Wordless Wednesday: Sleeping Beauty

I've always been a bit obsessed with "Sleeping Elle" photos, and on her birthday I realized it had been a while since I took any, so I grabbed a few of an afternoon nap this past weekend :)

The blankie is a constant, as are the multi-colored caterpillar (catapiyyo) and glow seahorse (aka big seahorse). Other animals rotate in - on this day it was Big Bird, a duck and George the Puppy. The last few nights have been adorable as she says "I'm gonna sleep with George" as she tucks him under her arm, settles that pesky thumb in her mouth and tells me to close the door. Tonight she insisted on adding "Cifford" - a rather large Clifford the Big Red Dog stuff animal - so I booted some of the animals (including George) out.

She's a sock sleeper, like her mommy, and is almost always on her tummy or side. She looks so big in the crib now - she has certainly grown from the first photo I took of her in the crib!

Remodeling

Elle's nursery used to be our home office/spare room. It has the central cable/internet hook up, has an outlet connected to the light switch, has all sorts of fun and goodness that one-year-olds would like to get their hands on. So on the day before Elle's birthday, I figured I'd make an easy furniture swap to try to address some of the issues that weren't really issues before she was uber mobile.

Ha. Easy my rear end.

Every idea I had came with at least one or five negatives. When I finally thought I had the furniture placement figured out, I realized that there was no outlet near anything that needed to be plugged in. When I figured out the outlet situation, I realized the phone hookup was exposed. When I addressed that issue, I had no where to put the recliner.

But finally, after about two hours, I had lowered the crib mattress (to the lowest setting this time!), secured all of the outlet issues, made all of the furniture work for this stage of Elle's life (now featuring increased open floor area for more fun playtime!) and situated everything. Whew. Elle laughed and stared at me as I huffed, puffed and sweated my brains out.

It might not look super different from the pre-baby arrival nursery completion, but trust me, the major problems have been addressed and Baby has a new view.

Nostalgic musings

Almost exactly a year ago, I finished my last class for my Web design certificate, quit my part-time job and went on a babymoon to Atlanta. (Wow, that was only a year ago?!)

That sudden amount of free time allowed me to dive in to working on Elle's nursery. I tackled several decorative aspects and then went crazy assembling furniture.

When I put together the crib, Tim was at work. About every 10 minutes, I debated waiting to finish the crib until Tim came home, because there were parts that would really have been a lot easier as a two-person job.

"Hey guys! I'm done
with my nap now!"

Last week, I had to LOWER THE CRIB MATTRESS. Because about two days after Elle started sitting up in her crib - a position we'd find her in when we went to get her in the morning and when she woke from naps - I found her pulling up on the crib. (In fact, I apparently scared her when I found her like that - I was shocked at what I was seeing! - and she started bawling when I walked in.) Although "Lower the crib mattress" was on my to-do list for my days off, it was suddenly thrust to the top of the list and was done before she went to bed that night.

But as I did it, I remembered, again, that it would have been easier with two people (although honestly, it wasn't bad with one person compared to the initial crib assembly). And I remembered putting all of the furniture in that nursery together, when I was still pregnant. Now there's this nine-month old living in that room, a little girl I had to try to preoccupy so she wouldn't crawl around the crib while I was working. 

Those nine months of pregnancy? I thought those went fast. Then I had a baby. And seemingly the next day, I was lowering the mattress.

Big step

Since she came home with us, Elle has slept in many places - arms, the swing, the bouncy seat, on the Boppy, on the couch, on our chests, etc. At night, she sleeps in the bassinet portion of her Pack-N-Play, which is right next to our bed. When she wakes up, I grab her, take her to the nursery, change her diaper, feed her and bring her back to the bedroom. For her next feeding, Tim gets her and feeds her and then I get up to get some stuff done before he leaves for work, so she never returns to the Pack-N-Play.

The convenience of having her sleep next to me is not lost on me, especially for breastfeeding. But she's a noisy little sleeper, and she likes to grunt and stir, and Tim and I feel like we need to hold our breath and not turn over for fear that we might wake the sleeping princess. Since I already get up with her and take her to the nursery, moving her out of the bedroom won't be a huge stretch, and I think all three of us will sleep better. Will I still listen to the grunts on the monitor? Yes. But I also know that our daughter can soothe herself back to sleep.

With our upcoming travels and my return to work, I know getting a "routine" is going to be hard. But  I'm making baby steps to a transition to the crib now, so that when the time comes for us to put her in it all night, she won't hate it and act like she's never been in it before.

Last week I started with our first baby step: A long afternoon nap in the crib. Her first time sleeping in it! I had to evict the cats for the event, but I brought in her monitor, her Miracle Blanket (more on that in another post, I'm sure, because it has been a lifesaver) and a CD of white noise. It took a bit to get her to sleep (she reallllllly didn't want to miss a minute of the oh-so-exciting action of me catching up on housework and e-mails), but when she was down, she was out. I had to wake her three hours later to eat.

Since then, we've tried little stints in the crib, all with some measure of success. Our little girl is growing up!