Our new sleeping schedule

It's taken me a while to write this post. It's taken me a while to get used to this change. I really believe that this is the right decision for our family, but I've had to do a lot of processing.

Switching from Adara sleeping in our bed to her sleeping in her own room has been a huge change. She's across the house, and without our camera monitor, I'm not sure I could do it. In one weekend we stopped night nursing and put her in the crib for all naps and sleeping at night. That was three weeks ago, and I think I'm finally getting used to it.

I try to get her asleep or very sleepy, but we have let her cry herself to sleep. There have been times when we go in, pat her back, and then go out. Once or twice she cried for 45 minutes, but she usually didn't cry more than half an hour.

I still do a night routine: bath, prayer, books, turn off the lights, turn on her fan, nurse and sing, and sometimes bounce if she hasn't fallen asleep yet. We put her down at 7:30 pm, and she's usually asleep within 5 minutes. As long as we don't make too much noise by her room, she doesn't wake up enough to need comforting at night. When we had her in our room she would wake up, see us, and then have a hard time going back to sleep. Now, she may stir, crawl around to get comfortable again, and then fall back to sleep.

She no longer nurses at night. This was actually more difficult for me than it was for her. The first night I woke up at 4 am and pumped 10 ounces of milk! I have pumped other mornings, but each morning I can sleep later, and pump infrequently. Adara does nurse as soon as she wakes up, and is very hungry. These morning feedings are our "reconnect" time. I wake up missing her, and I look forward to getting her up and holding her close.

I also enjoy my Bible time first thing in the morning, without interruption.

She takes two naps: one at 9:30 am for about 45 minutes, and the other at 2 pm for at least an hour. I do a mini-routine to get her ready to sleep: books, nurse and sing, then crib.

Over the past week I've been able to set her in her crib and she hasn't fussed at all. I still try to make sure she's sleepy, and would prefer to put her in mostly asleep. Yesterday she actually leaned toward her crib, so I set her in there and walked out. She yelled out a few times from her crib, but never cried. Within 15 minutes she had settled down and fallen asleep.

I would say this has been a success for us. Adara seems to like her routine, and Alex and I get sleep at night. I am humbled so often, as I realize how judgmental I can be. There are so many different ways to raise a child. Parents have to do what they believe is best, and pray God's grace over these decisions.

Co-sleeping changes

So our alarm went of last night...but that's not the most interesting thing that's happened in the last 24 hours. Let me explain:

Two nights ago I got out of our bed after Adara had fallen asleep nursing  next to me. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard a bump and then loud crying. Yes, she'd fallen off the bed. After all those warnings from loved ones, including my husband, I'd let my precious child fall off the bed. Thankfully she was fine, but I felt horrible! We decided right then that we had to change something.

Alex and I had discussed various ways to transition her to her own space, but hadn't come up with a specific plan. That night we decided to try bringing in the guest mattress and setting it on the floor next to our bed. I ended up sleeping all night next to her. She only nursed twice! Normally, she nurses three, four, five or more times throughout the night, and is pretty wiggly. I woke up feeling rested. Alex woke up feeling rested, because he didn't have to worry about running into Adara (which had been happening often, since she's getting so big!). We decided she's never sleeping in the big bed again.

Last night I again fell asleep next to Adara on the twin bed mattress. The alarm woke us up a little after 1 0pm, we hid in the closet until the police came, realized it was a faulty window, and then went back to sleep. Sort of. Adara went right back to sleep. I got up and back into my own bed and watched TV with Alex while the adrenaline wore off. Around midnight Adara fussed again, so I nursed her back to sleep. I didn't fall asleep next to her, so when I was sure she was asleep, I decided to try sleeping on my bed.

It's just past 7 am, and Adara is still asleep! Around 5:45 am, I heard her fussing, but just watched her to see if she would go back to sleep. She did!

It's only been two nights, but I believe putting Adara on her own bed has been one of the best decisions we've made recently-for ourselves, for our marriage, and for our sanity. I don't regret co-sleeping-it was great when Adara was tiny and needed to hear my heartbeat and eat ever couple of hours. Now, she has room to roll over, but I can still hear her if she needs me in the night. I also don't worry about her rolling off the mattress, since it's on the floor. Win, win, win.

Half-way into 2013: A Review of the Past Six Months

Here's my original post about goals for the upcoming year. Some we are doing great, others not so much. Since it's six months later, it seems appropriate to re-evaluate where we are, and adjust goals.

1. Bible time first thing. For this most part, this is still consistent. Sometimes I do clean up the kitchen or get Alex's lunch ready first, but I do try to get it done early in the morning. It helps that we try to get the house pretty clean the night before, and the rest can wait until I've read my devotional. I subscribe to Tabletalk Devotions with R.C. Sproul, from Biblegateway.com, so I read that every morning.

2. Get reading! I haven't proactive to reach the goal of twelve books by the end of the year, and I have no good excuse. I have a Kindle, and now I have the Reader on my iPhone. I did read more consistently in February and March, and then I kind of forgot about it. I have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and some other games on my phone, which started to monopolize my "nap with Adara" time. I've recently come back to books, and I feel like I'm actually doing something productive.

3. Food and Physical Activity-we are actually doing the best we've ever done in this part of our life! We are eating a mostly Paleo diet, and loving it! Mostly meaning: we don't eat grains, legumes, sugar, etc, and eat a lot of meat, veggies, and some fruits and nuts. I get as much as I can at the farmer's market, but we don't eat organic meat. We've recently cut waaayyyy back on fruit, so that we can optimize nutrition and physique before we go to the beach in a couple of weeks ;) We do the Ab Ripper X part of P90X ever other day, and I've started going on walks with Adara in our neighborhood.

The results so far: Alex has lost 40 lbs and went from a size 38/40 to a size 32 or 34 (depending on the brand). I am the smallest I've been since probably my sophomore year of high school. I actually thought it wasn't possible for me to be this small-and I eat a lot of food! I easily eat the same as Alex, and sometimes more! Paleo+breastfeeding for the win!

We're also nicer people when we aren't having sugar highs and crashes.

4. Hospitality: I've not done so great one this one. I definitely plan enough for us, and sometimes a little extra, but we've had to run to the store for extra food if we have people over. I'm getting better at it! I am learning what kinds of paleo type foods are cheap and easy to make in larger quantities. Alex says I'm doing great :)

5. Budget. We've not been great at this one, but I'm not worried about it. At the beginning of the year, we weren't planning to buy a house. So we are not on track by any means. We're also going on vacation, but we're staying with family and not doing much that costs extra.

Losing weight and inches also hasn't helped our budget, because we're needing new clothes. *Sigh* guess we'll just HAVE to go shopping.....

First: Road trip (Kentucky)

Today is the first time Adara has been out of Tennessee! Here's how the day progressed:

I met my mom at Whole Foods fairly early in the morning. She rode in the back next to Adara. She fed Adara some food I'd brought: a mixture of bananas, strawberries, and coconut milk. Adara loved it, and we avoided fussing.

We stopped by my Aunt Lori's to drop something off, and then went to my grandparents house about 45 minutes north of Nashville.My grandpa got to see a happy baby before leaving the house, and I nursed Adara before got on the road again.

We met my Aunt Lori at Belk close by, and then headed north. Adara was happy to see people around her, and of course they were happy to see her too. My mom read Adara some books, and sang to her.

We drove just over the Kentucky boarder to a small Amish store. They had a lot for such a small store! I bought aluminum free baking powder, sea salt, cocoa, banana chips, and a small amount of sorghum.  My family checked out my stuff for me while I again fed Adara in the car.

We all got back in my Escape and drove down to a restaurant in a school basement/cafeteria. The school also had a beauty salon, and a small museum, among other things. Adara started to get fussy. I changed Adara's diaper in an obscure corner, and she was a little happier. We tried a high chair while waiting for our food, and that was not happening. I finally figured out she was hungry again, and she fell asleep nursing in my lap. Thankfully my aunt cut up my chicken for me so that I could eat it. Adara woke up shortly before we left. We did remember to get pictures outside after lunch:

We headed south again, and Adara was pretty content! We dropped my aunt of and then my grandma. We drove over to see my Aunt Lana and her new house-she has the best view! Adara enjoyed getting out of the car again. She was less excited about getting back in.

We headed south again, and my mom shared some chocolate covered espresso beans with me to help keep me alert and awake. Yum. We made it back to Whole Foods, where we bought a small amount of food and then parted ways. Adara and I were home by 4:25pm, and it wasn't until 4:20pm that Adara started fussing! I was concerned about driving so far today, but she was fantastic! I'm so excited that she did this well! 

We're planning to drive down to the beach later this summer to visit Alex's grandma, and this was my test run to see how well she would do for a long car ride. I feel encouraged after today!

Six Months

Adara is six months old! Her appointment was in the middle of the month, but I thought I'd share on here how it went.

Her head is 18", which is off the charts, haha. she's got lots of smarts :)
She is 25.5 inches long, which is about average, and weighs 16 lbs 9 oz. She's perfect.
I reported that I feed her about 6 times during the day, and then another 3-4 times throughout the night.
We talked about solids, and how babies don't need anything but breast milk until they are 1 year old. I mentioned how I had read something saying that breast milk isn't adequate after 6 months, and she said that isn't true, especially with how often I'm feeding her. It's also fine to just let her try stuff I'm eating, and start with mushy foods like sweet potatoes, avocado, and bananas. She's growing at the perfect rate, and I'm to keep doing what I'm doing. Adara was so sweet and smiling the whole time we were there.

Things I should expect:

• more teeth
• mobility-so I should make sure I have a space safe for her to play.

Since she's turned six months, it's been amazing to see how much she is learning! She's learning to sit up, and loves to wiggle and bounce! She also loves to talk, and has been stringing together "baba", "mamama" and "dadada".

Here she is at six months old!

Mother's Day (plus pick out the best photo)

What a wonderful day! We celebrated Mother's Day at home with some family. My parents and brother Donny came down for church at home and brunch. We made a frittata with shredded sweet potato, onions, mushrooms, and chorizo (and eggs, of course):

I also made some chocolate, chocolate chip muffins with coconut flour. We ate all of the first batch before I had a chance to take a picture. We enjoyed them so much, that I made another batch to eat with out breakfasts throughout the week. Here's a picture of those:

They were so yummy! Click here for the recipe. Their photo is also much better than mine. The recipe originally calls for honey, but left it out, and it isn't needed at all! I also put in more chocolate chips than what the recipe calls for.

We also fried up some plantanes and ate them with guacamole, but those were definitely eaten before I took a picture. 

Here are my favorite photos from today! My mom and my daughter! It truly is a blessing to be able to celebrate motherhood with my mom. I cherish our time together, and am looking forward to many more times as summer break is almost here!

I couldn't decide which one was my favorite, so y'all get to see all our attempts. Which one is the best one? I'll put numbers under them, and I'll put the best one up on facebook. Thanks :)

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Reflections

I first wanted to share this video. It's beautiful, and incredibly encouraging. Sometimes I wonder the significance of what I'm doing. I wonder if I'm doing enough, or doing something wrong. I've been thinking a lot about what has worked well so far raising Adara. I'm realizing that reading books, articles, and talking to others only helps so much, and we ultimately need to do what works best for our family. For instance:

I'm not good at letting my baby cry. If she's fussy, I try to figure out why and how to fix it. I wear her in my sling a lot, and she's almost always happy when she's right next to me. Unless she hungry....

Most of the time, I love feeding my baby. She loves to eat, and loves to cuddle. We had a couple of days after she got her tooth where I had to teach her not to bite. Biting is terrible, and when she bit me I thought about quitting right then. She's a lot better now, and loves to nurse for nourishment and comfort...

Adara nurses even as she's asleep. She sleeps next to me so that we can both get sleep throughout the night. She falls asleep by 8 pm, and "sleep eats" throughout the night until sometime around 6 am (except today it is after 8am, and all is quiet). We both wake up feeling rested. It's so nice not having to get up in the middle of the night. She'll eventually sleep in her own bed, but I'm in no hurry.

We've established a "sort of" schedule. She usually takes at least two naps: one in the morning, and one in the middle of the day. If her middle of the day nap is short, then she needs another later in the afternoon. If she takes a long afternoon nap, she can usually be fine until we start her bedtime routine around 7 pm...

Her bedtime routine is almost always the same. I give her a bath, then pajamas, read a book, Alex and I pray with her, then I sing while walking/bouncing around until she is mostly asleep. I then lay down with her and she nurses the rest of the way to sleep. Sometimes I fall asleep with her, and sometimes I get up again and go to bed a little later in the evening. I still feed her whenever I think she's hungry...

I'm pretty sure she's going through her 6 month growth spurt right now. She's often kind of fussy, and seems to want to eat/sleep even more than usual. It's kind of neat to think about her hitting another milestone...

In two weeks, she'll be half a year old! Motherhood has definitely been a crazy learning experience. I didn't realize how much I didn't know until I had a child of my own. I didn't realize how selfish I was with my time and body until I had to share with my daughter. As she continues to grow, I ask God daily for His grace to be the kind of mother He's created me to be, with each challenge and exciting milestone.