Back on Track...

Now that the holidays are over and Sophia and I are finally healthy again, I figured it is time to get back on track with our regular routines. When I say routines, I mean getting Sophia back on her nap time and bed time routines. Before Thanksgiving we had Sophia going to bed completely on her own at 8:00pm. She would say goodnight, give hugs and kisses and crawl into her big girl bed and close her eyes and fall right asleep. Well, when we went up to visit my dad's relatives up in Washington for Thanksgiving, they didn't have enough bed's and Sophia ended up sleeping with us the entire time. So when we got back home she didn't understand why she had to sleep all by herself after getting to sleep in bed with us for four nights. Well, I once again began the tough process of standing at her door, letting her cry and telling her she is a big girl and needs to sleep in her own bed. By the time she was almost to the point of going to bed completely on her own again, I came down with quite a cold and felt too crummy to finish to the end, thus resulted in Sophia sleeping upstairs in the guest bed with me for a week and a half. Unfortunately, Sophia caught my cold and had a hard time sleeping and was very uncomfortable, so she continued to sleep in the guest bed with me until Christmas.

Sophia when she wasn't feeling well :(

Little sickly couch potato

By Christmas she was well again so I started rocking her to sleep and putting her in her own bed. Well, two nights after Christmas she woke up burning up and had caught an even worse bug! This cold consisted of a medium to high temp, her refusing food and liquids and pretty much just wanting to lay on the couch and watch cartoons. So once again I put her in bed with me upstairs in the guest bed so that I could keep a close eye on her and monitor her cough and temperature. It has now been a little over a week since she got the nasty cold and is finally better. She still has a little congested cough that will wake her up through out the night every so often. But for the most part I am hoping we have had our share of colds this season and will be able to stay healthy for a long time! Which brings me to the purpose of this post. Now that Sophia is finally better, I would like to get her back on track with going down for a nap and to bed by herself and sleeping through the night before the baby comes in February. My goal was to have Sophia fairly self sufficient at bedtime so that we could focus most of our energy on the babies many needs when we first bring her (or him?) home. Plus the fact that Sophia is almost 2 years old and is at the point where she should be able to achieve this. Jeff is fairly strong when it comes to putting Sophia to bed and making her stay in her bed and go to sleep. I, on the other hand either get exhausted and give in, or hear her crying and saying "mommy, up please", and it breaks my heart and I give in. However, I know that once again I have to go through a week or so of being consistent and strong when it comes to her bedtime routine. I am just keeping my fingers crossed it's a week and not a month of this. It is so incredibly hard to hear her cry for me and put her arms out and make me think she's going to die if I don't go in and pick her up! I think a tag-team of me and Jeff taking turns putting her to bed will help to make the process a bit more bearable (I'm hoping). I also would like to get her back on track with potting training. She has done very well with going poop in the toilet and hasn't gone in her diaper since before Thanksgiving. However, she still goes pee-pee in her diaper and will go a few times in the toilet. And when she got pretty sick and was really uncomfortable, I didn't push trying to go on the potty, so she has kind of fell out of sync with the whole thing. I may sound like a control freak or an over uptight mom, but I have always believed that children need consistency and a schedule in their lives. I feel this is important because it gives them security and stability. And it also helps them to mature by knowing what they need to do at what times of the day and what comes next in their routine. Now, I just pray that I can have the energy (especially with being in the last few weeks of my second pregnancy), to stick with these two processes, so that it can benefit both Jeff and I, and Sophia in the long run.