After I posted last night, Melody woke up one more time, around 1:45AM, cried for maybe 5 or 10 minutes and then went out for the rest of the night. I am really hopeful that once we get her well-rested the night waking will cease. Today we maintained a much more normal schedule for a baby, with naps at 9 and 1 and bedtime at 6:30. I was aiming for 7, but she was falling asleep in our arms. There was no crying as she went down, and I'm anxious to see how the night goes. This is all quite the learning curve for us. I am currently trying to come to terms with how much life has changed. Julie and I had such a comfortable routine going, but it won't work anymore. I have no idea how I'll juggle both kids' very different schedules once Larry goes back to work. Inevitably, one needs one thing while the other needs something else. For example, Julie needs to nap before Melody in the afternoon, so what do I do with Melody while I'm with Julie? Oh, did I mention that she gets very unhappy if I leave the room? She is not a fan of being alone. Another change is that the only window of time to get out of the house is late afternoon. We used to always do outings in the early morning, which worked well for Julie. Now we're bound by Melody's nap. I guess I'll figure it all out one day at a time. Thanks for all the wonderfully encouraging comments and emails. Any advice on going from 1 child to 2 is much appreciated!
Here are some catch-up pictures from the last week.
In Guangzhou, all ready to go home!
Julie and Maddie playing the Hong Kong airport as we spent 7 hours waiting for the airline to do nothing for us.
The next morning, I had to feed Melody in the bathroom of the hotel room because Julie was still asleep. (The rooms were nice but really tiny.) The bathtub was the only good place to sit!
Dear friends decorated our home for our return. They also put food in the fridge and took such good care of our kitties and our flowers. We are so grateful!
This morning we finally got to use the double umbrella stroller that a good friend from Bible study got for us. It was so great to see the girls sitting side by side! Thank you Nancy!
What a face!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Improvements
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4 comments:
One thing that always worked for us w/ doing outings was to have Anne sleep in the car. I would plan the trip right around her naptime, give her a bottle and she'd fall asleep a few minutes into the drive. This worked well for us otherwise we honestly would have never gone out (by the time M wakes at 2 or 3, there's not much time life in the day to get dinner ready then to get a babe off to bed at 7).
Also, anne's 15 months and has just started (the past few weeks) going to bed at 7 pm. she used to go to bed at 6 or 6:30, so maybe she and M are kindred spirits.
Awww! I LOVE the picture of Miss Julie and Miss Melody together!!! They are such sweet sisters! :)
Sarah Lu has the same bubbles as Julie, Too cute!!
I hope and pray that nap times will get better! The first few weeks home are always the hardest. I'm so glad that Melody's sleeping is becoming a little more normal, I'm sure once she sleeps more it'll get easier too.
It's so awesome that you have Melody home now!! I'm so happy for you!! It seems like just a few weeks ago that we met you at the AWAA conference and showed us Melody's pictures. WOW! :)
~Staci, Sarah Lu's Big Sis
Erica,
Rowan also takes 2 naps and we have errands to run. I have her in the infant car seat that clicks out of the car and she naps for about an hour in it in the morning for us to run around. I then just put her down when it works out best in the afternoon between 1 and 2pm. You should be able to eventually get them on the same nap schedule, even if it means a short morning nap or no morning nap for her to sleep in the afternoon. Hope to see you guys at the Fox Valley FCC picnic in August.
Julie
Nap?? what is that? Oh I remember! Olivia doesn't take them anymore, but we do have quiet time during Joseph's naps. What used to work for me was to allow J. to sleep on the floor in livingroom around 11am, or in the car. Then they were both ready at 2-3 pm. Before two kiddos, O. would take a lot of short am naps during arrands since we are literally 30 minutes from any thing fun!
Crying to fall asleep is natural, it's o.k. to let her do so. It used to bug my mom that I would let her cry, (stopped within 15 minutes) but O. didn't take long to figure it out and soon went down without a fuss.
Hang in there, God brought you all together, He will give you the wisdom to figure it all out. WE'll keep praying for you as well, much love...........Cheryle D.
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