Bubbye Crib

Linny napping in the crib, at about age two

Over five years ago, we trekked out to Ikea & bought a lovely little birch crib & mattress, outfitting it with mattress protectors, soft sheets, a fluffy duvet, & brightly coloured duvet cover & pillowcase for the flat little pillow. Once Linnaeus was about five months old, when he was nearly as long as the bassinet, we moved him into the crib in his little room. He slept in it most nights, spending part of many nights with us in our bed.

When he was two we decided to take the side off to convert it to a toddler bed & he slept in that for a few months until we realized he was nearly as long as the crib. Bronte was due in a few months, so we moved the crib to the other side of the bedroom & found Linny a longer toddler bed, a birch one in the same line from Ikea.

B waking L up in his crib turned toddler bed

The months went by after Bronte arrived & she too grew out of the bassinet, but bedsharing was easier for us this time around. She breastfed several times during the night then, so it made sense to just roll over rather than get up & go to another room to feed her.

Now that B is almost two years old, she's still in our bed, still nursing a couple times between when she sleeps & when we get up. The time she feeds just as I come to bed isn't a big deal, but when she wakes me up at dawn, then an hour later, depriving me of most of my last two hours of sleep, I get pretty cranky. I've started resenting having her in there & really want to have the bed for just Oli & I.

I think she'll probably night wean if she's in another room because it won't be convenient for her to just roll over & demand "noms". The thing that's held me back from moving her to Linny's room is that the easiest way to get her to sleep is to nurse her, whether that be for naptime or bedtime. Since she's been a few months old she has woken when I've tried to nurse her down then transfer her, so I just lie beside her & then unlatch her when she's sleeping deeply enough. Obviously I can't do that in the crib or even Linnaeus' toddler bed. I guess I could try to get her to sleep without nursing her, but if I still have the magical power of the boob to get her off to dreamland, I'm not going to fix what ain't broken.

All sorted & ready to go to its next home

This week, I finally admitted to myself that Bronte is never going to sleep in that crib: we need a twin bed for her. So we got one of those little loft beds (also Ikea, like pretty much every other piece of furniture in our house). Linny will sleep on top, Bronte on a mattress at floor level below. Because it's a twin bed, I'll be able to squeeze in there with her to nurse her to sleep, then roll out & make my exit.

Today I spent a few hours sorting all those clothes that filled the crib & packing up all the sheets, mattress protectors & baby bedding that goes with the crib. Time to sell it. Goodbye little crib, you served us well.

Follow Spokesmama here too:

Word 'lite' Wednesday

When Sprout wakes up in the morning, he hops out of bed & runs straight into our bedroom. If it's really early (sadly, he wakes between 2 & 7am fairly often) he'll clamber over one of us, dig under the covers between us & go right back to sleep. The lovely nights where he sleeps right through until a reasonable time, he still runs straight in for his morning cuddles. This is also the time of the non sequitur. He says the oddest things to me just after he's woken up in the morning. Today it was, "Poop." Yesterday, "Mama is a bear."

I'm trying to enjoy these morning cuddles while I can, despite the kicks to the ribs & head butting that tends to go with them. Once I start school we'll be waking up, jumping out of bed & rushing around to get ready--no time for a half hour of cuddles in the morning.



Like what you see here? Subscribe to The Sprog & don't miss another post!

Movement vs. 'Containment' with Babies & Toddlers

My blogger friend, Jen of Mama.Papa.Bubba, posted a video on Facebook yesterday that I found really interesting, talking about the Montessori perspective on a critical period in children's development, particularly pertaining to movement. Here's the video--it's quite interesting & only six & a half minutes long:



This video brought up some really interesting questions for me. Virginia Varga talks about avoiding constraining babies so that they can work on their motor skills. I definitely agree that we should avoid having babies in various containers too much (stroller, car seat, chair, swing) rather than being held. I also remember when Sprout was really little, I was encouraged by the public health nurse not to let him lie on his back on the floor all the time because he'd get a flat head. But he hated being on his tummy & couldn't sit up yet, so my compromise was strapping him in a baby seat/rocker thing or a swing. I wonder if that had any impact on him starting to walk at 17 months.

I'm not really second-guessing my decisions because, of course, temperament is a factor. Sprout's a physically cautious child, generally. He tends to wait until he knows how to do something, rather than just diving in & attempting it before he's ready to do it well. When he did start walking, he was quite steady on his feet--none of the toddling you tend to see with babies under a year who start walking.

The other thing I found interesting in the video is the idea of not constraining children during sleep: having a low bed near the floor so they can get up & be somewhat independent. We just took the front off Sprout's crib recently so he can do this. I see a little of the learned helplessness in him some mornings when he wakes up really early & just calls to us, rather than getting out & coming into our room. After being in a crib for two & a half years, he hasn't figured out that he can just come to us when he wakes up & needs a cuddle. He has, however realized that he can just get out when he doesn't feel like going to bed at night.

One argument for having children in a crib is so they don't get out & get into trouble in the middle of the night. Also, I'd say it's essential to have a safe place to put a baby or toddler when you're home alone with your child & you need a break or a shower or whatever. What do you do with your one-year-old when you need to take a shower or run downstairs to do the laundry if you have no safe form of containment? I was never organized enough to schedule all those things into naptime.

If you watched the video, what did you think? Do you think the decisions you made in terms of 'containing' your child made a difference in their development, or do you think temperament has more to do with it? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section... 


Like what you see here? Subscribe to The Sprog & don't miss another post!

What I've been reading lately

It's been a while since I've put out a link-stuffed list of things I've found interesting on the interwebz. This time, I decided to just throw my last ten bookmarked pages at you, with a little explanation about what makes them worthy of a read.

This is the under 8 size swimwear on www.elizabethhurley.com

1. Do you have a young daughter? What do you think of Liz Hurley's new line of bikinis for girls? Huffington Post has a video.
2. Another HuffPo piece on why the third trimester is actually kind of awesome, just for all you preggos out there, or those who want to reminisce.
3. I'd never thought of making snack food like these cinnamon almonds in a crock pot. Might just have to try this soon.
4. My friend Leigh penned a brilliant article for Jacobin Magazine about the real reason why the space program has fizzled.
5. Have you seen any news articles on the recent study on sleep training methods & their impact on babies? Annie of PhD in Parenting takes a closer look at the actual methodology of the study & discovers what the study actually proved.
6. I found an online service that helps manage your Twitter account, specifically to filter by who's not following you back. Unless it's a Twitterati like Margaret Atwood who can't possibly keep up with all her followers, or a service like Translink Information, I think it's poor etiquette not to follow back & perfectly reasonable to unfollow those who don't reciprocate.
7. The results (en francais, for those of you who can read it) of an interesting study in France looking for the sociological reasons behind the huge variation in breastfeeding levels among French women.
8. I love nearly every Tyee piece I read, I have to admit, but this one is stellar. 'The Parable of the Textbook', by Henry Yu, an exerpt from the first chapter of "Too Asian?": Race, Privilege and Post-Secondary Education. This new collection of essays is a response to "Too Asian?", an article published in Maclean's magazine nearly two years ago on race in Canadian universities.
9. Yet another study that adds to the mountain of evidence that there is safety in numbers for cyclists, this time in Philadelphia. Check out the article here.
10. Not only to we need more bikes on the road, we need more on our walls. Bike art! Get some here. 

Could you possibly head over to Circle of Moms & vote for The Sprog in the Top 25 Canadian Blogs? Just click on the badge over there → 

You can vote daily, by the way. ;) 

The shifting sands of naptime

Sleep has been tricky lately: bedtimes and naptimes both. Yesterday Sprout hadn't napped by 6:30pm and I thought maybe we'd be able to skip it and put him to bed early. Nope. He climbed up onto the couch, leaned up against me and crashed around 6:45pm. After a two-hour nap, he wasn't tired enough for bed until nearly midnight. This wasn't the first time: he's done it a couple of other times this week.

Sprout often wants to stay awake for eight hours after he gets up in the morning, which makes for a pretty late nap. Then he goes to bed later, wakes up later and the cycle just repeats itself. He's getting enough sleep most days--about 12 hours total between night-time and naps--but I wish it were a bit more predictable. I'm constantly struggling to get him to sleep earlier. It's almost like his circadian rhythm isn't set for Earth, but some other planet with days that are a couple of hours longer.

Have you dealt with this with your child? Any suggestions for me?

Psst... The Sprog now has a Facebook page! 

Head on over & click 'like' to get even more Sproggy goodness delivered to your feed. :)

Giving up the nap

Lately Sprout's naps have been getting later & later, to the point where it's nearly dinner by the time he falls asleep. I keep thinking that it's me, I'm keeping him out too late in the day, or I need to wake him up earlier to reset his sleep pattern.

Then when I was talking to my sister last night, she broke the news to me: he's probably ready to drop the naps. Though her son napped until age three, her daughters stopped napping in the day around the age of two. Unfortunately, I think she may be right.

Sprout can go nearly nine hours without sleeping in the daytime & usually sleeps through the night. We're in an awkward stage where he can't quite go the whole day without a nap, but if he does nap, he'll end up waking at 7 or 8pm, which pushes back his bedtime to ridiculous o'clock.

Besides the fact that I don't relish going through a month or so of Sprout falling asleep during dinner until he transitions to no naps, I've gotten a lot more writing work lately. Sprout not napping means I will have to shift my writing to before he wakes up (ugh) or after he goes to bed. Or I'll have to spend more money on childcare, which sort of defeats the purpose of working.

On days when I don't have writing work I need to do, the break that I get when he has a nap really keeps me sane. I can't really complain--Sprout's a pretty easy-going kid & he spends a lot of time playing by himself these days--but I'll miss having the house to myself for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.

I suppose the other thing that's bothering me about all this is that I feel like I'm on shifting sand all the time. Even if I had been more strict about having a set nap time, it would have shifted & adjusted anyway as he developed. The only constant is change, when it comes to children.


So tell me: is your toddler getting ready to give up naps? Or have you got older kids & been there, done that? Any advice?

Review: Spöka Night Light

What is it?
Spöka Night Light

How does it work?
Press the top of its head once, it turns on & rotates through several colours. If you want to stop it at one particular colour, press it again. Once more to turn it off.

Why is it good?
Spöka is rechargeable, once charged, you can remove the cord & place it anywhere in the room. The socket for the charging cord is small & well protected, so it's difficult for little fingers to poke around inside. The colour LEDs inside last for years & don't use a lot of power, so it doesn't need to be charged that much. The outside is silicone, so it's quite durable & very shock resistant. The whole unit is sealed so kids can't get into it & it never gets hot, so they can't burn their fingers on it. You can wipe it off if it gets dirty (which it occasionally does because Sprout likes to carry it around & play with it). Spöka comes in two styles: oval white with blue features or round white with pink.

Where can I get it?
Ikea, of course.

How much does it cost?
$17.

*I received no compensation to write this review. We bought Sprout a Spöka a couple of years ago & he really loves it now.

Sleep & Weaning

Gradually over the past few months, Sprout has stopped falling asleep while nursing. It used to be the fail proof way to get him down, but these days, unless he's really exhausted, it calms but doesn't knock him out. For a while this meant putting him in his crib awake, where he would alternate playing, babbling & crying for up to two hours. We'd take turns going in to calm him down several times before he finally succumbed to sleep.

Bit by bit the time needed to get Sprout to sleep has decreased. Most nights lately he has been wide awake when I lay him in his crib, but he he's gone to sleep in about 15 minutes with hardly a peep & no crying. Thankfully, his naps have evolved in a similar way, though it usually takes a little longer for him to fall asleep during the day than at night.

Night owl or early bird?

I remember someone asking me if I was a night person or a morning person & I wasn't entirely sure. If I get  into a routine like I did with my last full-time job, I can get up at 7am without an alarm every day, no problem. But really, why is that question hard for me to answer? Sure I can get up in the morning if I have to, but when I don't have to my natural sleep rhythm shifts later & later.

I'm at my most creative around midnight, typically. In fact, it's 1:45 am right now, as I'm typing this blog post. Writing seems to come easiest to me at night, but it's not limited to that. I used to do tons of drawing & painting into the wee hours, way back when I used to do a lot of those. I tend to want to bake things in the evening too. Tonight I made a double batch of gingersnaps at 9:30pm.

Also, if I think back to the days when we had two healthy kitties, I didn't exactly spring out of bed to feed them when they demanded it at dawn every morning. I love cats, but they are definitely better for early risers.

I'm very happy that I have a child & husband who seem to have similar proclivities when it comes to sleeping. Oli hates mornings a bit more than I do, I think. Sprout has never been an early riser either. He usually goes to bed between 9 & 10pm, getting up for the day at 8 or 9am. He generally wakes up earlier than that, but goes right back to sleep when brought into our bed for another hour or three. I really enjoy the morning family cuddle that's become the routine now.

Are you a morning person or a night owl? What about your family or pets? Have you had to compromise for work?

Reading Week Wrap-Up

I had a nice break from school this past week--it was SFU's reading break. Last year at this time we went on a short trip to Victoria, but I wasn't taking as many courses as I am now & the workload (particularly the reading) was much lighter. This year I decided to stay home & get some stuff done. I had a laundry list of things I wanted to get to during Reading Week, starting with a celebratory beer. (Really liked this Phillips Ginger beer, which isn't surprising, as I love nearly everything they put out. Check out their current offerings in their site's 'beer fridge')

I've been having lots of fun with our camera lately, so I thought I'd show you what I've been up to with a visual list.

First on the list was to socialize a bit more than I usually get to. I'm in school four days a week & though two days it's only one class, I generally don't manage to squeeze in a visit with anybody before I head up to school in the afternoon. The stars aligned & I managed to get together with my high school friends Cathy & Slavka (with her son Henrik) on the weekend. Then Kiki & Natni came all the way from Coquitlam to visit, wearing the shirts I appliqued for their birthday. The only way I can tell them apart is by their clothing--Kiki tends to wear more pink--so putting the K & the N on their shirts was partly for my benifit. Heh.

Another thing I've been putting off for ages was to sew some hemp diaper inserts from fabric I bought months ago. Heh. After all the procrastinating, it probably took me under an hour to decide how big to make them, lay out & cut the fabric, then serge the edges. I kept them really simple: two layers of fleece serged together in a long rectangle that will be folded in half before stuffing in a pocket diaper or laying inside a cover.

I intended to read an article/chapter a day for my classes, though that didn't go so well. Most of my reading is articles downloaded onto my laptop. I refuse to waste tons of money & paper printing each one out, but it's hard to stay focussed when Facebook & Blogger are just a click away. This article was particularly thrilling. Sigh.

I also decided to get Sprout sleeping in his crib for naps. It was really great to have him napping in his stroller so we could go out whenever & he'd sleep as needed, but as that no longer works, we needed to get him actually using his crib during the day. There was a lot of protest & it took ages for us to get him to sleep, but it worked eventually. He actually slept much longer in his crib than he usually did in the stroller, at home or no. One day he slept FOUR HOURS STRAIGHT.

Part of the reason I've been putting off a lot of sewing projects is because my sewing room is a HUGE mess. (Or, it was a huge mess, now it's a large mess with a small island of calm in the middle. I cleared my desk off, at least. Note the overflowing garbage bin on the lower right. I was able to recycle a lot of stuff, but the tiny bits of fabric, thread snippets & dead markers--what can you do with those?

I've been trying to 'minimalize' my kitchen cabinets over the past while & I did a tiny bit more of that by baking some muffins, & making fancy strawberry banana pancakes. I'm trying to use up the stores of frozen stuff & baking supplies that are getting a bit old. I added chocolate chips to the bran muffin recipe, not thinking about the consequences of feeding them to Sprout. Sticky, chocolatey mess on his clothes. Argh.

So, all in all, it was a somewhat productive week, though not for reading, so much.

Nap Battle Day II

Here we are nine months after the first post, Nap Battle Day, & we're still struggling with naps. Several months ago, Sprout transitioned with fairly minimal fuss from two naps to one a day. This past week, he's reverted to two, sometimes falling asleep just two hours after waking up. So this morning, after a sign that he was tired, I put him in his stroller in the living room (still the only way he'll sleep in the house during the day), expecting him to quietly play for a few minutes & then fall asleep within a half hour. As I write this, he's alternating growling noises & indignant whining, starting to escalate to bawling.

I wonder why he's moving back to two naps now, at nearly 15 months old? A friend had a theory that it was related to the developmental stage. Her son had done something similar around the time he started to walk. Maybe Sprout needs the extra recharging time because he's about to make a developmental leap to walking. But I'm not sure that's it. He still seems almost completely uninterested in walking when I hold his hands & encourage him to walk with me. When I put him on his feet beside his walker toy, he'll stand there for a minute, then when it starts moving, he'll get onto his knees to push it.

Can't figure this kid out. When I try to follow a routine, it just doesn't work. The only think that works--usually, not 100% of the time--is to take him out for a walk. Something about the movement & the tck-tck of the wheels going over the sidewalk panels just lulls him to sleep if he's tired.

UPDATE: Sprout finally fell asleep, after an hour of alternately playing & grumbling.

Wordless Wednesday

Bed "sharing"

Stuck under Sleeping Sprout, Again

I wonder sometimes how many hours I've spent in the past year & a bit with Sprout snoozing on me. Sitting on the couch, usually, half numb legs folded up under me, often awkwardly hunched forward over him to reach my laptop as I am now. Sometimes it drives me a bit nuts to have a baby who refuses to sleep in his crib in the day time. But I try to enjoy the feeling of 20-something pounds of baby, arms & legs akimbo, mouth falling open, dozing across my knees, because I know he won't be doing this forever. Someday he won't want as much cuddle time. Someday he won't nap anymore. Someday he will grow bigger than me.

Here are a selection of photos from the last year, all of Sprouty conked out on me.

17 days old: too hot for me to wear a shirt.

3 weeks old, face-down to make his tummy feel better.

One month old, smiling in his sleep.

At the Ukulele Circle, conked out during the last song, six weeks old.

Likely the only photo we have of him with a pacifier. (Two months old) 

Nap time at Auntie Sarah's place, three months old.

Too-big fleecy winter sleeper, four months.

New Year's Eve, four & a half months old.

Sleeping through the second period of a Giants game in the first row. (Five months)

After a few good books. Six months old here.

My handy-dandy lap-warmer at seven months.

My little potato head is almost eight months old here.

Nine months old, having some noms while sleeping.

Eleven months old, still fits in my lap.

Almost thirteen months, napping & snacking simultaneously. AKA The Boob Nap.

Getting crowded in here...

When Sprout wakes up in the morning, Papa fetches him from his crib & brings him into our bed. Unless we have somewhere to go, Baby will have a leisurely feeding & often fall asleep for another hour or two. I appreciate the extra sleep, but I am generally balanced on the edge of the bed. Bed share: Papa, 20%; cat, 5%; Mama, 15%; Baby, 60%.

Nap time

Sprout, napping the way he does best: in his stroller. I've tried putting him in his crib when he's tired, before he's tired & except for a few times, months ago, he's refused to sleep. I've tried nursing him to sleep & transferring him to the crib when he's soundly conked out in my lap. He wakes up immediately upon touching the mattress & pitches a fit. I often just let him sleep in my lap, but he doesn't sleep more than one 40-minute cycle that way.
So we go out for a walk once a day at least, around naptime, & he generally sleeps for an hour & a half or longer in his trusty Uppababy. I can't complain too much about the naps, though, because he sleeps well at night. He goes down easy & sleeps ten hours uninterrupted most nights.
Have any of you got a baby with a daytime crib nap aversion? What did you do to get your babe napping in their bed?

Nap battle day

Aargh. Today was one of those days. Sprout went easily to sleep in his stroller when Papa took him out to the grocery store. His nap lasted one sleep cycle (for him: 40 minutes), as usual. About two & a half hours after he woke up, we tried to get him to go down for a nap again. Near an hour of screaming, patting & shushing later, he was still awake. In desperation, we tried the carrier. Papa walked around the block & returned with a sleeping Sprout. However, during the transfer from Beco to his crib, he started squawking again. Nooooo! By this point, he was due for another feeding again & latched on hungrily. As soon as he'd had some milk, he fell asleep at the breast. Realizing his diaper was due for a change, we tried to do that with a minimum of fuss. Not much luck--he was crying by the time his onesie was snapped up again. Oliver gave him his formula top-up & didn't go back to sleep. Sigh.

I've strapped him into the swing & after a few quiet renditions of "Mama's going to buy you a Mockingbird", he's calmed down, if not sleeping. Perhaps I can eat dinner while it's still hot.

A week ago, the naps were actually going well. We'd put him down in his crib & he'd fuss a bit, grumbling & protesting, but not always actually crying. After a little patting & shushing, he'd go to sleep. Not sure what's going on this week. It might be teething that's thrown him off, but he only shows signs of it once in a while. He's had the rosy cheeks sometimes for an hour or so. He gnaws on things whenever he can get them in his mouth. He's sometimes fairly drooly, but not today.

Tomorrow I think I'll try putting him down for his naps earlier. He might have gotten overtired & past that little window of opportunity today.

How's the napping going for all you mamas out there?

GOOD morning

I've only been awake for about two hours now, but I'm having a great day so far. Here's why:

Woke up just before Sprout around eight. I got about seven hours of uninterrupted sleep! YES! Normally I'd be laying in bed now, trying to get just one more hour...

Left a content baby in bed with Papa & had a nice, long shower. Even had time to condition my hair & apply moisturizer afterward.

Got dressed & watched Sprout try to keep Papa awake--unsuccessfully, that man can sleep through anything--by intermittently squealing & laughing at the top of his lungs. I swear, he's the loudest baby ever when he's happy & playing, but when he's crying he doesn't make anywhere near that much noise.

I made myself a big bowl of organic oatmeal & a pot of tea.

There are home-made buns & bread sitting on the counter. Oliver made them last night.

My pile of wares to sell this Sunday at the Blim Market is growing fast. So far I've made a dozen pacifier/toy leashes, several receiving blankets, two baby wrap carriers, a stroller quilt, half a dozen appliqued onesies, eighteen bandanna bibs, dozens of wipe cloths & about ten necklaces.

It's snowing & dry out there so maybe it'll stick for a bit! :)

Oh my god, he's asleep!

It's been difficult to get Sprout to sleep lately: napping during the day or going to bed at night. He used to just conk out wherever he was & we never really had to worry about naps or getting him to sleep. Now he gets tired after a couple of hours of being awake, then gets fussy & requires much cuddling, bouncing & will absolutely not let whoever's holding him sit down or stop moving. I love cuddling my little boy, but bouncing a fussing baby around for half an hour as he tires himself out is a bit of a chore when I'm really tired too.

Tonight, I decided to try something different. I waited until he seemed a bit sleepy but wasn't fussing yet, about two & a half hours after he'd woken up from his last nap. I brought him into our bedroom, laid him down in his bassinet without him crying (yay!) & zipped him into his sleep sack. Then I talked to him quietly & did some really simple massage, gentle downward strokes from his shoulders to his toes for a couple of minutes. That seemed to calm him even further, though he was still quite awake & looking around at the 'hood' part of his bassinet. (On a side note, I have no idea what he finds so fascinating about the tiny navy & white gingham printed cotton fabric of that thing). I then left the room. About ten minutes later, I heard a few small noises from the bedroom, but nothing really requiring attention. When Oli went back in about five minutes after that, he was asleep.

This is only once, I know & maybe he'll never go to sleep so easily again, but I will try the same thing tomorrow & keep my fingers crossed! Maybe, just maybe, my poor biceps will be able to take a bit of a break from the bouncing...

I'm off to bed now that Sprout's down. Just before I go, some questions for you out there: If you have kids, how do you get them to sleep? What is the bedtime routine? If you're an adult, do you still have a routine to get yourself to sleep?