Oh Happy Day

Oh happy day!  It's amazing what a little bit of sleep and a little sunshine can do for the soul.  My happy baby is feeling all better, and from our follow up appointment yesterday we learned it was Roseola.  Not particularly worthy of a hospital stay.  We did see the PA again yesterday and came to a mutual agreement that a different pediatrician, one with more experience working with unvaccinated children, would be ideal for our situation.  Honestly, since my experience on Thursday, I feel like we have actually had a very positive experience with our pediatrician office.  Forcing a little communication on Friday (and having Alex there to support me) did wonders for the relationship. 

Since my cutie has been feeling all better since we returned from the hospital, we opted to get strict with schedules and sleep and Make.This.Work.  So we put our research to use and created our ideal schedule for Eleanor:

7am- wake up, nurse, play time
8:30-9am- morning nap (1-1.5 hours long)
10:30-1pm- wake up, nurse, play time
1pm- afternoon nap (1.5-2 hours long)
2:30pm- wake up, nurse, play
5:30- begin bed time routine:
     bath
     read books
     nurse
6:15-6:30- bedtime
9-10pm- nurse (dream feed)

When we put her down for a nap or for bed time, we sing her the same songs each time, lay her down and wait until she is comforted and walk out of the room.  If she begins to cry we wait 2 minutes and then walk back in the room to comfort her.  We will soothe with Shushing and rubbing her belly or back.  When she is calm we leave the room.  We do this again after 5 minutes if she is still crying.  So far she has been out by the second 5 minute interval.  And on a few occasions she has gone right to sleep after laying her down!  Success!

Notice that I didn't include any night time feedings after her 10pm dream feed.  We cut them out starting Sunday night and have had great success.  For the past week or so, I could tell that she really wasn't eating, rather just pacifying herself with nursing.  The first night we cut it out she woke a few times and fussed and we continued to do our 2-5-5...intervals.  I let Alex off the hook and did all the night time wakings and still felt like I got great sleep.  She didn't fuss that much!

Our second night (last night) I heard her wake up around 1am.  I waited the 2 minutes and before I could go in she quieted back down.  She did this a few more times but I never had to get out of bed.  I fell back asleep and woke up at 4am (on my own), 5am, and 6am.  I tossed and turned because I am not used to sleeping all night long, and because my boobs were so full!  But Eleanor slept on.  Finally she woke up around 6:30 this morning and I got up to nurse her. 

I AM SO PROUD OF MY LITTLE GIRL! 

Now I realize that this could be a fluke.  This could wax and wane over the next few weeks, and still over the next year.  But we did it.  We slept through the night! Almost.  But it counts and I'm so excited!

In completely unrelated news, I broke my blender yesterday.  Boo!

I was so disappointed.  My food processor recently bit the dust as well, so now I'm left without any means of quickly chopping or processing anything.  It cramped my cooking since I needed to make bread crumbs for our dinner.  I was finely chopping toasted bread by hand when I had an epiphany.

Mason jars fit perfectly on most blenders.  Try this. 

So I successfully made bread crumbs but am now in the market for a new blender and a new food processor.  Not happy about these future purchases as I was really hoping to also get a fancy new camera soon.  I hate when my "big purchases" wish list grows to a materialistic quantity, but that's where it is at right.  I would like a new road bike.  But I also really want a mountain bike.  Not to mention the clips and tri-suit I mentioned wanting.  And I need new running shoes.  And for that matter, probably a new swim cap (small purchase...but still).  I'm sure I could think of many more.  And I hate being like this.  Wanting stuff.  Yuck.  For now I will be grateful for nights of great sleep and warm weather and the hope of summer lurking in the near future.