So far 2014 is shaping up to be a great year for us. I am super excited that we are back in routine. Routine is super important to our family. While I don't schedule things down to the minute we do have a fairly structured atmosphere. Personally I think its crucial to our family to function properly.
Our whole routine revolves around one thing and one thing only. SLEEP!!! If our sleep schedules are off, it throws all of us off and with that our routines. We have always taken pride in our kids' sleeping habits but as soon as our routine is messed up their sleeping habits get messed up. We are finally just getting all our sleep schedules back on track and we have been back into the swing of things now for three weeks. Often we get comments on our kids' sleep habits and how well they go to bed for us. I assure you we have worked hard to get where we are with their sleeping. We've been through bouts of sleep apnea and with that, all the sleepless nights. Having had four newborns so we have also been through all of that, also having the odd night where someone climbs into our bed. We are not perfect by any means.
Having 4 kids between 2 and 8 we have to adjust and we do so often. you have to take in account of the age their at, the behaviors that they have. Even look at yourself. Are you a night owl? An early riser? A late riser?
Nat is a night owl and can usually pull 5 to 7 hours of sleep and function well. For me I like to stay up late but I need an 8 hour minimum. I like to have 10 to 12 hours. I love sleep, I could sleep away days. J is what we like to call a normal kid. he needs 10 to 12 hours and often gets that. C is a lot like his dad. he only needs about 8 hours and because of this goes to bed at the same time as his siblings but is our early riser. K and N are our sleepers often (If able) pull 10 to 14 hours. There usually isn't a day where we have to wake one or both to go to school.
For us we have stuck to an earlier bed time. We start at 645 and often all kids are in bed asleep by 8. We have found that if we put them to bed at that time they sleep for their required amount of time and are refreshed and happy when they get up. If we put them to bed later they are still up at the same time and are in horrible moods.
With all four kids we did the cry out method. when I say that I don't mean we let them scream and scream and scream, we let them cry it out within reason. When we first started with each one it was heart breaking but I am so glad now we did it while they were babies and don't have to fight with an 8 year old now. When we started we started in 5 minute intervals and after 15 mins (3 - 5 minute intervals) we upped it to 10 minutes for 30 minutes (3- 10 minute intervals) I don't think we ever made it to 15 minute intervals.
Here's what we did. (By the way Nat is way better at this then me) Please Note: We found the best time to start this is at bed time about 630 -9 if their too tired it will not work.
Baby is crying (baby is fed, dry has soother but isn't wanting to sleep)
-go in at 5 min sooth, give soother blankie, rub back and reassure. Leave room and shut door. (DO NOT PICK UP BABY OR TURN LIGHT ON)
-When baby starts crying wait 5 mins and do it again. continue one more time
- If baby is still crying after you sooth after 5 min for 15 min increase time to 10 min
-let baby cry for 10 min go in sooth and repeat 3 times
Some babies are stubborn and it may take increasing to 15 min but after 15 we have found that going back down to 5 min intervals and repeating works best.
We are going through all of this at the moment with N again since switching her beds. It takes more time and effort when they get older since they have figured out how to push your buttons and how far they can go till you give in.
Even with our older kids we have to occasionally re enforce bed time. We get the "I need a drink" "I need to poop" and so on. The same goes to them. We give in 3 times then we get forceful. Yes you may have a drink, yes you can go poop, yes I love you. Now it is bed time! Then we start taking away privileges and add chores.If they are being super stubborn it usually just takes one privilege and one chore.
Bed time is a non negotiable for us and we have always made it clear. After bedtime its our time as parents, we need this time for us to be alone by ourselves or alone together.
Friday, 24 January 2014
Thursday, 19 December 2013
Christmas is coming......
This is probably the first year that I am not stressed about Christmas. We are so blessed to be able to not stress about money this year. For that I am thankful. Not participating in any huge family gatherings I am not stressed about gifts, pot luck items, stocking stuffers, white elephant exchanges or ANYTHING.
Like I said in a post above, we are taking this year to our own little family. This has cut down so many stresses but we still have Christmas to prepare for. I am so happy that all we have to do is take the kids shopping for each other and the we are done!! I even have most of my gifts wrapped by an amazing angel.
This week was super busy with a day at piano, last art class, card deliveries, and class parties. This weekend I came across a Pintrest idea I HAD to make for the kids' parties. Tuesday afternoon I made my way to Walmart KIDLESS (thanks to a hubby who was sick and working from home) I took my time picking out fruit and getting things for next weeks dinners, got to te till and was in line at the slowest cashier and a lady who had about $1000 worth of stuff. Instead of getting frustrated I took the time to check out a few emails that I had neglected and sent a few I had been meaning to send.
Finally I got through the check out and the cashier asked for $150.... I was shocked, all I had bought was fruit and a few packages of meat. Shell shocked I got to the van unloaded the food and looked at the receipt. Now meat I get isn't cheap and I did buy a few things it added up to $50. It was the FRUIT that cost me $100. My brilliant idea cost more that 3 pre cut fruit platters from Sobeys. it could have been no mess, no fuss and NO STRESS but no. No I had to be THAT mom, the Mom that came with the amazing dish, structure or idea. After putting all the food away and forgetting about the cost I got to making my brilliant idea. Wednesday morning I had my coffee, cut the cantaloupe and honeydew, washed the grapes and got everything prepared to put this thing together. Well it flopped and I mean FLOPPED, it was my first fail at attempting something from a blog, it was lopsided and looked horrible.
Luckily I had a friend here and I couldn't break down and cry and sob that my brilliant plan didn't work so I took a deep breath and pulled all the things off the tooth picks, put the fruit in a bowl and called it done. I dropped it off at C's class and he was thrilled I brought something, the teacher was thrilled that I brought fruit. Out of 19 kids in his class I was the only parent to bring fruit and not something sweet. I didn't have to go all out, I didn't need to stress about being "Perfect" just the effort alone was enough. C came home last night and not one piece of fruit was left, but the bowl was full of the sweets his classmates had brought. Now nothing against those moms. (My kid and myself were very happy to eat those sweets) I am saying that I was thrilled that my little effort of cutting up fruit was ENOUGH, I was ENOUGH and that makes my heart soar in itself.
Knowing that I can stress less about the week, I have two more fruit trays to make with my $100 fruit but that is it, not going overboard, no many hours spent. Just a fruit tray is ENOUGH!!!
Like I said in a post above, we are taking this year to our own little family. This has cut down so many stresses but we still have Christmas to prepare for. I am so happy that all we have to do is take the kids shopping for each other and the we are done!! I even have most of my gifts wrapped by an amazing angel.
This week was super busy with a day at piano, last art class, card deliveries, and class parties. This weekend I came across a Pintrest idea I HAD to make for the kids' parties. Tuesday afternoon I made my way to Walmart KIDLESS (thanks to a hubby who was sick and working from home) I took my time picking out fruit and getting things for next weeks dinners, got to te till and was in line at the slowest cashier and a lady who had about $1000 worth of stuff. Instead of getting frustrated I took the time to check out a few emails that I had neglected and sent a few I had been meaning to send.
Finally I got through the check out and the cashier asked for $150.... I was shocked, all I had bought was fruit and a few packages of meat. Shell shocked I got to the van unloaded the food and looked at the receipt. Now meat I get isn't cheap and I did buy a few things it added up to $50. It was the FRUIT that cost me $100. My brilliant idea cost more that 3 pre cut fruit platters from Sobeys. it could have been no mess, no fuss and NO STRESS but no. No I had to be THAT mom, the Mom that came with the amazing dish, structure or idea. After putting all the food away and forgetting about the cost I got to making my brilliant idea. Wednesday morning I had my coffee, cut the cantaloupe and honeydew, washed the grapes and got everything prepared to put this thing together. Well it flopped and I mean FLOPPED, it was my first fail at attempting something from a blog, it was lopsided and looked horrible.
Luckily I had a friend here and I couldn't break down and cry and sob that my brilliant plan didn't work so I took a deep breath and pulled all the things off the tooth picks, put the fruit in a bowl and called it done. I dropped it off at C's class and he was thrilled I brought something, the teacher was thrilled that I brought fruit. Out of 19 kids in his class I was the only parent to bring fruit and not something sweet. I didn't have to go all out, I didn't need to stress about being "Perfect" just the effort alone was enough. C came home last night and not one piece of fruit was left, but the bowl was full of the sweets his classmates had brought. Now nothing against those moms. (My kid and myself were very happy to eat those sweets) I am saying that I was thrilled that my little effort of cutting up fruit was ENOUGH, I was ENOUGH and that makes my heart soar in itself.
Knowing that I can stress less about the week, I have two more fruit trays to make with my $100 fruit but that is it, not going overboard, no many hours spent. Just a fruit tray is ENOUGH!!!
Thursday, 12 December 2013
How to start a Tradition.
With all the ideas on Pintrest and the internet, its not hard to find many new ideas to start your own traditions. N and I had a discussion last Christmas about our favorite holiday traditions with our own families and which ones we would not be doing with our our N&B Werdal family. while we were discussing it became apparent that getting together with all of our siblings, parents and extended family wasn't the right choice for our family. While I could get into all the things we disliked about it I won't, the bottom line being that we wanted to start our own traditions and make our own memories. I do agree the holidays are for spending with family, close and extended I do not feel that it has to be done in three days, There is so much drama that happens in those three days it just becomes way to much and after the last 7 years we have decided that if our families would like to spend time with us they can approach us but we will not be involved in and big gatherings during the Christmas season. The hardest part was saying no. We took the whole year to prepare ourselves but in the last two weeks we've had to explain ourselves and say no over and over. We do feel bad but its the right choice for our lil family.
This year we started and followed through with Elf on the shelf. We weren't visited by the traditional Elf though we have been elfed by a TY monkey that is dressed in a Santa suit. The kids love him and the joy on their faces and their laughter in the morning is priceless. Santa Monkey as he's called keeps himself busy and is up to no good most nights. This week however he stayed in the same spot. I had caught the kids playing with him and moving him around on Tuesday so Santa Monkey stayed asleep for Tuesday night and didn't get up to his bad antics that night. The sorrow and sadness apparent in the three older kids' faces the next morning assured me their would be no more touching of our Monkey. I'm sure Santa Monkey has many plans for the next 12 days and will be continuing to get into trouble.
This is the first year our kids will make crafts for the special people in our lives. They are all doing 4 crafts and many of those four and they will each decide which person gets what. It has been a fun process.First in choosing which crafts we will be doing and then shopping for or gathering supplies and finally (well as far as we have got) doing each craft in steps so it has time to dry and such. I cant wait till we get to decide who gets what and wrap them.
This is also the first year the older three kids will buy for their siblings themselves. We will be supervising of course. We have decided while they are so young they will get to buy from the dollar store this year. They will get $15 each (plus taxes if they need it) they will buy ONE item for each of their siblings and us. This is a tradition I am carrying over from my family and I am super excited about it. We had only 3 people to buy for and only got $5. It was so fun to see what we got each other and what we received. it was fun to see what my brother thought I would like and my dads reaction to his gag gift i got him every year. I can not wait to see the kids when we take them shopping but also when they open their gifts from their siblings.
This is my third year doing a December Album. I take pictures of what we do in December and Scrapbook them I haven't done it the last three years just 3 years out of the last 5 or 6. I am doing a MINI Album this year, I think I liked the 12x12 more due to space. I could fit more pictures and info on a 12x12 rather than a small album and having the four kids I need that precious space. Now some of you are asking what a December album is. It is an Album of what we do in December. As families we do SO MUCH in the month of December and usually the only thing that is documented is Christmas day and the few days around it. I love documenting the preparations that go into that one day and into the season. The gift buying, wrapping and such, making cookies, the weather and more.
There is more we are hoping to do over the Christmas holidays but I don't want to say until we actually do them.
I hope you are all taking time for yourselves this holiday season.
This year we started and followed through with Elf on the shelf. We weren't visited by the traditional Elf though we have been elfed by a TY monkey that is dressed in a Santa suit. The kids love him and the joy on their faces and their laughter in the morning is priceless. Santa Monkey as he's called keeps himself busy and is up to no good most nights. This week however he stayed in the same spot. I had caught the kids playing with him and moving him around on Tuesday so Santa Monkey stayed asleep for Tuesday night and didn't get up to his bad antics that night. The sorrow and sadness apparent in the three older kids' faces the next morning assured me their would be no more touching of our Monkey. I'm sure Santa Monkey has many plans for the next 12 days and will be continuing to get into trouble.
This is the first year our kids will make crafts for the special people in our lives. They are all doing 4 crafts and many of those four and they will each decide which person gets what. It has been a fun process.First in choosing which crafts we will be doing and then shopping for or gathering supplies and finally (well as far as we have got) doing each craft in steps so it has time to dry and such. I cant wait till we get to decide who gets what and wrap them.
This is also the first year the older three kids will buy for their siblings themselves. We will be supervising of course. We have decided while they are so young they will get to buy from the dollar store this year. They will get $15 each (plus taxes if they need it) they will buy ONE item for each of their siblings and us. This is a tradition I am carrying over from my family and I am super excited about it. We had only 3 people to buy for and only got $5. It was so fun to see what we got each other and what we received. it was fun to see what my brother thought I would like and my dads reaction to his gag gift i got him every year. I can not wait to see the kids when we take them shopping but also when they open their gifts from their siblings.
This is my third year doing a December Album. I take pictures of what we do in December and Scrapbook them I haven't done it the last three years just 3 years out of the last 5 or 6. I am doing a MINI Album this year, I think I liked the 12x12 more due to space. I could fit more pictures and info on a 12x12 rather than a small album and having the four kids I need that precious space. Now some of you are asking what a December album is. It is an Album of what we do in December. As families we do SO MUCH in the month of December and usually the only thing that is documented is Christmas day and the few days around it. I love documenting the preparations that go into that one day and into the season. The gift buying, wrapping and such, making cookies, the weather and more.
There is more we are hoping to do over the Christmas holidays but I don't want to say until we actually do them.
I hope you are all taking time for yourselves this holiday season.
Here we go again....
Its been awhile since I blogged about the family and other things. I do have a super awesome excuse though..... I was HACKED my email, and blogger accounts were both hacked and Google froze everything. So frustrating. I still have all my posts but can no longer post on those accounts. So I decided to start a new amazing blog. I hope to blog about all the crazy that goes on here in this household and such.
I am super excited that its the holiday season and I hope to share with you some greatness that we have going on. From our first family Christmas that we are spending with just our little family. We are hoping to start some new crazy traditions and continue some of each of our old ones. We each have fond memories of certain things to do with the holidays and we want to start them with our own family. We are sad that we will miss the huge family togetherness but it is time to start our own adventure when it comes to the Christmas season. I cant wait to write all about our own N&B WERDAL Traditions.
I am also super excited to share our lives and the awesomeness that is our super busy lives. I love to write and I am excited to start blog writing again and maybe that will lead my creativity to start a novel eventually.
My bucket list has sorta slowed to a stop and I am hoping I can cross for off in 2014 and even more before I am 30....WOW did I just say that?Sooo close just gave me heart palpitations. I know I am still young but I just realized how close to 30 I am! and yes to my older friends I can totally hear you laughing at me.
My next post about the traditions is calling and I should maybe get dinner on............
I am super excited that its the holiday season and I hope to share with you some greatness that we have going on. From our first family Christmas that we are spending with just our little family. We are hoping to start some new crazy traditions and continue some of each of our old ones. We each have fond memories of certain things to do with the holidays and we want to start them with our own family. We are sad that we will miss the huge family togetherness but it is time to start our own adventure when it comes to the Christmas season. I cant wait to write all about our own N&B WERDAL Traditions.
I am also super excited to share our lives and the awesomeness that is our super busy lives. I love to write and I am excited to start blog writing again and maybe that will lead my creativity to start a novel eventually.
My bucket list has sorta slowed to a stop and I am hoping I can cross for off in 2014 and even more before I am 30....WOW did I just say that?Sooo close just gave me heart palpitations. I know I am still young but I just realized how close to 30 I am! and yes to my older friends I can totally hear you laughing at me.
My next post about the traditions is calling and I should maybe get dinner on............
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)