Ella's 10 Month Update

This post is about three weeks too late, but hey! Where do I start with this little fire ball. Ella is finally crawling correctly. She's been doing the army crawl since she was about 7 months old and come to think of it Harper did the exact same thing until about 10 months old. Next is going to be walking and I'm not sure I am ready for that. Ella is so tiny and petite that I think it will freak me out her walking around, looking like a little doll.

It is finally safe to say that we have sleeping at night under control. It has been about a month and a half of her pretty much sleeping through the night. She does still get up at around 4:30/5am to nurse, then goes back to sleep until 7am. I'm totally okay with this. I've said in a previous post, that I am not ready to give that up yet, not until I'm back to work at least! Right now she is teething like crazy and is having a rough time. Her napping is ALL over the place. These past few days she does not want me to put her down..ever. Today after three attempts to put her down in her crib to nap, which normally isn't a issue, and having her scream her head off - I caved and let her nap on my chest. I felt awful for her, that she was so uncomfortable that the only thing she wanted was me. Ugh, I love her. I always try to remind myself during these times that even though it can be frustrating, I will seriously miss the days of her needing me. So when Harper is napping, if Ella wants to nap on me, I'm all for it! After she snoozed on me for about 30 minutes, she was crashed and I was able to slip her in crib where she slept for another hour and a half. Poor babe. Teething must suck which is probably good us adults don't remember it.

Watching these two babes interact together is one of my favourite things ever! They love each other so much it's ridiculous. Harper is always looking out for Ella to the point that it is cuteness overload. 

Ella has learned "more" and "all done" sign language. She knows how to use Harper's magnetic puzzle, which is baffling. She remembers things like crazy, just like her big sister. They are both little smarty pants. 

Ella still nurses in between meals. She isn't giving any signs of wanting to wean off anytime soon, which is fine with me. I nursed Harper until she was 19 months old (right up until I went into labour with Ella) so I'm fine to keep going for as long as we can.

I'm officially at the end of my maternity leave. I return to work June 13th which is both exciting and very sad for me. I'm going to try to soak up every last moment and memory with my girls until then!

Things kids say..

Harper is at the funniest and most frustrating age right now. She is one month away from being 2 and a half and most of the time I wish I could freeze her at this age forever. Other than being the biggest sweetheart ever, she is also one of the funniest kids I know. One of my favourite things about this age is some of the things she says. For instance, when she tells us she loves us, she always says "I love you too mommy". She adds the "too" even though she is saying it to you first. If she says it to me, she will immediately tell Fraser she loves him, Ella and even the dog.  

When Harper's about to get a treat or we're going to do something she loves, she will say with the biggest cheesiest smile ever "I'm exseeded (excited)". Makes me heart melt every time!

Another favourite of mine is when I ask her what she wants for lunch or dinner and she replies with things like "cupcakes" or "jellybeans" or "farties" (smarties) or her new one "faghetti". The fact that she pronounces anything that begins with the letter S with a F is completely hilarious. She will also randomly mispronounce words like the dogs leash as "douch" or racoon as "fuckoon" - which has Fraser and I covering our faces because we are trying to contain the laughter.

I love the cute ways she says certain things or how quickly she will pick up new words and will use them in the right context. She is so darn smart and I want her to stay this age forever and ever. Except of course when shes having a full on meltdown because you've asked her not to do something for the bazillion time.

Harper's Favourite Books

 Since Harper is such a book worm, I thought I would share her absolute all time favourites. First of all, Harper's favourite author would have to be Julia Donaldson. She absolutely loves her books. They are well written and the illustrations are beautiful. I probably should have included "The Gruffalo" since that was the first Julia Donaldson book we ever bought for her and she knows it almost word for word. 

1. The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson. 

2. Tabby McTat by Julia Donaldson.  

3. Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. 

4. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. 

5. Emma by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver. 

6. Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow.   

7. I love You Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt.  

8. Alice in Wonderland by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver. 

Fraser and I love that she enjoys books so much. I love nothing more than to sit and read several books with her and have her actually want me to read them to her. I'm always buying her new books because she learns so much from them. Julia Donaldson has several new releases which I already have in my Amazon cart to purchase for her. I highly recommend her books as long as your child is willing to sit for a while since they are very long. 

If you have a young child who only likes to sit and read for short periods of time, I would highly recommend the Babylit books (Emma and Alice in Wonderland). They have only a few words on each page and beautifully colourful illustrations. Even though Harper enjoys the long stories, she still likes these books because of the pictures. There's so many fun ones to choose from!

I've started collecting all of the Babylit books and the Julia Donaldson ones since the girls enjoy them so much. My little book worms. 

Ella Sleeping Update / Sleep Training

Ahh, this little toad. The past three weeks I have finally got decent sleep and that's because Ella has been getting decent sleep at night. We have finally gotten past the point of her waking several times throughout the night and we got there with minimal crying. I'm not a sleep expert and I'm not here to judge others, but both Fraser and I do not believe in the cry it out method. Not for us anyways.

The way we look at it is, our babies are only small for a short period of time - even though sometimes it feels like forever. If Ella wants an extra cuddle at night, I'm going to give it to her. If she's teething and isn't feeling well, resulting in her waking 4 times in the middle of the night, I will go to her. Why? Because one day, one night, she will no longer need me. She will longer have the urge or need to wake up looking for my comfort, because she will be a big girl. 

Ella used to be really bad with being restless. She wasn't overtired, but wouldn't know exactly what she wanted to go to sleep. I used to have to go back and forth between nursing her, rocking her and holding her with her head nestled in my neck - before discovering exactly what she wanted to fall asleep. This was frustrating for me, since it would take 30-45 minutes to put her to sleep AND sometimes it seemed it would never end the back and forth. A month ago, I started putting her down in her crib when she got to this point. She was half asleep but super fidgety. I slowly walked out of the room so it didn't seem like I was putting her down and running - and would observe her on the camera. To my surprise the first night I tried this, she fussed (not cried) for 10 minutes and fell asleep on her tummy - which she has never done. I told myself before doing this, that my maximum time would be 10 minutes and at any point she got hysterical, I would go get her. 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing and to be honest, I expected her to pop her head up crying at any moment. She didn't. She slept a solid 7 hours straight which she hadn't done since she was under 4 months old - swaddled and in her bassinet next to my bed! The gentle sleeping method is what we chose for both our girls and we've never regretted it even though it can take weeks or months longer than letting them cry it out. I'm bad for going on sleeping forums and reading crying it out horror stories where mom's have been so sleep deprived that they've left their baby to cry for up to 4-5 hours! A baby as young as 5-6 months. This to me is mind boggling. How could you stand, regardless of how tired you are, to listen to your baby cry uncontrollable for even 45 minutes, let alone 4-5 hours. Did these mom's leave their house during this time? Because me, I would be sobbing in the next room (which I'm sure most of them were doing). 

Through these forums I learned of a term which is called "Cry it out extinction" which is what I guess I really don't believe in. This is where you put your baby in their crib for the night and you let them cry for as long as it takes for them to fall asleep. Nope, no, no way in hell. Not for me. The cry it out method with check in's I don't think is awful, just not for me and my girls.

Ella goes to bed at about 6:45pm/7pm and will sleep until 4/5am, nurse and go back to sleep until 7am. She went from waking 4-5 times each night to once. Which I don't mind at all! Now her naps during the day are still random. Some days she will nap awesome, other days she has silly 30 minute cat naps. 

So what worked for both my girls is I did the gentle sleep method, going in whenever they woke up in the middle of the night - would nurse them then rock them to sleep. During this time (6-8 months), I would work on nursing them for shorter periods of time and rocking them less. I would attempt to put them down in their crib awake but super drowsy (almost fully asleep). If it didn't work, I would pick them up and put them to sleep completely. With Ella, at around 7 months old, she started to fall asleep during her night wakings when I did this, but wouldn't when she was first going to bed or for naps. 

Ella now likes being rocked to sleep with her head nestled in my neck when going to sleep for the night and will stay asleep for 9-10 hours.

Things I recommend:

- Halo Sleep Sacks

- Fan

- Noise Machine

- Black out curtains

- A supportive partner/husband 

- Lots and lots of patience

Both my girls appeared to be ready at around 8-9 months to fuss a little in their crib to put themselves to sleep - without getting hysterical, only lasting 10 minutes or less. This is the key. For my girls, when they were ready, they transitioned super easy - when I tried earlier than the 8 month mark, I would attempt again a week or two later. The key is not to get discouraged, babies will only sleep better at night when they are developmentally ready with maybe a light push in that direction - some babies taking much longer than others.

For now, I'm going to enjoy my good sleeping baby until her next few teeth start coming in!