Random Stuff

A few random things I thought of this morning while sitting in the rocking chair rocking a sleeping Megan...

• She's sleeping so much better. She'll still fuss a few times (and/or lose her paci), but for the past week--minus a few nights--she's slept from 7pm to 5am(ish, this morning it was almost 6am).
• She can eat more than me...literally. She loves eggs and can eat almost 2 eggs, and that doesn't include the peas, carrots and 4 (or more) ounces of diluted juice she drinks.
  
• She crawls so fast...and moves pretty darn fast with her walker too. We're still right on the verge of walking, hopefully soon!
• She has gone from sitting to standing several times without using anything to help pull herself up.
• She loves to read books by herself...it's so cute to see her "reading" some of her favorites...then making the same sounds she does when we're reading it to her (aka at the end of 2 books she makes this cute little hum...she does the same when she's reading her books)
• She will "disappear" to her room to play with her favorite ball toy (it gives her position away--it plays music when she plays with it)
• She plays by herself quite a bit. Her favorite toys are still her rings, books, and phones. Speaking of phones, she's started putting her phones next to her ear as though she is talking on it. Then she hands it to Mom for Mom to talk on it, too.
• She loves to sign "thank you". She'll even sign it if I say it to her (as in, thank you, Megan for handing me something you are not supposed to have). It's so cute!
• Speaking of signs...she now signs "please" and "potty" too. The other morning Irish came into her room when I was rocking her. She looked at him, looked at me, and signed "potty". I said, "yes, I think Irish needs to go potty." Too cute.

I've been reading the book The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers and have learned all sorts of things.

1. If I push back breakfast until about the time I desire her to wake up, she'll learn to wait until then to wake up. I've been doing this, and it seems to be helping. At least for the past few days, it has.
2. If after a few minutes of being awake she's crabby, she wasn't ready to wake up. If she wakes up cheerful, she's well rested and got enough sleep.
3. Kids her age need 13-14 hours of sleep (between naps and nighttime), and bedtime should be right when she seems tired and we put her to bed (between 6:30 and 7:30pm). The last 2 days she's gotten about 12 hrs, and things are much better.
4. Behavior of kids who are over tired include: temper tantrums, uncooperative behavior/overly stubborn, crabbiness, hyperactive, doesn't seem as happy as she should be, falls asleep everywhere (we don't have that problem!), hard time falling asleep. These are all problems we've seen. It's nice to know that it's not just her spicy-ness that makes her stubborn (although that could play a part) and her age doesn't necessarily mean we have to have temper tantrums as frequently as we have seen.
   
5. No changes to the bedtime/sleep routine will have an immediate impact. She says it could take up to 5-6 months. I think we've noticed this...if I think back to when we first got her, yes, we've been working on better sleep patterns the entire time. We've slowly gotten to where we are. There are few adjustments we're making, but are happy that we've been doing pretty much what the book suggests (I guess you could argue, it's the reason we've had success!).
6. What you feed your child for supper/bedtime snack impact their ability to sleep. I've not noticed this so much for Megan, but then we've only been watching for about a week.