Tired of hearing about sleeping? There's a recipe, too.

Don't forget...
I've decided to change the name of my blog to Bungalow Bee for privacy reasons. 

The new url is http://bungalowbee.blogspot.com.  I will make the change on Wednesday, so if links on your page are pointing to the old blog, please change it after Wednesday.  Sorry this is such a hassle.  If you know a less crazy way to do this, PLEASE let me know.  It says that 34 people are still following me so I assume that it will correct itself on your blog if you didn't enter it manually.
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The good news is that the swaddle is history.  The bad news is that Amelia is still waking up every 2 1/2 - 3 hours. 

Friday night was rough.  The baby woke us up every 2 hours (!!!) wanting to eat.  David and I were both really frustrated and extremely exhausted, but more importantly how could this baby be functioning on so little sleep?  For the last week or so Amelia has become much more mobile.  She can very easily and fluidly roll from tummy to back and from back to tummy, although she isn't rolling around the room yet.  So, now she always winds up on her tummy or on her side for naps and seems to be sleeping longer.  If she can find a comfortable position during naptime and it's not on her back, then it probably doesn't make sense to swaddle her and stick her on her back anymore.  So, Saturday night we put her to bed swaddleless.  I'll spare you all the details, but she was awake again soon after and I called my mom and sister, Carrie, asking for advice. 

They suggested filling Amelia up then just laying her in her crib and letting her fall asleep on her own.  I don't want any hate comments about "crying it out".  As a matter of fact, if you take issue with "crying it out" (otherwise known as the Ferber Method), you might want to read this article. 

Anyway, so we stuffed her full of rice cereal which she ate happily, made sure she had a clean diaper, put Baby Orajel on her bottom gums where she's getting a couple of teeth, and suctioned her stuffy nose.  Then we put her to bed.  And she cried.  So after 5 minutes I went in, patted her bottom, gave her back the paci, and left.  Ten minutes later it was David's turn.  He apparently hadn't read the method.  He stayed in there and rubbed her back until she fell asleep.  I really didn't care, I just appreciated that she was finally asleep at 11:30!  She didn't wake up until 5:30 at which point I fed her and put her back in bed.  Unfortunately she woke up again at 7 and I made the decision to keep her home from church because of how stuffy she has been and because it started to seem more like a cold coming on rather than teething issues.  She was back in bed by 7:30 and she slept until 11am.

So, Saturday night wasn't too bad at all.  But then there was Sunday night.

The child would not go to sleep.  We tried to let her cry.  After 30 minutes the whining/fussing turned into a full blown wail.  We decided she must be hungry so she got fed again.  Oops - she stopped crying right when we picked her up and didn't end up eating too much.  Amelia - 1,  Mom & Dad - 0

She's fed, she's changed, her nose is suctioned and she has Baby Rub on her chest since the crying made her nose even more stuffy.  We laid her back down...more crying.  An hour goes by and we're still going in and checking on her and rubbing her back for a second and leaving.  Only it isn't really working.  She turns on her back when we walk in and cries harder when she realizes we aren't going to pick her up.  We finally decide to give in and David brings her to me so I can try rocking her.  She isn't interested and instead arches her back to look at her dad and "talk" to him.  I laid her next to me on our bed thinking maybe eventually she'd calm down and start to look even a little sleepy.  She smiles, coos, laughs, grabs my face, and rolls around.  Amelia - 2, Mom & Dad - 0

It's now 11:30pm and David has to get up at 5am for work.  This is ridiculous.  I put her back in her crib and leave the room, but the crying started before I even put her down.  She's overtired...way overtired.  Huh, that sounds familiar...I'm overtired, too.  Can I scream and throw a fit, please?  After 10 minutes I picked her up and rocked her to sleep.  Amelia - 3, Mom & Dad - 0

She was up every 3 hours.  I realize I'm a sucker and I know the kid will continue to sleep in 2-3 hour incriments until I put the proverbial parental pants on and let her learn how to sleep on her own.  She does great at naptimes...she only really fusses for 5-10 minutes before rolling around into a comfortable position and falling asleep.  On the days that she fusses and whines for 20 minutes, I don't even go in there and eventually she falls asleep.  She'll even sleep an hour or more at naptime now, whereas before it was 30 minutes every single time.

So, we're learning.  I really want to let her learn how to fall asleep on her own and, in turn, have her sleep for longer stretches of time.  I'm not worried about me as much as I'm worried about her not getting the sleep she needs at her young age.

Moving on. 

I  need to wrap gifts.  I need to bake.  I need to finish the babies' Christmas gifts (which, I'm really excited about).  I know I'm a pansy, but I still don't like getting out with the baby by myself.  It's not that I can't...I do and have.  I just don't like it.  When I can pull her out of her car seat and have her sit up in a cart all by herself then I will be a lot more comfortable with it.  Right now I lug her seat in with me (she doesn't like to be worn, although admittedly I haven't tried it too much because my back is terrible) and oftentimes carts don't allow the car seat to fit easily or at all.  Or I get the car seat on the cart and I can't see where I'm going.  Anyway, my point is that I don't enjoy getting out with the baby by myself.  I need to get over it.

Before I forget, here's a recipe I made today that is really, really good.  It's Tyler Florence's Banana Nut Muffins.  Wow, they're good.  I added chocolate chips and used walnuts instead of pecans.  I made a few muffins for a week's worth of breakfasts then I made 4 tins of mini-muffins for David to take to work tomorrow.  I think you'll like these muffins...I've never eaten a better banana nut muffin...made by myself.  I'm sure there are better ones out there.  I baked mine for 17 minutes and that was plenty.  Anyway, here's the recipe in case you don't feel like going to the website:

BANANA NUT MUFFINS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I need to go make dinner.  My baby's still sleeping...it's been almost 2 hours...nice!