Naptime Battle - Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Training

This right here is a miracle. Some of you know that we have had terrible sleep issues since day one. He co-slept with us. If he wasn't in the bed with us he was in the pack n play right next to our bed. On a good night, he'd be up 1-3 times and almost always end up in our bed. Naptimes, he would only sleep if someone was holding him. He's never been a fan of his crib and I don't think he has ever slept a night in it.



Then the miracle happened. One glorious May weekend, the boy and I had a meeting of the minds. I was getting ready for him to nap, he was throwing a terrible fit. Didn't want to be held, didn't want to sit by himself. He didn't want his Sippy cup, only his bottle (which we are trying to get ween off of). So things were bad for the River Boy. Nap time needed to commence but he was putting up a valiant fight.

I have talked to several friends who have children with sleep issues. Lots of advice has been thrown around.  I've read blog after blog on sleep training. Some of it was helpful. Some of it may have worked with their children but wasn't going to happen with the River Boy. We were just going to have to find our sleep happy the hard way.

A good friend would constantly say, "If it works for you." She was a big fan of the cry it out method. Not something that I was a fan of.  I just don't see what good would come of making my child sit in his crib for hours by himself, alone, screaming for momma. Oh tear out my heart. So yes. It was working for us. The co-sleeping, the numerous night wakings, snuggling for nap time. We weren't getting great sleep but by-god River boy had his momma.

So back to this glorious May Day.... The meltdown was in full swing. There were tears, foot stomping, hair pulling and that was just me. So being the momma in the situation, I decided to use my authority and put him in his crib. If you don't want me to snuggle then you can just sit and yell at yourself for awhile. I kissed him on his head and walked out of the room. 15 minutes later, I was sitting outside his room listening to him snore over the monitor.

The skies parted, a ray of sunshine shone down on me. It was a miracle! He was asleep in his crib. Not only that he slept for 2 whole hrs!! Later that night I threw caution to the wind and decided to try to put him in his crib for the night. Low and behold, 10 min of fussing and he was snoring away. He woke up a couple of times, only to turn on his music machine for some cool rainforest noise and fell back asleep.

Fast forward to now. River boy is sleeping 11hrs a night, not waking up at all. He hasn't been back in our bed in a month. Nap times are going swimmingly. He puts himself to sleep without any fussing. Just lays down, grabs Snoopy and panda bear and snuggles in to slumber.

It may have taken us 15 months of sleep deprivation but I can finally say we have a sleeping toddler!

Just trying to breathe....

River boy tried to scare this momma half to death last week. About a month ago he had two trips to the ER for bronchial spasms. A couple of nebulizer breathing treatments and some steroids and he was back in action. On Friday last week, he started doing the same wheezing, gasping, heavy breathing thing. The pediatrician had told me the next time it happened to bring him into the office first. So here I was with an out of breath little man Friday morning who didn't sleep all night. Bad mommy moment - I didn't notice his struggle to breathe until the 3rd time he woke up that night. Once I noticed it, I immediately gave him inhaler treatments and his inhaler steroids. He didn't improve during the night, so off to the pecs office we went first thing in the morning.

He sat in the waiting room, waving to everyone else, smiling at a little girl, saying hey to all. Just so happy. I couldn't believe it considering how hard it was for him to breathe. After two nebulizer treatments, which he didn't respond to, the dr sent us to the hospital to be directly admitted. Skip the ER, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Straight to a room. The dr said we'd probably be there for 2-3  days. Oh my heart was breaking.

I threw him in the car. Behind a wall of tears, I drove him over to the hospital. My baby was going to have to be in the hospital for 2-3 days?! I called my husband and mother as I drove. Both were over an hour away. I let the first time mommy panic wash over me while I drove but wasn't going to let River boy see me falter. Thank god for rear facing car seats and good radio tunes.

When we got there a wonderful nurse named Kelly got us into a room and started to get us admitted. I.V.s were started, more breathing treatments were given. Bless his little heart, the I.V. was not a fun time. Having a 16mo attached to an I.V. and not being able to move out of the bed - really no fun. Thankfully the nurse found some toys hidden in the peds nursing station. Side mote -since I only thought we were going to the drs office, I didn't bring any diapers, wipes, his shoes, only had one bottle with me. I was not prepared to be here for 2-3 days. We did have Snoopy, which was a good call.

Within an hour, our room was filled with family members (including 2 nurses), balloons, toys and other distractions. Anything to keep his mind off the stream of nurses and respiratory techs coming in to administer steroids, fluids, breathing treatments, etc. The I.V. alarm kept going off. River boy liked to push the buttons to turn it off. Several hours later, a group (5 to be exact) nurses finally got River boy's I.V. positioned correctly so alarms would cease.

It took all day of medication to finally get his breathing under control. We convinced the nurses to remove the fluids I.V. and just leave his port in. He was still going to need steroids throughout the night but this at least allowed us to get up and out of the hospital bed. Let me just say I was proud of him for being contained on that bed for 10hrs and not completely losing his mind. Now that we were unconnected, we took to the hallways to let loose some of our roid-rage energy. Found a cool fish tank in the nurses station, waved at passerbys, said hey to a handful of people and tried to escape the ward by following a nice looking family.

After a long exhausting day, I sent all family home, including my exhausted husband. I didn't see any use in having him sleep in the wretched chair. River boy and I snuggled up with Snoopy and tried to sleep through nurses, oxygen alarms, and other various hospital distractions. He got decent sleep, this exhausted momma did not. In the morning, River boy was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Lungs were clear and we got the okay to go home.

Cue the happy dance!!

So we are now home. With a personal nebulizer machine, 2 mos worth of steroids, antibiotics and some other medication. This has the potential of being a long lasting ordeal. The final diagnosis was a viral infection but I think there's more to it. I guess only time will tell. Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be another chapter in the great breathing story.

Tasty Tuesday - Blueberry Breakfast Bake

Tasty Tuesday - Blueberry Breakfast Bake

I am committing myself to being a better wife and a better cook. I feel as a family we should be eating better as a whole. It's scary to really look at what you are eating. With that being said, I'm going to start making one new recipe a week. A bold plan, I know.

Thank goodness for Pinterest. I am one of those people who quite enjoy the act of cooking but I need to follow instructions. I can't just wing it in the kitchen. Here's my first attempt at a breakfast. River Boy has a bread addiction. He's a freak about some bread. You should have seen the meltdown that occurred last night. All because he saw a dinner roll, that he couldn't have because it wasn't baked yet. Sorry, I digress, back to the breakfast bake.

This recipe is great for holidays or for when family comes to visit. It feeds several people. You can prep it ahead of time. It's quick and easy.

Blueberry Breakfast Bake

8 slices of white bread, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 8oz. package of cream cheese, chilled and cut into 1/2 pieces

1 cup fresh blueberries

8 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

Blueberry Syrup (this is super important. I tried to substitute for plain syrup. It cost less than the blueberry syrup. But truly, honestly, splurge on the blueberry syrup. It's worth the expense and it just makes this a "smack your momma" type of good.)

Grease 11x7x1 1/2inch baking dish. Spread half the bread pieces evenly in the baking dish. Top with cream cheese. Sprinkle with blueberries. Spread remaining bread over blueberries. (I like blueberries, so I threw an couple more on top too.)

Beat eggs and milk in a medium bowl until blended. Pour over bread.

To Store:

Cover unbaked mixture tightly with aluminum foil  and refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hrs.

To Cook from Fridge:

Heat over to 350 degrees. Bakes in covered baking dish 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 25-30 minutes longer or until top is puffed and center is set. Serve with Blueberry Syrup.

You have to excuse the chunk that's missing. River Boy had a meltdown. My oven was on the fritz this morning. It took a lot longer to bake than it should have. He and I we both starving, so we dove right in. Completely forgot to take pictures until after we had inhaled a good portion. 

Here's my lesson learned this day. It's not wise to give your child blueberries just before you have a big day seeing lots of new people. River Boy had smatterings of blue in his blonde hair. Stained fingernails. I chunk of berry in his ear that I missed until 3 hrs later. Bless his heart, he was a mess. But the breakfast bake was well worth it.    

A Smile and a Wave

      Last weekend we took River Boy to the Yorkey-Rainey charity golf tournament. It's the one tournament that my husband religiously plays in every year. I haven't been in two years and decided we needed a family vacation. So River Boy and I were going too. The pairings party on Friday was in Scharf Hall on Duke University's campus. Which was open to the Duke Athletics Museum and Hall of Fame. It was quite impressive and I'm not even a Duke fan. Got to catch up with wonderful friends. Raise money for student scholarships. River Boy was making friends left and right. Anytime someone walked by, he'd stop whatever he was doing. Smile and wave. Then with squinty eyes he'd look at them and say "Hey". You couldn't help but smile and wave back. He was like a ray of sunshine.

      I have to admit. I was very hesitant to take River Boy to this tournament. We were staying in a really nice hotel. He's only recently started to sleep through the night. Meltdowns and hysteria could happen at anytime. The husband told me that there was nothing to worry about. Everything would be fine. Smile and wave. I laughed knowing that I was going to be the one to wrangle the 15mo monster toddler, not him. But what the hell.

I packed River Boy a bag of essentials for the over night trip.
- Milk - because I had a hunch that you would be able to get a milk in this hotel unless you paid $5 a glass. And that wasn't about to happen.
- A sippy cup and a bottle - Breaking him of the bottle habit is not going well.
- Graham crackers, blueberry muffins, yogurt thingys, applesauce. Things I knew he would eat.
- Jammies and 2 outfits
- Snoopy
- Sunscreen
- Diapers and wipes

     After the pairings party, we went back to the hotel. As suspected River Boy wanted to continue the party as well. Going to bed was not on his agenda. Not wanting to disturb any neighboring guests who are trying to sleep. I put him in his jammies and headed off to find the husband and friends. Walked through the bar. Smile and wave to everyone who glanced at him. Found our people hanging outside on the veranda. Only took 10 minutes with daddy and he was passed out. Slept the entire night!!!!

     Saturday morning we woke up early enough to find my husband and the other golfers before they teed off. We sat in my husband's golf cart to play while players were arriving. Every time a cart passed by or someone walked by, River boy would smile and wave. Occasionally he's give them that squinty eyed "Hey".

(He was much more interested in the little flags than the two golf balls I gave him.) 

       While the tournament was going on, River Boy and I took to the putting range. When at a fabulous golf  course like the Washington Duke Inn you must work on your puts. We had a very action packed couple of hours. Called some squirrels "uh-oh's". Discovered a lizard. Played with an "awe"-puppy. Ran into my husband halfway through. River Boy was very happy to see daddy. Played with a friend's daughter. Who bless her heart, chased after him more than I did.  

        Then just as the players were starting to finish up, River Boy fell asleep under the shade trees. He was able to get a 45 min nap in. Thank God because I knew he was exhausted. He woke up just as my husband came walking up the path. River Boy sees daddy. Smiles, waves and give the squinty eyed "Hey". 

What a wonderful weekend!

Lessons from a boy - Goldfish

Lessons from a Boy

It doesn't matter how busy you are.

Or how many things you are trying to do. 

Sometimes you just need to stop and have some goldfish.