The Moiderer

Operation Dummy

This morning we went to the dentist.

It was the little one’s first ever trip to the dentist and she was amazingly well behaved. Sometimes she really astounds me. I know she can be naughty but she is rarely very naughty when we are out.

So she waited patiently in the waiting room while the hubby saw the dentist.

She was great in the dentists chair, opening her mouth and closing it when she needed to.

She waited patiently with the hubby while I went in.

The dentist did say that there were signs that the dummies were pushing the teeth out and that we should make sure that by the time she was 3 that we had removed them or else it would start to impact her adult teeth as they grew.

That was it, I didn’t need telling twice.

We have already been prepping the little one to remove the dummies. We have been telling her that babies need dummies to stop them crying and that she isn’t a baby but a little girl.

She agrees. But still wants her dummy for sleep.

We only gave her a dummy late in her life anyway. We were both vehemently against them. But when she was at least 6 months old we decided to give her a dummy to try and settle her in the car because she really didn’t like the car.

Nowhere else.

Then she was teething and we gave her a dummy so she had something to chew on.

But no other time.

And then somehow, suddenly, she had a dummy whenever she slept.

And then she had to have 6-8 dummies at bedtime. How the heck did that happen?

So this afternoon I fetched an envelope and let the little one put all her dummies in it. We wrote “Babies” on the front and left it for Postman Pat to take and deliver.

All good.

Then bedtime came and she cried “My dummies”

We had the conversation about where they had gone and why she shouldn’t have them any more. She was ok with it again but after I left the room she cried on the landing “dummies!”

We had a couple of visits to the loo, extra cuddles, “hush little baby” 3 times (rather than once) and even more cuddles.

At first she found 2 dummies in the bed “oh look these dummies” and cried when I stuck them in my pocket.

Second time there she had one on her pillow (she squirrels them away) but she passed it to me without putting it in her mouth “for the babies”

And that’s it.

I felt sorry for her because she needed to learn a new technique to settle herself. But she’s done it and in not much more time than usual.

Of course there will be another challenge tomorrow and I’m sure we will have another problem when she wakes up through the night.

But we are on our way with Operation Dummy and as she doesn’t have them through the day it’s only night time that we need to worry about.

2.5 years

That’s how long it is since the hubby and I had a day to ourselves.

Two and a half years.

Since the little one was born.

Today, a series of events coincided to break that.

1. It was nursery day for the little one.

2. I am on a week off work

Result? We dropped the little one off at nursery at 8am (they were supposed to be going to the library but didn’t in the end) and headed to town for a Starbucks

We sat and chatted and I drank all my coffee. Yep, I didn’t end up leaving most of it behind because there was no little one dragging me away and getting bored.

I dropped off the box of games that I traded in on the the new Amazon trade-in service (saving up for digital speakers!)

We headed home and after putting the bread maker on I headed to bed to catch up on sleep. Unfortunately the little one had a bad night last night. Crying her eyes out and saying her knees and ankles hurt. I think it’s growing pains and eventually gave her Ibuprofen which sorted it. Anyone else any ideas?

I got up after nearly 3 hours and the hubby and I headed to the local Beefeater for lunch. We had a lovely lunch and he even had a couple of beers (which he now regrets!)

When we got back he went for a nap and I played on the Xbox before heading to fetch the little one from nursery.

Apparently she had a nap at nursery so we were expecting another nightmare bedtime. The last few have been really bad. Last night we even skipped her song (we have a sing and dance to the CBeebies bedtime song before bed as part of her routine) and just dumped her in bed, read her story and left her.

As it happens, after a bath which lasted over an hour, she asked to go to bed, danced to the song, had cuddles and then climbed straight into bed after brushing her teeth. I read her a story, sang along to Hush little baby on the lullaby mix on her iPod and then she kicked me out! “bye bye mummy”

That’s it. She’s asleep.

So it’s been a very chilled day.

First time in 2.5 years having time on our own.

It was lovely actually but you know what? Until we had the little one in our lives, spending time like that together was not as precious.

Because something was always missing. It had become the dull routine of life. Go to the shops. Have a sleep. Have lunch.

So yes I enjoyed my “day off” but I also missed the little one immensely.

Pampers Land of the Golden sleep

Welcome to the Bad Night Coffee Club.
This is a secret time. It is a time which most people rarely see. A time that most people don't even think about.

There is a different world in the time.

It is a world filled by zombies.

It is a world of empty littered streets.

It is a world filled by liquid; coffee, coke, fruit juice, red bull

It is a time before times.

This secret time? It's between 4am and 6am and it is the time that parents live in.

We are here, woken up by the little ones before we are ready.

Little ones who require us to be able to function instantly. To play with Play-doh, paint, watch and dance along to the TV.

Little ones who don't understand night time, lie-ins or sleeping until a reasonable time, despite every effort we make with Gro Clocks, Ewan the Sheep, Blackout blinds.

How do we survive this Time before times?

Welcome to the Bad Night Coffee club (#badnightcoffeeclub on Twitter)

Here we meet over a virtual cup of coffee and sympathise with each other over tales of wake-ups, tears and early starts.

Here we know we are not alone in this time before times. We meet for a coffee and we help each other get through. We would prefer the sleep. But if that doesn't happen then this will do!

But now we have some help from Pampers Land of the Golden Sleep.

As part of the launch of the new Baby-Dry nappy, Pampers have just launched the Land of Golden Sleep. The Land of Golden Sleep is located on Pampers Village (http://www.pampers.co.uk/en_GB/goldensleep) where mums and dads can find helpful hints and tips to help little one fall asleep! In particular Pampers have been working with their sleep expert Wendy Dean who has created several Soothology routines, one for different stages over the first year of the baby’s life.

I know that we are all desperate to find anything that helps with the sleep patterns.

The little one may no longer be in nappies but I will take any help I can get. It has already cost me £425 of my insurance excess because in my sleep deprived state I reversed into my friends car on my driveway!

Pampers are offering an hour's consultation with Wendy Dean, their sleep expert, as a competition for my readers. The consultation could be face-to-face or over the phone depending on the location of the prize winner. The winner will have the opportunity to seek advice on helping them get their little one to sleep, tailored specifically to them.

So how do you enter and get this help?

Well I want you to post on the Linky the story of the worst thing you have done in your sleep deprived state (frankly I need something to make me feel better about my car accident!)

If you don’t have a blog or a good story but still want to enter just tweet me and I will add you to the linky!

Linky assigns numbers automatically. All the numbers will be put into a random number generator and the lucky winner will get the sleep consultation.

The competition will close on the 28th February so get entering!

Sleep. This is what it feels like.

So for the last week the little one has slept through.

Admittedly she’s been getting up at 5:30am but still, she’s slept through the night.

Not only that but she’s remained dry despite not getting up for the potty through the night.

She is truly brilliant.

Then on Friday night / Saturday morning (my lie-in day) she slept through the night and wasn’t up until 6:30. As usual I called the hubby all the names under the sun but was actually pretty happy.

I went to bed on Saturday night expecting a return to the 5:30am start for me, but no, she got up at 7am! 7am! Bloomin’ marvellous. And she still had a dry nappy.

Today it was 6:30am again.

This is amazing.

On top of that, she’s not having an afternoon nap but going to bed at 7pm and settling down quite easily to sleep. Occasionally she comes out of her room and asks to use the potty again after I’ve left but that’s it.

I am getting 8 hours sleep or so. Is this what it feels like to be able to think straight? It’s such an unfamiliar feeling.

OCD toddler

I swear my toddler has borderline OCD.

She has habits and obsessions that she definitely doesn’t get from me.

She hate’s having messy hands and messy clothes. She removes a top immediately she spills anything on it (Really, she DID NOT get this off me, I’m so messy)

She builds up rituals and get’s very upset if you don’t follow them.

Bedtime is the worst.

Here is what I have to do:

• We get her in her pyjamas and play the Cbeebies bedtime song while she dances and we sing.
• She gives me a cuddle.
• She gives her dad a cuddle and 10 kisses. I then take her upstairs
• She has to take Pooh Bear and Schubert the bear upstairs with her. She has to carry them.
• She uses the potty upstairs. This is good because it contributes to her dry nights.
• Then we have to brush her teeth.
• Then it’s an upstairs bathroom and we have to look out of the window and see if any cars are passing on the main road.
• We then go to her room.
• She gets all her dummies (at least 4!) out of the drawer and puts them on her bedside table.
• I fill her juice, close the blind, put the Gro clock on, put the iPod on with the lullaby mix and check her juice bottle has something in it.
• I then have to read 2 books. Currently this is Tabby McTat and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
• I have to pause reading to sing along to Hush little Baby when it comes on the lullaby.
• I then turn the lamp off and have to talk about what she’s done that day “Talk about day!”. This usually involves her telling me what she’s had to eat (she’s soooo my daughter)
• Then I have to kiss her goodnight. On the mouth, on each eye, on the nose and now, recently, again on the mouth again.
• She then says “Bye bye mummy” . I have to repeat “bye bye”
• She then says “See you soon”. I have to repeat
• I have to say “Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the…” and she says “bed bugs bite”

…and then I can actually leave the room. Get any of it wrong and she starts a tantrum, arching her back, whacking her bum on the bed and crying.

Now this is probably my fault for pandering to her rituals but when all you want is an easy, peaceful bedtime, these rituals don’t seem like much to ask.

So do you have OCD kids?

Is this just my fault for pandering to her?

Tonight

The little one's having a bad night. But once we brought her downstairs she brightened up.

Sleep the final frontier

The little one has slept through the night a couple of times this week.

Since she got a cold she has lost her ability to have a settled sleep again. No surprise really. Her nose has been streaming and she has clearly been feeling pants. I have been giving her Calprofen and had Karvol on her shirts and had a Calpol diffuser in her room overnight. This has meant that she has at least got some sleep. 

The first time she slept through the night was on Tuesday night when I was away. I put her to bed at 6:30pm and she didn't get up until 6:30am. For the hubby. Of course. I, however, got to the hotel at midnight and was up again shortly after 6am after a restless night. 

Then on Friday night, the hubby takes night duty while I sleep in the spare room and have a lie-in. This hasn't happened for 3 weeks because he has not been well. So I put her to bed as usual. She was up through the night at about 2am. They played for a while and then she decided to go back to her room and go to sleep. She then didn't get up until 8am!!! I think this is the latest she has slept in her life!

Not fair is it?

We've also been struggling the last few days because she nicked some toast off another kid at nursery. We don't know how much she had but she has been showing the same symptoms as before we removed wheat from her diet. They've been at their worst today. I am trying to work out if she's had anything else because it seems extreme for a little bit of toast. More worrying is the thought that she may have developed an intolerance to something else too.

Meanwhile we had another fun day. Here are the photo's (you'd never know that we have had a terrible afternoon with what seemed a very poorly little girl until we gave her Calpol)

 

 

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Sleep

Well lots of things have changed over the last week. 

Firstly the little one has been sleeping through the night. Why is this? Not sure. I think it's a combination of the tough love return to bed routine and the presence of the Dream Fairy. We now read the story I wrote for her every night before she goes to sleep and as you can see from the picture, the Dream Fairy hangs in her room waiting to catch her dreams (top left). Also the lovely Maggy over at RedTedArt did this amazing fairy illustration that I have put in her book.

I am fortunate enough to have a printer that prints out booklet format so I have been able to print a proper book for her. We no longer read Julia Donaldson, we now read The Dream Fairy by Mummy!

She is waking up, occasionally crying, but the key is she settles herself back down to sleep without coming out of her room. 

The other change is that she has not been up before 6am. In fact one day she was up at 6:30am. Of course I was awake shortly after 6 wondering if she was ok. Typical! She really seems to be paying attention to when the sun comes up on her Groclock. So much so that I have changed the time from 6am to 6:10am for the sun coming up and am considering moving it to 6:15 within the next couple of days. 

So it has been a really good week and nice to settle back into a more healthy sleeping pattern. 

Meanwhile, there is a new app for the iPad called Animatching and she loves it and is a whizz at it. Enjoy the video if you get a moment (ignore the elbow coming up, damn midges keep biting her in her head)

 

A good week for sleep

I have moaned so much about the bad sleep patterns of the little one over the past couple of weeks so I felt it was only fair that I update you on what a good week it has been since I went back to work on Monday.

The little one goes to bed at 7pm. She usually does a dirty nappy within 10 minutes of going to bed these days. We have made good progress because she doesn't cry any more. Next step is to get her to start using the potty again.

Anyway, once settled she has stayed asleep through the night every night until last night.

There were a couple of evenings where she woke up crying. However, we made a discovery this week. Her two bottom molars at the back have popped through. No wonder she's been having a bad time of it. Considering how far through they are she's been remarkably well behaved. Just the top ones to go now!

When she woke up in the evening, I went up to her, told her the story of the Dream Fairy and she settled right back down. So real progress. I still need to catch up on sleep from the bad couple of weeks but it's good to move on.

The exception to the week was last night. She woke up at about 1:30am. I read her the Dream Fairy story and left her room. She seemed to settle but 15 minutes later she was out of her room again (just as I was dozing off). This time I took her back and without saying anything settled her back in bed, gave her a kiss and left her. I had to do this 3 times in total. By the time she settled it was 2:30am. Now this is miles better than the week before where she was wide awake and bouncing for at least 2 hours before settling.

Still, I would just like to say *yawn*

 

The Dream Fairy

As you know, we have had some challenges with the little one staying asleep through the night. We've had a couple of good nights but tonight while watching TV she started crying and came out of her room looking for cuddles. Not wishing to be stuck with hours of trying to get her to sleep I told her this story -I am going to print it up in a book and read it to her at night. I also have a fairy from I want one of those to hang in her room from tomorrow night.

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Once upon a time there was a little girl called Amy who lived in a big castle. She was kept company throughout the day by three friendly bears called Schubert, Poo Bear and Sidni.

One day she was sat at one of the windows high up in the castle, looking out on her kingdom, feeling bored. Her iPad had run out of batteries, there were no TV programmes on with Justin in them and she'd burst her bouncy ball.

As she sat there a fairy flew in through the window and landed gently on her shoulder.

"Hi" the Dream Fairy said "I'm the Dream Fairy and I've come to take your dreams away. Do you have any for me?"

Amy was confused.

"But I only dream at night" Amy said "I mean, I sleep in the afternoon every day but I don't usually dream"

"Oh" said the Dream Fairy looking very disappointed "That's a bit of a problem because at night I usually take all the dreams I've collected and bury them deep underground under a huge tree in the forest. I can always tell which tree it is because it is surrounded by lovely sweet wild strawberries which I eat every time I visit"

Amy thought for a moment "I'm sorry" she said eventually "I only dream at night so I can't really help you"

The Dream Fairy sat looking sad and disappointed for a while then said "Well there is nothing for it, I will just have to ask my boss, super duper fairy, if it will be okay in your case to visit you at night. I'm sure it will be fine"

And with that the Dream Fairy flew out of the window.

A couple of hours later she returned. Amy had read 5 books, sung the Alphabet song and counted to 10 a few times. She was now having a snack of Dairylea Dunkers and a bottle of juice.

"Great news" said the Dream Fairy excitedly as she flew in through the window "I have permission to visit you at night and collect your dreams"

Amy and the Dream Fairy were both very excited. Amy offered some of her dunker to the Dream Fairy who tried it but really didn't like it and spat it out of the window!

They sat chatting until bedtime and put each others hair up in ponytails. It was very difficult for Amy to do this to the Dream Fairy because she was so tiny.

Eventually it was bedtime and the Dream Fairy tucked Amy up in bed, kissed her on the forehead and wished her goodnight. Amy quickly fell into a lovely deep sleep.

A few hours into her sleep she had a terrible dream and woke up crying. But it was ok, because the Dream Fairy was there ready with her magic box. She took the dream, put it in the box, shut the lid, locked the box and with a wave flew out the window to bury it deep underground.

From then on the Dream Fairy helped Amy go to sleep every night and although she had the occasional bad dream, the fairy was always there to catch it and take it away.

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Obviously the characters in the story can be changed as appropriate, but when I got to the end of this story I was able to get up and leave the room without any tears. That is progress as far as I'm concerned!