No Sleep 'Til Bedtime

I mourn the loss of the afternoon nap. It was that peaceful interlude when I could get some work done, fold some laundry, have alone time with the baby, or God forbid, sit down with Mad Men or a magazine for a few minutes. Alas, those times are gone. A blissful, surprise double nap!

Nic dropped his nap sometime after Christmas. It had been a long time in the making—an hour spent playing in bed before actually falling asleep, the occasional no-nap day—but now it’s the norm, not the exception. He goes strong all day long. ALL DAY LONG.

It’s fun having a lot of one-on-one play time with him, but it’s been a real struggle getting my work done, and as you may have noticed, blogging has taken a backseat. I miss the Interwebs, but mama’s got clients to service. (My husband says that doesn’t sound right. You know what I mean, right?)

And I admit it: Sometimes I just have to put on the Lorax. When I do that, there’s a 90% chance he’ll fall asleep while watching it—I have the pee-stained couch to prove it. 

The Big Boy Bed

We ALMOST transitioned Nic to the “big boy bed” before Baby Z was born. I’m so glad that we didn’t. I got some wonderful advice from a mom of four who said that I would want to be able to leave Nic playing in his crib when I needed to (say when he wakes up from his nap and I’m in the middle of feeding baby). It was definitely a relief to know that he was in a safe place while we went through the move and got into our groove with the baby.Nic after his first night in his twin bed.

But now, it’s time. We will need the crib soon for Baby Z, so I wanted to get Nic well established in the big bed before we move baby into the crib.

We did a lot of prep. A few months ago, I got a great twin bed from a generous neighbor and from the moment we brought it into the garage, we told Nic how it was going to be his bed one day. Last week, I set it up on our patio and painted it heirloom white. I also got some perfect sheets at Target and ordered a duvet cover (I wanted the bed to be fun, but not cheesy). As expected, he couldn’t wait to move the bed inside and he was a huge fan of his animal sheets.

After a long weekend out of town, we bit the bullet and set everything up in the boys’ room. Dominic “helped” us put together the bed, and when we put the mattress on it, he was so excited to jump on it that I could hardly get the sheets on. Once I got the bed made, he was jumping up and down on it saying, “I love my big boy bed.” We were off to a good start.

I was SO nervous when we tucked him in and shut the door behind us. Was he going to climb right out of bed? Would he come to our room in the middle of the night? To our relief, he heeded our instructions to stay in bed until his Ok to Wake alarm clock turned green at 6:15 the next morning. As my husband said, he “nailed it.”

It’s been a few days and he’s been sleeping great in his new bed, both at nighttime and naptime. Fingers crossed that he keeps up the good work!

Advice Needed: Transition to Big Boy Bed Before Baby #2?

As you guys know, I’m due with my second baby in August. I'm trying to decide if I should transition Nic, who just turned two, to a "big boy bed" now, or if I should wait after the baby is born. Currently, he's very happy in the crib and he's never tried to climb out, but I have some concerns with waiting until the baby is here to make the switch. Do I move Nic out of his crib now or after the baby is here?

Here are the two scenarios I'm considering (but I could be missing a better option):

Option #1: Keep Nic in his crib until a few months before the new baby will be ready to sleep in their shared bedroom (baby will be in a co-sleeper with us for the first several months).  Then, about a month or two before we’re ready to put the baby in the room with Nic, we’d transition Nic to big bed, and leave crib empty for at least a month. After Nic is adjusted to the new bed and the crib has been empty a while we would move the baby in. This seems like a great plan, except for two things. First, I’m going to have a planned c-section (I promise to write about my VBAC thought process!), and I won’t be able to lift Nic in and out of the crib for several weeks. Second, I really don’t want him to feel like he’s being pushed out of the crib by the baby, or for us to feel a time crunch to move him.

Option #2: Get big bed now and get Nic used to it before baby #2 comes. His preschool teacher even suggested giving him the choice between crib and bed each night since we have about nine months until we really need the crib. My primary concern with this situation is that even if he's well-adjusted to the bed before baby arrives that he'll regress and start getting out of bed at night when baby comes. All we need is two night-waking kids!

I would LOVE to hear what you all did and how it worked out for you. I need your advice! 

Pregnancy Dreams

Late last night my husband Clayton woke up to go to the bathroom. When he got back in bed, I tucked in close to him, half-asleep and struck up the following conversation:  

Natali: "Trees."

Clayton: "What?" 

Natali: "Trees."

Clayton: "Okay honey." 

Natali: "And also, Steve Jobs." 

Then I fell back sound asleep. 

I was aware of what I was saying. I just wasn't quite aware of why I was saying it. Perhaps because trees have been attacking us lately. Perhaps because I've been reading the Steve Jobs biography. Or maybe I should just chalk it up to pregnancy dreams, which anyone who has ever been pregnant can tell you, can be gnarly! 

Or maybe the spirit of Steve Jobs is using the trees to send us a message? Dreammoods.com is no help to me with this one. There is no entry for trees/Steve Jobs. Thoughts? 

Bedtime Routines for Mommy

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the importance of a bedtime routine for our babies.  A series of activities like baths, bottles and stories helps them wind down for the night and drift peacefully off to sleep.  It never occurred to me that I should have a sleep routine too, but after reading this article on sleep rituals, it makes SO MUCH sense.

I often find myself lying in bed for what seems like hours trying to fall asleep (and I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem).  With laundry to fold, clients to service and bottles to fill, I find myself working (either for my man, or THE man) right up until the time I crawl in bed.  Then, once in bed, I usually catch up on a few blogs in my Google Reader and play a round of two of Words with Friends (anyone want to play?  I’m nghafouri!).  No wonder my body and mind needs some time to chill before it actually falls asleep.

I’m going to try to remedy this.  I like the idea of reading in bed for a while before turning out the lights for some pillow talk.  I know it’s not a full-on routine, but it’s a baby step.  Do you have a sleep ritual?