A Video Link to Share

You must see this video! It is from a sermon series my church is doing right now called overcomers. Make sure you have a tissue handy!!
Overcomers - Grace Assembly of God - Cardboard Testimonies

Blessings,

Cassie

School Records and Spring Cleaning

I know, I’m sorry I have been away! I have been struggling to catch up on paperwork and record keeping for school for 3 weeks now, and I have been spending the majority of my computer time doing just that.  I had been using a much simpler, but not as thorough method to keep track of grades and assignments for the beginning of our school year and I just decided it wasn’t making the cut. So I have been working on getting everything back into Homeschool Tracker. It has been a real chore because as I mentioned, my previous records were not very detailed. Basically I had just been keeping a list of grades. So now I am pretty much getting all our paperwork out that we have completed this year and starting from scratch. 

Speaking of Homeschool Tracker, have you seen the recent software updates? they have added so many new features that are super useful!  I am really loving it! I still have TONS left to do but I am trying to be pro-active and enter in lesson plans and goals in order to make things easier to keep up with once I get everything done I am behind on.
I also started spring cleaning this week. I have been concentrating on all those deep-cleaning jobs I have wanted to do, but never have time for. I borrowed a friend’s steam cleaner and have done all of the carpet except the bedrooms.  They will get done this week as I have time. I have also been choosing one area each day to scrub the walls (our apartment has flat paint and seems to attract dirt, scuffs, and handprints) and organize. My dining room/school room is completely done and the hubs and I did the entry way today. I will have to take a picture tomorrow and post. We hung a print we have had for a while but never hung done by a local artist and a small shelf and made it warm and inviting. The picture is really cool and I love it that it is finally up where others can see it! The walls are so pretty and white and clean and my carpets are clean and fluffy soft, too!

Which reminds me of a quick tip for carpet cleaning: do you ever clean your carpets only to find a few weeks later they look dirty again? i have found the secret to avoiding that! When you mix your solution, use just a wee bit of cleaner and about a half a cup of white vinegar. It cleans and deodorizes and also helps get rid of any soapy residue that might attract dirt later on! I was really impressed by how clean and soft my carpet is! It actually feels softer that it did when it was new and it smells great!
Anyway, as you can see I have been really busy! On that note I am really tired and I think it is time to put my laptop away and snuggle into bed for a good night’s sleeps. I certainly feel as though I earned it today!

Blessings,

Cassie

Baby Sleep Diary – Days 2 and 3

(not my baby, but a cute pic I found)

Last night was our third evening using the methods from Dr. Ferber’s book, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems.  Things are still going well, although I really messed things up yesterday.  I did not sleep well night before last (I think my body is still on Joey’s former sleep schedule) and instead up getting up with Joey early yesterday morning, I opted to lay him in bed with us to get another hour of sleep.  Instead, he slept another 2 hours! Ooopps!  So in an effort to not completely mess up our schedule, I only allowed him one nap yesterday.  He was exhausted and nodding off by 7!  So I did my best to keep him awake til 8, then did our bedtime routine.  He ended up asleep by 9.  That could have meant a very early morning for us, but I managed to get him to sleep until 9.  That means he can go back to 2 short naps today and probably will go to sleep at 11:30 instead of 10:30, then we will be back on track tomorrow.
That said, things are still going well, though I think he will continue to wake a few times a night to eat until the end of the week-long process, when he will only be allowed to have 2 oz every 5 hours.  From there I am going to slowly lessen the amount, then replace it with water in hopes that he will stop waking to eat.  The time between night waking/feedings is getting longer with each night, so I think we are still on track.  He is also still having no problems at naptimes, laying right down and going to sleep and not waking until he is finished.
Another really good thing about this process is that since I am charting his sleep/wake patterns, I am getting a really good idea of what his natural schedule is. This means that very soon I will actually be able to put him on a workable routine!  I have tried to do this several times since he was around 5 months old and it never worked.  Now I realize that was because his schedule relied on my putting him to sleep at night and for naps.  Now he is not reliant upon me to sleep. 
I will continue to keep you updated!  Look for another post soon about my adventures with changing to cloth diapers a couple of weeks ago!

Blessings,

Cassie

Baby’s Sleep Diary – Day 1 (and a book review)

As some of my readers (meaning those who are family) most likely already know, we have been having sleep issues with Joey for some time now. Up until now we have taken the wait and see approach, hoping he would start sleeping through the night again sooner rather than later.  This has proven to be a rather useless approach to solving the problem.  I was reading an article the other day online about Dr. Richard Ferber’s techniques and I was very surprised to learn that, contrary to popular belief, he does NOT endorse  leaving a child to “cry-it-out”.  As I read more about his methods, I began to wonder of maybe they would work for us. 

So I went to Border’s and bought the book, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems and read it.  It is a very involved, lengthy read to get the most out of the information covered, but it only took me 2 days to get through it and develop a plan of action.
The first thing I learned was that Joey had developed some detrimental sleep associations which were preventing him from falling asleep on his own and going back to sleep on his own when he woke at night.  I also learned how to take care of those issues by using the “progressive waiting approach”.  I also learned about sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, and how they can affect how a child sleeps.  Then I went on to find out that all those nighttime feedings we have been treating little Joseph to were doing more harm than good.
So I plotted a course.  Our goals were to:

• teach Joey to fall asleep on his own, in his crib, at roughly the same time every night, and as a result wake at roughly the same time each morning.
• teach Joey to fall back to sleep on his own when he wakes at night so that he doesn’t wake as fully.
• as a result of the above goals, teach Joey to take his nap(s) at the same time(s) each day and to get to sleep on his own in his crib.
• develop a healthy bedtime routine and new sleep associations.
• gradually eliminate feedings until morning
• to develop and overall healthy sleep schedule.

We decided on this nighttime routine:
Routine starts 1 hour prior to bedtime, around 10-10:30 pm. Start with a warm bath (20 min), followed by playtime with mom or dad (25 min). Then cuddle in bed with mom or dad and a bottle for a story or song (10 min). Then lights out. Say goodnight to mom and dad. Go to sleep. Sleepy time environment is lights off, nightlight, fan running, and pacifier nearby.
So we started implementing these new approaches last night, and I am happy to report that it went very well! It is hard to believe that we are already seeing a great improvement!  Even though it was really, REALLY hard to let him cry at bedtime, it was only for short periods of time.  It helped that we had such a good time with our new routine.  He had lots of giggly, tickly playtime with Daddy, splashed in the tub, and then read a story with Mommy while he drank his nighttime bottle. 
The first time we left his room we had to wait 3 minutes before going in to comfort him.  That was pretty easy.  The next time was 5 minutes and was a bit harder because he began to really cry after the first couple of minutes.  That doesn’t happen very often around here so it was hard to sit and listen to.  The third time we had to wait 10 whole minutes until we could comfort him!  But we never had to! He was asleep within a few minutes!
As for the feedings, our plan required slowly increasing the minimum amount of time between feedings as we slowly decreased the amount we allowed him to have at each feeding.  Lately he has been drinking anywhere from 8 oz to 12 oz of formula overnight.  This was in small amounts ever 1.5 to 2 hours.
So how exactly did the evening play out?  Well I am pleased to report that after falling asleep on his own at 11pm (25 minutes after laying him down) he stayed asleep until 3:45am, when he was given 2 oz of formula and went right back to sleep.  He woke again at 6:20 and had another 2 oz and again went right back to sleep.  He then slept for another 2 hours and woke up around 8:30am.  So he slept a grand total of 9.5 hours, waking twice and eating 4 oz of formula.  That is a huge improvement!
Right now he is taking his second nap in which, like his first, he was laid in his crib and fell asleep on his own, without any fussing!  He has been a relatively happy boy all day and has been a joy to be around.  Not that he isn’t usually, but I am usually exhausted and not as able to enjoy him!
Needless to say, I HIGHLY recommend this book!  Do not let what you may have heard about Dr. Ferber’s methods scare you off as I did at first.  The only way to know if his recommendations could work for your child is to read the book then decide if you are willing to try them out for yourself!  There are a lot of once desperate, exhausted parents who will swear by his methods!
I am really excited to see how things go tonight!  I will keep you posted!

Blessings,

Cassie