Whew, our plan to get Sammi to go to sleep at night and stay asleep was a success. And not nearly as painful and I feared it would be.
We were always lucky, until recently. The first 5 1/2 months she slept on us or beside us in the co-sleeper, so she never really cried or had a problem sleeping. Whenever she woke up I was there to feed her, so most of the time neither one of us woke all the way up. But then, she started to crawl and I was too freaked out to have her in the co-sleeper anymore. Once a baby becomes mobile you have to get it out of there.
So, I sadly moved her into her own room in her own crib. It was harder for me than for her. Honestly, if we had a king-size bed she would still be in there, or if there was room for the crib on our room she’d be in there. That first night she slept from 7 to 7. How awesome was that? Things went along fine for some time, but then she got an ear infection, then we went on vacation to Egypt where she had to sleep with us or next to us on the floor on her little baby air mattress, then she got another ear infection.
Augh! The days of sleeping through the night were over! It was getting worse and worse. I told Jack that when she turned 1 I was going to wean her from the night feedings, so I needed him to get up and do some of the night wakings. The last month and a half were awful. She started to wake up every hour or so. I would go in and feed her, Jack would go in and change her (because as a guy, he figured there had to be something wrong. Otherwise why was she awake?) Before, she would hold it and pee first thing in the mornings. Now, she started peeing all night long. It was making me crazy! We needed some sleep!
So, it was back to Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth. I’ve been reading this book all along, because I believe in naps and early bedtimes. Turns out we were already doing everything we were supposed to, just as I thought. She has her naps, she has an early bedtime, and she has a good bedtime routine. Basically, she was just waking up because she knew we would come in and pick her up, feed her, and change her.
Her first birthday came so I knew it was time to take care of this before we all went to the nuthouse. Last Wednesday was the first night of the plan. The book says 4 nights is all it takes. The first night we put her to bed and she woke up an hour later. That first time she cried on and off for about 45 minutes. It was always her whiny cry or her tantrum cry so I knew she was ok. Then she went to sleep. She woke up about the normal number of times that first night, but only cried for 5 or 10 minutes each time. It was pretty horrible listening and not going in to her, but I was expecting it to be worse. Some kids cry for hours. There are some examples in the book and of course, we have watched SuperNanny/Nanny 911 (depending if you are in the States or Canada.) Once again, we were lucky.
The second, third, and forth nights went better each night. By the forth night she only woke up twice and only cried for about 3 to 5 minutes each time. Also, her diaper is dry again in the morning and she pees first thing on waking. Yay!
Last night was the 5th night, the night when the new routine should be established. She only woke up once an hour after I put her to bed, and then she slept until 7! So it looks like we are back to a whole night of sleeping. Thank goodness it worked.
The only thing is now she hates bedtime. We do the whole routine – supper, bath, massage, story time, and then bed. But now, when we get to the last story she starts to cry. She won’t even let herself be nursed to sleep or consoled. So, we just kiss her and tell her we love her and put her in her crib. Even though she is upset she is asleep within minutes – and she still has a smile on her face when she wakes up. Now, we all do!
Monday, March 26, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Beware The Ides of March
Anyhoo, to laude this special occasion we all went to Rome last weekend for a 3-day Ides of March hash. See, even with a kid you can still act like you are at university! It was ROME, the IDES OF MARCH, who could resist?
On Sunday the tourists took a lot of pictures of all of us. I suppose it isn't every day you see about 60 people running through the streets of Rome in togas. : )
Happy 1st Birthday Sammi
Well, today was Lil’ G’s birthday. Since Jack is gone until tomorrow we are waiting until Saturday for the cake and presents, but I couldn’t let the day go by without doing something.
I dressed her up in the dress I wore when I was one and sang Happy Birthday to her. She clapped when I sang it, so I think she has heard it before – maybe at daycare. I’ve been teaching her to blow so she can blow her candle out on Saturday, too. We played and took some pictures then I took her out to playgroup. I brought the camera along for that, too. She was freaked out from the shoes though and kind of just stood there.
After that we went shopping, but I forgot the list so I forgot to get powdered sugar for the frosting. So now instead of making her cake tonight I am writing. When we got home we went out for a long walk and then played some more. I think she had a good day – and she got to eat fake veggie bacon for supper. Fake veggie bacon, frozen peas and white beans. What a delicious birthday supper! (Well, for her it is!) And, as a present to me for being there with her all day and not doing anything annoying like wash dishes or clean or go to the bathroom by myself, she went to sleep at 10 til 7. Now, if she just stays asleep for most of the night…..
Still what a year it has been. She has gone from a little thing that just ate 22 hours a day and stayed where you put her to being able to WALK (yep, first real steps taken yesterday – there’s no goin’ back now) talk (even though I am the only one who knows what she is saying most of the time) and laugh. Oh how she laughs. She is really funny.
Anyway, here is a picture of then and now:
You can see why even though I was thinking about it I am going to let someone with training give her her first bangs.
I dressed her up in the dress I wore when I was one and sang Happy Birthday to her. She clapped when I sang it, so I think she has heard it before – maybe at daycare. I’ve been teaching her to blow so she can blow her candle out on Saturday, too. We played and took some pictures then I took her out to playgroup. I brought the camera along for that, too. She was freaked out from the shoes though and kind of just stood there.
After that we went shopping, but I forgot the list so I forgot to get powdered sugar for the frosting. So now instead of making her cake tonight I am writing. When we got home we went out for a long walk and then played some more. I think she had a good day – and she got to eat fake veggie bacon for supper. Fake veggie bacon, frozen peas and white beans. What a delicious birthday supper! (Well, for her it is!) And, as a present to me for being there with her all day and not doing anything annoying like wash dishes or clean or go to the bathroom by myself, she went to sleep at 10 til 7. Now, if she just stays asleep for most of the night…..
Still what a year it has been. She has gone from a little thing that just ate 22 hours a day and stayed where you put her to being able to WALK (yep, first real steps taken yesterday – there’s no goin’ back now) talk (even though I am the only one who knows what she is saying most of the time) and laugh. Oh how she laughs. She is really funny.
Anyway, here is a picture of then and now:
You can see why even though I was thinking about it I am going to let someone with training give her her first bangs.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Off to Rome!
Well, we are on our way to Rome for the weekend -the Ides of March.
I will let you know how it goes when we get back!
On-On!
I will let you know how it goes when we get back!
On-On!
Monday, March 05, 2007
The Nile Cruise – Egypt part 2 of 3
On the 21st of Dec we had to get up at 2 am to go to the airport and fly to Luxor where we would board our cruise ship. That was fun. We got in about 7 and wanted to know if there was time in the schedule for us to sleep for a bit before starting our tour. Our new tour guide (whom I did not like, we had a personality conflict) said no, we had to start the tour right away, as there was no free time! Ok, we just put our bags in our room and freshened up a bit and head out.
We saw the Valley of Kings and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. It was pretty amazing. There are still some very well preserved colors in the tombs. We drove back across the Nile and that evening saw the Temple of Karnak at night. It was lit up and worth seeing at night.
The stupid part was we did not sail until 2 pm the NEXT day so there was certainly time for us to rest the morning we got there. The reason our guide didn’t let us is because he wanted to “sell” us extra sights to go see the next morning. At this point we had already seen everything on our list and had the next whole morning free so we did agree to see the extra sites. It still pissed me off – he knew we were tired but just wanted the $$. I really missed our Cairo guide!
So, the next morning we went to see The Colossi of Memnon – two weird statue things kind of in the middle of a field. Then we went to an onyx factory where these guys made statues and knick-knacks out of alabaster. We bought some pyramid tea-light holders, even though I didn’t think the workmanship was nearly as good as the stuff I have seen elsewhere (like Cappadocia.) Also, the guy inside was trying to make it seem like we got a good deal. He said, “You should pay me more. I have 5 wives!” And I said, “Well, the Quran says you should only have as many wives as you can support.” They didn’t seem to like it when I quoted the Quran at them. I thought it was funny. Also, no one ever really believed that we didn’t speak Arabic. When we were in Cairo Yomna asked how long I was going to breastfeed. I said, “Well, the Quran says two years.” She wanted to know how I knew that. Plus, I knew how to read the numbers and taught them to Jack and we learned some simple basics. Everyone kept wanting to know how much Arabic we spoke and I know they didn’t believe us when we said none. The secret is to learn numbers, basics, and then something funny and what people say when you sneeze. Anyway, I don’t think they ever believed that we didn’t speak it some. Before we left we toured the Temple of Luxor. (or else we saw the Temple of Luxor at night and Karnak temple the next day….hmmmmm. They all look the same, anyway.)
We then set sail down the Nile River. The Nile River is beautiful. It is so green all along the banks, and then the dessert starts right behind it. You can truly see what a difference water makes. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun. It is kind of weird that they didn’t worship water as well, being in the dessert and all.
The first night on the ship we were in the back and it was awful! It was LOUD and shaky and the air was full of exhaust fumes. In bed that night it was like being in a cheap hotel with one of those shaky beds you put quarters in gone bad. The only one who could sleep was Lil’ G and probably because she was half asphyxiated by the fumes. Luckily, we got to move up to the front of the boat for the rest of the trip. What a difference that made. No shaking, no fumes, it was quiet. So, if you ever take a Nile cruise be sure your room is at the FRONT of the boat!!
The next morning we toured Edfu, the best-preserved temple in Egypt. They think it is “new” as it was finished in 57 B.C. It was fun getting there – we took a horse-drawn carriage from the ship to the Temple. Once back on the boat we sailed on to Kom Ombo. We saw the Temple of Kom Ombo at night, too.
After that we sailed to Aswan. We toured the Aswan High Dam. It is huge, and created Lake Nasser, which is 480 km long and up to 16 km wide. There are so many temples and ruins under that water. Then we sailed out to see the Philae Temple. This temple was taken apart and moved so it wouldn’t be sunk under Lake Nasser. We also saw the obelisk quarries. All the obelisks of Egypt came from this quarry, and any granite in any of the temples came from here, too. It is still this huge granite hill right in the city. I can only imagine how big it was before they quarried all those years. Using rock “hammers.” I’m glad that wasn’t my job!
One afternoon, Sammi and I took a break while Jack and the tour guide went to explore the Nubian village. They had to sail there and then Jack saw some baby crocodiles and checked out the village. He drank some hibiscus tea because the guide “tricked” him into it. He asked if Jack wanted some tea, and Jack, thinking that he would join him said sure. But, ha ha – the guide only ordered it for Jack! There is no running water in the village; I think he drank Nile River water that may not have been boiled for very long.
After he got back we all went to the bazaar in Aswan to check out the goods. We bought some spices, but if you go my advice is to just go to a local grocery store or Carrefour. They have tons of stuff, and it is cheaper. But, we wanted to check out the bazaar anyway. Once again, our guide “tricked” us. The spice guy offered us some hibiscus tea, and our guide said he liked it cold. So, we tried it cold. Then we asked how they make it. Thinking it had been boiled. But no. The cold tea is NOT boiled. At this point I had just the one glass of un-boiled water whereas Jack has now had straight Nile River water tea, and cold bazaar tea.
We went back to the ship for the Christmas Eve party they had for us. We had a special meal on board, and then the workers entertained us with local dancing and even a (sub-par) belly dancer. We didn’t stay up late, as we had to get up at 4 am for our flight back to Cairo the next morning. It was scary lying in bed next to Jack that night – his stomach kept making horrible rumbling noises, like Alien was going to burst forth from his belly at any moment and attack us.
Well, that is it for the Nile Cruise portion of our trip. Stay tuned for part 3 of 3 of our Egypt Tour! (sorry it took so long to post this part – but I really had issues with our guide so it took me awhile to write it.)
We saw the Valley of Kings and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. It was pretty amazing. There are still some very well preserved colors in the tombs. We drove back across the Nile and that evening saw the Temple of Karnak at night. It was lit up and worth seeing at night.
The stupid part was we did not sail until 2 pm the NEXT day so there was certainly time for us to rest the morning we got there. The reason our guide didn’t let us is because he wanted to “sell” us extra sights to go see the next morning. At this point we had already seen everything on our list and had the next whole morning free so we did agree to see the extra sites. It still pissed me off – he knew we were tired but just wanted the $$. I really missed our Cairo guide!
So, the next morning we went to see The Colossi of Memnon – two weird statue things kind of in the middle of a field. Then we went to an onyx factory where these guys made statues and knick-knacks out of alabaster. We bought some pyramid tea-light holders, even though I didn’t think the workmanship was nearly as good as the stuff I have seen elsewhere (like Cappadocia.) Also, the guy inside was trying to make it seem like we got a good deal. He said, “You should pay me more. I have 5 wives!” And I said, “Well, the Quran says you should only have as many wives as you can support.” They didn’t seem to like it when I quoted the Quran at them. I thought it was funny. Also, no one ever really believed that we didn’t speak Arabic. When we were in Cairo Yomna asked how long I was going to breastfeed. I said, “Well, the Quran says two years.” She wanted to know how I knew that. Plus, I knew how to read the numbers and taught them to Jack and we learned some simple basics. Everyone kept wanting to know how much Arabic we spoke and I know they didn’t believe us when we said none. The secret is to learn numbers, basics, and then something funny and what people say when you sneeze. Anyway, I don’t think they ever believed that we didn’t speak it some. Before we left we toured the Temple of Luxor. (or else we saw the Temple of Luxor at night and Karnak temple the next day….hmmmmm. They all look the same, anyway.)
We then set sail down the Nile River. The Nile River is beautiful. It is so green all along the banks, and then the dessert starts right behind it. You can truly see what a difference water makes. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun. It is kind of weird that they didn’t worship water as well, being in the dessert and all.
The first night on the ship we were in the back and it was awful! It was LOUD and shaky and the air was full of exhaust fumes. In bed that night it was like being in a cheap hotel with one of those shaky beds you put quarters in gone bad. The only one who could sleep was Lil’ G and probably because she was half asphyxiated by the fumes. Luckily, we got to move up to the front of the boat for the rest of the trip. What a difference that made. No shaking, no fumes, it was quiet. So, if you ever take a Nile cruise be sure your room is at the FRONT of the boat!!
The next morning we toured Edfu, the best-preserved temple in Egypt. They think it is “new” as it was finished in 57 B.C. It was fun getting there – we took a horse-drawn carriage from the ship to the Temple. Once back on the boat we sailed on to Kom Ombo. We saw the Temple of Kom Ombo at night, too.
After that we sailed to Aswan. We toured the Aswan High Dam. It is huge, and created Lake Nasser, which is 480 km long and up to 16 km wide. There are so many temples and ruins under that water. Then we sailed out to see the Philae Temple. This temple was taken apart and moved so it wouldn’t be sunk under Lake Nasser. We also saw the obelisk quarries. All the obelisks of Egypt came from this quarry, and any granite in any of the temples came from here, too. It is still this huge granite hill right in the city. I can only imagine how big it was before they quarried all those years. Using rock “hammers.” I’m glad that wasn’t my job!
One afternoon, Sammi and I took a break while Jack and the tour guide went to explore the Nubian village. They had to sail there and then Jack saw some baby crocodiles and checked out the village. He drank some hibiscus tea because the guide “tricked” him into it. He asked if Jack wanted some tea, and Jack, thinking that he would join him said sure. But, ha ha – the guide only ordered it for Jack! There is no running water in the village; I think he drank Nile River water that may not have been boiled for very long.
After he got back we all went to the bazaar in Aswan to check out the goods. We bought some spices, but if you go my advice is to just go to a local grocery store or Carrefour. They have tons of stuff, and it is cheaper. But, we wanted to check out the bazaar anyway. Once again, our guide “tricked” us. The spice guy offered us some hibiscus tea, and our guide said he liked it cold. So, we tried it cold. Then we asked how they make it. Thinking it had been boiled. But no. The cold tea is NOT boiled. At this point I had just the one glass of un-boiled water whereas Jack has now had straight Nile River water tea, and cold bazaar tea.
We went back to the ship for the Christmas Eve party they had for us. We had a special meal on board, and then the workers entertained us with local dancing and even a (sub-par) belly dancer. We didn’t stay up late, as we had to get up at 4 am for our flight back to Cairo the next morning. It was scary lying in bed next to Jack that night – his stomach kept making horrible rumbling noises, like Alien was going to burst forth from his belly at any moment and attack us.
Well, that is it for the Nile Cruise portion of our trip. Stay tuned for part 3 of 3 of our Egypt Tour! (sorry it took so long to post this part – but I really had issues with our guide so it took me awhile to write it.)
Friday, March 02, 2007
BNH3 website
Hey everyone. We just got our Bella Napoli Hash House Harriers website up and you can check it out at:
http://www.geocities.com/tdcjloftus/
I’m the hash scribe, so if you want to see even more of my writing check out the Hash Trash link. (But, if you are easily offended by language or the mention of people drinking then do not check out the website!)
http://www.geocities.com/tdcjloftus/
I’m the hash scribe, so if you want to see even more of my writing check out the Hash Trash link. (But, if you are easily offended by language or the mention of people drinking then do not check out the website!)
13 Days
Can you believe it? Only 13 days until Lil’ G’s first birthday!! Also, guess what else? Yesterday some guy, who happens to be the Canadian element Sergeant Major, crashed his bike riding into work. He was trying to avoid traffic, which was his first mistake. Motorcycle and scooter drivers here try to HIT traffic. Anyway, he hit a rut or something and lost it.
They took him to the Italian hospital that was close by. They released him and told him he just had a dislocated shoulder and one broken rib. Why does this matter? Well, because when he leaves this summer then Jack will be the SGM, so he is acting SGM now until the guy gets back to work. Still not a big deal. But, next week he is supposed to go to Germany and sit on the merit board – from the 14th to whenever! Oh Hells No!! I told Jack if he went he might end up with more than a broken rib….besides if it’s only a broken rib and the guy is just sitting at a table discussing things he can still go, right? It’s not like it’s a field training exercise.
Being wise, though, the guy’s wife took him to the Support Site to see the American doctors and to get some good drugs. They looked him over and what he really had was a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm, and two broken ribs! Quite a difference! So now, I don’t know, that is a whole different story.
How sad will it be if Jack has to miss Lil’ G’s first birthday, though????
They took him to the Italian hospital that was close by. They released him and told him he just had a dislocated shoulder and one broken rib. Why does this matter? Well, because when he leaves this summer then Jack will be the SGM, so he is acting SGM now until the guy gets back to work. Still not a big deal. But, next week he is supposed to go to Germany and sit on the merit board – from the 14th to whenever! Oh Hells No!! I told Jack if he went he might end up with more than a broken rib….besides if it’s only a broken rib and the guy is just sitting at a table discussing things he can still go, right? It’s not like it’s a field training exercise.
Being wise, though, the guy’s wife took him to the Support Site to see the American doctors and to get some good drugs. They looked him over and what he really had was a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm, and two broken ribs! Quite a difference! So now, I don’t know, that is a whole different story.
How sad will it be if Jack has to miss Lil’ G’s first birthday, though????
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