When Gabriel was a tiny baby I felt like I needed an instruction manual for him!  I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who feel that way with their first baby.  I really like to know what is best and try to do it if I can.  I read attachment parenting methods and didn’t like all that I saw, I read Baby Wise methods and didn’t like all of those methods either.  I can’t remember how I ran across the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book, but I can tell you, it helped me SO much!

This book is based on much research, so I know it is not just an opinion or idea, I think that is what I like most about it.  All of the things I wanted to know about how much and when Gabriel should sleep were in this book.  Now, I knew…

• the signs to look for when Gabriel was getting sleepy
• the times of day when it’s most easy for babies and children to fall asleep and stay asleep
• how to help him get quality sleep, not just quantity
• that it was okay to rock him, or nurse him to sleep if I wanted to
• that it was okay for him to cry sometimes to learn to self soothe (after a certain age)
• the nap schedule he needed to be on
• what an acceptable bed time was

I can’t begin to tell you how much this book helped me.  My life suddenly felt so much less chaotic than before.  And Gabriel was SO much happier and well rested.

I will tell you though, we’re some of the only ones I know that put their children to bed at 7.  Yes, I said 7.  What time do they wake up?  Well, 7.  Yep, 12 hours later.  Gabriel has started going to bed at 7:30 now that he is a little older, and if there is a special circumstance he can stay up later, but that is his normal bedtime. They also both take about a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  The early bedtime is probably harder for people who have 2 working parents, or like to do a lot of night activites.  We are neither of those, and we enjoy our time together in the evenings after the kids are asleep.  It gives us time together everyday to talk, which is really nice.

Nathaniel hasn’t been as good of a sleeper as Gabriel until lately.  I was able to start using the methods in this book earlier with him because I already  knew what I was doing.  He learned to go to sleep on his own very early on, without crying too much at all.  I can tell a big difference in their behavior when they don’t get the sleep they need too.  They are much whinier, their attention spans are shorter, and they’re just generally harder to get along with.

Another thing that I really love about this book is that it can fit so many different styles of parenting.  He mentions how to use his methods with co-sleeping and the family bed as well as baby in their own crib in their room.  I’m also so very thankful for his gentler approach to crying it out.  He tells you when a baby is too young for that, and then he also tells you how long you should let an older baby cry, and when.  It is hard to let your baby cry it out sometimes, but we’ve found that when we continue to answer their cries endlessly, the crying is also endless.

If you’re looking to put some order back in your life, and your baby’s, then I highly recommend this book.  It has been a huge help to me in knowing what to expect, sleep-wise, at every age of my children.

I don’t know about your house, but at our house, you can hear someone whispering in another room.  I’m serious!  When our first son was born I noticed that during nap time he always slept great until I would get on the phone.  After I realized why he was waking up, we decided we needed to do something.

We tried the ceiling fan, and that worked great.  But then during the winter time we had to come up with an alternative, or freeze the kid out.  I did some research and found sound machines, and I have friends that use them, but they’re a bit pricey.  We finally decided to buy a $20 CD player at Wal-Mart and a white noise CD.  We went with the Soothing Air Conditioner CD, and it’s been a really good choice.  We can also use the CD player to listen to music, which you wouldn’t be able to do with a sound machine.  And I also take it to Grandma’s house for nap time there.

After our second son was born, we bought another CD player and another CD.   The only problem we have now is that our two boys bedrooms are right next to each other.  If Nathaniel cries, it almost always wakes up Gabriel.  That is really frustrating, but I have no solution right now.  In our next house, I hope the baby’s room can be further away from the other children’s bedroom, or at least have a bathroom or closet in between them.

We have a few things on our baby’s bed that are a little different than what most people have. With all of the SIDS hype, it is very important to have a safe bed; so we’ve done our research and tried to make it as safe as we know how.  Here is what we have done.

Mattress Cover

I can’t remember how we ran across this product or information, but it didn’t take long to prove itself to us.  We read about  Dr. T.J. Sprott of New Zealand who has done some great SIDS research that you really don’t hear about here in the States.  Dr. Sprott has been researching cot death, (SIDS), since about 1981 and has come up with some very interesting facts.  He has concluded from his research that SIDS is not caused by a baby breathing in their own carbon dioxide, but by breathing in the “hightly toxic nerve gas which can be generated from mattresses and other bedding used in babies’ cots.  The gases are generated by action of common household fungi on compounds of phosphorus, arsenic and antimony present in the mattress or bedding.”  In other words, common fungi in your house feed off of the chemicals in your baby mattress and emit toxic gases.  When your baby is sleeping, their little face is right next to where the toxic fumes are being emitted! If that got your attention, then go and read Dr. Sprott’s FAQs page!  There is also another interesting article on the toxic gas theory here.

The way to prevent your baby from breathing in these toxic fumes is to either buy a BabeSafe mattress, or a BabeSafe mattress cover.  We went with the cover since it was cheaper and because it also protects the mattress from “accidents”.  The mattresses are only available for purchase in New Zealand.  All of the details on measuring your mattress and “wrapping” it can be found here, just click on FAQs about mattress wrapping.  If you’re still not convinced, please look at this statistics page.  There have been NO reported deaths (in about 11 years) of any babies sleeping on a BabeSafe mattress or BabeSafe mattress cover!!  Isn’t that amazing??!?

Bumper Pad

The other product I wanted to tell you about is similar to a bumper pad.  In the past we had always used a standard bumper pad in the crib. You know, the tall, padded kind that you tie to the rails. But we never liked the fact that it could limit the airflow for our babies to breath; especially when they snuggle right up to it. When Nathaniel started using his regular bumper as a step stool of sorts, I decided to take it out.  But, since he likes to snuggle up to the side of his bed when he’s sleeping, he couldn’t get comfortable without the bumper there as a cushion.  That’s when I found this awesome CozyWedge at Mom4Life.  It is short enough that he can’t use it to give himself a boost, but it protects his little head from hitting up against the edges of his crib so he stays comfortable.  Even more, its unique wedge shape makes sure your baby is always getting fresh air.  We love it!

I just had to share this important information with you.  Hope this information will have your baby’s bed in a  SIDS free zone too!  Please, let us know what you think.

I hope you enjoyed a fun day with your family.  Up until this year Johnny has always worked on Labor Day.  But this year his company changed their holiday schedule.  I guess you really shouldn’t labor on Labor Day anyway, right?

We have some major changes going on around here.  I am still working on weaning Nathaniel and today was his first time to skip his favorite morning feeding.  He did VERY well and did not cry.  We changed things up a bit from our normal morning routine to  help distract him.  Usually Johnny goes and gets him out of bed; but I did this morning.  Then I had a cup of warm milk with honey waiting for him and he drank it up with no complaints.

The other change was skipping his morning nap.  I think he is ready to make the move to one nap, so this morning we let him stay up and play.  We went out to enjoy the morning at the park and he did very well.  By 11 o’clock he was getting pretty tired, so we went and grabbed some lunch to take home.  After he ate, I put him down around 11:30.  It is 12:45 right now and he is still asleep.  We’re hoping that this change to one nap will help him sleep better at night.  Since cutting out his early morning feeding at 5 am a month ago, he can’t seem to break the habit of waking up then.  From what I’ve read in my favorite sleep book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, it seems like getting rid of the morning nap will help his night sleep last longer in the mornings.  So hopefully he’ll start waking up about 6:30 or 7:00.  Hopefully.

I guess the biggest change around here though is that he is taking steps.  He is still crawling, since that’s his fastest, and safest, mode of transportation right now.  But I’m thinking his crawling days are coming to a close.  He stands up and takes steps many times a day.  He usually has a huge smile on his face and leans a little too far forward. When he does take a spill he rolls around and comes up with a smile on his face.  He is having a blast!

So that’s what’s going on around here today.  Doesn’t seem like much, but really a lot is changing for my little baby.  He’s making some big steps away from his time as an infant and headed toward toddlerhood!