Big Girls Don't Need Papis

With all the changes Boogs has been going through, we decided to also take her papi (pacifier) away. This is something I've wanted her to kick around 12 months, but just couldn't get myself to do it when it helped her go to sleep in .2 seconds. At least she's attached to a papi and not her thumb...you can take a papi away, but you can't take a thumb away.

So tonight, I put her down saying, "Big girls don't need papis. Boogs go ni-ni, okay? Mommy loves you" I shut the door behind me and left, listening intently through the monitor. At first she was fine. Talking to herself and singing, but after a couple minutes...BLOODY MURDER. I listened through the monitor as my heart ached from cries that I hadn't heard in a LONG time. I remember when we first started to sleep train Boogs. Yobes asked me if we should get her after a couple minutes and as much as my heart broke to hear the shrilling cries coming out of such a little thing, I told him, "unless your boobs are making milk and you're gonna get up to feed her in the middle of the night, we're doing it my way." He shut up real quick and before we knew it, we had a 7 week old that had slept her first stretch of 7 hours during the night (and it only got longer from there). I remembered those days and thought if I just let her cry it out for 15 minutes, she'll be okay. I went to check on her 15 minutes later. Mid-cry, Boogs looked up, "Mommy," and laid back down as I rubbed her back. Now that she was in her big girl bed, I laid down next to her and within 10 seconds, she was out. I think the crying wore her out so when she saw me, she was comforted - forgetting the comfort she used to get from her papi.

So first night without a papi, not so easy but not too bad either. I think it'll still take a little bit for her to get used to going down without one, but 15 minutes isn't all that bad all things considered.

No More Baba

With the sleep transition going so well, Yobes and I thought it was time we took the bottle away from Boogs. We tried this once before and it went really well, except she got sick. Sick to the point where she wasn't eating for several days and since she was off the bottle, wasn't even getting milk. When we took her to the pediatrician, they said not to worry about the not eating part but if she isn't getting milk, as much as they hate to advise this, to try to give her milk from a bottle again. So at 16 months, we gave her the bottle again and just haven't taken it away again ever since. She has never really been a fan of the sippy cup, so I was concerned that she wasn't going to get enough milk, but the ped told us that her milk intake will decrease while she's getting used to not having a bottle around. Soon enough she'll realize that she's not getting it and will get more used to drinking out of a sippy. So today, we took it away cold turkey and she's been okay. The main thing I was worried about was Boogs not getting her bottle before bedtime. This is her normal routine, but she didn't get it tonight. She went down fine, so I hope she doesn't remember and ask for it later!

Day 2: New Big Girl Bed

Whenever Boogs is super tired and is in her room but doesn't want to go to bed, she pulls out all the stops. Everything cute that she can think of, she brings it. "Mommy, nose? Nose? Ear? Mount? Mommy eyes? Eyes? Hair?" Point to each attribute with the most delicate touch of her little finger. "Mommy, (LEEEAAANING over to look me straight in the face) i lub you!" "(singing) Jesus love me, dis I NO! For da bahble tells me TOE! Little one to Him beLONG! Dey are weak but He is STROOONG!" (growling and flexing while saying "strong") As darn cute as it is when she's like that, we wanted to really get her used to sleeping in her big girl bed, so tonight we put her down with her blankie, seahorse and papi and left right away closing the door behind us. Not a peep. I don't know what I did to be blessed with such a good girl, but I must be doing *something* right!

Day 1: New Big Girl Bed

We got the bed rail set up and today was Day 1 of sleeping Boogs in her new big girl bed. We were prepared for a tough journey...one that consisted of several tries and several nights (weeks, maybe) before she got used to sleeping in her new bed in her new room with her new surroundings. But she really surprised us. We laid her down with her seahorse, blankie, and papi and said "Ni-ni. Boogs go to sleep in your new big girls bed, okay?" To which we got this response: "Ohk-kayee. *stand up* Blankie...right there! *grab seahorse and move it to the other end of bed* Horsie...right there! *grab giraffe and move it to other side* Giraffe...right there! *grab pillow* Pillow...right there! Oh no! *moves it 2 inches* Right there!" This went on for a few minutes while Yobes and I tried to put on our serious faces to tell her it really was time for bed. So after a hidden chuckle, we laid her back down, said, "time for ni-ni," shut her door and waited. She sang her ABC's, Jesus Loves Me and talked to herself for about 5 minutes and then...silence. We waited about 5 more minutes and then I went up to check on her. I opened her door, half expecting her to pop her head up and say, "Hi, mommy!" but nothing. She was OUT. Really? That's it? Okay, maybe beginner's luck. We'll see how tomorrow goes but I'm okay with a ridiculously easy transition.

What a Hoot!

Washed the bedding and put up (some of) the wall decals today! I LOVE the way it turned out so far and can't wait to finish it! Call me anal, but I don't care...I cut out each decal so that none of the clear border showed. I've seen pictures of decals with the clear around the actual picture and didn't like the way it looked. The cutting too a lot (okay, a TON) of time, but well worth it. I am loving the owl theme and can't get enough. We got this little shelving system and this matching lamp, both from Target.

9-cube organizer

Love & Nature Lamp

How cute is that lampswitch pully-thingy?! (No idea what it's called, but look, it's a mushroom!) Boog's room is finished for the most part, but we don't want to start sleeping her in it until we get the bed rail. Don't want her to fall out of bed on the first night and freak out because she's not used to her surroundings!

Some Things are Implied

After contemplating between finally giving our little princess a pink girly room, going light green so that it could potentially be used as a unisex room in the future, to blue to be the sky amongst the Love & Nature decorations, to yellow to match her old room, to a light tan to keep it neutral, and literally changing my mind 94 times in the process, I finally decided on a light lavendar color - Spangle from Sherwin-Williams https://www.sherwin-williams.com/visualizer/index.html#d=f;c=2521 to be exact. So we (and by we, I mean Yobes) painted the new room. It turned out just the way I wanted! So excited to get the rest of the decorations up and the bed in place! Here's what it looked like before and after.

Before

After

Note #1: the before is not the actual room as we forgot to take a before picture, but this is another room in our house w/ the same blank walls we started with. Note #2: I asked Yobes to take a pic of the room after I started with the first decoration - that's why there is a random line on the wall. Note #3: When I asked him to take a picture of the wall, I didn't think I had to specifically tell him to get some of the ground/ceiling as well so one can actually denote that it IS in fact a WALL...lesson learned...be overly explicit when giving Yobes directions as he will take it for exactly what is started and cannot read between the lines (yeah, like the line between my pointer and ring finger!) :) Anyway, you get the idea!

The Girl Next Door

We finally made the decision to move Boogs into a new room and keep her current room as the nursery for when Baby #2 arrives. I was very hesitant on doing this since she was already used to her room and its surroundings. The last thing i wanted to do was move her and have her revert on her sleep habits and start waking up in the middle of the night. At 28 weeks prego, a mama needs her sleep! Plus, I REALLY did NOT want to buy another crib. I've heard both pluses and minuses of moving a baby to a big kid bed and many have told me to wait as long as possible, but really? Two cribs? Is that really necessary? Didn't think so. Plus, I wanted to give Boogs the opportunity to sleep on the SAME twin bed I slept on growing up K - 12 and the SAME twin bed that Yobes and I slept on once we got married and the SAME twin bed we slept on while I was pregnant with Boogs. (We PO! ...but not we have our king bed and I am SO grateful for that!) Once the decision was made, my mind started thinking of all of the decorating ideas I had. Since she's still a little too young to have her own preferences, I figure this might be the last time I can decorate her room the way *I* want to (because, you know, that's what really matters!). After perusing a bunch of websites for toddler bedding, I decided on this theme from Target

Love it and can't wait to get started!

Let's Get it Started!

I finally decided to start a blog again, so here goes! The main reason I got motivated again was because there have been so many updates and changes with Boogs that I wanted to remember and keep track of. With the number of kids the Yobes wants, it'll be much easier to document milestones rather than trying to remember when each kid crossed which milestone! I'm sure the direction of this blog will change a million times, but it'll probably just be about what I'm feeling/going through/making at the moment, so here's to a new blog...enjoy!