Wine Girl Mommy’s World

Just a wine loving girl, living a mommy’s world
Wine Girl Mommy’s World
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Mom-ing
    • W(h)ine-ing
    • Thing I Love
    • If I had known
    • Blast from the Past
  • Contact
  • Tag: sleep

    • Co-sleeping

      Posted at 11:37 am by CS, on September 9, 2019

      So I have realized as a parent you eat a lot of crow once your child is born. Case in point for me I swore I would never Co-sleep with my child. It was just never something I saw myself doing.

      Granted when she first came home from the hospital, we tried a bassinet and between me thinking she was to small and her not really taking to it, she did sleep on my chest the first few nights before we found her rocking bed that she loved. Now I know you aren’t really supposed to fall asleep while holding the child in case of smothering and all, but I felt we did both sleep a bit better, and I slept like a statue because I was so scared of just that.

      Once we found the rocking bed she slept in that every night until she outgrew it, then moved to her pack n play until I was finally ready to move her into her own room and into her crib. She slept in her own bed every night since then.

      Until recently. Right before we moved, of course we were packing up the house and therefore had to pack up the crib. So we had to move Cameron back into her pack n play, which she did fine in for a little bit, but then about a week before we moved she started awaking in the middle of the night, and the only way she would go back to sleep would be if I brought her into bed with me. Now we had moved her into our room because we were packing up everything and it was hard to have her monitor focus on her so it was easier to have her there with us. I think since she realized we were there is what made her think she could get up.

      Once we moved, because of our current situation, she is sleeping in the same room with us still. The first week after we moved was perfectly fine, she slept all night, maybe because of all the traveling and moving so she may have been overly tired and was trying to adjust. After the first week or so I started noticing she was getting up about the same time every night and would only go back to sleep when I brought her into bed. And I’ve been one for the cry it out method to have her put herself back to sleep, but it’s hard to do when she sees you sleeping right there and knows you’re near her.

      I have tried to put her to bed later, keep the room dark and quiet, but I think we have sort of started a habit now where she thinks/knows she can get into bed with us. Now part of me loves it, I love cuddling with my girl and knowing she needs me and wants to snuggle, but the other part of me likes my space, as my husband can tell you, I’ve never been a cuddler. So I am sort of hoping, once we have a permanent residence and Cameron can have her own room again, we can kick this habit. Especially because some nights, Cameron thinks that coming into bed with us means playtime. Those nights are rough because it takes a while to calm her back down.

      Do you co-sleep? If so, are you trying to stop? If not, was there ever a time your child wanted to?

      Posted in Mom-ing | 0 Comments | Tagged bedtime, Co-sleep, habit, sleep
    • Sleep terrors

      Posted at 11:44 am by CS, on August 26, 2019

      I was thinking of calling this post, night terrors, before I realized that Cameron doesn’t have these terrors just at night.

      A few weeks ago, maybe closer to a month, Cameron would wake from her naps screaming. And I’m not talking about a typical, woke up on the wrong side of the crib cry/scream, but a ear screeching, oh my god what is happening screaming. When we would go in to check on her she would be inconsolable. Didn’t want to be touched or held, didn’t want her blanket or pacifier, and if we tried to talk to her she just freaked out more. Now the entire time her eyes were open like she was awake, but upon further inspection it was like they were glazed over and she had this glass eyed, empty expression look to her. And after about 10 or so minutes (although it always felt longer) she would stop and go about like nothing had happened.

      A few days after these afternoon terrors happened, they began happening at night as well. Same sort of actions, she would be flailing about, kicking, screaming, not wanting anyone or anything, and after a little bit she would stop, roll over, and go back to sleep.

      So of course, being a first time mom, I’m freaked. I want to know what’s happening and why. So of course I turn to google, and mom friends, explaining her symptoms and trying to get to the bottom of it. I was trying to figure out if she was overtired, if we were letting her watch to much TV, or if something on the TV was causing her nightmares, if she was using her iPad a bit too much and once again was a show or movie giving her bad dreams. Was all the moving, and weekend trips, and amount of activities we were doing causing her to just not feel comfortable and get upset? I just had so many questions and so I needed answers.

      First we started cutting shows and TV time to a bare minimum to see if something had been triggering her and we weren’t finding any results there. So I kept looking for answers.

      Basically what I’ve been told is you just sort of need to let them play out. You can go one of two routes, and there may be more routes but these were the ones suggested to me.

      The first route is to turn on lights, to talk to the child, maybe ask them questions or “bribe” them if you will. So we tried this one of the first terrors after I got the suggestion. I turned on the lights, started asking her if she wanted to watch “Mickey Mouse, or Boss baby, or Tinkerbell.” I tried to stay clear of her kicking because she has some legs on her. I tried to do anything and everything in my power to “wake her up.” And for us this route didn’t seem to work all that well. I felt it took longer and I just made her more upset.

      The second route is more of, just letting them cry it out mostly on their own. No lights, no talking, just sort of letting them be and letting them calm themselves down. Now I made sure she was safe and that I was right there if need be, but when we first started this technique I felt the terrors lasted a lot shorter and she didn’t seem to get as mad.

      After about a week and a half, maybe two weeks, they stopped. We also took some time to just be, no traveling, no big weekend plans, just some lazy days where we kept to the same schedule so that she got used to a routine.

      We did recently have one episode, but I believe it’s because she had a long day filled with car rides, strange places, she hadn’t been feeling good, went to sleep in one place and woke up someplace different. But I just sat with her while she cried and she seemed to only be upset for a little and went back to sleep.

      Now I know these ways aren’t the only way to deal with sleep terrors, every child is different, and things may not work for everyone. But this is what we did and so far it has worked and luckily we haven’t been seeing the terrors nearly as much if at all.

      Did you child have sleep terrors? Did you do anything different?

      Posted in If I had known, Mom-ing | 0 Comments | Tagged baby, night terror, sleep, sleep terror, sleeping
    • M-I-C-K-E-Y MOUSE!!

      Posted at 2:36 pm by CS, on June 20, 2019

      When we decided to take Cameron to Disney for the first time, I knew I needed to do some research because it was a whole new territory from going before without a child. So many people told me not to put to much effort into the trip because she wouldn’t remember any of it. While that may be true, I still wanted to make it the best trip ever because she only will ever get one first visit to Disney. Not to mention, with my love of Disney I wanted to enjoy the trip just as much as I wanted her too.

      After some googling, and YouTube watching I decided that while those tips were great, we sort of had to see how she acted and reacted to our surroundings while we were there. So take what I’m writing with a grain of salt because this information could differ for you depending on your child, and the time of year you may be venturing to the most magical place on earth.

      For this particular trip we were already in Florida for my brothers wedding, so travel to Disney was a bit easier because it was just a quick drive from Tampa to Orlando. If you want to read more about traveling with an infant check out my blog post To travel or not... We loaded all our stuff in our rental car (which was a minivan) and headed to Disney.

      While we were staying in Orlando we chose to stay “on property”. Now that is in quotations because while I feel the resort we stayed in was in fact on property, it is not a Disney resort, and it may not be in fact on property if my geography is wrong, but we went under the Disney arch so I’m calling it like I see it. We stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek in a 2-bedroom villa because not only was it our little family, my parents were with us too, and my brother and sister in law came for a night. It was so nice to have the extra space, the full kitchen, the washer/dryer, and still be close enough to the parks. This also helped because we were able to go to the grocery store and stock up on snacks and breakfast items for Cameron so we weren’t paying the park prices. I know Disney does rooms with kitchenettes or even full kitchens, so if you can, I would highly recommend reserving one of them. If Disney prices are out of your reach, then renting an Airbnb with a full kitchen would be perfect too, as long as you’re ok being away from all the Disney magic. For us, we have been to Disney so many times that we don’t always have to be right there in the middle of everything.

      Next, I’ll talk a little bit about what we did/rides we rode. As I stated before, we’ve been to Disney plenty, so I was trying to make sure we tried to center our trip around what would be fun for Cameron. Not only was this her first trip, but we were celebrating her 1st birthday (even if it was a little late). So when I was thinking about fast passes, and game plans, I was trying to keep her in mind. I knew the one ride I wanted her to ride was frozen, so you best believe I was up at 4am PST the day that window opened up for fast passes for that particular day to try and get one. I was successful so I felt like as long as we got that done we would just sort of play everything else by ear. We rode the typical kid friendly rides, we did Epcot one day and Magic Kingdom one day with a day to relax and go to Disney springs in between. In Epcot we saw characters, then rode Imagination, Nemo, and Frozen. This was our first day there so we really didn’t know what we were getting into as far as how she would do in the park and all so we didn’t get to do much, and Epcot doesn’t have THAT many rides she could do. In Magic Kingdom, we rode the carousel, met a few princesses, rode the teacups, dumbo, little mermaid, small world, twice, mickeys Philharmagic, and pirates of the Caribbean. Once again, we didn’t do too much because we didn’t want to be burned out or do anything to make Cameron upset or overwhelm her. We also didn’t want to do too much because we went the week of thanksgiving so we knew lines would be crazy, and little miss does not do very well in lines, not to mention, she wasn’t walking at the time so had to be held, and even with 5 adults taking turns, that can take a toll on you. So we only tried to ride things with minimal waits or if we had a fast pass. Now if this is your first trip and will be your only one for a while, not doing everything may not be an option for you. We are very fortunate to get to go often because we love it and have family that live near by. But I know that’s not the luxury everyone has. But I will say, take into account what you think your child will like, can handle, and will even want to do. Then you can dust in there some rides that you want to do as well and use the rider switch option. We didn’t utilize that so I can’t speak to it very much but I’m sure if you were to google the topic you could find some good information.

      Let’s talk a little about naps and bedtime. For us, since we weren’t staying in a Disney resort, we didn’t have the option of taking Disney transport to the parks, so while we could have left the parks to go back to the hotel for Cameron to nap, it just didn’t seem like a good use of time to make sure we were getting to do everything we wanted. I also wasn’t sure if she would be to stimulated to nap at all. She luckily did both days we were in the park. The day we hung around the hotel, she napped too, but she was more on her regular schedule so that nap time wasn’t as hard to figure out. In Epcot she took 2 slightly shorter naps, both of which were in her stroller. We have a standard Graco stroller, which we brought with us, because I figured she’s napped in it at home when we’ve been out and about so I thought she would be more comfortable than had we rented a stroller in Florida. We tried to find some quieter places for her to fall asleep, there was an alcove over by MouseGear, and an area behind Club Cool where she spent her morning nap. Then in the back corner of the France pavilion is where she slept in the afternoon. All we did was put a light blanket over her stroller, turned her stroller fan on, and pushed the stroller back and forth until she fell asleep. In Magic Kingdom we did the same steps, but there wasn’t many places that were really quite that we found, so we just hoped she fell asleep. Which she did, but she did only take one nap that day. For bedtime, we tried to keep as close to her night time routine from home that we could. We brought her blanket, her sound giraffe, and a small fan for noise so that she could feel as close to home as possible. I didn’t see many issues with her night time sleep, besides maybe an earlier rise time, but I figure that was because she was so excited to go see Mickey Mouse.

      Lastly, I want to talk a bit about what Cameron ate while we were in the parks. Because she’s under 3, she not only gets in for free, but you pretty much don’t need to order a meal for her cause she can eat off your plate. Now, we did not go that route and I completely regret it. A few times I ordered her something off the kids menu and paid for the meal thinking that she would eat enough of it and we could finish whatever she didn’t. Well she ended up not eating much of it at all, not because she didn’t like it, but because she was stealing bites from everyone’s plates, getting a nice sampling. So I would suggest, just ordering something for yourself and letting your child have some of it. Or split a kids meal with them if you don’t think you’ll eat much. Now, that’s if the child is eating solids. If not, you can bring in food or formula for the baby. We did make sure to pack plenty of snacks for Cameron because this child loves her food. We did end up buying a Mickey pretzel and a pickle in the parks for some snacks which she happily stole most of.

      One last miscellaneous thing, I didn’t think I would make use of the baby care centers that they have in each park, but I for sure did. I think we went to the Epcot one 3-4 times. It was air conditioned, fairly quiet, and clean. So when she threw a tantrum shortly after we arrived I knew it was probably a better place to go rather than standing about in the sun trying to figure out what was wrong. Turns out she was hungry…shocker. So I would say, that if you can and want try to make use of those centers! For us they were a lifesaver.

      I would like to think she had a great first trip, and even second trip because we’ve been again between our first trip and when I’m finally getting around to posting this. I know there are so many options, and tips, and tricks out there for how to do disney with a child/infant/toddler, this is just how our first trip went and what I learned while planning and executing that trip. Do you have any great tips? Or things you wished you had known before going!?

      Posted in Mom-ing, Thing I Love | 0 Comments | Tagged Disney, Epcot, first trip, food, happy place, magic kingdom, naps, sleep, snack, tips, tricks
    • Sleep when they sleep

      Posted at 1:50 pm by CS, on May 9, 2019

      Easier said than done. When she was a newborn I was always trying to run around to get stuff done around the house while she napped. And now she’s down to one nap a day and then bedtime. So I really don’t get much done, nap times are now for writing blog posts, or doing the dishes, folding laundry, or getting dinner prepared.

      We did get lucky though. When we would transition her down from 3-2-1 naps, we sort of did it cold turkey. Just one day we did it and moved on. She’s a very big “if she doesn’t see it/use it/do it she won’t miss it” type of girl, so those transitional periods really never bothered her. Now that’s not to say we didn’t have some hiccups and early risings or middle of the night wake ups, but they were fairly few and far between.

      Now I know this probably means, if we have a second child we won’t get as lucky!

      I don’t want to jinx ourselves but we got fairly lucky with how she does sleep. She was sleeping pretty much through the night pretty early on. And although she’s had some sleep regressions we have gotten lucky with how we were able to “sleep train” her. Now I put that in quotes because I don’t feel that we really trained her in any way. At the moment if she arises in the middle of the night, I wait 10 minutes because most times she will put herself right back to sleep. In the chance she doesn’t, the 10 minutes sort of shows her that we won’t rush right in if she cries, but that we will come check on her. And if this situation repeats during the night, we just circle back and do it all again. In the morning the rule is, we do not go and get her until she is standing up in her crib waiting by the door end of her crib. For us this way, we get her breakfast started, tidy the house up, and other things, because some days, if she makes a noise at 6-6:30 she will put herself back to sleep for a little bit so we don’t want to rush in the first sign of noise and risk keeping her from more sleep. At 18 months, she now sleeps 7:30-7am on MOST days, with a nap from 12-1:30/2. Now I say most days because some days she will rise about 6:30, or will take a longer or shorter nap. Just depends on the activities and excitements of the day, but a good 80% is the same sleep schedule.

      Now for what she sleeps with, she has a musical giraffe, a few pacifiers, and her blanket. Her blanket is her absolute favorite, didn’t think she would cling to something so young, but here we are, so that will be a fun transition when we need to wean her off of that. She’s now only getting her pacifier for bedtime and nap-time and that wasn’t a very hard transition so hoping the blanket won’t be either.

      Sleep is one topic I had a lot of questions on, but it was also a topic that you really had to see what related most to you by doing and testing our different options.

      Posted in If I had known, Mom-ing | 0 Comments | Tagged blanket, music, pacifier, sleep, sleep training, soothing, sound
    • Recent Posts

      • Favorite reads June and July 2020
      • Disney favorites- Animal Kingdom
      • Speech and OT update 8/2020
      • Favorite Reads 5/2020
      • Disney Favorites- Hollywood Studios
    • Categories

      • Mom-ing (89)
      • Thing I Love (38)
      • If I had known (9)
      • W(h)ine-ing (3)
      • Blast from the Past (1)

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Wine Girl Mommy’s World
    • Join 155 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Wine Girl Mommy’s World
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...