Sleeping Arrangements

I made a huge mistake when Caralyn was a baby. I let her sleep with us. At first it was because I couldn't hear her breathe even though she was 5 feet from my head. Then it was because it was easier to nurse at night with her already in bed with us. It was also easier to give her the bottle for both of us when she was in bed with us.

The bottles ended not long after Alaric was born. We did try putting her in the crib when she was a little over a year old. She got super sick a week later and was back in bed with us. Alaric has never really wanted to be in bed with us. He likes his own space and doesn't like being touched while he's sleeping, except recently he's wanted to crawl into bed with us at 6AM to sleep an extra hour or two. If Josh has left for work, I let him. It lets me sleep just a little longer in the morning.

Caralyn is four years old now. A little more than that. This past Monday we decided she was going to start sleeping in her own bed. I was a little hesitant because Josh had to work the next morning so I would be left to do all the work after we went to bed. Four years, One month, Two weeks we slept in the same bed together (she slept alone for a total of about two weeks in the 4 years 1 month and 4 weeks she had been alive...just 3 days shy of a full 2 months). I think it's been harder on me to let her sleep in her own bed than it is for her to sleep in her own bed.

The first night, she woke up twice. I was in her room a total of maybe 3 minutes between those two times. She woke up again around 6:30AM I believe and I brought her into my room so she would go back to sleep with me. Josh wasn't home so it wasn't a big deal. I wasn't ready to be up yet.

The rest of the nights she's slept until at least 7:00AM, many times later than that. Last night was a different story. She woke up enough to warrant me getting out of bed three times. A fourth was needed because Alaric woke her up at 6:00AM when he cried because I wouldn't let him in bed with me and put him back in his bed. She went right to sleep and is still sleeping at almost 7:20AM.

Alaric...now that is another thing we changed. He has been able to climb out of his crib for a month or two now. He's never been hurt or anything, but after we came home from Michigan we decided we wanted to make a change. That change didn't happen too fast, but it finally happened. Again, on Monday night, we changed his crib into a toddler bed. I was only hesitant because I had seen so many horror stories about the transition from crib to big kid bed. I lucked out. From day one he has slept all night in his bed, never getting out for anything. He still does his morning "crawl out of bed and go to mommy's room" ritual, but if it's too early, I put him back into his own bed. If it's not (or if Josh is already gone for work), he stays in bed with me and cuddles, sometimes falling back to sleep.

I feel so blessed by this. Caralyn isn't happy that she's sleeping alone, but she's got her flashlight, Pinkie (the scentsy pig she renamed) and Fluffy (a pink stuffed bunny) in bed with her, so she's good. She also has her Tinkerbell nightlight and the Dora projection nightlight on for her. She does very well and even puts herself back to sleep if the bad dream isn't too bad. Alaric is just amazing. He sleeps with his Mickey Mouse nightlight (I need to get a new nightlight for him...I don't like this one), his giant Mickey Mouse stuffed animal (Thank you Uncle Kacee!), his Scentsy Monkey and his owl. He doesn't get out of bed until morning. He doesn't fight us at bedtime (neither does Caralyn). I have some pretty darn good kids.

The only other thing I have to add is...it feels really weird being in a queen size bed with just one other person, who doesn't take up all the room in the world. Though, I haven't gotten away from my edge of the bed and he has decided to take the middle of the bed to be closer to me. I'm not sure how I'm going to do with his next underway. I haven't slept alone since I was pregnant with Caralyn, even then Sparrow usually slept with me. Sparrow has taken to sleeping in one of the kids' rooms at night or on the couch...he's not too interested in sleeping with me anymore. I think I may need to get myself a giant stuffed animal before he leaves.

Meggie

I read this blog this morning. It is from December 18, 2012, but it is a post that should be read by every parent or parent to be. It is a very sad post, so please, if you're anything like me, have some tissues near you when you read it. My sweatshirt sleeves are soaked at the wrists.

Meggie's Story

Today I will be thinking of everything I need to secure in my house. I don't know if it will ever get done, but I think once I tell Josh this story, or let him read it, whatever, he will very well do it on his own. With a 4 year old and 2 1/2 year old who love to climb on the dressers and toy box, I think this will hit home with him too. I know our main toy box is already attached to the wall...the plastic one is not. That one will be gone soon anyway, with another of our "main" ones being put in an attached. Their toy collection is growing rapidly and we need more space for them to put them. I may get rid of their plastic drawer bins and get more of the top part of their main toy boxes. I do not know yet.

In Ric's and Cara's rooms, I will be securing their dressers to the wall. They don't climb Cara's dresser...yet...but there is a chair in her room (which they aren't supposed to be in unless Josh or I are in there anyway...Cara still sleeps with us every night thanks to night terrors and nightmares) for them to climb on to get to whatever they want on top of her dresser. Ric's dresser they climb themselves for whatever reason. Ric's is diaper changes. I haven't seen Cara on top of it for a long time. The other dressers in Ric's room (the ones for his actual clothes) have never been climbed. Those ones definitely need to be attached to the wall though....they would tip over in an instant if he or Cara ever tried to climb them.

Our TV in the living room is secured to the wall...the TV in my bedroom is secured to the entertainment system, but that is not secured to the wall. We are getting rid of it sometime soon, so I'm not worried too much about that one. Josh's dresser needs to be secured to the wall though...it's even almost fallen over on me while putting clothes away, but the room is closed off to the kids so I've never worried much about it before.

Please, keep your children and any other child that comes into your home a little safer.

Happy New Year!

2013

That beginning of the New Year. For me, that means a clean slate and time to start making myself happier and healthier. I have made resolutions for the first time in my life this year. I would really like to keep them, so please, if you know me or see my lacking in them, tell me so I stop being lazy about them and keep them.

My resolutions are fairly simple...or they should be anyway.

1. Start writing on this blog and/or opendiary.com at least 3 times a week.

Since I can write on opendiary.com  from my iPad fairly easily (is there an app for blogger?) I have a feeling I'll be writing there a little more often than here. I don't know why I can't write here while using Safari, but it kept giving me error messages when I tried yesterday. It's kind of annoying. I hope it's not the normal thing.

2. Lose 50 - 60 lbs by January 1, 2014

I struggled to lose 8 lbs this year. I have kept the 8 lbs off for the most part for 4 months, but I'm stuck at 8 lbs lost. No matter if I worked out at the local pole dance studio, at home, or just sat on my butt, I couldn't get myself below 180 except for a day. I think I saw 179.5 only 2 times in the last 4 months. It's kind of sad. I have been eating much better than I was before this and I'm going to continue on trying to eat better.

On top of my eating habits, Josh and I will be looking into a family membership at the local YMCA (and see if I can use it ONLY at the local one or it I can use it nation wide in case we go traveling and are near another one). Child care is almost $4 an hour, but for a class that's an hour long, it's only $8 total. I think I can afford that a couple times a week. Then the kids will also get use out of the pool and be able to take swim classes finally. When Josh is gone I can put one in child care while the other takes a lesson.

I am kind of nervous about leaving them at the child care center since they won't know the people taking care of them and neither will I, but that's the overprotective mom in me. I'm good at being overprotective. No one was left alone with my oldest until she was about a year a half old. It will be my struggle more than theirs I think. I don't like to feel like I'm slacking in my responsibilities as a parent by letting others take care of them.

Then with the gym, I will also be taking my pole class at least once a week. That is a mommy and me class so I get to have my kids there, free of charge, and get to work out and make myself stronger and feel more confident.

Losing this weight is mostly for me, but also for my kids and husband. It will make me healthier and happier with myself. I miss being a little skinnier, but a healthier weight is more my goal than what size my pants and shirts are.

If any of you are near me and would like to join for walks and maybe VERY beginner running, please let me know and we will meet up sometime and figure it all out. I know it's the winter right now, so I'm figuring once it reaches 50 and just light rain again in the spring is when I'll start adding the walking.

I hope all of your 2013 is wonderful! I will be back sometime, hopefully soon...maybe not until I'm back home from vacation though...we shall see.