What Day is is?

Well, sleep has escaped us these past few nights. Sophia went to the beach on Saturday and she was an angel. Sleep was good not great that night. It was definite improvement. It must have been the fresh sea air.

We have thought about letting her cry. We even made a plan, but it was too difficult. I waited way too long to have this little peanut. I don't want to let her cry. I am trying to watch her tired signs to see when she's tired so we can avoid protest cries. She's just too precious.

Yesterday I found out that next week was September. SEPTEMBER! WHAT! I feel like I just got out of the hospital. The time goes so quickly. Maybe when the sandman comes back to live at our house I will have a better hold on reality and the date.

Sleeping Like A Baby

Who ever came up with that phrase? Well, if you are wondering why I haven't posted it's because I am reading this book and trying to implement healthy sleep habits. Sophia really got off track of her night time routine last week for about 6 nights. Since Sunday night, we seem to be doing much better. Wake up time is too early, but I'm willing to work with that. Most sleep specialists say wake up should be 7 am, so you can implement the 9 am nap without protest due to baby being over tired. We have established nap times. I must say those were established by me very early on. My problem is she doesn't like to sleep in the crib for naps. She doesn't like to sleep anywhere but with Mommy for naps. As a result, Mommy doesn't get her chores completed. My goal this month is to stretch our am wake up time and to get her napping in the crib.
A routine is established but it must exist in the crib in order to give her the deepest sleep.

We just received the birth announcements. They look great if I may say so myself. I ordered them through Sweet Baby Designs on the internet. One thing I would recommend to new or expecting moms; get these out early. I wish I would have addressed the envelopes in the hospital. It's hard to attend to this task when you are so sleep deprived.

If you are pregnant, please read the book mentioned in the previous post and plan out your birth announcements. Those are my two regrets.

We All Need This Book

One of my clients told me about this book: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth. I really didn't think I'd want to read it because Sophia sleeps well at night, but it's great. It will tell you how much sleep a child needs depending on their age. It covers infancy to toddlers. It talks about keeping naps and bedtime sacred and cry-free.

The intro. will tell you to read this book when you are pregnant. It also tells you how to read it if your baby has already been born or if you are dealing with a toddler. I love that. Instead of reading from cover to cover, they give you an action plan of how to dissect the book in order to maximize the amount of information received in a minimal amount of time.

Some topics it covers:
Colic
Fussiness
Bottle fedding
Breast feeding
Co-sleeping
Naps
Sleeping through the night
Importance of sleep for the whole family

I think this would be a valuable read for anyone who interacts with children on a daily basis. After one night of reading, Sophia improved her sleeping at night, and I didn't even think she needed to.