I hate nap time usually but not today..

10:25am

So today I started her nap time routine. I based it off our night time one. This is going to take awhile before it helps I think. I fed her then changed her bum, read her green eggs and ham then rocked her and she finally fell asleep an hour after I started the whole process. I was reading on line that some people found that when they waited until their baby showed tired signs that it was already to late and that at that point they were overtired so I thought maybe that is the case with monkey as well. She was awake for the morning around 8am this morning so at 9:30 I started everything and now at 10:25 she is finally in her crib napping. I think at the 20 min mark I am going to have to go stand outside her door waiting for her to make a noise because she always wakes up 30 min into her nap. Hopefully I will be able to lull her back to sleep before she wakes up to much.

After the day I had yesterday I need a good day! Hopefully she will sleep longer like she did earlier this week. Rocking her was a battle because I could see that she was fighting sleep but I refused to just nurse her to sleep. I basically had to distract her by snapping my fingers and rubbing her hand and she finally let the rocking put her to sleep. I know probably not the best thing to do, I don't want rocking to become a habit either but I really didn't want to even try to put her down in her crib when she was drowsy because I think I would have freaked out if she woke up completely. She is not a fun baby to be around when she doesn't get enough sleep. I think I might try that for her next nap.

11:14am

She is going on 40mins! I stood outside her door reading for about 15-20 mins in case she woke up. If she passes the 50min mark I think I am safe to say she won't wake up until she wakes up from her nap. It's a relief for me since this makes each other time I put her down for a nap seem possible and not hopeless which is really good for my patience :) At least I am not tired like I was yesterday, or as tired. I still don't get enough sleep but it was better then yesterday. I can't wait for a time when she just goes for a nap and doesn't fight me or need me to help her go to sleep.

I'm in shock she is still napping! It's 11:55!! It may have taken me over 30 mins of rocking etc to get her to sleep but she is STILL asleep! Happy dance. It was well worth the time for her to get a good nap and nice to have some time to myself!11:57am

Rolled over for realz this time..

8:36am

OMG she just rolled over completely and even got her arm out of the way! Unfortunately when she was trying to roll back to her back the arm she had to go over was in the way, it straight by her side.  So I had to flip her since she was getting frustrated and cranky.

8:45am

So after putting her back on her back I looked again and she was back on her stomach and then this time rolled again onto her back! sooo cute!!! OMG soon she will be crawling! YIKES!

8:54am

Right now monkey is in her swing on the way to sleep. She was so cranky that I finally threw her in there with her ballerina dolly and it looks like I might have caught the sleep wave at the right moment since she is almost asleep! It just sucks that I will have to tiptoe around until she wakes up. Hopefully once she starts taking regular naps we can move them to the crib, then I will be able to get stuff done!

9:34am

Knock on wood but she is still asleep! Just past the 30mins mark which is when she usually wakes up! Today might be a better day then I thought it was going to be, which really is good because I am TIRED (going to bed to late, monkey waking up 2 times before getting up for the day = 1 cranky mommy).

2:21pm

She slept a good amount of time I am surprised. She didn't wake up until 11:26am. So that was about 2.5 hours of sleep! Now that's a good nap. I thought today was going to be better, she woke up in what I thought was a good mood. I took her out of her swing and to the couch so I could nurse her. She was okay on the left side. I was going to leave her on the right for a while longer since I have a plugged duct again(!!) but she was having non of it! She kept pulling off and screaming. So I thought she had gas. I did get a few burps out but she was still screaming. The only time she wasn't was when I was holding her with her back to me and standing up. I was freaking out at this point because I thought she was starving since she had not ate anything since this morning. I have about 4oz of expressed milk in the fridge so I made a bottle and fed her that. Except even though she probably was hunger she was still really fussy and crying a lot. This was different from anything any other time. I then tried to give her cold teether toys thinking if she is teething maybe she is in pain but she would either frantically suck on it or drop it and then just cry. I was SO confused and at one point was ready to just break down and cry myself! If only she could talk!

I finally called Chris asking if he thought maybe I should try giving her some gripe water. All I could think of was that it was a long time till he got home. It's so frustrating not knowing if it was teething, hungry (which at this point I highly doubted since she had 4oz of milk) or gas. I had tried after feeding her, to express some milk and only got about 1.5 oz. I didn't know what I was going to do if she wouldn't nurse the next time! I did boil some water just in case I needed to give her formula. It also didn't help that my duct is plugged again on the right side. I don't know what is going on with the left either since it's been hurting when she has been latching and the top has seemed to be almost white. Last night a piece of skin like flaked off so I hope that doesn't mean an infection or anything!

I sterilized the medicine dropper thing then measured it out and gave it to her. I think maybe half of it she spit out but I'm sure some of it went down. I tried the cold teethers again and a cold face rag but nothing would stop her from screaming. So I walked around with her talking to her about things in the house. While we were in her room she burped I think. I had been trying to burp her all along our walk. Her burps are really hard to hear anymore which is annoying, before they were big belches.

3:01pm

OMG I am so relieved that she actually nursed off of me and *maybe* unplugged the duct partially. After our walk we sat on the couch. I put her down and was making her laugh and she was chomping away on her sucky and playing with her dolly. I was relieved to see her smile again. Then she started rubbing her eyes so I knew she was tired but when I put her in her swing to sleep she was having none of that. Since it was almost 2 hours since she ate last I sucked it up and tried to nurse her despite the fact that I was really nervous about her throwing a fit again. But to my relief she was fine! PHEW! She fell asleep though but that's okay! Anything is better then that fit. I was even able to put her back in her swing and she didn't wake up. So I am in complete shock because that is the second nap today! So far its been 15 mins but I don't expect her to sleep more then 30 mins since her first nap was so long. But wow! That is a first! I could never get her to nap the second time if by chance she did the first time. I really though today was going to be shitty since her inconsolable screaming match but it has gotten better thankfully.

3:28pm

So much for that nap. The power went out for some reason and came on again a few minutes later. But since the smoke detector is in the hallway right by the kitchen it beeped REALLY LOUDLY making me jump ten feet in the air, monkey start screaming, and both cats racing for under the couch. So thank you HYDRO ONE, thank you very much!! ~shakes fist. I finally get her to sleep for a second nap of the day and this happens. At least it was a 20min one, but still!

She rolled over! She was playing on her mat and we looked over and she was on her belly! Her underarm was still in the way but she was completely over and on her belly. She tried to get her arm into a more comfortable position for a bit and then got frustrated so Chris helped her a bit. She seems to have no trouble rolling back to her back but that might be because she had her arm in a way that was easy for her to do so.

Yesterday after Chris got home from work we went for a walk around the area. We went and got the mail and then just sort of winged it the rest of the time. We were out for about an hour so it was a good walk. I thought maybe it would tire Monkey out but it really didn't to much. It's nice because here you can go around where its flatter or go up some hills to get a better work out just depends what you want to do. I can't wait until the have our front yards done and have sidewalks in and there won't be big huge stones everywhere! Poor monkey gets bounced around all the time. Once we got back and before she went to bed, Chris pulled the mattress out and put it back downstairs. We have been sleeping in her room for the last few weeks because I wasn't ready to have her not in the same room as me. Also it was the first time she was in her crib so I was nervous. I was just going to sleep in our room and have it there just in case but I changed my mind and figured I shouldn't even give myself the option of being able to curl up on the ground in there. So he brought it downstairs. I think having her in bed by 7-8pm everynight has really helped me though since I am used to not being beside her all the time. Although some nights I still go in and check on her a lot and some nights only a few times. So it just depends.

I also dream fed her before we went to bed last night to see if it helped. The few nights before I have been having a hard time getting her to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. That was the only thing we changed so we decided to try it again and last night was so much better. Also Chris wasn't like shifting on the bed/or me and waking her up with our noise. I have to say it was nicer on my back not sleeping on the ground. I wish it would stop hurting. I almost died a few times on our walk yesterday because my back just would not stop hurting! I forgot how squishy our bed was :) She only woke up at 4am and then again at 7 for the day so that is good.

Today we went to JYSK and Home Outfitters while it was raining out to look for some darker curtains for her room since I think maybe it's too bright in there for putting her to sleep at night. By the time we were done in there it had stopped raining enough that we decided to go to the Celtic Festival! It was pretty good. Lots of bagpipers (although she started pouting and crying when we were near them, maybe they were to loud). We had fish and chips which were sooo good. We missed the sheep dogs unfortunately, we thought monkey would really like to see them. Oh well next year. Then we just walked around looking at the vendors. It was nice that the sun wasn't beating down on us but it was so humid and muggy out it sucked! I got a nice ring from one of the vendors with a Celtic trinity knot in it.

Monkey at the fair :) (Sqeee she's so CUTE!)

Love my new ring!

I think i will have to look into this fair and possibly have a booth at it next year. I did not see any chain mail there so that could be good. Even with the weather being so shitty they had quite a good crowd so I am excited about that now!

So she has been sleeping in her swing for 1 hour and 15 mins so far with one waking and she fell right back asleep. I think her sleep cycles must be about 30mins long or something. This is a long nap then she has had in days!!

She almost rolled over!! Closer then ever before...

9:44 am

She almost rolled over!! I just happened to turn and look at her and she was trying her hardest but her arm underneath her was in the way. It was straight out from her body so prevented her from getting over. She was turning her head as much as she could to flip herself over but because of that arm it just wasn't happening. This is as close as she has been ever. Over the weekend she was pretty close as well but this is closer! She is on her play mat right now. Awww sooo sooon!! She will get it soon!

11:24am

So not to jinx it but monkey was getting really fussy at 10:30 so I took her to her room and tried to rock her to sleep. She was having none of that so I thought maybe she was hungry. Well she ate and fell asleep so back to her room and into her crib where has been sleeping with her music on. So far about 40 mins? Counting the bit where she was sleeping while nursing. Hopefully she gets a good nap this time. A few hours would be good! I think if she does the only reason would be because its dreary and raining out today so her room is fairly dark! :/ we need darker curtains in there.

The long weekend..

The long weekend went by way to fast like it always does, which sucks but at least Chris has a short work week this week.

Saturday we got moving later then I thought we would since Chris got up with the baby and let me sleep a few hours extra. (aww so nice :) Then by the time we got everything ready and I fed monkey again it was almost 2 before we left the house! I had hoped to be able to almost completely finish monkeys wall and a few other random things I wanted to get done but that didn't happen. We went to Wally World then Canadian Tire since Chris needed a drill bit that we didn't have to be able to put up the toilet paper holders and towel racks. We were going to go get some more cat litter and go to the small mall but it was getting late by this time and I had to fed monkey again soon. I will never be a comfortable breastfeeding in public and will avoid it at all costs. I would have brought some expressed milk but I was saving it for the next day.

I did manage to get some of the round leaves painted on in one of the orange colours before it was time to start her bedtime routine. We have been putting her to bed at 7 now, sometimes she nurses to sleep and stays asleep, other times she wakes up and it takes about an hour to get her to fall completely back asleep again. I am hoping once I read the no cry nap solution that once she gets a good amount of sleep during the day so that at night it will be easier to put her to sleep. We were putting her to bed at 8 but she just seemed way over tired then and it was even harder to get her to sleep so we moved her bedtime up. It's nice having 3 or 4 hours at night to ourselves just the down fall is that I am up now at 6:30 -7 and it sucks. I love sleeping in lol. I need to go to bed earlier, 11 pm is a little to late sometimes. It's hard though when I am used to going to bed between 11-2am so yep. Not only does monkey need to learn how to sleep, mummy also needs to learn to go to sleep earlier and can no longer be a night hawk!

Sunday we got up and got ready and went to see HARRY POTTER!  We have seen every other Harry Potter movie in the theater and we definitely wanted to see the last one there but we weren't sure how that was going to happen because of monkey. They do have parents with kids showings but that is on Thurs at 1pm plus we figured it would be to loud for her poor little ears. So Tam and Steve came up to watch her for a few hours. The movie was really good, sad of course but they didn't dwell on the deaths and we didn't actually see them happen like in the book so that was good. Since it's been out a few a bit and we went to the non 3D first showing of the day , there was hardly anyone in the theater. I hate sitting in a crowded theater so I was happy. I was worried about leaving her for a few hours and afraid that she was going to cry on them the whole time, especially since we had a hard time getting her to take a nap. She slept for maybe 20-30 mins, but she was okay. I fed her just before we left and Tam had 9 oz of milk for her that I expressed the few days before, so three bottles worth. They only needed to use one :) and I just fed her when we got back. I guess the only time that she got a bit grumpy and cried was around when it was time for her to eat.

Tammy also brought up the Dr.Seuss books so we have books to read monkey, well we did get a couple books from the baby shower. We had gotten a few board books from the library but they aren't the same as Dr.Seuss. They bring back memories :) My favorite was always Go Dogs Go! Especially when they go up into the tree. LOL. Not really sure why it was my fav. I'll have to ask mom.

Monday we stayed in the house and did a whole lot of nothing. I don't even know where the day went! We spent a fair chunk trying to get monkey to take a nap geez! I also read a bunch of the Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. (sooo good! I've read it before and with watching the HBO show I felt the need to reread them and also considering a new one in the series just came out!) We also cleared a space in the basement and put the carpet thing we got from Chris's boss on the floor and made a workout area down there.

And now it's Tues :( already... 

12:25pm

So Monkey was being cranky and it had only been an hour since I fed her last. She wasn't going to sleep in her swing so I thought what the hell, I will go into her room try rocking her for a bit and turn on her sleep music and you know what?, in less then 15mins the little monkey was asleep! I even was able to transfer her to her crib without bringing her fully awake! I am in shock. I have no idea how long she will sleep for but we will see! This is the first time she is taking a  nap in her crib! I hope she doesn't think its nighttime. That is the only thing I am worried about with her music playing, but I think she needs some white noise since there is still construction going on down the road. I'm still in shock! I hope she gets a good amount of sleep and none of this 30 mins nap crap. Cat naps for babies = not good.

2:33pm

So her nap earlier was short lived. She did sleep for about 20-30 mins but then I heard movement. I waited for a min but still heard it so I went in quickly hoping to catch her and lull her back to sleep. Nope, she was playing with her blanket. So I tried rocking her again and it worked but I think I tried to put her into her crib to soon because she was wide awake again. I tried rocking her again but she got to cranky so I gave up and brought her out. She played on the floor then got cranky again so I tried feeding her. She of course fell asleep on both sides so I know she was tired. I tried putting her back into the crib and that lasted about 2 - 4 mins where she started crying again. So now she is back out in her swing. I will see if she will nod off. I can't wait till Chris gets home because I am getting frustrated. I just need like an hour to myself!! ahhh