Operation Early to Bed - night one

Last night was night 1 of operation early to bed. It's a multi-stage process.

Stage 1 - stay in our room

The goal of stage one is to get Emery to stay in her room after bathtime. The issue was that after bath time she wanted to come back downstairs. So last night we went right into her room after her bath. I closed the door behind us and we played in her room in low light. Dave did the kitchen and joined us about 20 minutes after we got into her room. The three of us colored, read books, and played with toys. When i would ask her if she was ready for bed/crib and she would shake her head no, grab her sippy cup, her paci and head for the door. We would very calmly say, we're not going downstairs we're going to stay up here. Then we'd try and interest her in something in the room. About every 15 minutes I'd dim the lights a little more. Finally she reached for her blanket and cuddled up with me to read a book. After a little while we moved to the glider and she passed out.

a very successful first night.

The back story:

For a while we were doing bath time at 7:30PM. After Bath time we'd read a book and go straight to bed - no fuss. somewhere along the line we got into the habbitt of going back downstairs after bath time....this lead to a HUGE fight when it was actually time for bed. A lot of screaming/crying. It was not good. She wasn't going to bed until almost 10:00PM. So I asked myself why I wanted this to change...the answer, being on a schedule is good for all of us. She gets more sleep and understands a routine, Dave and I have some time together at night, and setting this up now vs when she's 3 is going to be extreamly helpful. I talked to my dad about everything and we came up with a plan. The key to the plan: where it's coming from.

There are two places it can come from, the heart or the ego. The heart "we are making a change b/c this is healthy for you and me"...The ego "you're not in charge, i am". Kids know the difference. So we made sure there was as much support as possible. I explained to her a few times over dinner what our plan was. As we walked upstairs I explained again that we would not be going downstairs after bath time, I told her this was no punishment and she did nothing wrong, this was simply a change for the good of the family and her health. I think she got it b/c she got a little upset when I mentioned we would not be going back downstairs. (she's a smart cookie)

Once stage 1 is complete - staying in her room until bed time, we'll work on shorter play time in her room and moving into the crib shortly after bath time. But the best thing about right now is, stage one is very clear - stay in the room. That's our only goal right now and it makes it easier to focus on that. -- Thank goodness for River

GD?

This morning I had my 4-hour (yes 4 hours) test for GD. I went to the Hospital to do the test. The nurses were so sweet, and i just sat in a little room and did work on my laptop. Rambo has been kicking like crazy! I'm sure he was starving this morning, i was.

Dave took Emery to school this morning....the very first time. He said it went fine, i knew it would be it's still cute. She's been doing great. She is cutting two new teeth though so she's been a little off her game. But she was AMAZING last night when we went to dinner with my parents. She is so fun, i just love it!! She loves to dance, she's been dancing constantly. But now she can't just dance alone, she wants to dance with anyone around her, mostly me and Dave. But if Nana or River are around they will do just fine.

We still haven't locked in our design for Rambo's room but we're close. Dave said he'll have it done by Christmas, and he better! I really want to get it all set up that week. Olivia will be here the whole week and we can get everything organized.

I am feeling pretty good, i have to wear my belly ban or I get really bad leg pain. -- to the point where i can't really walk. But the belly ban seems to help a lot. I told Stone (our midwife) that we want to go natural this time and she said to start doing as much yoga as I can. So here we go with that:)