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Monday, June 24, 2013

Sleep Training

We just completed week one of sleep training Henry. Let me tell you this is not for the faint of heart, but if you are desperate for sleep like I was/am then its worth it. Our sweet baby boy started sleeping through the night when I went back to work. He was 3 months old. I felt so blessed, but at the same time I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ever heard of the 4 month sleep regression??? Well, we experienced it. Pretty much like clock work at 4 months Henry forgot how to sleep through the night. Horrible timing with going back to work and all. On a good night he was waking up 3 times. On a bad night, between 5 and 6. It was so terrible! I was getting on average around 4 hours of sleep. It was so hard to function during the day. I had been so proud of myself for giving up caffeine for 4 months. That came to a screeching halt. I was back on the "sauce" hard core. Anyway, enough about me. I'm not sure if it had something to do with Henry's horrible napping at daycare or what, but his night sleep majorly went down the tubes. I can't share Henry's personal sleep plan because we paid a sleep consultant to design it specifically for him, but I will tell you it involves a strict nap and feeding schedule as well as a controlled crying it out method. I was totally against cry it out before, but when I started only getting 4 hours of sleep that all changed. I will share the controlled crying method because anyone can Google that. When we put Henry down for his nap, he must be awake and he must stay in his crib for an allotted time regardless if he is crying or not. Once he starts crying we start the timer for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes if he's still crying then we go into his room briefly and replace his lovey and pacifier and then walk out. We repeat this every 15 minutes until he is asleep. The idea is that Henry is learning to self soothe and not to rely on others to put him to sleep. We are also giving Henry the opportunity to sleep. He has to stay in his crib for the time designated for each nap. He has three per day. I highly highly recommend introducing at lovey at 4 months by the way. Henry uses his to fall asleep for naps and at night. The point of this post is to more or less share with you that I am an advocate of sleep training and controlled crying it out. It is NOT easy. I hate listening to my sweet baby boy scream, but Zac and I decided that we didn't want him to rely on us or anything else to get him to sleep (we had previously been feeding him until he fell asleep). Clearly that was not working. Additionally, we firmly believe that you can teach your children to be better sleepers. I hope this sets the framework for Henry to be a good sleeper as he gets older. No guarantees though. There are always going to be road blocks and every child is different. What works for one will not always work for another. We are still having some major struggles with naps, but his night time sleep as improved greatly. He is sleeping around 12 hours every night. We put him down between 6 and 6:30 and he sleeps until 6:30am! He usually wakes up once to eat, but that's all and he goes right back down. I can handle once. We are hoping for continued success. I'm not trying to push my opinion onto anyone either. I just hope that if other parents are having sleepless nights that they seek out help or read the different methods that are out there. Sleep is so important for both parents and baby!

Encrusted Salmon Fillets

Courtesy of HyVee Seasons Magazine

I'm on a mission to eat more seafood. I absolutely love it and don't eat enough. I'm not a big beef eater so I mainly nosh on chicken and pork. That's starting to get old. I guess cooking with seafood intimidates me and that's why I don't do it more. I've been searching for fast and easy recipes and I stumbled across this at the local HyVee. PS- I LOVE HyVee! I wish they had them in STL.
I think I'm going to shop there from now on while we're living here. The people are super friendly and the prices are decent. The Seasons Magazines are free at your local store, so I highly recommend picking one up.

4 (5 to 6 ounce) salmon fillets
2 T Dijon Mustard
Black Pepper
1/3 Finely Chopped Walnuts
1/3 Panko Bread Crumbs
3 T Chopped Dill
2 T Chopped Parsley
4 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp salt
4 Lemon Wedges

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a foil lined baking pan, place salmon, skin side down. Brush top of each fillet with 1/2 T mustard; sprinkle with black pepper.

In a small bowl, stir together walnuts, bread crumbs, dill, parsley, oil, and salt. Divide mixture between fillets and pat firmly onto top of salmon.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until crust begins to brown and fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve with lemon wedges.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Balance

Not one single update since Feb 9th! I am such a slacker. Well, not really, but things have been a bit crazy. There are so many things to say. Where do I begin....?
Long story short, 12 weeks of maternity leave, followed by 2 months of work, and now I'm back on maternity leave... permanently. What an emotional roller coaster. I was devastated when I had to return to work. Henry was 3 months old and I was terrified. It was a rough two or three weeks. I almost quit more than once, but I promised to give it one month. I'm glad I did because I realized that I did in fact want to be a working Mom. Henry transitioned nicely in daycare and I fell in love with his caregivers. I was finally comfortable. Finally some stability!!! Zac was set to be working on the new Shriner's hospital in STL for the next couple of years. One day he came home from work and told me that he no longer was going to be working on the hospital, but he was being sent to Osage Beach. What!? Where is that??? Lake of the Ozarks, he said. I freaked out. That was way too far. Turns out its only 2 hours from our driveway. Huge bonus, but still too far to commute. Separation with Henry is not an option. Not to mention the fact that we have been separated for almost our entire marriage. So I resigned from my job and we have officially relocated for 14-16 months. I honestly don't know how I feel about all of this. The word balance comes to mind. Although, I had decided I wanted to be a working Mom, I was not happy about the amount of time I was separated from Henry. I dropped him off at daycare at 6:30 AM and didn't pick him up until around 5PM. In short, it felt like his daycare caregivers were raising him. Even though I LOVED his daycare. It broke my heart. We only saw him for a little over an hour in the evening during the work week. That is just not ok. I realize that this is reality for so many families. Ideally, a part time job would bring the best of both worlds, but that is not always an option either. Child care, even part time is astronomical. I feel incredibly fortunate that Zac is able to financially support us so we can all be together. I am enjoying being home all day, but is has certainly been an adjustment. I just hope that I can provide Henry with exactly what he needs. I of course hope that my sanity stays in tact as well. I miss my friends so badly it hurts. I do feel a bit lonely here, but I know that its only temporary and this time with Henry is absolutely priceless. If we are going to be outside of STL for a year or so, this is certainly not a bad place to be. Here are a few pictures from our lake adventure thus far. We haven't had a chance to venture out much. We are in the middle of sleep training (will post about this later) and we're still adjusting. There's a lot to be done around the condo. We finally ordered couches. We are currently sitting on camping chairs. As we speak, I'm typing this post sitting on the floor, my computer is attached to the Ethernet cable. We forgot the wireless router. Ohhhh we forgot so much. Moving sucks, but I better get used to it I guess. I'm learning Zac's job equals travel. Sorry this was so long. Like I said, it has been a while. Hopefully now that I'm not working and will be getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night, I will have the energy once again to blog. Please read so I'm not doing this for nothing. Ha!