Category Archives: Le Bebe*

I’m learning that being a parent of an almost toddler is completely different from being a parent of a newborn.

Ruby is hilarious right now. She is so bright and inquisitive, she absolutely loves to play. In the past week she has taken huge strides in learning how to play independently, which has given me just another piece of my independence back. She’s sleeping better and eating well–life is pretty wonderful where she is concerned.

As I enter each new phase of parenthood, I continue to learn new lessons along the way. Right now I’m having a love / hate relationship with one particular thing: silence.

For months on end that was exactly what I longed for: complete silence. Silence meant that she was fed, happy, and asleep.

I’m now realizing that silence is a double edged sword: if she is in her bed, silence is golden. If she is awake, I’m quickly learning that silence usually means one thing: trouble.

My beautiful wee-bean is a bit of a talker. She babbles and giggles all day long. Even if I’m not right next to her, I always know exactly where she is and what she’s doing by her constant chatter. It gives me a bit of a chance to clean up or work around the house while she entertains herself.

When I see that she’s engaged with something, I try and sneak away to wash a couple of dishes or tidy up. I’m never far–if I can’t see her she is always within my earshot. I’ll listen to her babble while I work, then all of a sudden I’ll notice that the room has gone quiet.

Unfortunately, I know this kind of silence doesn’t mean sleep.

Ruby has acquired a new, wonderful skill–she recently discovered that things can open. She loves to practice on cupboards, lids, drawers, and her personal favourite: the garbage can. She knows that the kitchen cupboards, drawers and garbage are strictly off limits (you should see the guilty look on her face whenever I catch her… ha) but it doesn’t stop her from wanting to practice her new skill.

Any time that she realizes that I’m distracted, the babble stops and she quietly beelines for the “no zones”. She has a jolly time pulling the cloths from the bottom drawer and opening and shutting the garbage. Thankfully she hasn’t tried pulling anything out of that… yet. I know that the real day of reckoning is not far: that moment when she realizes that the toilet lid opens and that things can disappear there.

So, having spent nearly a year craving it, I now find myself apprehensive of that once wonderful silence.

*sigh*

Silly bean. What a kid. :)

P.s. It’s Miss Gentle Nudge’s birthday! WOO WOO! Who knows if I’d even still be writing without her gentle shoves every so often? haha! Have a great one!

The times, they are a-changin’.

My darling wee one has been up partying these past two nights. On Sunday night she decided to wake up and play at 1am and didn’t crash again until almost 4am. Last night she woke up at the same time, but thankfully I got her back down closer to 2:30.

While she shimmied her way around her crib blowing raspberries on the bars, I had a lot of time to sit in my rocker as I kept her company. To try and keep myself awake, I found myself scrolling through the Facebook news feed on my phone.

As I scrolled past photos of couples and babies, it hit me–my generation has officially entered another phase in our lives. In previous years, the week after Hallowe’en was time for many of my friends to post pictures and stories of their wild adventures celebrating the day. My Facebook feed would be full of photos of my friends at parties and bars, decked out in tiny Hallowe’en costumes.

After all, why be a unicorn when you can be a sexy unicorn? (ha.)

This year, I noticed a major shift in what I saw on Facebook. The teeny costumes and drunken pictures were replaced by photos of wedding rings and babies in costumes. Many of the profile pictures I saw were of couples, and it warmed my heart to see wedding photos and pictures of my friends taking their children trick-or-treating as a family.

As I sat in my rocker pondering this late the other night, I looked down at my own wedding rings. As you know, Hallowe’en will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first time I laid eyes on my soon-to-be Hubster… eight years ago.

Who knew that a silly $5 Lady Bug costume could affect my life so profoundly? If you had told me then that buying that costume and attending that dance would change my life forever, I would have laughed in your face. As a first year university student enjoying freedom from boundaries for the first time, marriage and children were not even on my radar.

Fast forward four and a half months and as I found myself staring down at a beautiful engagement ring in the Hubster’s hands, I realized that I couldn’t imagine a life without him.

And now, here we are–a tiny family of three–and I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I no longer feel like such an anomaly just because I’m married–most of my friends are married or in committed relationships now too.

And I have to be honest–I much prefer seeing photos of tiny baby cheeks in giraffe costumes than photos of bum cheeks in sexy unicorn costumes.

(I had to google sexy unicorn to see if such a costume exists.)

(via: http://images8.yandy.com/Products/Sexy-Unicorn-Costume-3201-5.jpg)

(Obviously, it does. haha)

As I rocked in my chair and watched my beautiful daughter wind down and fall asleep, I just felt… content. Even though we had been awake for three hours, I realized just how much I am enjoying this new phase of our lives.

While I sometimes miss the freedoms of university life, I’m happy that it’s behind me and that the future ahead looks so bright.

I hope you are too. :)

So, let’s just pretend that Hallowe’en was like… yesterday.

Because in my head, it actually was.

The past 10 days or so have been a complete whirlwind. I have about 8 unfinished blog posts sitting in a list that I just haven’t been able to get to because things have just been stupidly busy. My darling wee-bean has been a bit of a night owl these past two weeks. Instead of her regular 6:30pm bedtime, she has been up partying until 10:30 – 11pm.

…and of course by partying I mean needing her momma as we deal with some separation anxiety issues and big time teething.

Speaking of which, her first tooth FINALLY came through Friday night!

HALLELUJAH.

It was five months in the making, but she now has a very tiny and cute tooth on her bottom. She is also finally having a good sleep. She went out at 7:15 and has barely made a peep.

So, my usually free evenings have been full of snuggles while I comforted Ruby, thus my writing time vanished.

Which is why I haven’t told you about my days back at work, the Hubster’s eye surgery, our first date out since the wee-bean arrived or my search for new teacher shoes.

Worst of all, I haven’t posted pictures of the wee one in her Hallowe’en costume(s).

Which, really, is the worst offense of all.

So, without any further ado… I give you the Hallowee-bean!

We obviously needed a pumpkin bib.

My Little Mermaid*

And last, but not least:

The Littlest Lady Bug*

How was Ruby’s first Hallowe’en, you ask? What exciting things did we do?

We played on the floor and watched the Wiggles. haha! After dinner I had her half in her costume before she started getting tired and upset. I had planned to take her down to visit our neighbours, but when I saw she wasn’t in the mood I threw in the towel and hoped for an early bedtime instead.

(She obviously interpreted this to mean 10pm.)

So, it wasn’t our most exciting Hallowe’en, but at least she looked cute for the 10 minutes I got her to model her costumes.

Hopefully we are over the teething hump for a bit and I can fill you in on some of our adventures. I am currently on the hunt for some new fun work shoes, and I’m not even sure where I want to start!

It’s my favourite kind of dilemma. :)

Anyhoo, I hope your Hallowe’en was wonderful and that you’re getting more sleep than me.

Speaking of which, my kid is in bed, so… time for bed.

I’m back! It’s amazing what a little late night venting can do for the soul.

First off: I promise I’m not depressed. I’m okay. The reason I felt ready to write about what I’ve been feeling is because I feel like I’m through the worst of it. It was a particularly challenging couple of weeks with Ruby, and everything just compounded on top of one another. My sweet bean was/is teething and wasn’t sleeping, which made for a very tired, stressed momma.

Anyway.

This morning I realized that I haven’t done a little update about my wee-bean in a while, and I thought I’d introduce you to my amazing six month old daughter. Lovelies, here’s Ruby:

Each month I’ve taken a photo so that I can mark her progress, though I’ve neglected to write about it here. Nowadays it seems like she is learning something new each day, so I really should be better!

I have deduced that my wee-bean is the most inquisitive child I’ve ever met. She loves to see and touch everything, and she doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything, or anyone. Ruby just loves to be held, and she hasn’t started making strange with people yet. Generally she’ll let you hold her and she’ll play with you as long as you give her a big smile when you take her.

She also loves to laugh, but she makes you work for it. She won’t just laugh if you make a silly face, but she’ll laugh and laugh if you play with her. She is extremely expressive with her facial features and has the one eye-brown raise down pat. In general, she smiles and babbles all day long.

She has always been a vocal child–from coos, to dinosaur sounds, to chirping like a bird–and she just began talking this week. She has been making the “ma” sound for a few days, but she just began chanting “Mum” and “Mama” over and over when she sees me or wants me, which absolutely melts my heart.

Ruby also loves to play. She adores her “bumper jumper” and swings / jumps until I finally pull her out. Right now she loves any toy that she can put into her mouth–we have a big collection of colourful teething toys that feel good on her gums. She has been “teething” for weeks, but her little teeth have yet to make an appearance.

She loves music, and will curl into my shoulder if I hum or sing to her. She also is really into Elmo’s World and the Wiggles, and dances away in her jumper when music comes on.

She is almost crawling, but isn’t quite mobile yet. She rolls all over the place, and can get up on all fours and push herself along, but she isn’t quite crawling yet. (Thankfully. ha)

Lastly, in the past few days my little wee-bean finally learned how to fall asleep on her own.The Hubster and I have been trying some new sleep strategies for her all week, and we are starting to see results already. She is almost sleeping through the night, and now I can put her down at night while she is still awake, and she can put herself to sleep in a matter of minutes. After months of it taking me anywhere from 1 – 3 hours to settle her at night, this is huge for me. I finally feel like I can get a bit of my life back in the evenings.

The few weeks were admittedly very challenging for me as she wasn’t sleeping well, and her teeth were making her very uncomfortable. Thankfully we seem to have turned a page and life seems to have gone back to normal. I am so enjoying being home with her, and am sad that I go back to work (part-time) in six short weeks.

In short, I am completely in love with being a mom. I seriously have the best kid in the world.

Oh my. Where does time go?

Life just keep flying by at breakneck speeds and most days I feel like I can barely keep up. Apparently it’s July already, but I’m not sure how that happened.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I celebrated my 27th birthday, and my Mom, Dad and I took Ruby on her first big trip to the great white north. I was terrified to take her in the car for that long–it’s a seven hour drive without stops. Her longest trip prior to this was 2.5 hours, and memories of her major highway meltdown a few weeks back were still very fresh in my mind.

(Picture this: I am driving home from visiting my parents after dinner on a Saturday evening. Ruby is usually a little fussy during this time of day, but she also always sleeps for 90% of this hour and fifteen minute car ride. Ha.

Thirty minutes into the trip I could hear her waking up in the backseat. Five minutes later she was wailing while I sang to her from the driver’s seat, trying to calm her down. When it became apparent that this was not working, I pulled into a service station. I climbed into the back seat with her, fed her for a few minutes, and once she was calm I put her back in her seat and continued on my way.

I was on the highway for less than a minute when she started screaming. She was crying so hard that it sounded like she was gasping for air, and of course there was no safe turnoff for me for several minutes. I finally reached an exit for a mall I knew, and by that time we were both sobbing. I ended up walking her around the parking lot while she cried, then feeding her while she cried until she fell into an exhausted sleep… forty-five minutes later. Home was still 30 minutes away, and I have never been so afraid to get on a highway again in my life. Thankfully she slept the entire way home. It ended up being nearly a 3 hour trip when all was said and done.)

So. I was nervous, but it was all for naught. She traveled like a champ, and the little DVD player I bought for the car was a total win. She slept and watched Elmo the whole way. :)

It seems like so much of my life is centered on sleep these days, and so little of it is my own. A while back I mentioned that Ruby was having some sleeping issues, and I’m happy to report that we are beginning to see some small successes. As I’m sure I’m not alone in this, I thought I’d share what’s working for us so far.

We co-slept with Ruby until she was just shy of 3 months, when I transitioned her into her bassinet. The move went perfectly–she had no issues initially and actually began sleeping longer stretches once she was in it. For a few weeks I was only waking once a night to feed her.

Then her 3 month growth spurt happened. My super sleeper began waking up every hour at night, and she basically gave up napping. So, I did what any exhausted new mother would do: I pleaded for help on Facebook. So many of my mom-friends came to my rescue with so many suggestions of things to try and books to read. I went to Value Village and bought a few books about teaching babies to sleep. I learned about the sleep regression that so many babies go through when they are approaching their fourth month. I learned that everyone tells you something different about what you should do for your baby, and that I have to do what feels right for Ruby.

So I started trying things.

The first thing I began was trying to break Ruby’s negative sleep associations while creating more positive things for you.

Right–sleep association? What the heck? (My response exactly when I first read about it.)

I had always nursed and rocked Ruby to sleep. It seemed like such a positive, relaxing way to settle, and it worked so well. And then I realized that Ruby had come to depend on being rocked and nursed to sleep, so when she woke herself up, she didn’t know how to settle herself back to sleep without me. I immediately stopped rocking her to sleep, and have been working on breaking her association with “sucking” and sleeping. (For my non-mom friends, the sucking reflex is very comforting for babies. Who knew?)

1) The Lovey. To replace this, I introduced a “lovey”. One of my books suggested finding a soft blanket or toy that she likes and putting it with her every time she goes to sleep. I had a soft pink bunny blanket  that sat in her bassinet, so I began nursing her to sleep with it, then placing it next to her as she slept. By nursing her with it, the bunny always smells a little like me so she feels like I’m never far away. It wasn’t long before her little arms began wrapping around the bunny and now she hugs it while she sleeps. It took a little while, but now I just place the bunny in the bassinet, and she will roll on her side towards it and fall asleep. WIN!

2) Dark Room. I also read that sleep improves when the room babies sleep in is very dark, to signify nighttime and longer stretches of sleep. I replaced my bright night light with a much dimmer one, and put dark curtains up in my bedroom. I immediately began seeing success with this, as the two hours it was taking me to settle her to sleep at night began to get shorter.

3) White noise. I moved a fan next to the bassinet to block out all the household and outside noises.

4) Routine. I learned that it is never too early to begin a good bedtime routine. I began bathing Ruby at night, followed by a story, songs, then nursing and sleep. She has begun associating these activities with sleep, and will often let me know that she’s ready for bed shortly after her bath.

5) Consistency. She sleeps so much better if I am consistent with not only the routine, but what time it takes place. I try to stay within the same hour window every day, and she is so much easier to put down if she is not overtired.

6) Early bedtime. In my head I thought that if I kept Ruby up later she’d become more tired and sleep longer. Makes sense, right? WRONG. I read a phrase in one of my books that changed how I thought: “sleep begets sleep”. The more babies sleep during the day, the more they will sleep at night, and vice versa. I moved her bedtime from 9 – 10pm, to 7 – 8pm. It took me a long time to put her down at first, but her internal clock is shifting and for the past two nights she let me know she was tired by 7 – 7:30, and was asleep in her bassinet by 7:45.

She isn’t sleeping through the night yet, but she is no longer up every hour. Most nights I am only up once or twice with her, and I am continuing to phase these night wakings out. Right now I’m teaching her to settle herself to sleep by putting her in the bassinet while she is drowsy, but awake. It doesn’t always work–sometimes she wakes right up and is upset that I put her down–but more and more she just rolls on her side, hugs her bunny and goes to sleep.

I’m still working with her as far as naps go, but I’m also beginning to see some success there. I have a few more tips up my sleeve if your baby is a non-napper / sleeper like mine!

To those who came to my rescue with suggestions and help–thank you. I think it’s working! :)