Category Archives: Parenting

Humming in Harmony

02/26/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

Do you have a certain way of putting your baby to sleep? Maybe a song, using a deep hum, or a soft “shhhh” sound?

humming, baby, babies, parenting, Sleep=Good — Sleep = Good

I normally sing random, made up songs using her name and a lot of rhyming. Sometimes the words I use to make the rhyme aren’t even real, but it works! Kelley sings as well, but she uses real lullabies; I should look into that. Nah, I love making things up on the fly. I just wish I could write some down, I’d make……….ummmm….probably $10 at the most.

Kelley and I also use humming as a sleep tool. The humming usually comes second after our singing did most of the work and Avery is mostly asleep. But, what if we are mostly asleep and trying to get Avery to go back to sleep?

It just so happens this dilemma occurred last night. For bedtime, Kelley will feed Avery one last time and lay her down to sleep in her crib right after her bath. Lately, Avery has been sleeping pretty long in her crib and when she wakes up hungry, I will get her and bring her to our bed so Kelley can feed her. Once she’s had enough, Avery usually will just go back to sleep with us in bed until Kelley gets up for work. Keyword, usually.

Last night, Avery woke up earlier than she has been and I brought her in to feed like normal. After she finished, though, she just laid squirming around with eyes wide open. Not too fussy (yet), just moving and awake. Us, on the other, ready for more sleep!

This happened once before, several weeks back, and Kelley and I both started humming in bed trying to get Avery to go back to sleep. We were both using our deep voice hum, but since we were half asleep, we were trailing off at the end. After 5 minutes of the both of us humming in harmony (we’d make a great barbershop ~~quartet~~ duo), we both just started laughing out loud. Ahh, just 3 months into it and parenthood is already making us crazy. Or maybe we already were crazy…..meh.

Anyway, that first time, Avery did go back to sleep, but last night she wasn’t having our hum. Kelley tried holding her to no avail, and after several other attempts, I ended up on the recliner with Avery in the front room. Mommy needs her rest for work!

From there, Avery just squirmed for about 20 minutes and fell asleep. Then she woke up and screamed and thrashed for a good 5 minutes; then back to sleep. This happened one more time and finally it was time to get up. Yay.

I love holding our little girl and have learned to just appreciate the screaming while holding her (she has great lungs!!!), but man is she getting strong. Soon her kicking might hurt daddy in certain ways that are worse than others; gotta figure that one out.

Let me leave you with the reward of a good night’s sleep…..

I'm smiling because I pooped. — I’m smiling because I pooped.

Do you or your spouse ever have to take your baby to another room?

Any tips on how to handle these situations differently, or do we just need to deal with it?

Parenting

How Our Daughter Saves Us Water

02/23/2014 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

Avery has been sleeping pretty well in her crib at night lately and it’s throwing us through a loop. Despite not hearing cries at 4 a.m., Kelley has a hard time sleeping around this time since she’s waiting for “that” moment. I sleep pretty hard, but find myself waking with the expectation of having to go bring our swaddled princess to our room to feed. But, these moments have been slowly diminishing.

I fear getting too comfortable with this since the teething stage is just around the corner and who knows what that will bring. Until then, we’ll just try and make the most of it. Keyword, “try.”

Living the life of scared parents, when Avery is sleeping, we basically have adult quiet time, or at least try to. I suck at being quiet in the kitchen, and the animals suck at being quiet…..ever.

Amongst the things we do differently during quiet time is not flush the toilet. Have to pee? Sure, go right ahead, but please don’t flush, I’ll get it later. Yep, no lies, I even told my mom (G-ma) this as she stayed over for two nights. I keep thinking of her heading to the restroom and asking, “Can I flush in your bathroom?” Nope, sorry mom. I even denied her a shower and brushing her teeth at one point while ~~the mini demon was dormant~~ our daughter slept.

Too extreme? Maybe, but I don’t want to take any chances. Plus, as the title states, all of this not flushing is sure to save us some water. Avery’s helping us be eco-friendly and doesn’t even know it!

At night, not flushing isn’t too bad, but in the morning, I’m going (I am “Going” Dad, by the way) almost every 30 minutes. Not exaggerating, the several cups of coffee on top of multiple cups of green and black tea that I go through definitely keep the water works flowing. I’m a coffee lover and will drink the black stuff from our French Press like water. By the time her morning nap is over, our toilet is beaming with a vibrant yellow; unless I forgot my vitamins.

Maybe if you couldn’t hear everything through our house, I wouldn’t be so worried, but I even hold my breath as the pee splashes in the water. Too much info? Well, just speaking truth.

As a side note, G-ma confessed that she flushed several times while we were on our date night without Avery waking. So, maybe I am being a little paranoid, but I’ll stick to saving water, thank you.

Moving on, our little family of three had a nice day today. Not much happened, but I was able to get all of Going Mom’s lunches cooked for work while she cleaned a lot around the house. I’m just happy Kelley doesn’t ask for anything too fancy for her lunches. This week she’ll have brown rice with broccoli three times; two with wild salmon, and the other with chicken sausage. Then the other two meals will be something I make a lot of, quinoa with black beans and tomatoes. Such a quick, one-pot meal that’s healthy and doesn’t cost a lot. Wins all around!

We tried to enjoy a family run together in the outstanding weather we had, but Avery was not having the stroller today. When it’s just her and me, I’ll run with her at a good speed and she seems content, but we had to keep it easy as Kelley is working back up to it, and we were just too slow. So, that wasn’t the most fun 3 miles of screaming…..

I took Avery out and wore her in the Baby Bjorn for our walk with the dog and she stayed quiet, so I figure she was better. As always, we’ll miss mommy as she heads to work tomorrow, but at least Avery and I have each other to keep company until her return home in the evening.

Do you do anything different while your child sleeps to avoid a potential waking?

Will your kid only ride in a stroller if you’re walking or running?

Parenting

Our First Night Without Avery – Part 2

02/22/2014 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

Everyone survived another “first” in our household! We enjoyed our time together away from home and G-ma handled the night like a pro. I guess she does have some experience with two grown children. If you didn’t read Part 1 of the story, here’s the link.

Kelley and I started our night by picking up Chipotle (I had the salad bowl with black beans and Kelley had the burrito bowl with barbacoa) and buying some beer and gas station nearby. Four dollars for one sub-optimal beer at Chipotle? No Thanks! We had a refreshing Amber brew from a local brewery for less than half the price per bottle. Score!

We then trekked over to the parking lot at the concert to enjoy a romantic, bean-filled, dinner under ~~candle~~ lamp light in the car. The beer was tempting us and we were ready to enjoy a celebratory cheers, but we forgot a bottle opener. Being the smart, college-educated people we are, I utilized my belt buckle and had the beer opened after a few tries.

No funny thoughts..... — No funny thoughts…..

Food and booze finished, we headed inside to see the Imagine Dragons. We arrive over an hour after everything started, so we saw the last of the cover band and waited for the Imagine Dragons’ stage to be setup. To kill time, we obviously took random pictures.

The concert itself was great. We heard all of the songs that turned us into fans and had me thinking back to our puzzle days while trying to get pregnant. Good times. We’re not crazy people and our seats were pretty high, so it was nice just to enjoy the show and listen to the music.

Meanwhile, G-ma, was having a good time playing with Avery who was being better than expected. Go Avery! My mom said after bath time she did her usual loud crying since she apparently hates when it’s over, but it wasn’t too bad.

G-ma tried to keep her up a little longer thinking her bed time was later and said she was just so tired by the time she put her down. Guess we forgot to mention her bed time was actually earlier….oops!

By the time we arrived home at the late hour of 11:30, both G-ma and Avery were asleep. G-ma was on the couch and we woke her and visited while the Olympics were on. I also gather more food to eat, but that’s a given.

Overall, we had a great time, and I think our romantic dinner in the car was really the highlight of the date. I could go for just another “date” night by going to another parking lot for dinner and beer. I’m sure this makes all the ladies jealous!

G-ma said she’s happy to do it again, so I guess I just need to find a good parking lot. Oh, and Avery has to agree too. You think she agrees?