Month: September 2017

I think we can officially quit calling it “sleep training” and start calling it sleeping!!! K had one wake up last night with a few seconds of noise/almost fussing and went right back to sleep. She followed it up with 2 long naps again today, thanks to her Doc-A-Tot!!!

It was super productive day for me while Kensie hung out with her Grandma, B! She also got another early birthday present! 

B got her a “Little Balance Box”! I had never heard of these, but Brenda did some research since she knew she liked climbing the boxes at the gym and I was looking for a “walk behind” toy and found it!

It slides, can be used as a toddler table later, and the top is made so she can smack/drum on it! K and B spent the afternoon “walking” around the house and playing with anything and everything! 

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Safe to say Kensie had a blast because when B changed her diaper after lunch, she reached for her crib and  went right down for a nap 30 minutes early before I even made it back home from errands! 

Kensie came to the gym with me this afternoon while I coached and she decided to take up DJing. 

She was pretty tired but she made it through, all smiles, and went RIGHT to sleep for me after her bath! 

I’m so thankful we took the weekend to give sleep training a go! I almost changed my mind and cancelled our attempt…seriously, ask Chris. I told him I didn’t think I could do it and I’d just keep feeding her when she wakes at night. Sounds ridiculous but I was nervous because her real, hard crying gives me anxiety, and I KNOW I am not the only mom out there with this, lol. It’s hard to listen to your baby be upset when you know you could go in and fix it so quickly/easily. I’m so grateful she took to it right away, had no real meltdowns and we didn’t have another nightmare of a night like the last time we tried! 

I tried to document what we did in the  weekend posts but I’ve had a few conversations about the details with friends that have asked so I figured I’d share the things we learned from trying it a few months ago (unprepared) to this time that helped us be more successful with it:

– Set a time and stick to it. 10 minutes worked for us. (Last time felt like 20 but it was probably less than 5, lol)

– Only dad can go in after the time limit is up, if they’re still crying. Especially if you still breastfeed. (Oops. I had to. I couldn’t just sit and listen to it!!!)

– Dad can’t pick up. Just pat back/comfort/say it’s ok and time to sleep. (Oops x2)

– Don’t make them cry just to give them what they want in the end, then it is unnecessary and they learn nothing from it. (3 strikes…and we’re out.) 

It truly felt like a hopeless mission the first go around. The Sleep Sense book helped us a ton this time and even though we added the nightlight/pacifier and a dream feed (not recommended in book 🤷🏼‍♀️), I am thrilled it worked for us! (Sidenote: the dream feed is also because I HATE pumping .)

Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself here, but I think I can safely say “goodnight”. 😉

Kensie had a great night of sleep and a great Labor Day to follow! 

We only had ONE wake up last night and Kensie put herself back to sleep in a few seconds. It’s a whole new world over here in the Hall house! 

After a morning gym session, we spent the day out on the boat with friends and KB had a blast! 

I’m not sure where it came from, but today is the first day I can safely say she was a Daddy’s girl. 

She was playing in the water with Chris and when he handed her to me she made her “I’m annoyed” fuss noise and reached back for him. Um, EXCUSE ME?! 😒 

Kens partied right through her nap time and was all smiles and splashes. It was the first time I’ve ever seen her literally fall asleep sitting up. 😂

KB has also mastered her cheek storage trick. When you give Kensie food, she eats some, and stores the rest in her cheeks. I can’t make this stuff up. 

She had some turkey when we first got on the boat and about an hour later she’s in the water making a chewing motion. She proceeded to stick her fingers in her mouth and pull out a piece of turkey. 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 Kens then did the same thing with her cucumber. 

While we are on the topic of food, we had our first public embarrassment at dinner. Kens decided to grab the placemat and rip it off the table. There also happened to be a plate on said placemat when she did that. Whoops. 

Not only did she shatter a dish, she made a nice mess so they really wouldn’t forget her. 

Oye. 

So thankful for a long weekend for an extra family day and more fun memories with friends! (Also thankful for all of the sleep we got in…let’s hope that continues.)

The long weekend isn’t even over yet (thankfully) but I can already say it’s been a completely successful weekend of sleep training!!!

Night one couldn’t have gone any better. By some miracle, Chris didn’t have to go in her room ONE SINGLE TIME! 

I went in for a dream feed at 10pm which helped me a ton because at 10:55 she woke woke up. I knew she wasn’t hungry, so I watched the monitor and stuck to our 10 minute time limit. She never got to the gasping/hyperventilating cry (thankfully because I would have sent Chris in before the 10 minute mark, lol) and at 11:04, she laid back down and went to sleep! 9 minutes exactly. Go figure! 

Her second wake up was at 1:15a and she fussed for 7 minutes before going back to sleep. Woke again at 4 and was up for  maybe 3 minutes and back to sleep again!!! IT’S A MIRACLE!!!  

I honestly think the nightlight was key for her. Not being in a pitch black room and able to get her pacifier on her own and comfort herself seemed to help a ton. 

K had a fun Saturday morning and a CRANKY Saturday afternoon. 

After Kensie’s afternoon nap – her mood was not exactly my favorite. She was in one of those “I need attention every second” super whiny moods…where even if you did give her attention at some points she was still whining and we were sure what she wanted. 🙄

We went to visit Uncle Will, Aunt Ashley and Henley and Kensie got an early birthday present from them and Aunt Shell to help with her sleeping!!!

I thought the first night going so smoothly was a miracle so I still can’t wrap my head around last night/today; and I completely attribute it to the doc-a-tot. 

Y’all. Kensie slept until 8:15am. EIGHT. FIF. TEEN!!! This did involve 2 wake ups but she was back down in less than 5 minutes both times. I fed her when she woke up at 6 and put her back down just to see if she’d let me sleep in longer. Sure enough, back to sleep she went!!! 

I got up at 7:20 and made a coffee with intention of enjoying it in the peace and quiet, but instead I put it on my nightstand and went back to sleep. I had to take FULL advantage of what was happening. 

I wanted to keep Kensie on the 2-3-4 nap schedule today since it works really well for her. Today was no different. The timing was perfect and she took the longest naps, ever! (Well, “ever”…since she was a little baby that slept all the time). 

Her normal morning nap is 45 minutes at most. Today? 90! Afternoon nap? Normally 60-90 minutes. Today I woke her up after almost 2 hours so I could make sure she’d go to sleep tonight! 😳

I don’t know if the naps were just because she was up a lot more and cranky the day before or what, but today was purely magical. 😂 I really think the Doc-a-Tot is a life saver for us. K used to love being swaddled and it was the only way she’d sleep. Now she tosses and turns all over her crib. This keeps her from moving so much and she seems more than comfortable!

In between naps today KB was back to being her extra happy self!  We made a quick trip to the store for some party supplies and Kensie had me DYING laughing in the middle of Publix. I legitimately think people were wondering what was wrong with me…

She was trying to EAT THE BREAD THROUGH THE PLASTIC. 😂😂😂 I kept telling her to stop but I also couldn’t stop laughing so it wasn’t too effective. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Once K woke up from her afternoon nap, well, I should say once I woke her up…she joined in on the pool party action! She tried black beans (not a fan), discovered she loves cucumbers, climbed in and out and in and out and in and out of the pool (from the stair), and fun fact: she can drink from a straw. I was unaware of that when she kept attempting to drink my drink…🤦🏼‍♀️

And for one more record breaking moment in the beautiful world of Sleep Training, Chris put Kensie to bed tonight and she didn’t make a PEEP. I don’t know how to describe to you guys what a huge thing this is. That has never happened. She usually screams if I’m not the one to put her to bed. 

I’m so proud of our smart little sleeper and looking forward to not only sleeping through the night, but praying this later morning wake up time and long naps remain a thing, too! 

Fat Lip Friday. It’s now a thing. Today was the day….Kensie had her first face plant along with the puffy lip to prove it. 

If you’ve seen my instagram story today, you saw that Kensie spent her day climbing EVERYTHING in her playroom and we had one more spill with a head bump and tears. 

As if that’s not enough drama for one day, tonight’s the night y’all. Let the sleep training begin. Please pray for me. 

After last nights late bedtime due to football, we had a pretty whiney/clingy Kens today. 
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Like I mentioned, we are starting her sleep training tonight. For those thinking “yeah you said that, what the hell does it mean?!”…it means we are taking steps towards getting K to stop waking multiple times a night to eat and learn to sleep through the night. 

While I love being able to provide for her in such a special way and that I get some extra snuggles out of her at night, we both need to do this for our health. Even though the wake ups are short and we get to go right back to sleep, the short stretches of sleep are starting to take a toll and a full nights sleep is healthier for the both of us. (Plus, maybe without all the midnight milk her feet won’t be so fat anymore and some shoes will start fitting her. 🤷🏼‍♀️😂)

I did a lot of research, read a few books and talked with some friends before we decided on a method we felt would work for us. (I also waited until an age I was comfortable with). Once we picked a “method”, I took 2 more steps to get us ready for tonight: 

I set her monitor up so I could check on her without going in the room. (Her room is attached to the Master so we have never really needed it before).

And I got her a night light! A friend of mine has 2 babies that sleep through the night and both use(d) pacifiers. Kensie’s room has a blackout curtain and it’s so dark when I go to get her that I actually can’t even see her. (One time I walked into the door..haha!) My friend told me she has night lights in there and when they wake up, they’ll grab their pacifier and go back to sleep. Since K still uses hers for comfort, I’m hoping this helps soothe her since I can’t. 😭

I searched a ton of reviews and chose this light. I love it already. It is bright enough for her to see but not too bright. It also has a dimming feature and you can change from the color from bright white to a warm yellow. When the battery dies we charge it with a USB! 

Around 10p I will go in and do a “dream feed” which means I will feed her while she’s still asleep. I’m mainly doing that for me, so I can assure myself when she wakes up at 12 that she doesn’t need food (cause this mama will use any excuse to go comfort her). We will only let her cry for a max of 10 minutes. If she doesn’t go back to sleep by then, Chris will go in, tell her it’s okay, rub her back/kiss her/tell her that it’s time to sleep. The goal is to comfort her by letting her know she’s not alone, but not pick her up. 

I can’t go in because she will smell milk, and me leaving will cause her to cry for longer. The idea is that she knows dad can’t provide what she wants, so if that’s her option, she’ll cry louder at first but not for as long and she should give in quicker and go back to sleep. 

I highly suspect Chris and I will be overtired and cranky tomorrow from a lack of sleep tonight so if you see me tomorrow, please don’t judge the bags under my eyes and excuse my bad attitude. Hopefully I’m wrong and we don’t lose much sleep; if not, I hope it at least pays off! 

Today is Day 315…which means only 50 days until Day 365. 😧 But, howwww?! Kensie made this day a GREAT one and it ended with a bang at her very first College Football game! 

She had another early wake up but it worked out because we had another early (and long) morning at the gym. She did get to see some of her favorites at o’dark thirty and they were all rocking their UCF gear!

I coached through her nap time and Kens kept her game face on the whole time. The second she got in the car it was game over. Before I even shut her door, K was out. When we got home I moved her over to her crib and she went right back to sleep. 

Kens was unbelievably good playing all by herself while I got some work done this afternoon. She got extremely quiet at one point and I turned around to find this:


This evening Kensington went to her first College Football game to watch UCF crush FIU!

Tonight was proof that she’s all about her bedtime routine. She started rubbing her eyes at 6:56 and by 7:15, this was our situation. 

Walking around with this 20lb attachment was my workout for the day, but it was worth it! 

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