My friend Andrea sent this to me in a forward. I hate forwards yet since she never sends them on I decided to check it out. I think it's pretty neat!

Get yours at: http://DNA.imagini.net/friends

CIO sucks. Anyone not know the famous acronym? Cry-it-out.... where you let your baby cry until they fall asleep. Nap time for the past month or so has been really hard. Owen wants me to nurse him to sleep and when I don't he gets ANGRY. He thrashes and scratches and cries and arches his back - all while I try to hold him and love him. It was getting to the point where it'd take an hour to get him to sleep. And no, it's not that he's not tired because he's obviously tired. I was getting angry, he was getting angry, it just wasn't working.

So, I started thinking about cry-it-out. Several people we know have done CIO at night. Mike wasn't on board with that idea and I respect that. But, I had to do something for naps or I was going to pull all my hair out.

I read (skimmed) the sleep-easy solution and decided to give it a try on Wednesday. The first nap we attempted resulted in about 40 minutes of crying/grumping/unhappiness. But, there have also been several successful naps where he's grumped/whined for about 5-15 minutes, fallen asleep and slept for 1-1.5 hours. Last night (Friday), I wanted to give up. He was SO unhappy and it was making me feel really sad for him. I ended up getting him up after 30 minutes of crying/grumping because it was getting late into the evening and we were risking messing up his bedtime. Today (Saturday) has been a little better. The attempt at nap #1 resulted in 10 minutes of mild grumping and then sleep for 1.5 hours. When I put him down for his second nap, he cried/grumped for about 20 minutes and then fell asleep and has been asleep for just over an hour. He rarely takes an afternoon nap longer than 45 minutes so this is a very good development.

I'm sure you can see how I'm contradicting myself ... CIO sucks, but it might work, but it sucks, but I think it might be working, I hate, it's not so bad. I told myself I'd give it a week and see what happens. Right this minute, I feel like it was a good decision.

Not sure if we'll ever apply it to bedtime, though.

Things are quite different around here as of late. For one, we started Owen on solid foods. He was excited the first few days of cereal but now he could care less. Perhaps we'll spark his interest with some sweet potatoes later this week.

Even more interesting is how mobile Owen is now. I put him down on the floor and within minutes, he has rolled to the edge of the rug, somehow with his toys in hand, and is banging them on the hardwood. He has also rolled under the loveseat a few times. This time, he was held up by his chubby arm.



In other news, I've been looking for a source of income. We plan to send Owen to "school" when he's about 16 months and in order to do so, I need to make some money. Next week, I'm talking to one of my fellow ECFEers (baby class) about the possibility of watching her daughter in my home. Her daughter is such an easy baby and is the same age as Owen so they should be doing similar things at similar times. Some moments, I think I'm crazy for considering this but the alternative is to get a job out of the house and that would require care for Owen, being organized, and realizing that I would quit that job when it's time for baby #2. We'll see what happens next week. (am i nuts?)

For the past three nights, Owen has been sleeping in his crib at night. WOO! Until now, he's been in a cosleeper and then a pack n play next to our bed upstairs in our room (and often in bed with me). While we're making the transition, Mike and I are sleeping in the guest room so that we don't have to go up and down the stairs all night. Much to our surprise, Owen has been doing great. Last night, he woke up at 12:30 and then 5:00 (because Murray was loud) - quite a difference from every 2 hours! Hopefully he'll keep it up and I won't have to come back and say I spoke too soon. We still struggle with getting Owen to fall asleep but at least that once we do get him to sleep, he stays asleep longer than he used to!

This morning, Owen rolled on to his tummy and then rolled on to his back (a very new development) and on to his tummy again - moving half way across the room! Scary! Yesterday, I put him down on the living room rug so I could use the restroom. I walk about 4 steps and I hear a bunch of commotion. He had scooted himself over to the pile of mail left of the rug and was tearing up a flyer. We need to start thinking about baby proofing - pronto.

Want to know my best money saving tip? Go shopping with a 5 month old.

Perhaps it's just my 5 month old but I'm guessing that's not the case. Errands used to be so easy with him because he'd sleep the whole time. Now he doesn't sleep when we're out and about unless we're on a walk outdoors. Now, my shopping consists of planning a strategy for getting in and out as quick as possible. And, if a meltdown occurs, I'm out of there.

Since Owen's maximum for shopping seems to be about 30 minutes, I have to act quick. I pretty much race through Target to get my grocery shopping done. And I realized today at Kohl's that looking at clothes for me while with Owen is impossible. I'll have to do that alone.

But, since I usually only get about 1/2 of the stuff done that I was thinking of doing, I spend a lot less money. I guess it's a good thing?