Sleep

I am here, writing this post, because I think I have achieved my goal...getting Wrennie to nap longer, and therefore sleep better at night.

For a couple of weeks I was tired. Wren would wake a couple of times in the night, or be up for the day around 5am. As a result, I would nap with her in the morning, and in the afternoon. I would bring her into my bed and put her to sleep beside me. After about 30 min, she would always stir and maybe cry a bit. I would pat her bum for a while, and she would drift off for another 30 or so. I was helping her to have a longer nap, and it was working.

After a few weeks of that, she started to sleep better at night again by only waking up once to feed. If she woke at 5am (because she had made a habit of it), we would pat her bum and she would fall asleep until about 6am.

Once I started getting sleep too, I put her down for naps in her crib. I would listen at her door at the half hour mark (when she seemed to wake for whatever reason). I would go in, and pat her bum if I heard her, and she would stay down for another 45 min. She was having a 9am nap and a 2pm nap regularly and sleeping longer!

Now for the past few days, I haven't really had to go in and pat her bum because she has stayed down the full length of time she needs (1hr-1.5hrs).

We have slowly increased her bedtime to 7pm over the past week and it's also been working. She goes down on average around 7:15pm and stays down until the middle of the night feed.

We only do a little bit of crying if she won't go to sleep whether it's for naps or bedtime, but if we follow that with a bum pat, we usually don't have much of a problem!

I clearly do not have a child that naps easily, and apparently needs about as much routine and predictability as her mom....okay and an early bedtime! Kenton and I have worked so hard to get to this place with her, and the hard work seems to have paid off. (Everything changes if she gets sick of course).

We are all happier because of it!!

Things around the house

What a weekend. Home owning is somewhat ridiculous. Someone used to shovel the sidewalks, fix our faucets, cut the grass, and charge us less for rent than a monthly mortgage costs us. No, it wasn't "the life" by any means, but I have to admit, sometimes that aspect was sort of nice.
My flowers are all dead, my tomato plant is barely clinging to life, and our grass is waving in the wind. Yeah, we hate yardwork of any kind. Weeds are taking over our yard. I am certain their roots are not going to give up a fight too easily.

Instead of expending unnecessary energy outside, Kenton and I had our share of work to do inside. Nana and Papa took Wren for a sleepover, and we switched her room with the spare room. We just had the spare room carpeted and thought it would be a lot more cozy for her this winter. Not to mention her previous room was against the bathroom, particularly the shower. This was becoming increasingly inconvenient as she no longer wants to get strapped into her rocking chair and play with toys in the bathroom as I shower- screaming always resulted, and I need to be clean.

So we painted her "new" room, moved all her things, put up her wall decorations, and tried to figure out how the furniture would fit in a slightly smaller room. Just as we were taking down her crib to move it (sadly it doesn't fit through a doorway...annoying!), we realized a major part was actually broken. This could have been due to her standing in the crib, grabbing the railing and reefing on it as hard as she could. Who knows. We also had a few things we needed to get from Ikea, so we figured we would go that evening and look at cribs while we were there. Ikea...no wait, South Common on a Saturday...need I say more??
Grumpy that we have to spend who knows how much on a new crib, spend our free evening away from our child at Ikea, and fight traffic, we went in. Have you seen Ikea cribs? Maybe you have one. They are soo low down to the ground. And even lower if you double it as a change table. and even lower if you occasionally need to pat your child's bum to sleep for 20 minutes straight in the middle of the night. We refused the crib's price that is lower than basically anywhere you will find except a garage sale where you spend $75 and think you are so awesome and it breaks anyway. So we go through Ikea, and then have to endure Babies R Us. Why...Oh God why?
We find a crib. Take it home. Set it up. Put in her crappy Ikea mattress from previous crib. There is a big gap  between the mattress and crib around the whole thing. We have to buy a new mattress. %$@!

After all that mess her room is finished, set up, and sweet. When people say you are going to lose a lot of sleep when you have a baby, you go, "oh yeah..whatever". When people say you are going to spend a lot of money when you have kids, you still go "oh yeah...whatever." They aren't lying. It's all true. And just when you think you are done spending all you will need to spend on "large" items for the next 6 months, something happens you didn't expect and you have to drop another $$$ on something you would have rather bought cool new jeans with.
That's when I looked at Kenton (and avoided looking at the amount we had just spent in less than 24 hours after having a great month of keeping our spending down) and said, "It's for our Wren-Wren." And it didn't matter how much we were in the hole anymore.
We may have gone out to dinner anyways to make ourselves feel better. Ever been to the Sugarbowl? If not, you should. Nothing finishes a tiring day off better than a goat cheese lamb burger.

P.s. new photos to follow...when I get to it!

Wren's new snowsuit

This was Wren when she was about...a month old I think? It was winter, and we wanted to see if her 0-3 month size snowsuit fit. It was slightly large. (Aw, wasn't she so sweet and sleepy?) Those are her feet down by the "crotch" of the suit by the way.

This year I picked up another suit from Joe clothing thinking it looked massive. I brought it home, put it on her and it fit a little too perfect, as in she would probably grow out of it before any snow came.

Yeah, I know it's only the end of August. 

It's sort of strange to think this will be her second winter, and her second Christmas. But this year she won't sleep through it all :)

Wrennie in the window

I missed the whole thing. Thank goodness Kenton ran and grabbed the camera. Apparently there were some even better faces made that happened while getting the camera. 

See the resemblance?

Pants were nearly wet during this event. I hope yours stayed dry too.

No words

Little friends have a sort of picnic...

This is one of Wrennie's favourite friends, Isla. Today they visited the legislature grounds together because it was one of the last nice days of summer, there is a wading pool, and their moms needed to get out of the house.

This is their friend, Martin. He is just a few days apart from Wrennie, and just as busy. They played on the blanket, stole each others toys, and poked one another's faces. It was a fun afternoon!

9 Months

What to say about a 9 month old. She "helps" with laundry, as in takes it out of the basket for me. She likes cats and friends, and treats them all the same: grabs at them.

She can stand up on her own and "walk" down the furniture holding on. Unfortunately she doesn't sleep through the night. I am not going to lie, it's wearing on me. I can count on one hand how many times she has slept through the night for us. We are still working on that one. To add to the "walking" thing, she gets into cupboards and pulls out what is inside. We have been slow on getting the stoppers for the doors, but she has made it clear that we still need them.

She has a grand total of 6 teeth. People still stick their fingers in her mouth. I am not sure why. She bites. 

Wrennie has loved summer, just loved it! We have gone to the park, the legislature, on walks, in the pool in the backyard, and who knows what else. We nap a lot together as I am usually just as tired and have to lay down once, sometimes twice a day with her if possible.

Not a lot has changed since last month, only that she is getting better at what she has learned. And she is getting more fun. Is that even possible??

Wren's headshot photos

Check out the best thing ever. Amanda Gallant of AG Photography has been doing a project the past month with babies and kids by taking a bunch of photos of your child and combining them into one great picture!

These are Wren's, and we love them. I can't believe how many little faces we got out of her. To see more, check out her website: www.agphotography.ca

Wrennie's new love...

...is cats??

Kenton is allergic to animal hair like cats and dogs, and neither of us grew up with pets. Okay I lied, I had two goldfish, but how does that count?

Anyway, neither of us like cats very much. Some dogs are okay...

Wren and I went to visit my grandma (my mom's mom) and she has a cat named Phoebe. This cat doesn't really like anybody much, she just appreciates being left to do her own thing.

Wrennie explored my grandma's place, climbing on everything and finding new trinkets here and there.

She especially liked grandma's brooch. I especially like this photo.

She was quite at home here and loved hanging out with her great grandma.

Oh yes, that cat. Wrennie chased it all over the apartment.

And tried to sneak up on it...

But it would always see her and run away.

Except for this time. She managed to grab it's butt.

And it's face.

There was a wardrobe change during our visit due to excessive drool.

And lots of cat-watching.

I think Wrennie wouldn't mind having another visit very soon!

The Aftermath of the Dr. W "Adventures"

In the end, we gave up with Dr. Weissbluth's baby sleep advice.
His book stressed me out, and from the sounds of it, it stressed out everyone else I talked to that has read it. Or they thought it was stupid.
Here is all you  need to know from it that is worth noting. Babies need regular naps, at least 2-3 naps a day. Babies need a regular bedtime. Sometimes those things can't be regular. Oh well. Annnnd...that's about it for his good advice.

We are going to keep putting her to bed around 7:30/8pm. What to do about the night-waking? I am not sure. We have tried giving her a great big bowl of banana and oatmeal cereal before bed to see if it holds her through the night...and she still wakes up around 3am for a full bottle. Sometimes she is no problem to put back down, and sometimes she takes over an hour to get back to sleep. And she still wakes up at 6/6:30am for the day.

So that's where we are at with all that, in case you were wondering.

The cutest baby slippers

These cute little slippers were a gift from my mom for Wrennie. She got them at the Strathcona Farmer's Market. I have a pair in blue. I have been waiting for these to fit her.

These are her toes when she is standing. One word- strained.

But now they are starting to flatten out as she continues to try and stand everywhere and anywhere.

I tried the slippers on her feet today, figuring that she is getting closer to being able to wear them. And like anything cute accessory you try to put on a baby, she tries to pull them off immediately.

Whoa, look at that hair!

She does like to play with them though, they are so soft.

Ah, a classic Wrennie face here. The slippers will probably work out better once she is walking...maybe?

Baking delicious bread

We miss living by Wild Earth Bakery. We used to buy bread from there all the time. Sometimes when we are on that side of town for the farmers market, we stop in to the bakery for a few loaves of bread to take home.

Then Kenton asked me how hard would it be to bake our own bread? 

I had tried before with some recipe I didn't really understand...it seemed quite complex. The bread came out okay, but sort of dry, and not good for slicing up for toast or anything.

My dad gave me a great cookbook for Christmas...The Best of Chef at Home. Even though I hate the way Michael Smith dresses (who wears a white t-shirt under a dress shirt?) and he is cheesy, he does have some simple and great recipes. 

This is where I found our bread recipe. Kenton got the bread started last night, and we let it rise overnight for about 14 hours.

Then I kneaded it and let it rise again this morning...and baked it!

It turned out amazing. And tastes amazing. I hope there is still some left for Kenton when he gets home from work...

I have to test taste it though...