What Does Sleep Training Mean?

If you are a parent you have heard the phrase "sleep training." Some parents will ask "What sleep program are you using?" I always stayed away from anything with the word "sleep training" because it made me feel like I was treating my child like a computer to be programmed. That said I try never to judge parents who use these programs because every lifestyle and child is different. In fact I am writing this because our child has decided that co-sleeping = playtime. Problem? Yes!

When Lyra was born we were in a one bedroom apartment so naturally her crib was in our room and she slept in the bed with us where I could easily nurse her throughout the night when needed. At one month she was sleeping through the night without milk in the bed with us. This was fine by us as long as she was sleeping. At around 10 months she got a nasty stomach flu and stopped eating solid foods so her breast milk intake increased to all hours of the night in order to stay hydrated. After recovering from the flu and picking up solid foods again she continued to want to nurse about three times a night. I tried to slowly wean night time milk intake down but this resulted in much screaming. Then about a week before her first birthday she decided that at 1 AM mommy and daddy should get up and play! We thought maybe it was one time thing, since, some nights are better than others. On the fifth night we realized we had a problem. By then she decided she wanted to play at 9 PM, 1 AM, and 3 AM. This had to stop if we were going to survive.

One night I knew I had to do something. So, I bought an album of natural white noise and set Lyra in her crib. I sat in the rocking chair next to the crib and let her cry for 30 minutes and then she passed out. When she woke up at 5 AM I brought her into the bed and she slept for another hour. We started doing this every night and we just finished our fourth night. When she wakes up we check her diaper give her some water then sit with her until she went back the sleep. By the second night it was only taking 10 minutes to go back to sleep. 5 minutes on the third and last night. So far everyone is getting more sleep at night. We hope the trend will continue.

Cody getting sleep when he can with Lyra 

Gluten Free Birthday!

This weekend was Lyra's first birthday. Lyra is the first and only grandchild on both sides of the family so this birthday was a bigger deal than most. The night before her birthday I made three dozen gluten free cupcakes. Our family has a large number of gluten sensitive folks, my husband included. I have been working on my gluten free baking for three years now and have finally found a flour blend that doesn't taste like beans. 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes, by Carol Fenster, is one of the best books I have found for gluten free baked desserts. The flour blend in this book is 35% Sorghum flour, 35% potato starch/cornstarch, 30% tapioca flour. The great thing about these recipes is that they can easily be made vegan by replacing butter with Earth Balance (a non-dairy butter spread) and eggs with a gluten free egg replacer. I made two dozen chai-spiced cupcakes and a dozen black forest chocolate cupcakes. For all the cupcakes I used a cream cheese frosting. They seemed to be a hit.

Photo taken by Auntie Baylie

Lyra enjoyed a gluten free, dairy-free black forest chocolate cupcake with no frosting as her first cupcake. It gave her a burst of sugar so she was ready to open all her presents and drag wrapping paper all over the house. What could be more fun! By her second birthday I maybe able to work my baking courage up to attempt a whole gluten free cake.

Cloth Diapers...Not That Hard, Really!

For all those who told me I would give up and move to disposable diapers, guess what? My daughter will be a year on Saturday and she is still rocking cloth diapers. Oh, and here is another shocker for you, my husband is still on board too! Why, you might ask? Well, money for one thing and it is in some ways easier than disposables. I thought I would take a moment to walk folks through my arsenal of cloth diapers and my process.

There are many different types of cloth diapers on the market. What you choose to use really depends on your child and your lifestyle. For instant I am a stay at home mom and have a child with skinny legs and is a heavy wetter at night. These are very important things to know when deciding on what cloth diapers to purchase. We chose three types of one size diapers for our arsenal. One size means they are not fitted and adjust to your child's size as they grow so you only have to buy them once. Here are the three types of diapers and purpose. 

1.) For our daughter's everyday wear we chose an "all in two" diaper (means cloth inserts can be removed from shell and replaced). Since, our daughter has skinny legs we wanted a diaper that had adjustable legs so we chose the fleece lined "Soft Bums: Echo." We purchased 6 shells, 18 standard inserts, and 24 infant inserts for the first two months of infancy. Three of the shells are Velcro and three are snaps. Velcro may seem like the easier route until your child learns how to pull off his or her's diaper in a public setting, then you will be wanting those more complicated snaps!

All in two diaper, Soft Bums: Echo

2.) For night time wear we chose a "pocket" diaper (means you stuff the inserts into the diaper instead of laying them in the diaper like an "all in two"). Pocket diapers allow you to stuff in more inserts if your baby happens to be a heavy wetter. For this we purchased four the fleece lined, adjustable leg "Soft Bums: Omni"  pocket diapers, which came with one insert each. We also could use the inserts from her everyday diapers if needed.

Pocket diaper, Soft Bums: Omni

3.) For out and about we chose the thinner "Flip" diaper. We purchased four shells and six cloth inserts. This is a fairly inexpensive diaper shell with no lining so the can be rinsed and dry quickly when traveling or on the go. The inserts can be cloth or disposable. That's right! You can purchase composting inserts that can be disposed of on the go and will actually break down in the dump. These take up half the room of her everyday diapers in the diaper bag.

Travel diaper, Flip with disposable insert 

Finally, the odds and ends:

• Cloth wipes are a must really. If you are already washing cloth diapers it would be silly not to use cloth wipes. We purchased three dozen wipes.

• Cloth wet bags for the diaper bag. Just throw them into the diaper pail with the diapers after use. We have two of these which I made from waterproof PUL fabric from the local fabric store.

• A sprayer that hooks into your toilet to spray that poop right into the toilet is not a must but very nice to have.

• A diaper pail! We have plastic pail with a locking lid designed for bio hazard material. Never an issue with smell. Wipe clean after each time you empty it.

• Bac-out by Biokleen is a must. It keeps bacterial growth in check. After you spray poop off a diaper add a couple sprays of bac-out and into the pail. Use it to wipe out you diaper pail and add to the wash if it is a particularly stinky load of diapers. Also, it works great on stains such as food, blood, and vomit.

Got everything! Now to washing. Some people have a very strict washing routine when it comes to cloth diapers. I wash when it looks like I am getting low on either shells or inserts. Wash once on cold with 1/3 the amount of detergent (free and clear, of course) you would use on a normal load and again on hot with no detergent. Then into the dryer or air dry and that's it.

Easier? Well, I never have to make extra trips to the store for diapers or wipes and fewer trips out to the garbage can. The washer is closer and inside, I might add.