Cats....never liked them really. No offense to my friends who adore their little furry friends. I've always been more of a dog lover. I always thought cats were the more snobby of our household pets. One thing I also hate about cats are their naps.......and I especially think children should stay far away from that sleeping habit...........sigh. Our little Kiwi has taken a liking to the feline sleep habit these days. She is now 4 months and has decided that a zillion 20 minut-ers are what she prefers. For the first few couple of months she was a great sleeper! Getting up only once, maybe twice/night, two short morning naps but a 3 hour one in the afternoon. Although definitely more of a "spirited" baby at birth, I was in heaven with all the sleep I was getting and my time in the afternoon for dinner prep, some play with Rossi and maybe even catch a little snap myself. But these days she gets up at night every couple of hours.Throughout the day, she only stays for 30 min max and she's never really rested. Sometimes I look back at the day and think I've spent most of it putting her to sleep. Rossi (who's just about 2 1/2) wasn't a great sleeper at night until he was 9 months BUT when he got up at night, I'd feed him and he went immediately back to sleep. I think I recall him having 2 hr naps at this age. Now, again different story but I'll save that for another day :) But it really is true isn't it?, EVERY child is different. I was convinced that you could train any child with one method if you were consistent. But now I'm finding that is totally untrue! What worked for my lil Rossi doesn't work for Keeva...so as a second time mom, I'm sorta feeling like I'm starting afresh. And that goes for everything, not just sleeping. In my desperation yesterday I must have googled every method and scenario to come up with one that I was comfortable would work for Keeva. In my sleepy haze I was getting ready to bundle up the kids and head out to the local bookstore to buy a bunch of books from experts on sleep training.....then caught sight of the books that were already sitting on my shelf filled with theories that I already unsuccessfully tested.
I've always been the master researcher. When I was pregnant with Rossi, I counted exactly when it was appropriate to take a pregnancy test, knew exactly at what stage my little baby was growing inside of me and could almost predict his habits by the time he was born. I had researched all the best equipment, clothing, and made list upon list of preparation for our little angel to come home with us. Second time around........much less time on my hands (LOL), but I still do often spend too much time googling what do do with the toddler tantrum and more recently sleep training a cat napper.
But the more I think about it, the more I wonder about potential disservice we as moms do to ourselves and our kids by throwing out the mother instinct for expert opinion and popular marketing. I can only talk personally but I'm finding the more I read, the more stressed and defeat I feel over another "strategy" that has failed. Perhaps my strategies have been flawed with inconsistency over not having the time that some of them take to commit to (BTW, none of these people have more than one child to attend to, LOL) or because I get distracted by too many different methods and never perfect the one. But today, I went with my gut and FOR TODAY it worked. My sweet mommy (God I just adore her) said to me a couple of months back " Sometimes you have to do whats best for that moment". My most experienced mom friends have always said to me, try not to make it a big deal. So what if Rossi now has to sleep on the couch for his naps, so what last night I held Keeva longer than the 2 minute cut off for self soothing? I have a feeling that in a few years I'll look at my little angels and remember just how little those things mattered. All that being said, I definitely believe that kids do thrive on schedule and consistency and healthy and happy babies are ones who sleep well but I'm thinking I just might out down the books for a while and see if I can trust myself a little more with what I feel works for my little angels. After all, who knows them better right??!
Please do share your experiences with me. Am I the only one up at night? Let me know what's going on with you and what has been successful!
We are still getting over colds in the house and unfortunately it didn't bypass me so I'm feeling pretty blah. You mommies know that a sick mommy does not have the luxury of cuddling herself away for the day with cup of hot tea :) Instead I got up and at em and make some snacks with Rossi. My head was a little cloudy so I burnt the first batch (not a fun moment for me). Check this recipe out again from weelicious.com (I heart weelicious:). We all love these little "crackers" and they certainly don't last long in our house.
Carrot Snack Sticks (Makes about 30)
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Carrot, finely shredded and thin (I use a heading packed 1/2 cp to avoid dry dough)
2 Tbsp Canola or Vegetable Oil
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the first four ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Using your hands, add the carrots to the flour mixture coating the carrot pieces with flour.
4. Add the oil and work with your hands to bring the dough together.
(You really have to be patient with working this dough together so that the flour absorbs the oil. If you are concerned that it is not coming together, just add 1 extra tsp of oil to the dough and work it with your hands forming a ball until it comes together.)
5. Form the carrot parmesan dough into a flat rectangular disk and allow to rest for 1-2 minutes then roll out 1/2 inch thick on parchment paper or a dry clean surface. (I used my wood cutting board)
6. Using a knife (I used pizza cutter), cut the dough into sticks, 2 inches long by 1/4 inch wide.
7. Bake on a Silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.
** Recipe can be doubled**
**After step 6, place onto a baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes. Remove and place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze. When ready, follow steps 7-8, adding an additional 2-3 minutes baking time.
Gotta go wake up hubs from his little tuck in nap with the tod, in the meantime I'll go peak at my baby bear :)
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