All about loveys

Both of my girls are good sleepers. And they have been since an early age. Part of that is their temperament -- they sleep when they need to. And, part of it I credit to my being borderline OCD about their sleep times and nap times, starting when they were babies.

Most parents whose kids sleep well have a favorite sleep book. Mine happens to be Good Night, Sleep Tight by the Sleep Lady, Kim West. The Sleep Lady advises giving babies a "lovey" starting when they are about 6 months old. Something that doesn't have any removable parts, that's nice and small, that children can snuggle and feel comfortable with, no matter where they are.

We gave both of the girls loveys around that time, and they still have them: Jellybean has Berkeley, her formerly white bear, and Peanut has Rodrigo, her penguin. I have restricted the loveys only to their beds, for fear of something happening to them otherwise. (We do not, as is recommended, have a duplicate for either one.)

The girls cannot go to sleep without their loveys. We take the loveys when we travel for overnight or a nap. Maybe 2 or 3 times they have conked out somewhere without Berkeley or Rodrigo, but night in and night out, they must have their lovey in hand in order to go to sleep. Certainly, it doesn't hurt anything. But now that they're 5 and 3 1/2, are they too old to rely on their loveys? Will there come a day that we should take them away? Or, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

I love our loveys, but I want to make sure I'm not doing them a disservice. I don't want Peanut's college roommate to make fun of her because she can't sleep without her Rodrigo. I guess time will tell, and I hope it's all for the best.

Now saving almost $1/day

We have reached a milestone with Jellybean. The best thing about reaching this milestone is the collaborative effort involved: from Jellybean, L and me. It was a long, long time coming, but I can say with confidence that we have arrived at mission accomplished.

Jellybean now stays dry all night. No Pull-Ups anymore (after all my trials and tribulations with them)! And we didn't lose too much sleep in the process.

Deciding to cross the dry-all-night line was not something we planned in advance. The project started spontaneously one night when L couldn't get Jellybean to put on her Pull-Up at bedtime. He announced to me, "She's going to try to stay dry tonight! Isn't that great?" Umm, no. And I had about 25 reasons why, including that I was tired that night; I didn't wanna be up in the middle of the night changing the bed. We were, though. Twice.

I was irritated with L. Jellybean is such a deep sleeper, and I didn't think she was anywhere close to being able to wake up when she had to pee. As you can see, I was just wrong.

We had several middle-of-the-night bed changes. But, for once, Jellybean was showing determination. She WANTED to be dry. So I went with it. And, to keep everything (and everyone) positive, I added an incentive: When she could stay dry 7 nights in a row, she would get a special prize. We had a few hiccups en route to 7 nights -- but not near as many as I expected. She finally did it! I was prepared for a relapse after that, but she said she's done with Pull-Ups.

Although 2 years younger, Peanut hasn't used Pull-Ups for about 6 months. I gave her a special prize when Jellybean got one.

So, I am very happy to say that we are a disposable-pants-free household for the first time in 5 years. Yeehaw!

P.S. You'll note by the photo that I caved once again to the "princessant" demands for Halloween.

I can't find my Rodrigo

As I've mentioned, my kids are short on sleep since school started. Now I am too. I can count on one hand the number of times I've slept through the night in the past 3 weeks. It's killing me! If I wanted to do this, I'd be having another kid (which I'm not, just to be clear).

What is waking me up at night? A stuffed penguin. Not just any stuffed penguin -- Peanut's lovey, Rodrigo. How could a stuffed penguin wake me up? He keeps hiding. Or running away. Practically every night, in the depths of the night, 3:30 a.m. or 4:30 a.m., I awake to the following being shouted: "I can't find my Rodrigo!" On repeat until I stumble up the stairs to her room. Rodrigo is usually wrapped up in the covers and occasionally on the floor. I head back down to my room, sometimes taking 15 minutes (grrr) to fall back asleep.

Yes, in this house, L's and my room is a floor below the girls. Not a problem, really, because they're not babies anymore, so they shouldn't be WAKING UP IN THE NIGHT. Except they are. Well, she is. Can you tell I'm tired?

Finally yesterday, we told Peanut that if she loses Rodrigo, she can just get up and turn on the light to find him. Then turn it back off and go back to sleep; no need to call for us. Last night? Silence. Maybe a coincidence, we shall see.

Although I have not been amused by her middle-of-the-night antics, I am amused by her naptime activities of late. She's been talkative and active in her room, but she has managed to nap more often than not. The other day she was so loud for about 45 minutes, then quiet. I brought my camera with me when I went to wake her to go get Jellybean at school, and this is what I found:

So overcome with the need to sleep, crawling those 3 feet to the bed just wasn't an option. Wait, I think I can relate.

More abc's than zzzz's

It's almost like having an infant again. That is how much Jellybean's kindergarten has affected the entire family's schedule. We are trying to get both kids enough sleep, and now, after 3 weeks, we may have finally found the schedule that involves the least amount of tears. From all of us. In the interim, there have been more complete & total meltdowns from each child in 3 weeks than there were in at least the previous 6 months.

Our evenings mirror the schedule we had when Jellybean was a baby. We have shifted our dinner time about an hour earlier, and both girls are in bed asleep no later than 7:30. And sometimes even 7. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: The whining and crankiness (and fighting with your sister) commence about 4:30 each afternoon.

For now, weekday evening activities are not even an option. From 4:30 on, it is all I can do to play referee between the girls so that they survive until dinner time. And after dinner, L and I shepherd the girls' every move and keep a constant eye on the clock so we don't overshoot the all-important early bed time. A few times, either Peanut or Jellybean has even announced that she is going to bed and started climbing the steps to her room! L and I scrambled to attention accordingly.

Shouldn't it just be Jellybean who is cranky and tired? Well, yes and no. Jellybean is the one at school all day. But the end-of-school pick-up interferes with Peanut's nap time, so she is now getting 45 minutes to an hour less sleep during the day than usual (and I have to wake her from a deep sleep to go get Jellybean). So, she is thrown off too, and hence the need for an across-the-board schedule change. I have tried but cannot get her to start her nap any earlier, so she's stuck getting gypped.

I have no idea how long it will take Jellybean to acclimate to being at school 7 hours a day. At some point this school year (hopefully), I'll look back in this tiring time and reflect about the tailspin our lives are in. But right now, I'm just trying to minimize tantrums and get everyone some sleep. Including me.

The end is near

I can feel it coming on. I sense its presence just around the corner. The very thing that has kept me sane for almost the past 4 years will come to an end soon. Life will never be the same once it does.

What am I talking about? Nap time. That glorious hour (or two) that allows me to do the things around the house that I want to do, not dictated by anyone under 4 feet tall. The down time I require to maintain my social skills by talking to friends on the phone or neighbors. That daily appointment with my DVR to crank through all the shows I need to watch. The productive window during which I can crank out assigned writing. All of it is slipping through my hands day by day.

Jellybean has been skipping a nap here or there for a few months now. Some weeks she sleeps 6 out of 7 days, and some weeks she sleeps 2 out of 7 days. Every day, I still make her have an hour of "quiet" time no matter what. I say "quiet," because some days it is anything but -- bordering on boisterous, and I end up going in to shush her a couple times during the hour. There is no rhyme or reason as to when she sleeps or doesn't sleep. Some days I'll leave her room and think, "No WAY she sleeps today," and 3 minutes later: silence. For an hour and a half. Other days, I've run her ragged in the morning, and she's falling apart at the seams, and yet an hour into quiet time, she's chipper and ready to roll.

Peanut is still a consistent napper for the time being -- I hope she remains oblivious to Jellybean's activities, or that could be blown too. I have played defense a few times for Peanut, attempting to snuff out Jellybean's noise before it wakes Peanut. Mostly successful so far.

I know in a few years, I'll look back and feel like the era we had napping kids lasted about 10 minutes. My friends with older kids feel that way. But for now (and the past 4 years), nap time is a mainstay of my existence. Without it, I almost don't know who I will be. Stay tuned, some day you'll see.

Traveling with kids -- any tips?

Later this week, we're taking the kids and the father-in-law (who both L and I are counting in the "kid" column instead of the "adult" column) on the train to Chicago for a long weekend. I'm so psyched about playing in the Windy City in its summer glory!

Getting there will be easy, doing fun things and eating will be easy. But, we're staying in a regular hotel room and no longer have a regular stroller because I sold it in the garage sale after it sat around neglected for months. Call us non-adventurous, but we haven't done the hotel room thing with both kids until now. And I hadn't factored in a largely pedestrian (so to speak) vacation when I sold the stroller.

Any recommendations? Advice?

The sun also rises

Spring and summer in Michigan are the best seasons. Nice weather, lots of sunshine, pretty foliage. At the peak of the summer, it stays light until 10 p.m. (!), which is fantastic if you don't have little kids who need to be asleep at a decent hour.

Two years ago in the spring when Jellybean was almost 2, out of the blue, she stopped going to sleep at bedtime. She stayed up and jabbered to herself, sometimes working herself into a hyper lather, necessitating that one of us calm her back down to sleep after an hour or so. L and I finally put together -- duh -- that the lighter evenings (it's light past 8 p.m already at this time of year) were contributing to her inability to fall asleep. So, we shifted her bedtime later and eventually found a balanced time that she would drift off. We were prepared for the same last year with her and shifted her bedtime accordingly as we saw the same pattern emerging, and it worked out fine.

Peanut was still unaffected last year, as she was still 9-10 months old and needed her baby beauty rest. But this year, Peanut is definitely noticing the lighter evenings. About 10 days ago, we put her down for bed, and she was not her automatic lights-out self. She started talking and singing and even screeching -- happily -- to herself. L and I didn't know what to do; despite the pleasant tone, we couldn't help but think something was wrong. See, she is "old faithful" when it comes to bedtime and naptimes (don't worry, it wasn't that way at all in the beginning). We put her in her crib, leave the room, and she's asleep instantly. Not so with the daylight evenings. We've had quite the concert at 7:30 for the past week; she mostly sings "Annie" songs, but whatever comes to mind apparently will do. We've pushed her back to 7:45-7:50 and have had more success (translation: fewer songs), but it looks like we'll be sliding even later as the summer progresses.

I've decided that the ever-changing kid's bedtime in the spring and summer is just another of the warm-weather rituals in Michigan, like getting out the patio furniture or putting on sunscreen. Now if I can just get myself to keep the same bedtime when it's light at 10 p.m.