, put down/pick up at age 4mos or older (parent never leaves baby to cry, toughs it out with them). More on this at http://www.babywhisperer.com/ (the forums have a ton of info from her books). There is crying, but baby is never "abandoned".

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby: wide range of method extremes, from co-sleep, baby-wearing to being left to cry in the crib for 1.5 hours. Takes a "whatever works" approach, but feels quality sleep is very important to a baby's health.


Ferber: controlled crying with gradual distance. Start right there with baby, gradually increasing distance & length of time away from baby.


Super Nanny: do not do until 6mos or older - controlled crying, starting out by checking on baby every 5mins. After 15mins total, keep reassuring baby briefly every 15mins. More details on the Super Nanny web site, article called Settle Your Baby with Controlled Crying.


BabyWise: church version called Growing Kids God's Way. Lots of controversy here because of the feeding schedules. Do an Internet search for "Ezzo" or "BabyWise" to read about the controversy (I won't write about it here). His book really didn't detail a whole lot about how to sleep train, except that crying is involved. Method seems to state that baby is placed in crib at naptime and left to cry, but didn't give much step by step instruction (no time limits given). It seems to be more of a book on parenting philosophy than method. I found this mom's blog much more instructional than the BabyWise book itself. Despite the controversy, I've known several very loving, BabyWise moms that had well-nourished, well-taken-care-of babies. I think they used their own good common sense in addition to any of the BabyWise principles that they found helpful;)

Please stand by...

Please stand by

*beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

Blogging has been on my mind, but not on my crazy schedule. But I do owe a few words to friends & family that have faithfully watched this "channel". So here it is...

Last week:

• we tore up our carpet in the living room & put down hardwood floors
• in the midst of that project, a new one arrived: our home business had a 94-pg web site to create.
• and yet another project: another web site for a homeschool family starting a new business
• Thanksgiving dinner with family on Thursday, and Black Friday shopping the next day (although I stayed home and worked)
• A baby that never sleeps.

I'm totally and completely exhausted. But I'm also quite excited about the web site projects. When it rains, it pours! This week, I have:

• to finish up on the 94-page web site (it's almost done)
• create the small business family web site
• a cookie exchange & Christmas party for homeschool moms that I'm organizing for Thurs.
• a baby that never sleeps.

As for the baby...
She's 7 mos old today. She has entered a new era: she makes a strong assertion for things she likes and does not like. She now knows "what's coming" and anticipates it. Things strike her as funny and she giggles at it. She just seems like an older baby now, and it's amazing to see.