Wednesday, July 31, 2013

If I could write a parenting book...

If I could write a book on parenting ,half of it would be dedicated to teaching your child how to sleep. 

Seriously!!

I've read so many books on the topic that even the librarian noticed. She asked me how lil was doing. ;)

It's been no mystery to those arounde how much I've been struggling with helping lil to get enough sleep. 

Since about December she was entering a weird state where she would only sleep for 20 minutes. I scolded myself at what a horrible parent I was. Despite everyone telling me "it will get easier," I just didn't believe them.

I learned during this time that babies don't enter a heavy sleep until after 20 minutes of falling asleep. 

t night we were still nursing Lil to sleep so I knew at least she was getting some rest. 

We tried everything; from getting her to soothe with a paci, car rides, ergo walks, and stroller rides. Although I got in great shape from exercising everyday, sometimes twice, a part of me knew that our lives could not always be doing this. 

5 months later nothing changed. We still nursed her to sleep or pushed her in a stroller for naptime. 

I decided to give cry it out a try. 

This method went against everything in my mamaness stood for. 

After about a month of trying it, it worked. Lil would cry/whine for about 10 minutes and be asleep. 

Scene: We change her diaper, give her Melvin, turn on Pandora to Rockabye Baby music, close the blinds, and put her in her crib.

Side note; I want to explain how we did this. I first had to notice when lil would get tired. She would rub her eyes and become fussy. If after 20 minutes she didn't settle down, we did without a nap, which was very difficult. On occasion when learning her sleep cycle I did let her cry for an hour. 


Okay so we got her to fall asleep, but no more than 1 hour would she sleep Nd I knew she needed at least 3 hours of naps during the day. That I was confident in. 

What was it?

I soon recognized that she was waking up sweating and put two and two together and began putting her to sleep in just a diaper. This helped quite a bit. It still got warm in her room occasionally due to the triple degree weather :(.

Then came night time in the crib.

We decided as a family that we would wait until after our vacation to do so. We stopped a few of her middle of the night feedings while in Tahoe. When she'd wake we'd bounce her back to sleep or sometimes just let her cry in our bed until she found a comfortable position. 

Then came the moment. We put her in without a night feeding. She woke up about an hour later and we brought her to our room. This happened twice. On the third night, SHE DID IT!!! SHE SLEPT 13 HOURS.

I still didn't get as much rest due to the fact that I was worried she wasn't breathing in there.

Happy to say that she is doing great and though its not perfect, this was the right time for us. She's growing up so much!!


How did sleep training go for you?

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Lilly Mae 14 months




Walking (June17)
Loves to eat
Favorite food: banana and Cheerios

Loves smoothies and juices
Loves gymnastics 
Her favorite tricks are forwards and backwards rolls
Gives kisses
Says mom, Gus Gus, dada, nana (banana) nom for more food

Points to mommy and daddy in pictures

Likes to climb stairs 
Loves swimming
Working in naps in crib
Likes to be read to
Likes to be chased

Still plays "where's Lilly"

Loves dogs
Says Gus Gus, up
Pretends to carry on a conversation

Loves bananas, chips, and whatever momma has in her hand

Sits on edge of pool till we countdown and say "Blastoff"
Can eat crackers alone (that's a bigger accomplishment for me)
Turns light switches on and off
Practicing signing 'again' and 'please'













Dear Lilly,
Wow!! Life is so beautiful with you a part of it. Every day we see how much you are growing. We are so proud of you. I pray that you will want to know God and that you will cling to Him during rough times. I love you so much. You may never understand how much of a blessing you are to our family!!



 photo mrshurleysig_zpsc691af36.png








Follow Hurley Love on Bloglovin

What's For Dinner? Week 8



This will be my last week for meal planning. I'll still post the link up, despite its lacking popularity (hehehe). We just got a year subscription to Emeals.com
Emeals is an online tool that does meal planning for you. You just pick a plan (breakfast, lunch and dinner, lunch and dinner, or just dinner.) Than you can choose your diet (clean eating, paleo, low fat, natural and organic, low carb, classic, slow cooker). And you are sent a meal plan for the week as well as a grocery list. Its awesome!!! Some of the diets have an option to choose a grocery store where the meal plan is based on the store's on sale items.

I <3 eMeals

We first heard of emeals from Dave Ramsey, while we were going through Financial Peace University.
We are giving it a try because I am going back to work in August and meal planning, though fun, takes time. This will be so helpful. Plus I'm excited to try new meals.

Monday: Meatloaf and salad
Tuesday: Teriyaki Chicken Bowls
Wednesday: White bean Chili
Thursday: Grilled Chicken Salad
Friday: Burritos
Saturday: W. Y. C. F
Sunday: Family Dinner


Have a lovely week!!
 photo mrshurleysig_zpsc691af36.png




Come link your posts and Pics!




(Submissions close in 4d 22h 15m)
Link tool by inlinkz.com

Come link your posts and Pics!





(Submissions close in 4d 22h 25m)
Link tool by inlinkz.com


[inlinkz_linkup id=299743]

Week 30 Health and Fitness

Well...July is on it's way out and August will be here so soon.
This week we enjoyed some candy while watching our nightly shows. Is it wrong that I was eating Good and Plenty's while enjoying Extreme Weightloss?!
Ha!
Have you seen that show? I LOVE IT!! It is so motivating to see those transformations, and much more positive than Biggest Loser.

This week in fitness was hard. I so desperately wanted to get in my 13 miles. I feel like Tahoe kinda messed with my stamina, since I was only running on the  treadmill. So hopefully this week I can get in that long run. However, I still got in my 100 miles this month!!

Fitness
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 4.5 miles
Monday: 9 mile run, 2 miles to and from work (1 mile each way)
Tuesday: 1 hour of yoga (Yoga with Adriene)

Wednesday: 3.3 mile run in the darn heat, 1 mile walk
Thursday: 5 mile walk, TIU TRI workout

Friday: (planned) Run!!

How was your week in fitness? What motivates you to stay active and fit?


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Book Review: Bebe Day by Day


After having read Bringing up Bebe, I thought this would be a good refresher. Especially since things have changed so much from Lil being a babe and now a toddler.

I must say that much must have sunk in since reading because many of the things I do were mentioned in this condensed version of French Parenting.
Although I maintain the obnoxious American parenting art of narrating my child's life, I have absorbed many french ideas.

From learning to be less hard on my parenting and allowing Lil to grow at her rate, using the 'pause', giving her a wide range of foods, not cooking a separate meal for her, and so on.

I really liked this book and it is great for those of us who really have not much time to read a 200-300 page book. This is a gem!!

I gave this book 5 out of 5. Easy read, helpful hints, and great insight into another country's philosophy of parenting.



What parenting tips do you have? 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Lake Tahoe 2013


This year it was extra special because we were able to support Hubby on his SECOND Tough Mudder and then spend a week in Tahoe recovering :)
 She was really excited...it was just REALLY early!




 Future Photographer?
 She loved watching everyone play volleyball




 Happy Girl
 She was hiding from me.




















Have you been to Tahoe? Do you have any fun vacations planned?


 photo mrshurleysig_zpsc691af36.png