Planning for the summer events

I'm someone that looks forward to events coming up. I'm excited for Christmas by July, but will respectfully wait to play Christmas music until after November 11th. By January, I'm looking forward to the summer and preparations for Anvil.

As I've mentioned before Everly will be coming to Anvil this year. Right now we're only going to one camp, though I am debating going to another with her. We are also going to Kelowna for a week with my family, we rent a Girl Guide camp ground up there, which really isn't the true version of camping, it will be great for with a munchkin. However neither of these places have laundry. That will be interesting, I've been told by many to just pack lots and lots of clothing for her... by then she may just be living in a diaper any ways if its nice and sunny.

Diapers bring up a whole other issue. I cloth diaper 100% of the time, but laundry is required every 2 to 3 days depending on how many we have gone through. The few days we used disposables on Everly when she was first born she ended up with a wicked diaper rash. Never again, this is my biggest fear to have happen again. Our next kid, if we are blessed with another some day in the future, will be in cloth the moment they arrive.

So what are my options.Well, I could face hand washing all of my cloth diapers. This however frightens me as I've read up on the process and taking a plunger and huge bins to Anvil just does not seem practical. I'm sure I could do it, but I also do not know if I will have the time needed to make sure they are cleaned well enough. I'd also have to do this twice during the week, maybe even a third. It seems the cloth diapers I own will be staying at home.

A long time ago I joined a cloth diaper group on Facebook, so I put the question out to the other Mom's on there to find out what they have done. A few other options were given to me. Two brands of disposable diapers were recommended to me, Seventh Generation and Broody Chick. Seventh Generation has recently had a bit of back lash because its become public knowledge that they colour their diapers brown to make them appear to be more of a green friendly diaper. Broody Chick I had never heard of, but they are actually from a local company! I contacted both of these companies and explained why I am interested in their diapers and asked if it was possible to get a sample before I decide to put my daughter in their diapers for the events happening this summer as I did not want to spend money on a whole package when I may not be able to use the whole thing if they do not agree with my daughter's sensitive skin. Both company said they would mail me samples, awesome! I love free samples. I am a firm believer in that its always worth while to ask, as the worst that will happen is they will say no.

There is still another option. A few people suggested trying Gdiapers, which are actually another style cloth diaper. These ones have the option of a disposable insert that is biodegradable, and/or flushable. I wouldn't be flushing an insert anywhere as that worries me that a toilet may clog and overflow, but I do like the idea that they will be biodegradable if put in the garbage or in a compost pile even. I was even offered a few really cheap compared to regular price of the new ones. I'm hoping to give them all a trial run before camp season so that I have time to get my hands on what I want to use. Right now I am really liking the idea of the Gdiapers.

Next thing to figure out when to start "solids" with Everly...

The Crib

Everly has not been a big fan of sleeping in the crib since day one. We had several restless nights before we decided to take the bassinet off the stroller and try her in that. Sure enough that worked. We figured it was because she felt cozy in it. We also got a sleep sack for her, also known as her baby straight jacket, it helps keep her arms from flailing into her face, and again she slept a lot better, and much longer with this.

We've tried the crib several times over and it has never been a success. The lil girl was getting much too big for the bassinet so we needed a solution quickly. Over a week ago I had a light bulb moment and shoved the curved change pad under the fitted sheet in her crib and tried her sleeping in that. It worked! She slept well that night. After several nights though she started doing the worm in her sleep and she wiggled off of it. No longer a solution. Next we switched it to the mattress from her bassinet, still something familiar to her, and it worked again.

Two nights ago we went for the full switch to the crib again. I'd also figured out that she really likes soft surfaces that are warm, so I got a nice soft crib sheet. She slept for 11 hours straight that night, and she did it again last night! Yay! It seems we can finally put her down for the night in her crib. Sure she still wiggles around a lot, but she will have to learn.

If only this little one would nap during the day in her crib. She will sleep for an hour or so in the morning, and 2-4 hours in the afternoon, but only if she is sleeping in my arms. If I go and put her in the crib, she will either instantly wake up, or wake up about 20 minutes later. I'm trying to be good and just comfort her and leave, but some days its just easier to cuddle her and keep her asleep that way. (I put this issue out to all my friends with little ones, and have several things I'm going to try now, but am still open to more ideas)

Now to also get her used to the pack and play before Anvil...

6am Heart Attack

This morning Jason and I both had a slight heart attack. The alarm went off for our baby monitor.

We bought an Angel Care monitor after several friends highly recommended it, we lucked out and found one last summer on sale and got the last one because it was such a great deal. I really liked the idea of an alarm for if our little one stopped breathing and the monitor no longer picked up the movements needed.

We've only ever had the alarm go off a few times when we have forgotten to turn it off when we pick her up from her bed. This time it was different. We'd all been sleeping, first we heard a beep, then continuous beeping came from it. Jason and I both bolted out of bed, and we both had yelled "she's not breathing" as we ran to her room. Besides Everly's choking moments this was the most frightening moment we have had with her.

Thankfully it was a false alarm. She was curled up in a little ball at the end of the crib so the monitor was having a hard time sensing her movements. Poor girl was jostled awake by us to make sure she was in fact okay.

We would rather have false alarms multiple times over, than to wake up and have other heart break to deal with. My Mom has told me before how she found one or more of us (cant remember at the moment) not breathing in our sleep and was just in time to jostle us and get us breathing again. Sure many, many infants have survived without this monitor system, but I do not intend to stop using it any time soon. I  remember when I was younger and it first came out, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

After a quick 6am feed, Everly was back in bed shortly after. I however was still slightly startled by all that had happened, but very thankful. Now, I'm hoping and praying we never have to deal with that again.

Sleep

We have been very luck with Everly, since she was a month old she started to sleep longer during the night. At exactly a month old we got our first decent  sleep with her and Jason and I both woke up freaking out, thinking she had stopped breathing and the alarm did not go off on the baby monitor. All was well, she has just gifted us with some much needed sleep. Its only become better since then.

Everly swaddles and trying out the crib for the first time, it did not go so well, she liked the bassinet more.

She currently starts her bed time routine around 7pm normally, we try to watch for her cues that she is getting sleepy and its time to start getting ready for bed. On a typical night she will get a bath,be put into her overnight diaper and her pjs, wrapped in her swaddle, sometimes a book is read, and one last feed or bottle before bed. It used to be she would get burped and it was like she was narcoleptic, she would give a big burp and be fast asleep. It was the weirdest thing to see. Now we often have to burp her when she is asleep because she has fallen asleep during her feed, and all we have to do is put her in her bed.

Fast asleep while at the Aquarium in the bassinet. It was easy to transfer from stroller to our room or hers.

Everly will be coming up on 4 months old at the end of this month, this is often the time when families start to sleep train their children. How do you go about doing this with a little one who crashes when eating, and already sleeps through the night? It is very rare that Everly wakes up in the middle of the night, the odd time it has happened she is normally really hungry, will eat, and falls back to sleep no problem in our arms. However, if we were to just leave her she does not go back to sleep on her own. When she was a few weeks old we started trying the "Baby Whisperer Method" which to sum it up basically involved patting her on the back and shushing her, she falls asleep in our arms doing this, sometimes she will fall asleep if we have her in her bed and pat her on the back and shush.

Happy girl after her first full nights sleep in her crib, hands went
right to her mouth once we undid the swaddle.

Now there is also the "Cry It Out Method". I don't think I could handle this at all, when Everly has her harsh crying moments its like someone is stabbing me in the heart, I cannot handle it. For me, there must be a reason why my body is telling me that  this is not right and that I need to go to my child immediately. Sure there are modified methods of this, but even then I still don't think its something I could do.

So now what? How do I start to transition Everly to helping herself fall asleep on her own, especially the rare time she wakes herself up in her sleep? We do currently wrap her at night in a swaddle still, but with starting to roll we know this will be ending soon. She can only roll from her stomach to back right now, but this is a sign that its time to start letting her arms be free at night. We had swaddles that are all easy to leave arms out, no need to buy a new one yet... she is getting too tall for one of them now. We have also just started switching her to the crib. She has been in the bassinet since day 3, but is now too big for it.

We have also used a sound machine with Everly since she was a week old, or so. We have a monkey, and a sleep sheep that we use, just depends which is nearest or has functioning batteries. We'll often to it on so the noise starts playing when we notice she is tired, at times the sound from that is enough to get her sleeping. Do I start putting her in the crib and have this playing too and see what she does? Guess its a learning curve coming up for all of us. I know some use the Twilight Turtles or similar items, how do you find these?

What is the sleep routine you have done with your little one? I would love to hear what other families have done.

We have a roller

Everly rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time today, she did it 3 times in a row after I yelled for Jason to get upstairs and yet he some how stilled missed her doing it.

With how much Everly spits up, especially when on her tummy, she is not the biggest fan of tummy time. I was so glad she rolled today I actually cried. I'm going with she rolled because she wanted to escape the pressure on her tummy. I was thinking she may take longer to start rolling than most babies because of this.

Now that this is something we know she can do its time to change things around the house. I had already taken the bassinet out of her crib this morning because I wanted to try a different set up for her to see if she will sleep. We can no longer have her in the bassinet because it has solid sides and if she were to roll in her sleep that would not be a good thing. We've tried her a few times in the crib and she moves around a lot, its funny to watch because she basically does the worm in her sleep. This is not fun though when she wakes herself up at 2am in a different spot of the crib and ends up crying. Please say a little prayer for us that she will be able to calm herself at night when she wakes so that she can get back to sleep, and that she will start to not spin in circles and do the worm movements. It be amazing to have her start sleeping through the night in her crib.

As many have noticed and commented on, Everly does have a droopy eyelid over her left eye, some days are better than others. We have a specialists appointment next month on May 15th. We're hoping to get some answers as I've been concerned that this may cause her to loose her vision in that eye, which it will if it ever covers her eye fully for a day. We are hopeful that she will not need the surgery to correct her eye lid, but we'll see what the specialist has to say. Something else to pray about.

Some have admitted to me that they did not believe me when I said some times we need rain ponchos around Everly because of how much she spews at times. The other Sunday several people realized what's been going on fully after she spewed on Jason, then she got me twice, and she proceeded to cover the ground several times at church. Here's hoping and praying it stops in the near future. For now her record is 4 bibs and 6 outfits in 4 hours. Thank you to those who are supportive with everything going on with Everly, it means a lot to us, especially when you are willing to cuddle our little girl and not be worried that she is going to get you too.

I was actually trying to get photos of Everly the first time she rolled over and got this, sadly no middle photo because she took me by surprise.