Sleep training #3 Alex without soother

After one lovely day we decided to take away the soother Alex was still using when going for naps or sleep.

It happened after we visited nearby pet farm. Alex loved the animal there, but some of them frightened her a little. Like a white horse she didn't expect when she turned her head in daddy's arm. The horse was standing just next to her and she nearly climbed up daddy's head to run away.
She loved the rabbits and other small animals, but when we took her in one of the sheds to see ducks and hens and rooster, she run away for a first time. She walked in and watch them all was so interesting, but then the rooster decided to great her with his kikiriki and that was what she didn't expect. While she was holding daddy's hand she turned around like a ballet dancer and run. It was sooo funny. She didn't cry, she was just surprised. But I think this day out affected her night time sleep that night.

She woke up about five times, which was already very unusual for her. The only thing that calmed her down was soother, but she spitted it out in a while and when she found out she doesn't have it, she woke up again and cried.

The following morning we decided to try one of the gentle techniques to get her off the soother. They say you should cut a little piece of the top to leave a little hole. The baby will decide when to stop using it. Either when she doesn't like it anymore, or there is nothing left to cut away.

Well I made probably slight mistake and cut the soother too much. Alex spitted it out as soon as I gave it to her. So there was nothing else we could do than to go with the sleep training technique to get her to sleep without it.

We thought it would be better if she's off the soother before the baby comes.

The first naps that day, there were two, were very difficult. We followed out routine to get Alex to sleep, but nothing seamed to work. She was crying and crying, but after a while we could recognise that the cry wasn't cry for a soother or distress, she was just testing us. She was angry and thought our patience wasn't strong enough and we will give in and bring another dummy.

We didn't! The worse part was falling asleep. Even though she had her comforter bunny in bed, warm milk before night time sleep and bed time story she cried. A lot! The first night she fell asleep after about 45 minutes crying and us constantly checking on her in agreed intervals. She woke up only once during the night, cried a little, but fell asleep within 10 minutes.

The next day was better. Alex fell asleep faster, but still not fast enough and didn't sleep for long during the day. During the night she woke up twice, but was sleeping again even faster.

Following day she slept only once during the day, but night time was even better. Fell asleep withing 15 minutes, only 5 minutes cry and didn't wake up at all.

We are now on day 5. We had already 3 nights without waking up at all and last night she was asleep as fast as with the soother. So mission accomplished. She still cries a little, but last night it wasn't even a minute long. 

I'm very proud at her, no more soothers in the house. No need to do drastic measures. Just followed the sleep training routine we used for her before. 

Trying to get the baby out ;)

Well, I'm really happy that we had another check up in a hospital. Baby's measuring exactly as it should, so the information we got 2 weeks ago was wrong. Now just wait for him to come ;)

But if it will be too long, we might want to try to help him to get out, if I don't want to go for C-Section or induction in hospital, and I really don't want that.

So here are some tips I got from friends, family members, internet, my hypnobirthing course book etc.

Not sure which ones I'm going to try, but we'll see :)

Washing windows / cleaning house. This is an old wife's tale from my home country. It should help, not sure why, maybe due to the stretching and if you washing even doors squatting etc. Well our bathroom is sparkling clean since yesterday, just the windows now, they haven't been washed since autumn, ups ;)

Walking up and down the stairs - well, this I won't be doing as we don't have a staircase in our house.

But another version is to take a fast walk outside, I might try this one.

Sitting and light bouncing on a gym ball. Will be doing this one as I did it at the end of my first pregnancy and it seamed to be working.

Drinking raspberry leaf tea - with this one you should start earlier to tone up your uterus, so I'm already drinking a cup a day, but to induce labour you need to drink a lot of this tea. I like the taste so I might actually try to have more cups of it.

Drinking ginger tea - not sure if this will work, by my friend believes that it helped her to have her little one early

Pineapple should work too, but they are saying you need to eat a lot of it, one whole pineapple won't be enough. I can't eat more than a half a day, so not for me.

Spicy food is another tip. Unfortunately don't like spicy food :(

Then somebody told me to have a glass of warm wine before sleep. I'm not happy about that as I didn't drink during the pregnancy and definitely won't like to drink at the end of it.

Warm shower is another way. I like warm shower. I don't think this will do anything, but it's worth trying.

Have a good lough / watch really funny movie. That's easy to do so why not :D

You are probably waiting if I'll mention sex. Of course this could help. There are actually two ways how this can help. First if woman has an orgasm, this stimulates the muscles of uterus and the will contract and second the sperm can soften the uterus and the plug. It has actually some hormones or something that are used in the gel they give you in a hospital to induce labour. It's not such concentration as in the get, but why not to try. I actually heard from a friend of mine that even the thought about sex made his wife's water go, he didn't even need to pull the jeans down ;)

You can try hypnotherapy, visualisations, reflexology, acupressure/acupuncture etc.

There is even more ways including some I would be afraid to try, so I'm not going to add them here. You can see for yourself, that there is so many tips and tricks to help you without too much trouble. So when the little one comes, I'll let you know if I tried anything of these and if anything helped ;)

Sleep Training #2 Tony

Sleep training #2

One of my best friends asked me, after finding out that I did the sleep training course, to help her with her little man Tony, 8 months.

Tony was waking up a few times during the night. Sometimes less, sometimes more, but on average around 4 times. Still sleeping in his parents bedroom, and each time he woke up, my friend gave him water to drink and he went back to sleep.

She's returning to work soon and so I offered, I can help her with Tony's sleep. We met for a tea one afternoon where I got all the details I needed  to find out a solution for them.

They wanted to move him to his own room and cot, which was a great idea. So that week after our talk her hubby moved the crib away from their bedroom and Tony went to cot in his room. He woke up a few times during the night and even though I suggested not to give him water, as he's associating this with falling asleep, he got drink a few times. But the next day and day after less. Unfortunately he got a bad cold, so I suggested to do whatever makes him happy at that time, until he gets better. Then they can resume in the training. 

Even though he was sick, it took only a little bit over a week and Tony is now sleeping in his room, without waking up. If he wakes up, which is usually only once a night and every 3rd day, the fastest way to get him back to sleep is still the water, but he got sooo good at sleeping in such short period of time, that soon he will wake up only if he's teething or sick, otherwise he'll sleep through the night. He already show it a few times, that he doesn't need to wake up at all.

I'm really happy for my friend and her family. She can relax more and will have more power to deal with the return to work etc.

I'm glad it works for others as well. Can't wait to help a few more kids to have great night sleep.

Maternity photoshoot #2 / night time routine surprise

We had another great photo shoot with our photographer last Saturday

It was a birthday gift for me from my hubby.

I booked it for Saturday afternoon as he wanted to do some pictures during the sundown. 

Unfortunately for us the weather had another idea, so even though we made some photos outside, the sun was nowhere to see, but at least it was dry!

We started the photo shoot in our photographers house, where they have an atelier. A few pictures there, then we went to a beach nearby and had some lovely photos taken there. It was a bit cold, but we didn't spend too long there.

We went back to the house and finished with some more pictures. I can't wait to see the photos.

All took about 3 hours including travelling to the beach and back and us having dinner over there, as we were already starving. 


We came home half past 7 which is Alex's bed time. She's usually already in her cot, after bedtime story and sometimes even fast asleep. 

I made her a quick dinner, she gobbled it all in a few minutes and hubby was getting ready her milk. I put her down on the floor, so she could play for a while, before all is ready.

Hubby didn't want to give her shower as usual, just wash her with wet cloth head to toe, but Alex had another idea. When I was leaving her room after her bed and pyjamas was ready she was already in a bathroom, standing in a shower waiting of either of us to wash her. This was such a lovely surprise. I didn't expect it at all, but she knew what should come and as she was already tired, she wanted to get things going and speed the process up :)

After a quick shower, she even cooperate during the process, we put her nappy on gave her last milk for the day, so she will sleep better, daddy had the bedtime story duty and after all this was done, she was asleep within a few minutes.

It was amazing day! And I wish to thank our Alex for showing us, that even though as a first time parents we don't know all the time exactly what to do, we must find the right recipe first, but we are doing pretty good job as she's able to cooperate and help us. 

So my suggestion to all new parents, set up at least bed time routine, it will pay off!!!

Maternity leave #2

So this is official, my second maternity leave is started on Monday!

Those few weeks before my maternity leave when I was home were more like recovery weeks from the stress and tiredness. Now I feel a bit better. Not weak, I'm not fainting anymore, the tiredness is getting better as well, I think the iron supplements finally kicked in. 

Unfortunately there are other issues. Pelvis/hip/lower back pain. Especially during the night. I spoke about it with one of the midwifes at the hospital on Wednesday and she said it's completely normal if we take in account that my previous pregnancy was so close to this one. My body probably didn't adjusted to the normal state and my muscles were still more relaxed than they should be. With the amount of new relaxin hormone levels they are getting even more relaxed which causes the pain.

Also our little boy (they confirmed, that it should be a boy this time) is a little bit bigger than expected. I had to go for a new blood tests to check my glucose levels. Still waiting for the results. I hope all is as it should be and the little man just took after his daddy, who's much taller than me.

Just a few more weeks and we will welcome our new addition to little growing family :)

Alex is now nearly running, she still won't walk too far, but she's getting better every day and her sleeping is great too. We had now 3 days straight without waking up! Well she didn't wake up, I did :( loo trips and last night the pain again.

Also we started to feed her the food I make for me and hubby, so half of the week she has her own food, another half she would share lunch with us. It's great, I just needed to adjust the spices and salt levels, so she can have it, but that doesn't bother us.

She's now also more aware that my tummy is getting bigger and it's moving ;) she comes for cuddles etc.

I'm really looking forward to see her reaction when my tummy will be gone and the baby will be with us.  

Last Wednesday at the check up with my doctor I had for a first time normal blood pressure. Not low as usual, such a great feeling.

Little man is kicking less, but still enough during the day. When my Dr. tried to listen to his heartbeat, he was kicking the doppler away :) She managed only 5 seconds, but his heart is strong :)

So all is good so far, tiredness is better too, weakness is gone and now just waiting time!

Even though I thought I will have more time to write, it's quite busy home with Alex. She getting really good at the walking, even outside, started to discover more things home, helping me cooking and even singing in her own way of course :) 

So have a patience with me :) I'll add some more posts soon.