Bryleigh's Night Weaning Saga: Night 3 and Night 4

Night 3 wasn't as good as night 2, but I was kind of expecting that.  It seems like day/night 3 in any child developmental change is sort of the set-back day.  It still wasn't that bad, though.

Bryleigh woke up for the first time around 10:30.  I went into her and she was acting awfully weird.  It's like she wasn't 100% awake.  She asked me for milk and cried/whined for a minute when I told her no.  She kind of flopped around and kicked at the covers for a couple minutes before she rolled over and relaxed.  It only took another couple minutes for her to go all the way back to sleep.  That was a 2 1/2 song ordeal.

Then she was up again just a little after her normal time... about 1:30.  She again asked for milk and when I told her no, she asked for water.  She drank a bunch and then we snuggled.  Again, the entire comforting time until she was back asleep was only 2 1/2 songs.

She got up again towards morning.  I'm guessing that it was about 4:00... I was kind of out of it by then. I got her back to sleep in about 8 songs and went back to bed.  I got to stay there for a few minutes before she woke back up again.  After that, I resided just to stay in her room until morning.

Night 4 was ok.  She got up at normal time... about 1:15 or so.  This time she was mad for about a minute when I told her no milk.  I am guessing it probably only took 8 songs or so to get her back to sleep, but I fell asleep, so I don't know!  I woke up after the music was over and went back to bed.

She got up again at 4:15 or so.  I took 11 songs to get her back to sleep and then she made it until morning.

Hopefully she cuts the night wakings back to once again pretty soon.  That was nice!  This has still been worth the change just for my comfort level alone.  I can actually get into a comfortable position cuddling with her... very different than having to lay one of two ways when nursing her in bed.  I don't mind a night time cuddle so much.  Way better than waking up sore from falling asleep and having her shift to a bad latch sometime after. So, this is still a welcome change.

Share

Bryleigh's Night Weaning Saga: Night 2

Can it really be this easy?  Impossible... I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it is hard!

Last night, Bryleigh woke up at about 1:20.  She walked into our room, so I took her back to her own.  I started her music and crawled into her bed.  She had already got back in and pulled up the covers.  She asked me for her water and drank some quickly.  Then I cuddled up next to her and waited for the dreaded question.... It never came!!! She didn't even ask for milk!  She squished her face against mine and just cuddled.  It was so sweet and I absolutely loved it.  It is really nice to see/feel her be comforted by me even if milk isn't involved.

It only took 8 1/2 songs (half an hour) and she was back to snoring away.  I slipped out and went back to bed.  The next time I heard her was at about 5:45, after her Minnie light had already come on.  I went in to greet her 'good morning' and offer her some morning milk.  She was happy to accept.

I'm so unbelievably shocked and surprised by how well this is going!  Let's hope it keeps up!  One of these nights she'll sleep through!

Share

Bryleigh's Night Weaning Saga: Night 1

Well, I've finally had it.  The multiple night time feedings need to come to an end.  Bryleigh is only a few days short of being 22 months old and she has been getting up 2-3 times per night, on average.  She's after comfort nursing.  She doesn't need the milk because she is hungry. 

I don't need or want to give up nursing completely, just the night time feedings.  I really feel like she will quit waking me up so much once she realizes she won't be getting milk.

This is a whole new thing for me.  Brennan completely weaned himself at about 13 months old with no prodding from me in the least.  I was shocked and almost not even ready to quit with him yet!  Bryleigh is so different. She is nowhere near ready to quit.  She loves the comfort.

So last night was the first night of night weaning.  We went cold turkey.  She woke up at a little after midnight, and came strolling into our room as normal.  I took her back to her room and she immediately asked for milk.  I reminded her again that she couldn't have any milk until morning, until her Minnie light came on.  I told her that we all need sleep and that she can have milk again in the day time.  Needless to say, she was quite forlorn. She went through a range of emotions, mad, sad, frustrated, etc... I just cuddled and patted her, assuring her that I was there, staying with her.  In stubborn Anderson fashion, she carried on for an impressive 21 lullaby songs... about an hour and 20 minutes before finally drifting off to sleep. 

And then the shocker... she didn't wake me up again until 5:45.  It has become kind of rare to get that long of a stretch of sleep at that time of night/morning.  Maybe she realized that I wasn't fooling and that she was not getting any milk until morning?  Maybe that's wishful thinking... Anyway, I consider that close enough to morning to feed her, so we went back into her room, turned on her Minnie light to signal morning time, and had a nice morning feed.  She was so content and sweet.

Hoping night 2 goes as smoothly, or even smoother than night 1!  I really believe this is one of those things that will stink for a week or two, and then I'll be kicking myself for not having done it months ago.  Let's hope so!

Share

Brennan Being Overly Polite?

I seriously need to try to get this on video, because it is so funny.

Today, like always, we read stories before nap time.  He picked out "Where's Spot?".

Every time he flipped one of the flaps open, he would narrate, "Is he in the closet?... Roar!  No, but thank you!"  We heard it on every page!  One of my favorites was the page with the penguins.  "No, no, no!  But thank you, thank you, thank you!"

What a goofball.

Of course, the little sister echo makes it only cuter and funnier.  I sure love these guys.

Share

Our Prius and Fire Department Adventure

Well, lots has been going on over the last few days!  I've been busy, as always, but definitely need to take a few minutes to share some of our current events with you all!

First, we decided to really crack down and start looking for a new car for Ryan.  We had already decided on a Prius, so it was really just a matter of finding the right one.  We scoured all sorts of places Online for about a week before I stumbled onto the perfect one early last Saturday morning on eBay.  Within just a few hours we had purchased it and started figuring out all the details of how to get it home to Minnesota... it was in New York.   We decided that Ryan would fly out on Thursday and drive it back home.  He is in the home stretch today and should be home by mid afternoon.  We'll all be happy to see him and check out the new car!

To make matters more interesting, last night was my first night at home alone with just the kids in our "new" (we've been here for almost a year now) place.  Everything went good until about 4am... Brennan's fire alarm started blaring so I ran down to check it out.  I couldn't get it to stop until I disconnected it.  I did a quick check downstairs and didn't see anything, so I figured it was just malfunctioning.  But as I was walking back upstairs, I started to smell a smoky, possibly electrical smell.  I looked around again and still couldn't spot anything.  I debated what to do, called Ryan in Ohio, and reluctantly decided that I needed to call the fire department.

They came and could smell it, too (so glad I wasn't nuts).  They looked EVERYWHERE, multiple times with their thermal cameras and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.  They were really thorough and nice, agreeing that it was much better to be safe than sorry, especially being home alone with the 2 kids.  We are pretty sure that there is something going on in the furnace- maybe a fan motor or something wearing out and putting off a little smoke intermittently.  Kind of weird being that it is only a couple years old.  Hmm... Someone is supposed to be by to check it out today.

Brennan had pre-school this morning.  When I dropped him off his teach excitedly told me, "Guess what?  A fire truck is coming to visit today!"  Ironic.  I just laughed and told them that we were unfortunately pretty familiar with the fire department as of last night.  Too bad Brennan slept through it all!

Share

Christmas Card 2013

Hi everyone!

I hope you had a very merry Christmas!  Ours was really nice.  I wanted to share this year's Christmas card with you.  Here was the front:

On the back, I wrote a quick synopsis including some of this year's biggest events.  Here's what it said:

Big Happenings of 2013

·        -We moved! We said goodbye to our first little home and upgraded into a much more spacious, newer home on the other side of town. Love it!

·       -We’ve been busy making the new place our own.  We created a jungle room for Brennan and an owl room for Bryleigh.  We painted the family room and added a downstairs bathroom and hallway from scratch! What a learning experience.

·        -Brennan started pre-school! He goes on Friday mornings and really loves it. We also started community ed classes for both kids. So fun.

·        -This year we gained two new nieces, Audrey (Rachel’s) and Sloane (Mike’s).  Yay, cousins!

·       -We experienced our first kid E.R. visit.  Bryleigh earned that visit with a dislocation of either her shoulder or elbow.  She popped it back into place the following day after tripping on Dad’s feet.

·       -The kids are growing up! Brennan is a champion sleeper and loves his basement bedroom. Bryleigh is a chatterbox. She talks constantly with lots of real words.  She is a little spitfire!  Big bro taught her well! :)

Share

What's Been Going On...

Hi everybody!

I hope this Christmas season has been enjoyable and peaceful for you all.  This year my goal was to get a lot of stuff done early so that the last few days before Christmas don't get too stressful.  All in all, I think I did a pretty good job.  I still have presents to wrap (a couple to buy), and a few special things to prepare like a special note to Brennan from Santa.  He has finally decided to be done with his bottle.  He is going to leave them in his stocking for Santa so that he can bring them to babies who need them.  I'm very proud of him and I want him to know that Santa is proud, too!

The kids are doing a good job of leaving the wrapped presents under the tree alone, which completely surprises me.  I have to give them credit.  They are beautiful, so I'd be tempted to touch and tear if I were them!

Brennan is really growing up.  Everyday he gets funnier and more mature.  I love the little man he is growing into.  I'm noticing an improvement in his art/fine motor skills as well as imagination.  He is suddenly attempting to stay in the lines when coloring and painting, which is a completely new concept for him.  I love it.  His imaginative play has absolutely blossomed into something super cool.  I love listening to him play with his stuffed animals and hearing the conversations that they have with each other.  The new game that he just created is 'Campfire Party'.  Basically he gets into an old pop-up dog kennel with ALL of his stuffed animals and camps.  He builds a campfire out of the nails, screws and construction pieces from his tool bench.  I'm told that I won't fit in the tent so I'll have to sleep in the dark.  I'm also instructed to call him if any ghosts, bats, etc. come and scare me.  If I do, he bursts out to save me.  My little hero.  :)

Bryleigh is something.  That's a funny description, but there are so many choices I could use, it is hard to choose.  She is a spitfire!  She is 1 3/4 years old going on 17- such a little attitude.  She loves to play roughie toughie with her brother and Daddy, but is also a little girly girl.  The other day I was playing music and she ran find a skirt and put it on so that she could spin circles in the living room to the music.  Her speech has absolutely exploded.  Within even the last month it seems that most of her baby words have evolved into real words.  I'm sure a lot of people couldn't understand what she is saying, but I get most of it!  Some of her latest phrases demonstrate her attitude-  "I don't like that." and "Stop it!".  We also hear a lot of individual words as well as questions like, "Where are you?", "Daddy at work?", and "What was that?"  I know they say that the second child commonly doesn't talk as well as the first... I beg to differ with my kids.  I think Bryleigh wants to be JUST like her brother and talk all day!

Ryan broke off a chunk of his tooth yesterday.  We thought is was just a filling breaking, but found out that it was actually the tooth itself.  He'll be getting a temporary crown tomorrow morning.  So fun! :\

Our nephew, Evan, had to have an emergency appendectomy last week.  The appendix did actually rupture.  He was really in rough shape for a while, but to make a long story short, he finally got out of the hospital today after a 10.5 day long stay!  So happy he is home and doing ok.  He still has a long way to go to get completely back to normal, but it is so much easier to do at home.  This whole event has impacted one thing in my own immediate family for sure.  It has helped Brennan's empathy skills.  He has been asking to pray for Evan during his nighttime prayers which we all think is wonderfully sweet. :)

Well, that's about it!  Thanks for reading!

Share