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The amount of transitional objects that Tater Tot uses to soothe herself to sleep is growing exponentially, it seems! First it was Mr. Duckie. He’s still in the picture, of course, although he does need to be cleaned again. It’s amazing how quickly these stuffed animals become grungy again. Then Dora was added to the fold. She needs to be cleaned, too, but unfortunately, she has yarn for hair and I’m not sure how well she’d do in the washing machine. Since Tater Tot still gets a bed time bottle, she added the bottle to her list of things that she’d like with her at bed time. No, I don’t just give her a bottle of milk and lay her down. We “shnuggle” and I sing to her, then I put the cap on the bottle and give it to her when she’s done drinking. And, last but not least, depending upon the day, she likes to carry around her “fishie suit”. It’s the cute UV protective sun/swim suit with a fish on it that I bought her from Coolibar.com . Most nights she doesn’t have/want it but some nap times she seems to feel that she cannot do without it. So at any given time, I am rocking The Tot with three “loveys” and her in my arms. Quite a feat. I know that at some point I am going to have to decrease the number but I guess I feel like it’s pretty harmless at this point. And they make her so happy. So Tater Tot, Mr. Duckie, Dora, the bottle and I are all pretty close friends about now…

This seems to be Tater Tot’s new rule while sleeping. It never fails that every single time I check on her she has Mr. Duckie in some other strange configuration. She’s either face down with her arm over Duckie or face up with Duckie draped over her or splayed out spread eagle holding Mr. Duckie’s hand, er, wing or some other creative, sleep-induced gymnastic move. It is eternally cute but I never have the guts to go take a picture lest I disturb the sleeping Princess (thus disturbing my only Mommy Time). I really should…

Tater Tot is making connections all over the place. Yesterday she was sitting in the bath and holding the shampoo bottle (it makes a cheap, fun bath toy) and put her hand on her head. “Yes, you’re right, Mommy washes your hair with that.” *Huge Tater Tot Grin* Okay, so I can’t think of any other examples that I haven’t already written about but it’s just so fun to see her continue to sign the things she has signed and to be paying more attention to the world around her. She does this one thing that I haven’t figured out yet. She clasps both hands together in front of her and shakes them up and down. The only remotely close sign I have been doing is “help” but I’m not sure she’s been doing it at times she needs my help. Actually, it just occurred to me right now that it was close to the sign for “help”. Maybe I’d better pay closer attention! Duh, Mommy. Oh yeah! How could I forget? She’s starting to use her spoon more to actually try and get food to her mouth. She brings it slowly toward her mouth looking at me like “Look at me!”. It’s cute. But everything she does is cute to me. Ok. Not everything. Like trying to get her hands in the poop when I’m trying to change her diaper. Or throwing fits. Those aren’t very cute.

She is so intent on moving right now. She rarely sits still and, if she does, she’s most likely sleeping! Another thing she doesn’t like to do very much of right now. But she still does sleep through the night and manages to get in a morning nap. Sometimes it’s very late in the morning, but it’s still a morning nap. Most afternoons the nap is tossed out the window but she’s cranky enough by bedtime that I can’t think it’s time to get rid of the second nap. Maybe that’s just Wishful Mommy Thinking. The thing is, she falls asleep pretty easily and fairly early for her morning nap most mornings. Maybe I need to crank up the activity level after the first nap so she’s tired enough for a second nap. Or just start moving the morning nap later. We do start swim lessons again next week which will screw with her sleep situation even more since they are mid-morning. Oh, whatever! We’ll figure it out. For the most part, she’s a happy toddler who is busy exploring and trying to get her way!

She loves to make weird noises and experiment with sounds right now. And she loves it when Mommy does that with her. Makes for some strange meal times and outings but luckily I don’t mind making a fool of myself. Isn’t that A Mommy’s Life?

Y’know how sometimes you get a little mired down in a situation and you can’t see the forest for the trees? Well, yesterday The Mommy had a “duh” moment about The Tater Tot’s sleep situation. We went down the street to visit our friends B and Z and, while we were there I was lamenting how Tater Tot would go down for her nap tired, yawning, sleepy as all get out but still be awake 45 minutes to an hour later. Since The Daddy has been on Spring Break he has sometimes been going in there to rock her a little bit more since he is the Baby Whisperer. He really is. She can be wide awake and grinning when he goes in there and all he has to do is rock her for half of a song and she’s out! But I digress. I was saying to B that I just didn’t know what it was when she said “Maybe she’s keeping herself up for those 45 minutes waiting for someone to come rock her again.” Well, “Duh, Mommy!” If she has gotten in the habit of someone coming in later to rock her some more, she knows that she can talk to herself and play with Mr. Duckie as long as she’d like instead of soothing herself to sleep! It makes perfect sense and it was right under my nose. Thank God for Mommy Friends who support us (and remind us of what we’ve read in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child)!

Instead of feeling bad that I didn’t realize what may be going on, I am going to just be grateful that my friend did and tweak my plan accordingly. So, Princess Tater Tot is currently down for her first nap and, if she doesn’t fall asleep within an hour, I’m going to take her out and go on with the day. Second Nap will happen at the usual time or when I see that she is just short of over-tired. Things may get wiggy in the short run but, hopefully, in the long run our normal routine will be re-established and she’ll go back to soothing herself to sleep within a short period of time. Luckily, she just talks to herself and Mr. Duckie instead of crying.

There are always those days, too, when it looks like she is starting to only need one nap a day but she still gets sooooo cranky if she only has one nap so I’m not convinced it’s time for that yet.

Anyhoo, time to go do important things like showering before Tater Tot’s hour is up!

It’s past my bed time. What’s new? I’ve gotten to bed on time and gotten enough sleep for two nights in a row. I guess that’s the best I can do right now. I know what’s eating at me right now and I just need to work on letting it go. No, I am not going to blog about it. It will be fine. It’s nothing mysterious or life-threatening and it’s not about The Tater Tot. Just a situation that provides an opportunity for me to practice choosing to be at peace. Something that is hard for me to do sometimes because I am always striving. Always working to make things better. Looking to help/fix whatever is wrong. But this is something I need to let fix itself. And I know it will. Cryptic enough for ya’? Sorry.

The Tater Tot and I had a good day today. Weird, but good. She napped from 9:15 to 11:15 which is highly unusual. Of course I was supposed to go have lunch at 11:30 with the Mommies Group so you know that’s why she napped weird. It always happens that way. Instead we had lunch here and then went to the Farmer’s Market. I was underwhelmed and disappointed by their selection and prices. I was looking forward to good, fresh, reasonably priced produce. But the market was small with few vendors and I just wasn’t impressed by what I saw. So I bought Tater Tot a mini-bouquet of flowers for her room and we went to play in the sand at the beach instead. She loooooves the sand at the beach. She likes to just run her hands through it over and over and over and play “Where’s Mommy’s Hand?” And she likes to walk toward the water. I think she’d walk right into it if I didn’t stop her! She tried to lick it off of her hands this time. She hasn’t done that before. We crawled, walked and slithered through the sand for a little while before heading home to get in the bath. Sand everywhere. Big ol’ handfuls of it falling out of all kinds of places it shouldn’t oughta be. But that’s to be expected. It’s the beach, after all. I love that she loves the beach. It’s my favorite place in the world. I’m gonna get one of these for the summer because I plan to spend a TON of time at the beach with her. So we splashed around in the bath tub and got all the sand off before snack time.

Of course she skipped her afternoon nap again but she didn’t have as much trouble getting to sleep tonight, which is nice. It’s getting easier to go with the flow with her and not worry so much about her sleep. We’ll figure it out sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.

Now I’m off to bed. But first, a little meditation so that I can sleep…maybe a Downward Facing Dog or two. Or three.

It looks like I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board in terms of Tater Tot’s sleep schedule. She’s still sleeping a solid 10-12 hours a night which is great but her naps are wiggy. She usually can swing a morning nap but, regardless of how early I put her down for her morning nap or how early I put her to bed, she has skipped her afternoon nap two days running. Not good. Especially since she is super-cranky by bed time which means that she has a harder time getting to sleep at night. In recent posts I have wondered if she is ready for one nap a day but thought I’d try putting her down earlier for her morning nap. That part seems to be working but maybe I need to put her down earlier for her afternoon nap as well. For example, yesterday she woke up from her morning nap at 10. I put her down for her afternoon nap at 1:30 and she decided to have “Quiet Play Time” instead of napping until 3:00. At 3:00 I decided to get her out of her crib because bed time is 6:00 and, if she napped from 3 or 3:30 to 4 or 4:30, who knows when she’d be tired enough to go to bed! In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Dr. Weissbluth mentions that putting them down earlier rather than later seems antithetical to getting your child to sleep but I have found that it has worked with Tater Tot in the past. I don’t know when I got away from doing it that way but, apparently, I have. So I’m going to try putting her down early for her afternoon nap to see if that helps. That’s assuming she takes a morning nap! If that doesn’t work, I’m going to try super-early bed time (another Weissbluth recommendation). And, if all else fails, I guess I’ll start pushing the two-nap-to-one-nap transition. Can you sense my reluctance?

I know that, at this age, it’s normal for their nap schedule to be weird so at least I’m prepared. I’m much less frustrated with it than I was when I was trying to get her to sleep more than 9 hours a day! Yes, you read right. There was a time when The Tater Tot only slept 9 hours in a 24 hour period. It was NOT fun. She was understandably fussy because she was sleep-deprived which made it even less fun. And I was understandably fussy because I was freakin’ exhausted! But those days are behind us now and, thankfully, we’re only having some minor napping issues.

This morning I was thinking back to a year ago when she had only been home from the ICU for two weeks. I remember the anxieties that I had about medication to regulate her breathing, breastfeeding difficulties, her immune system immaturity and, oh, just about anything else you can think of to be anxious about! And I am so grateful that we have come as far as we have. Grateful that we got through the anxious situations. Grateful that I was able to breastfeed her with supplementation until she was 9 months old. Grateful that she has done so well. The only thing that I wish I had done differently would be not to worry so much. I know that it’s normal for a first-time Mommy to worry but I would have enjoyed that time in our lives that much more if I had chosen not to worry as much. Oh well, hindsight is 20:20 as they say. What I can do is choose not to worry now and instead to enjoy this time in our lives. And, aside from my few “those days”, I am.

The Tater Tot is walking! She went from very little interest in walking to intense interest in walking with a walker to “Mommy you’d better walk with me and hold my hands or I’ll get fussy” to “Look at me!” in two weeks! Granted she is just taking tentative steps but she got most of the way across her room today all by herself. And she’s making a concerted effort to let go of the furniture and walk the 4-5 steps to the next location now instead of plopping down on her bottom and crawling. It’s so much fun to see her gain confidence. She concentrates so hard but smiles so big when I clap for her! Of course that means I need to make sure I get my rest because I’ll be running after her now.

Mommy tip: I bought Tater Tot some lovely rubber soled shoes from Stride Rite (more expensive) and Target (less expensive but still not cheap) when she started crawling alot and pulling up on the furniture. Completely useless. Don’t buy shoes until they need them to protect their feet when they’re walking outdoors unless you have money to spare/burn. I read today (I forget where) that they really should be learning to walk barefoot anyway to develop their leg muscles. I have little faux leather (in other words cheap) shoes that she wears sometimes but most of the time she is barefoot inside.

Update on the Back to Basics—Sleeping. She completely skipped her afternoon nap and was difficult to get down for bed time. I put her down after we went to the park even though it seemed a little early but she had rubbed her eyes and yawned a couple of time so I thought she was ready. It turns out that she had “quiet play time” in her crib for over an hour during the afternoon but didn’t want to sleep. When I went in there she was standing in her crib swinging Mr. Duckie back and forth and grinning. Huh. But by the time bed time rolled around, she was completely out of whack because she had been awake since 9:30am. Not good. Hopefully we’ll get back on track tomorrow.

Speaking of back on track, I’ll sign off for now so I can get the dishes done before my “on-time bed time” tonight.

See ya’!

I actually got to bed on time last night. Enough of this “I’ll just read one more blog entry” or “Wow, I’m really enjoying this TV show. I don’t want to go to bed yet”. Uh, that’s what you have Tivo for, isn’t it? Just get your Mommy Butt in bed already! So I did. And I feel better. Even though this was the goal for March, I have done abysmally at it. So I’m going to make this the goal for April as well. Because as tpareo so aptly put it in her comment on yesterday’s post “I’d say expect more, and that you can definitely feel better. For me, again, sleep is usually 90% of the problem, so you don’t even need any other excuses in my opinion to feel like crap if you’ve not had good sleep, esPEcially for the last 13 months… that’s a LONG LONG time!!!” That is a long, long time. And I know that when I sleep better I feel better. And when I feel better I have fewer of “those days”. I had two of them in a row this weekend. Blech. So I am going to get to bed on time. End of story.

I’ve gone back to basics with The Tater Tot re: sleeping as well. Her naps have been kind of all over the map lately and I wondered if she is transitioning to one nap a day. I’m not sure she’s ready for that, though because when she skips her afternoon nap, even if her morning nap has ended at 10:45 or 11:00, she is Crank Monster. So, before I tweak her routine to get to one nap a day I decided I’d try something else first. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Dr. Wiessbluth recommends putting your child down for the first nap 2 to 2 1/2 hours after they wake up. I’ve been putting Tater Tot down around 3 1/2 hours after she wakes up and she’s been taking a while to fall asleep. Not crying but talking to herself and playing for a looooong time. Yesterday I don’t even think she fell asleep at all during her first nap time. So I decided that, even if she resisted at first, I would try putting her down earlier for her first nap. Well, she did resist but she fell asleep within 20 minutes (as opposed to 45 or so) and so far she’s been asleep for almost an hour. We’ll see if this continues but you can bet I’m going to do it again tomorrow. I had been waiting to put her down because she didn’t seem sleepy. But apparently she was and I just didn’t know it!

So we are officially back to our regularly scheduled programming with The Mommy feeling like she is doing a good job and The Tater Tot happy and healthy. Tune in later when you’ll hear The Mommy say “Holy Toddling, Tater Tot! You’re walking all by yourself!”

Okay, so a week of fever and rocking Princess Tater Tot to sleep has screwed up her sleep schedule. But what else is a Mommy to do? There was no way I was going to let my sick little Princess cry her eyes out to “soothe herself to sleep”. That’s my job when she’s sick. It’s hers when she’s well. So, we’re starting at square one with training her to soothe herself to sleep again. Well, maybe square two or three, actually because she knows the drill. She’s just hoping that Mommy will be a softie and rock her anyway. Which I did today. Yeah, yeah, I know: Bad Mommy (to read the history of why I want her to soothe herself to sleep, go here , here , and here ) . But it was either that or have her skip her afternoon nap for the second day in a row and be Crank Monster from 3-6pm. That’s quite a lot of Crank Monster. Too much for this Mommy. Then, of course, she didn’t want to soothe herself to sleep at bed time tonight either and wailed like a dying elephant seal. So The Daddy took on Bedtime Rocking Duty and got her to her Happy Place (so drowsy that she couldn’t do anything but fall asleep. Thank you, The Daddy!

She’s had a lot going on in her little life between sickness, teething, learning to walk with The Mommy’s help (and pick her nose and wave hello), and liking to be with her Mommy a whole lot (so much that she doesn’t like to be away from me!) so I guess I gotta cut her a little slack. But I know that she will remember how to soothe herself to sleep. She’s able to for her morning nap. I just have to make sure I get her down soon enough after I see her “Mommy, I’m Sleepy” behaviors. I think I waited too long today because we were out running errands. That’ll teach me to try and get stuff done!

Yes, you did read correctly. Tater learned to pick her nose this week. I did not teach her that! And then she ate it. I definitely didn’t teach her that part. Really. I mean it, I didn’t! I wish I could take credit for teaching her to wave hello but The Daddy swooped in on the tail end of my efforts and got to take credit because she imitated him today as he waved to some kids in the neighborhood. D*mn! Nevermind that I wave hello to everyone we see in front of her, including the dog. She doesn’t feel the need to wave hello until the one time she sees The Daddy wave hello.

It’s so cute (and tiring) to help her practice walking. She just hasn’t been real interested until lately. She started walking behind her ride on walker recently and the past couple of days has been intensely interested in walking holding onto The Mommy’s hands. Back and forth and back and forth. This puts The Mommy in a stooped-over, will-my-back-ever-recover kind of position but she’s so happy and it’s such a hoot seeing her walk that I don’t mind. Before I know it, she’ll be walking all over the place. On that note, I’d better rest up… See ya’!

No, Princess Tater Tot isn’t sick again.  I spoke too soon when I said the long week is over, however.  She was up four times last night and I’m thrashed.  She took a two hour nap this morning but, unfortunately, that was the only time I had to do a Costco run so The Daddy got the benefit of that nap time.  So, here I am limping through the last 2 1/2 hours of Tater Tot’s day and praying that whatever woke her up last night does not tonight.

Speaking of whatever woke her up, I have no idea what it was.  She’d fall back asleep fairly quickly only to wake up crying 15 minutes later.  I did a diaper check, a snot check, gave her teething tablets and even Tylenol but she still didn’t get back to sleep until after midnight.  There’s nothing like not being able to figure out what’s wrong with your one year old to make you feel like Crappy Mommy.  I guess I figured that by the time she was one year old I should be able to figure this stuff out.  Apparently I can’t.  If you’ve got it all figured out by now, by all means, please let me know the secret!