The Nelson Narrative

Two of my New Year's resolutions are going pretty well so far (although I realize it's very early in the game).  First, I'm down 3.4 pounds!  Plus the 1.4 I lost right before Christmas (that is, the 1.4 of the original 2.4 that I didn't gain back), for a total of 4.8. Secondly, the girls are getting to bed and waking up earlier.  I started waking them up a little earlier each day, and the last few days they have gotten up on their own a little earlier still.  For instance, Sunday and Monday I woke them up at 8:50.  Tuesday it was 8:45.  Wednesday they got up at 8:30 on their own, and Thursday Olivia got up at 8:20 on her own and Kayley got up at 8:30.  Today they both came in my room and woke ME up at 8:08 (I had been getting up between 7:00 and 7:30 until today). So, it's working!  No more sleeping until 9:00 or 9:30.  And as a byproduct of getting up earlier, they are going to bed a tad earlier, also.  Last night I had th...

I let the girls sleep until 9:00 this morning, figuring they needed it since Kayley was up so late and Olivia's sleep kept getting interrupted (I do think about giving them separate rooms from time to time but most of the time there's no issue).  I thought we'd have no problem getting them to bed at their normal 9:00ish, but then Kayley fell asleep around 5:00.  We didn't let her sleep long, though, because we were trying to have an early dinner so we could go to Snowflake Lane.  On the way back, Olivia fell asleep in the car.  Now they are both wide awake at 9:46.  Sigh.  They should be back to normal in a day or two.

The girls keep sleeping until 9:00 or 9:15 and I keep letting them because I like to sleep in, too, because I stay up kinda late (11:00, 11:30) because I like to read or watch TV or play on the computer for awhile after everyone else goes to bed.  So this last week I've been getting up later than normal most days, like between 8:30 and 9:00 (one morning it was 9:20!  What mom of small kids, stay-at-home or otherwise, can ever do that?).  But then instead of getting the girls up then and there I like to get on the computer for awhile, so I let them sleep.  Then they sometimes don't go to bed until 9:30 or later, which is why I have to stay up until at least 11:00 or 11:30 to have my alone time so then I'm unable to get up early enough to get them up earlier.  It's a horrible cycle. Today they got up at about 9:15.  Surpringly, Olivia told me at 7:05 that she wanted to go to bed, but then she wanted to take a bath first so she ended up g...

The girls don't get enough sleep.  I've been keeping track and about half the time they get less than 11 hours per day and the rest of the time they get a little more than 11, but definitely less than 12.  They should (according to Babycenter) be getting between 11 and 14 (so, half the time they barely get the minimum).  This has been the case for  last 9+ months, when they dropped their nap at exactly 2.5 years of age.  For the most part they seem to do fine on this amount, occasionally falling asleep in the car or less often on the couch in the late afternoon/early evening.  But lately they seem to almost always get really cranky and fussy in the late afternoon/early evening.  Then they get super wound up right before bed, which I've read is actually a sign of overtiredness.  So I'm trying to figure out how I can get them to sleep more.  I can't put them to bed earlier, because they simply won't stay in bed, let alone g...

The girls and I have had a busy week.  On Monday, we met Paul's mom and aunt at Southcenter for a little shopping and lunch for his aunt's birthday.  Yesterday, we had a playdate with another mom in our church group and her kids and Friday we met a friend and her daughter at Bellevue Square for a playdate and lunch at Red Robin.  The girls have had a really fun and active week. Yesterday I took the whole day and went Christmas shopping, by myself!  It was so nice.  This was round 2, so I've made some good progress on my list, although I still have a ways to go.  Every year I vow to be at least close to finished by Thanksgiving, and every year when Thanksgiving rolls around I've barely started.  This year I'm still not that close to finished but I'd say I'm over 50%, which is way more than usual at this time.  Kohl's was having a great sale, so in addition to some gifts I actually got some things for myself, which was so much ...

Fed up with Kayley's antics, we decided that's it!  We're putting both girls in their cribs at bedtime and Kayley can cry her little eyes out until she finally goes to sleep and Olivia, poor thing, will just have to put up with it.  So Sunday night that's exactly what we did.  She cried for 20 minutes and finally fell silent.  Last night it only took 10 minutes!  Maybe if we keep this up she'll be back to normal, where we can just put her in her crib at bedtime and she'll just go straight to sleep (or at least not scream and cry).  Here's hoping.  But man, it's nice to have a little of our evenings back.

We're still really struggling with getting Kayley to go to sleep at night.  If she takes a nap at all, I wake her up after an hour and a half (she used to sleep 2 1/2 to 3 hours) but she'll still be up until 10:00 or a little later.  If she doesn't take a nap, she falls asleep in her highchair at dinner time.  If that happens, we put her in her crib and sometime she'll stay there and sleep and other times she'll wake up and not what to go to sleep.  If she stays asleep, again she'll be up until 10:00 or later and if she doesn't she's a crabby mess, and still will be up until at least 9:00.  Yesterday I didn't put her down for a nap thinking that she would go to bed at 9:00ish or even 8:30, as opposed to 10:00 or 11:00.  But we went for a walk at 4:00 and by the time we got back around 4:30 she was asleep.  I put her down in her crib and got her up a half hour later.  But she was cranky and wouldn't stop crying so I laid down on the couch with...

First of all, what 19/20-month old drops her nap???  Isn't that supposed to happen sometime after 2, if not 3 or 4?  Seriously, Kayley.  OK, so maybe she hasn't dropped it completely , but more often than not she doesn't take a nap.  Including yesterday.  No biggie, I'm getting pretty used to it and it's kind of nice to have a little one-on-one time with her.  BUT, then she proceeds to get up at 3:00 AM and not go back to sleep for a hour or so.  Sort of.  Here's what happened: Kayley woke up around 3:00 AM.  I go in there and try my usual lay-her-back-down-and-rub-her-back-until-she-falls-asleep-and-then-quietly-sneak-out routine.  Not working.  So after 3 or 4 attempts (she would seem asleep, but when I'd try to leave she'd pop right back up and start fussing) I just got her up and let her play/wander in the loft while I laid down on the couch, the idea being that she would eventually fall asleep on the floor at ...

I knew this time would come eventually, but oh, did I not want or expect it this early.  The days of the 3+ hour naps are (sniff) over.  Miss Kayley started having issues with staying up WAY too late at night, so I've resorted to waking her up after two hours of nap.  And about every 3 or 4 days she refuses to take a nap at all .  Olivia started not going down as easy at night either, but she seems to be over it now and back to normal.  I miss my nice long 3+ hour break, but most days I still get 2 or a little more so it could be worse.  Obviously the day will come when they won't nap at all and then I'll be really sad, although in a way it will be good because we can do more fun things during the day.  But for now I'm going to soak up every minute of blissful quite that I can!

It's been a rough couple of nights. It seems to have started last week when poop kept interrupting Kayley's naps. After several days of shortened or non-existent naps she slept long and late on Friday, until about 4:40. That night I put her down at her normal time (9:00) and at first she went to sleep (or least was quiet). But a half hour or so later she woke up and would not go back to sleep until 11:30 or so! She still got up at her normal time Saturday morning and I figured she'd take a great nap that afternoon but, no, not happening. I think she went to bed at her normal time or a little earlier that night, but Sunday she had a short nap again and was still up until 11:40 that night. Monday she had a normal nap, Olivia had a short one and they were both up until 10:30. NO idea why Olivia was up that late having had a shorter than usual nap and otherwise being a perfect sleeper. Totally weird. But as for Kayley, I'm beginning to wonder if she's getting...

Luckily the girls have been sleeping a little better lately. Today Kayley slept until 7:30 and Olivia, who had been waking between 6:00 and 6:30, slept until 8:00! Yay! Kayley still wakes up just about every night sometime between 10:30 and 1:00 but goes right back to sleep when I rock her. Yesterday and the day before they slept until 7:00 so I'm thinking we're back on track. I wonder if they'll even start sleeping until 7:30 or 8:00 consistently which will push back lunch and nap an hour or so. As it is, we can't leave the house until at least 3:00, if not 3:30 or 4:00, unless we do errands in the morning after breakfast but: a) I haven't showered yet (I usually shower during naptime or sometimes after breakfast with them in a pack and play) and b) by the time we're done with breakfast and ready to go we only have like a 1.5 hour window before we have to be home to squeeze lunch in before naptime. I think that on days I have errands to do I'll have to get ...

So I guess I got a little cocky. I've been bragging every chance I get about how both my girls, sweet angles that they are, have slept through the night (STTN) since they were 3 months old (2 1/2 for Olivia). Yeah, they were horrible nappers but hey, they've STTN forever! They would go to bed between 8:00 and 8:30 and wake up between 7:00 and 7:30. I would hear them on the monitor talking and I could take my time and brush my teeth, make coffee, make their bottle, etc. and it was no big hurry to get in there to get them. Then they turned one and started drinking whole milk instead of formula and less of it. And Olivia started waking at 5:00 or 6:00, hungry, and of course she usually woke Kayley as well, although not always. Kayley, however, has consistenly woken up at least once during the night for some unknown reason. She goes right back to sleep when I pick her up and rock her, but still. Lately, Olivia has managed to start sleeping until 6:30, but that's about her limit...