Sunday, April 14, 2013

H-Babe in his crib.

Haidan sleeps in his crib. Don't ask me how I managed to do it but it's done. I miss him dearly, his warm and soft little body beside mine. Now I'm stuck, alone, with a big warm soft body instead :)
I have the best mother in the whole wide world who, if it weren't for her help and strength, trained both H-babe and I to sleep in our own bed and room. Now that we finally have a room for him to sleep in, it only made sense that it was time to start him being a big boy in his own room. It was hard, and I think it probably contributed to a lot of the tears that were happening before we moved last weekend, but I am totally thankful that it's happened. I haven't slept 6 hrs, even 8 hrs straight in 11 months (or more if you count the end of pregnancy when you get up to pee every hour or can't get comfortable, or some little baby is kicking you in the ribs), let me tell you, it feels SUPER weird. I almost feel like I'm over sleeping. You know when you sleep like 10 hours and are like "Well I really didn't need that much sleep and now I'm yawning all day long" yeah, that's where I'm at. My body is slowly getting used to it though (it probably doesn't help that I have a video monitor so when I roll over in bed I can check out the babe sleeping like a champ) and I know in a few months I'll love it! I feel refreshed and have more energy (without sugar's help) that's for sure!
So let me share how this all went down:

  • On Saturday when we moved my mom stayed over night and showed me the ropes. We did bath, book (facing out, not against her/my chest) sang some book songs quietly, and bed. Of course he cried because he wasn't happy about being alone in an echoing bedroom, so we checked on him after 2 minutes.
  • As he stood at the railing we gave him a little hug, Shh-ed in his ear and said "Shh Shh, sleepy sleepy" and layed him down to rest. Of course he stood right back up as we were walking out and started to cry again. (This is where for the first two days I would burst into tears because I am a huge wimp now that I'm a mom. I'd start the stop watch on my phone and wait ever so anxiously for it to hit the 4 minute mark.) If he cried consistently for 4 minutes we went back in and did the same thing.
  • Night number one he woke up probably 4 times that we actually went after 5 minutes of consistent crying in to give him a hug and calm him down. This eventually got to be less and less and now he sleeps on his own through the night.
  • Day two: I am completely exhausted because I couldn't sleep knowing he was upset in his bed alone and scared and thinking I wasn't going to come back... (ok, I'm exaggerating and he was totally fine) he was tired and moody, but that was to be expected because we were in a new place and he didn't get much sleep. By the night time it took about 30 minutes to fall asleep (we checked on him 3 times) (we started using the noise maker on the rain setting and the video monitor)
  • Day three: I'm moody and still very tired. It takes 10 minutes for him to fall asleep. But he's sitting up and when he nods off to sleep he bonks his head. My mom sneeks in and moves him, he's asleep for the night. ("They" say it takes 3 days to break a bad habit. Consider this habit broken. Minus the sleeping sitting upright)
  • Day four: I do the whole routine 100% by myself and sleep in my own bed (I was sharing the bed with my mom like a baby, because it is right next to babe's room). He sleeps through the night with only 10 minutes of on and off crying.
Let me say, I 100% do not feel comfortable with the cry it out method. When my mom was doing the routine the first two nights I was pissed off and upset and was like " OK cool so now my happy baby is going to be traumatized and upset and hate me forever and be scared of the dark. GREAT!" But now I understand that he just wasn't happy 1)not being attached to my boob. 2)not sleeping right beside me (and being warm between W and I) 3)being in an echoing room (we're working on fixing that) 4) putting himself to sleep lying down 5)not being on the boob... oh wait.
So maybe when he's older I will have to deal with him being scared of the dark, or being scared to be without me, or something like all the horrible things I'm imagining... but no one knows what will actually happen until that time comes. 
My mom. I cannot thank her enough, give her a big enough gift, repay her enough, say how grateful i am... She did remind me though, that I am HER baby, and when I cry she feels the heart strings tugging just like I do when H-babe cries. So I guess this means that when H and his future wife have a baby that won't sleep alone... I get to help!! (And help I will!) She is the best, I am so thankful that she is my mom, and I hope that I can live to fill her shoes!

Friday, April 12, 2013

The HylariBerry Move 2013

Well we've gone and done it. Moved into a much bigger house, with 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. Basement, real kitchen, living room, a real adult house. 
Moving is for SURE not the same as it used to be now that H is here. I used to move into a new place, clean it, then start unpacking and painting and before the weekend was over it would feel like home. This time it's a little different, and a little harder. For starters our stuff was thrown into garbage bags. Then we couldn't really unpack because there was still some of W's mom's things there (we switched homes with her, what a great gift!!). Then there was the whole baby thing, he was so excited to be in a big space to crawl and walk around in I was running around him picking up all the un-safe and breakable things in his path.
Already we've painted a LOT. (by we I mean W. I haven't touched a paint brush... but I'm doing the baby thing so that counts for something right? YEAH) I unpacked our clothes into the new huge closet. HUGE. And H's room is set up, but not decorated in very much because I don't have the furniture pieces we need yet. And now W is doing the kitchen. I mean this man, I'm SO lucky to have him, he primed and painted the whole basement in one night. Then primed and painted the front hall way and stair way in one day. Now he's priming, painting the cupboards and putting a butcher block wood instead of the current counter top. HOLY BATMAN! All that is left so far is the spare bedroom paint and our bedroom paint (we have to pick out the colours still... no rush really).
 Green basement aka daycare room. Can't WAIT to decorate it!

Top left: H's sweet yellow room, spare bedroom that needs paint.
Bottom left: our huge (packed still) closet that we have SO much space in, and our bedroom. It's a weird shape so I couldn't get the whole room in, but it's huge and sweet and we might put a chair in here. And paint...

(P.S I didn't mention that decorating is another love/hate relationship for me. I have really great ideas but actually finding the pieces or knowing what to do with them when I find them is TOTALLY different. I wish my pinterest boards would just come to life in my house. Ahck)

I can't wait to share more before and after photos. I seriously am so thankful to be here. It's like a breath of fresh air. Literately because we aren't down-town it's fresher air! And there's a park like 5 min walking. AND two great joe fresh's within a 10 minute drive. I can't wait for nice weather!!!

Another note: H is sleeping in his crib, in his own room, which is another huge huge huge step in our lives. I have slept with him every day of his 11 month life, I miss him but it really is for the best. I sware he's grown just in the week we've been here! Starting at 7:30pm (because it's still light out) we have a bath, read 3 books in our bed, then he's in his crib and I go in to check on him if he's really upset. Here's a funny picture of our video monitor, he falls asleep sitting up, which I'm sure has some issues but I'm hoping he will eventually learn that it feels better to be flat on his back to sleep... He sometimes wakes up at night and sits up and then bonks his head on the side rails so I go in and lie him down again. Silly boy. 
This is him in the left bottom corner you can see his head, facing the wall, sitting up, fully asleep.