1. The Big Girl Bed is a huge, huge success. Claire has been doing a pretty good job of going to bed (and STAYING in bed) and she's still very excited about the whole thing. I am so, so, so happy that we went with the full size bed because it is AWESOME to read her stories in that thing. Nice and roomy for both of us.
There is the small matter of her getting up too early, but it's really not any earlier than she was in her crib. The thing now is that she's free to get OUT of her bed the moment she wakes up rather than being forced to sit and read books until we deign to rescue her and, well, this getting up whenever thing is no bueno. For the past week my reality has been this:
5 am: Claire creeps into our bedroom and comes up to my side of the bed. NEVER Chris' side of the bed because, "Daddy's sleeping." (Apparently, only Daddy gets to retain sleeping privileges?)
She puts her chin on the bed, right by my face and whispers, "Mommy? Mommy? Moooooooommy!" As soon as I mumble anything signaling that I am conscious she shouts, "I AWAKE!"
Thusly, our day starts.
I'm looking for ideas on how to modify this behavior. Really, I am open to considering any idea as long as it does not involve duct tape. I cannot wake up at 5 am every day when I will have a newborn in three months IT IS JUST NOT FAIR. I was thinking about getting one of those "okay to be awake" clock things but the reviews on Amazon are kind of dicey.
Anyone have one of these? Anyone have a trick to get her to stay in bed later, that does not involve a later bedtime because WHOA that is not an option, Mommy needs her free time in the evenings.
2. The nursery is coming along. With the BGB in place we were free to finally put the crib and rocker into the baby's room and, whaddya know, that made it look more suitable for a baby.
There is still a loooooong way to go on this one though. For one, I initially thought that all of the pink stuff I had would be enough to make the blue room girly in a sassy, kind of funky way but now I totally disagree. It feels like I took a bunch of baby girl pink stuff and crammed it in a blue room and hoped for the best (which, HA HA is exactly what I did).
I think I am going to try and Craigslist a lot of my pink stuff so that I can replace it with some red and hot pink items that are a bit more bold. If anyone knows someone doing a baby girl pink nursery and needs some sweet PBK things secondhand and cheap, send 'em my way.
3. After I decided to sell all the pink stuff I went on an Etsy Mission to find cute red things for the nursery. Did you know that red has been assigned to boys? Yes, it has. If you look at any baby site all of the red stuff has trucks and puppies and firemen and airplanes on it, all screaming BOY! BOY! BOY! Annoying.
But, I did find a few things.
4. The Things:
The left image is some bedding from PBK that is too expensive, but I LOVE IT and I got the sheet (for $30 after tax and shipping, OMG) and I think I might model the rest of the room on it. It's a really big, graphic floral print with red, hot pink and blue (the very same blue as the walls). It feels bold and feminine rather than soft and feminine, which is where we went with Claire's room.
The second image is a little red print with two birds and I just think it's darling. That, along with an ABC print in red tones will definitely be on my list of wall art.
The third are some paper butterflies to put on the wall. I like that they're three-dimensional (and red and not for a boy), but I kind of wish they were red flowers and not butterflies. Or maybe the butterflies would be okay but it's that stripey background they're on that's throwing me off. I haven't decided yet. I have lots more links and ideas but I'm still mulling them over.
Anyway, red, hot pink, brown (in the chair) and dusky gray blue. I think I'm going to like it. At the very least, I'm making the best of that blue room.
5. We are going to a rodeo tomorrow and I am very interested to see what Claire thinks about it.
6. It is freaking cold in Texas.
7. Really, all I had to talk about was the baby's room and this format was the easiest way to get that done quickly so I can go to bed.
Even though Kalena is still in a crib we use a goodnite lite. (www.goodnitelite.com) It's been great. I know she wakes up sometime between 5:45 and 6:15, but we do not hear a peep from her until her sun comes on at 6:30. At that point she starts cheerily saying, "Miss sun come up!" and then we go get her. Our pediatrician recommended it, she said she used it on her twins. And I know they're expensive, but it's been TOTALLY worth it.
Also, it's great for bedtime too, since the moon coming on indicates time to sleep no matter how light it is outside. Works as a night light too. (I feel like an ad, but I seriously love this thing.)
Posted by: Elsha | January 21, 2011 at 11:21 PM
That bedding is adorable!
Posted by: Amy --- Just A Titch | January 21, 2011 at 11:42 PM
When we move our son to a big boy bed I think we're just going to put a baby gate up in his doorway. That way he will stay contained until a more reasonable hour. That's the plan anyway.
Posted by: Theresa | January 22, 2011 at 01:15 AM
I Know when I was little I would wake up at 5:00 each morning to watch He-Man (awesome 80's programing) and I would wake up mom to get it turned on and get me some breakfast. She quickly wised up and always left the TV on the He-Man channel the night before, put a big red sticker on the power button and then in the fridge she left a bowel of dry cereal, a cup of milk, a cup of juice, a spoon and a napkin. I was more than happy entertaining myself as long as I was fed and He-Man was on :)
Posted by: Lauren | January 22, 2011 at 08:24 AM
I simply told you that you could not get out of bed until the sun came up. It worked well. Most mornings I was awakened by a little voice telling me, "it's not dark anymore". I think at Grammie's house, I will set an alarm clock and tell her she needs to stay in bed until the alarm goes off or Grammie comes and tells her it is time to be "I awake".
Posted by: Mom | January 22, 2011 at 08:35 AM
Well, Elizabeth is still in her crib, but we have a child lock on her door, on the inside, so she can't get out of her room by herself. When we lose the crib, I'll do a little extra baby proofing on the room and then leave her stuck in there. I also have a lock on the closet so that she can't get into the closet. (She pulls all the clothes off the hangers and then hides under them.)
I love the butterflies.
Posted by: HereWeGoAJen | January 22, 2011 at 09:04 AM
When we first put Haley in her big bed, I just told her she couldn't get up until I came to get her and it actually worked for a couple of weeks. When she started waking me up too early (yes, by getting right in my face and yelling - that seems to be pretty universal!), I told her she could go straight to the playroom when she wakes up and play or watch TV. Possibly not my finest act of parenting, but hey, I get more sleep this way and that can only be a good thing for my family, right?
Posted by: Ashley | January 22, 2011 at 09:44 AM
We've somewhat curbed the morning wake ups by putting a regular digital clock in our daughter's (just turned 3) room. We have an index card with 7:00 written on it just like a digital clock. We told her that when the clock says 7 she can come into our room. If she gets up earlier my husband takes her back to her room (I have a 4 month old and we started training her before the baby was born that Daddy was the night time parent).
It's not perfect, but it stopped the constant coming in and crying at 5am and waking up the baby. Good luck!
Posted by: Pippi | January 22, 2011 at 11:20 AM
Okay, the training that "daddy is the night time parent" is BRILLIANT. Between my two lovely cats who must must must be fed as soon as my eyelids flutter or a shift around in bed anytime after 5am (nothing like a cat face in your face saying MEOW as soon as you make eye contact), and the 10 month old baby in the next room who also beckons, though usually around 6am, when #2 comes along in a few years dad is TOTALLY going to be the night time parent for #1.
Posted by: Holly | January 22, 2011 at 09:50 PM
I love that sheet!
What pink Pottery Barn stuff do you have? I might be in the market for some crib bedding. We have bedding but I feel like it's not going to be right for the new crib I am ordering.
Posted by: Elizabeth | January 23, 2011 at 10:29 PM
I love that nursery bedding and think that color scheme is painfully creative and chic. Unexpected. I want to do something like that this time, too. Unless it's a girl, in which case, I am just going to reuse the ridiculously expensive PBK stuff we bought for L. At least it held up just fine.
I'd have to lock her in the room. That's the consensus among other friends of mine who've made the transition. They use super tall gates or lock them in entirely. Mama has got to get her zzz's.
Posted by: Mel | January 24, 2011 at 09:33 AM