Friday, March 14, 2008

asleep at last!

For the past few days I've been "sleep training" Oliver. Now since I am completely opposed to the CIO method I had to find a way to get him to fall asleep in his own bed without crying. So I put him in the bed and snuggle him as much as I can while sitting beside his bed. When he sits up I tell him to lay down on his pillow, which he usually does but sometimes I have to lay him back down. He has always played with my hair while he's going to sleep so I sat so he could still do that. This seems to have worked because I just got him to sleep in *7 minutes*! I gave him a bath, put him in his jammies, brushed his teeth and then carried him in to the bed. I turned the light off and sat down but he didn't get upset like he has every other time. He got his favorite giraffe (who we call "Favorite Giraffe") and laid down on his little pillow (it's about 6" square - purple checked with happy daisies on it. My mom made this YEARS ago for me because she thought I'd like the fabric. Turns out so does Oliver!). He went right to sleep, no tossing and turning, no putting his feet all over the bars, no playing with my hair, no crying, no fussing. He just laid down and went to sleep! Of course, I don't expect this to happen every time but I think he's finally learning that when I put him in the bed it's time to sleep. Hooray for gentle sleep training!!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

we've been sick...

Oliver picked up a cold, probably at the museum. Of course in my role as caretaker to the sickly little guy I contracted the same yucky phlegmy mess. Being the good sharer that I am I soon passed it along to Bob. We've been a sorry bunch for the past week or so. Finally Oliver and I are seeming to get over it with just a bit of runny nose and coughing. Bob is still in the middle stage where he's stuffy and tired. We haven't done much during this time but Oliver did pick up a few new words. (apple, up, balloon, bag, Kyle, George, ouch!, pee) and he's starting to get "circle" "red" and "blue". We're restarting the potty, this time with a timer. I got a kitchen timer today and we're going to just sit on the potty every 30 minutes or so. He did pee in the potty right after his nap the other day but he cried as soon as he did it and most of the time he won't go he'll just sit on the potty for a loooong time. He has started saying "pee" and pointing to his diaper when he's wet so he knows what's going on for sure now. Hopefully things will work out better with the timer.
He went down for a nap in his bed today. We ran errands and he was soooo tired when we got home. We got some quick lunch (mmm, fried eggs, toast, cheese) and then I have him some Smoothie (thank you Juice Shop!!) in his bed. He fussed and cried and tried to get up about 3 million times but finally he laid down on his little pillow, rolled so his back was facing me and went to sleep. An hour later he was still in the same position so I know he was completely exhausted. Hopefully this will be a trend and he will learn to sleep in his own bed. By the way we did convert it into a toddler bed so he can get in and out of it all on his own. He liked it better immediately, I don't think he liked being "caged in" by the crib.

Roy seems to be doing fine. I can feel him bumping around in there every now and then and he's starting to poke out. People at work are starting to notice "the belly". I love it! He is giving me cravings though. I had to stop at the grocery store on my way home because I HAD to have some ice cream with bananas and chocolate sauce. YUM!