Schedule = sanity + getting up early

So, the new routine is going okay.  It has been a crazy ride, going from 100% flexible to 100% scheduled in such a short time, but I don't think there's any other way to do it successfully.  For six mornings in a row I have gotten out of bed at 7am to wake Hollie up.  She has been napping at reasonable times, which is wonderful, but the new problem is that she naps for like three hours (that's a looooong nap!)...and then stays up until 10 or 11 just like before.  Which makes me feel horrible for waking her up so early the next morning (on top of feeling horrible for being up that early myself).  So...do I wake her up from her nap after an hour or so??  Geez, that makes me feel manipulative/micro-manage-y, not letting her sleep as long as she wants ever.  But on the other hand, it will do wonders for our sanity (all three four of us) to guarantee that she A) gets a nap and B) goes to bed at a reasonable time.  And there's no question that she does get plenty of sleep (and she'll get a little more if we can pull that bedtime back to about 9 or so). 

I hate having to wake her up.*  But if it works, it works, and doing nothing was definitely not working.

Sigh.  I'm just glad we're figuring this out now and not, oh, 19 weeks from now.

That's right...21 weeks today!
<----  See new photo
(Maybe one of these weeks I'll remember to move that soap dispenser.  No guarantees.)
 
*To clarify, I'm the only one that hates it.  She hasn't minded it one bit so far!  She's pretty happy in the morning no matter what time it is.  Plus, she gets to see Daddy in the morning before he leaves.  :)

We have been having lots of funny fun around here, too.  Great stories with photos coming soon...

This week on extreme nap-time makeover...

Over the last couple of weeks, Hollie's sleep has been in a bit of a downward spiral.  It's hard to say how it started.  She started sleeping later in the mornings, sometimes as late as 9.  She used to normally take a nap around noon or 1:00, but when she sleeps late, that's pretty much impossible.  Then 3 or 4 rolls around and still no nap, and Daniel gets home from work which is by far the best part of our day, so napping is out of the question at that point.  One of two things happens after that:

1. She crashes right before (or during) dinner, sleeps for an hour until I wake her up, and then stays up until  11 or so, and sleeps until 9 the next morning.
2. She gets really tired and grouchy right around dinner time, but gets her wild-child second wind and sprints in circles around the house until about 11, and sleeps until 9 the next morning.

In my "current condition", I am loving staying in bed until 9am.  It's the staying up until 11pm that I can't do.  And neither can Daniel, with work in the morning.

In order to reset our sleep patterns, I'm going to try waking her up a little earlier in the morning.  I didn't like the idea at first, because you never really know what you're going to get when you wake up a toddler.  Sometimes she's furious, sometimes she's groggy and clingy, and sometimes she looks at you and bursts out laughing like you just told the funniest joke she's ever heard. 

We tried it yesterday.  I woke her up at about 7:45.  It was probably a bad idea to try this on the weekend, because spending the whole day with Daddy was just too much fun for a nap to be possible (this really is all Daniel's fault, isn't it?).  She ended up crashing at about 4, and was up until 10 or so.  Not much improvement.

This morning I woke her up at 7.  We'll see how it goes...

Also, we're (I'm) going to work on a nap-time routine that is similar to bed-time.  For some reason we've never done a nap-time routine before.  With our unpredictable schedules, she's just fallen asleep when ever, where ever...which is obviously not working anymore.  It's time.

Update: Went into the room to read some books a little before 2, and asleep by 2:20.  Win!

Halfway

20 weeks!

...and holy moly, I'm a little bigger than I was at 20 weeks last time around!  I guess that's to be expected.  I've gained about 10 lbs or so, which I think is about average.  Absence of muscle tone makes a big difference, though.  Ouch.  :)

Also, this is the one and only pair of jeans that still fit.  And I have one pair of maternity pants that will stay up.  Thank goodness for sweat pants.  

Who needs chairs?

I just came across these photos today.  They were taken back in November and I just never got around to posting them!  Anyway, we're snowed in (yeah, again), and these reminded me of warmer weather (because Hollie's not wearing pants).  Enjoy!

To distract her from the [obvious] fact that I had the camera out, I asked her a few questions...

               Hollie, where is your nose?                                     and Momma's nose?

                        Ears?                                                                   Teeth?

                        Eyes?                                                               Belly button?

What a cutie.

More snow, 19 week belly, and...the haircut!

Nice, huh?  The last one wasn't nearly as windy, allowing for a short outdoor excursion.  This one had the 40 mph winds, and snow drifting around like sand.   

For some unfathomable reason, Hollie got upset that we weren't going out in this.

Took this the next morning, when the sun finally came out.  The wind had been coming from the left, really hard, hence the awesome snowdrift.

19 weeks (yesterday)!  It's in the slideshow, too.

Yikes, I need to clean that mirror.

And last Sunday, this happened...

After Hollie's bath, we put on "Horton Hears A Who", which none of us have seen, but I figured there would be enough animated silliness to keep her entranced.

And Dad got to work...

Thank goodness he works quickly, because after about five minutes Horton became less interesting than  

Momma-with-a-camera!!!

I was determined to get an "after" picture, but Hollie was determined to not let than happen.

So instead we got these...

I tried again the next morning at breakfast, but that wasn't happening either.

So, I got a good picture the only way I know how...

...while she napped.

:)

It came out really really cute.  I told Daniel I want him to cut my hair now, too!  I'm really glad we decided to do it ourselves instead of taking her somewhere.