Meghan's toddler bed

A couple months ago I got a great deal on Craigslist for a toddler bed for Meghan. She was beginning to try and climb out, since Jase was always climbing in and out playing, so before she actually did it, and crashed on the wood floor, we just moved it out.

Here she is the first night in her new bed.


She loves her bed and has transitioned really well. She rarely gets out of bed at night or for naps and when she does, she climbs in bed with Jase (sometimes with Jase's prompting).

And here is one of Jase sleeping too. This kid has to be a burrito in his blanket no matter what he is wearing and how warm or cold it is in the room. So with it being warmer now, he tends to sweat alot since he insists on a heavy fleece blanket to cover up with and his lovey blanket to hold and snuggle with. Crazy kid is just like his dad...

Nap time

One day last week we picked up the kids early to go to my work picnic for the afternoon. It was naptime and both Meghan and Jase were sleeping. It was so cute to see the kids sleeping, especially Meghan sleeping on the cot. I'm hoping to have her teacher take a picture for me so I can a copy...

Here is a pic of Meghan and her daddy during naptime Saturday.

Nap time

I just love seeing my babies (big and small) sleeping.

It also means a quiet house...which makes this momma very happy!

Meghan's a climber

just like Jase is, but she has started a lot sooner (she's not even 10 months old yet).

She has been trying to get her knee up onto things (boxes, toys, low bed, etc) for a few weeks, and she has now conquered it. Now she just needs to figure out how to get back down and not topple off backwards or sideways or forwards. In the few days since then, she has tried to climb things, including trying to get up on the couch by climbing on anything that is setting next to the seat. Danger girl...

And here are some more sleeping pictures. Meghan is really attached to the puppy that she has a death grip on.

I love my little thumb sucker!

Changes are a good thing

I hope...

We've been rearranging rooms, since we have yet to find the ideal positions for furniture, etc. That is up until now.

Last weekend we talked about moving around our bedroom. We didn't start it until Monday night, so it is still being worked on (no pictures until it is complete).

We've also talked about moving Meghan into Jase's room and turning Meghan's "room" into a toy room. So this morning I woke up and decided to do it (after asking Jase Thursday night if he wanted Meghan to sleep in his room - and he excitedly said yes). It took most of the day (with many breaks to nurse Meghan, cook food, clean dishes, grocery shop, etc), but we love it! Meghan took her naps in there and is doing well. Jase doesn't take many naps anymore, so having Meghan in an actual room will be better for noise control during her naps.

And here is the toy room:


A funny story: when the kids were put to bed tonight, Meghan of course started to cry. We tucked Jase in with his 2 blankets (and long sleeved pj's and pants) and left them to work our going to sleep. They were both tired and after about 5 minutes I heard Jase start crying too. I went in and he asked me to make Meghan stop crying. It was cute and then he covered his ears when she started again...

This was after about 10 minutes:



And of course since it is Independence day, we grilled hot dogs, brats, and bacon cheeseburgers, had watermelon, and some lovely trifles in the good ole red, white, and blue. Hope you had a great 4th!

Teaching a baby to sleep...

was not that hard for Jase, but is a huge deal with Meghan.

When we put Jase on a bedtime schedule, it was one hour of crying the first night, 10 minutes the second night, and then less than a minute (until we left the room) for a while. He has been a great sleeper since then.

Meghan has never liked sleeping in her crib. She has also never really liked taking a bottle, so she would eat less during the day and nurse more when I'm home (aka 2-3 times at night). So, since she nurses more at night to make up for less milk during the day, I started nursing her in bed around 5 months and letting her stay in our bed (just too tired to get up multiple times and then go to work). Now she only likes to sleep while being held and sleep at night in our bed.

I had last week off work and decided to work on getting Meghan to take naps in her crib (at least 20 minutes), and to fall asleep on her own. I started on Sunday and around 10:30a she was ready for a nap, so she got placed in crib. She now stands and walks around furniture, so she repeatedly stood up (but she knows how to get down too). I went in every 15 minutes or so and settled her down by patting her back/rubbing her tummy and singing to her. She also has a CD with soft lullaby music playing. After 90 minutes of crying she finally fell asleep, but only for 20 minutes!

I have a cat napper... She was rested enough to play for 2 more hours before taking another nap (another crying of 90 minutes, but then 1 hour of sleep).

Fast forward 10 days later, the crying has lessoned some (now maybe 30 minutes before naps), plays in her crib, still short naps in the morning (20-30 minutes) and 1-2 hour naps in the afternoon (when Jase naps or has quiet time in his room). Bedtime has gotten much better though, with less than 10 minutes of crying. Then she is sleeping 8+ hours before nursing and sleeping the rest of the night in her bed. I haven't broke that habit since I'm still nursing and don't have the heart to stop yet.

Any sleep tips you have for babies?

Lets catch up with...

Pictures form the last couple months:

Jase and Meghan get along so well 99% of the time (she smiles and laughs at her brother constantly)

Jase decided to "label" himself in case he gets lost...


Meghan can sleep anywhere, but in her crib for a nap..


Jase decided to color on the wall with crayons, so we had him work at cleaning it up (he decided it wasn't fun and wouldn't do it again).

Crib sleeping is going...

terrific! She is sleeping a solid 8-9 hours before waking to nurse. And as a bonus, last night she didn't even cry before falling asleep and it was only the second night.

Meghan is a thumb sucker

Isn't that just adorable! I never knew a baby sucking a thumb could be so cute (way cuter than a pacifier - which she absolutely detests.

As some of you know, Meghan has started scooting and wiggling out of her car seat at night (she was sleeping in it to be upright due to head colds), so tonight was her first night sleeping in her crib, without her car seat. She was happy for the first 30 minutes and then she let loose. Not a happy camper. We didn't pick her up and would go and console her every 5-10 minutes. After about 40 minutes she finally fell asleep. I'll post tomorrow and let you all know how the whole went...

Jase's sleeping positions

Over the last few months we had gotten to see Jase fall asleep in some interesting positions.
For instance, the morning after a Halloween party Jase could not stay awake and fell asleep while eating his pop tart and getting his diaper changed.
Then we drove back home from Michigan (overnight to miss the majority of the bigger snow storm in December) and Jase kept his head covered with his beloved blankie - hmmm maybe to keep the traffic lights out of his face, but I kept pulling it off to make sure he had fresh air to breathe. Also as a note, both kids slept the whole 7.5 hours, from 6:30p-2a - which made our trip take only 1.5 hours longer than usual ;although the following day (when we were going to leave) it would have taken us at least 4-5 hours longer because of the snow and ice.

Over the 2 weeks Jase has fallen asleep like this:
and this:
This kid really loves having his head covered up - I for one always feel like I am suffocated if I have something on my head when I try to sleep.

We don't always check on him before we go to bed, as he rarely moves around on his bed anymore. Maybe we should check on him more often...

Sleeping babies

My sleeping baby is so precious...