Smiley Rémy

Yeehaw....it may be a fluke...then again, maybe not. Little Miss has slept 5 nights in a row for 6 or more hours! Last night it was almost 7 hours! We may be onto something here...there are smiles all around our house!

Imagine

http://www.prestontrail.org/podcast/index.htm

This past Sunday's message was perfect for where our life is right now. Walker's business is really starting to pick up and he has one large job that could really get his business moving in the right direction. Jim's message on Sunday was from the first 2 chapters of Nehemiah and talked about imagining what God has in store for your life and the power of answered prayer.

Sleep Solutions

Can you remember back to when your kids were born...what techniques did you use to coax them to sleep?

Right now mama rocks Remy and sings from the hymnal...I know she probably doesn't mind if I sing the same song but it gives me a little variety at least. (right now I'm on pg 33....we'll see how long it takes me to work through the 785 pages.)

Papa prefers to swaddle Remy and make her feel like she is still in the womb and he walks the house back and forth with little bitty baby steps. He also claims that this is a good workout for his upper legs.

I'm halfway through reading a book by Cathryn Tobin entitled Lull-a-Baby. So far it's just talked about what not to do to get your child to sleep and what bad habits can develop by the patterns you use early on. I'm interested to get to the part about what to do to get them to sleep....maybe then we'll all be snoozing.

Here's some tidbits so far:

Myth #1: My baby wakes up because of gas. The most common reason older babies wake up and stay up is that they lack the self-calming tools necessary to manage night awakenings.

Myth #2: My baby wakes up because he's hungry. Like adults, babies eat for reasons other than hunger. A baby will nurse because it's the only way he knows how to get back to sleep.

Myth #3: My baby is a poor sleeper. We inadvertently train our babies to be poor sleepers by not equipping them with the skills they need to fall asleep.

Myth #4: Rice cereal before bedtime will help my baby sleep longer. Hunger is typically not the cause of sleep problems after 3 to 4 months of age.

Myth #5: Crying damages a baby's psyche. I've known babies who were raised on attachment parenting principles and those allowed to cry it out. Can I tell them apart by their intellectual, psychological, or emotional states? Absolutely not!

Myth #6: It's easier to sleep-train an older baby. The longer a habit is reinforced, the harder it is to break.

Myth #7: Teething disrupts sleep. This may be true at times, but teething is blamed for way too many sleep problems.

Myth #8: Poor sleep habits improve eventually. Without their parents' help, the vast majority of babies will sleep worse, not better, over time. Sleep problems don't magically disappear. Consider the 2004 Sleep in America Poll, which found that two-thirds of children from infancy to age 10 experience frequent sleep problems.

Myth #9: Babies will get the sleep they need. If only! Babies resist sleep like similarly charged magnets resist each other. Parents need to insure a baby gets enough sleep.

Myth #10: There's no harm in getting up with my baby as long as I'm willing to do it. If you enable unhealthy sleep habits, you run the risk of your child developing long-standing sleep problems that will persist into the preschool years.

Rémy goes to Church

Here's little Miss Rémy all dressed up and ready to go to church! Of course, she was a little fussy and Walker ended up in the lobby rocking her the whole time, but mama got to enjoy the service!

Eating for Life

by Bill Phillips.

Walker and I eat healthy for the most part, or at least are knowledgable about what is a good food choice and what is not. For a while....maybe a year or longer, we have used the Abs Diet by David Zinczenko- editor of Men's Health magazine- as a guide for our healthy eating habits and for recipes. I came across Eating for Life at work and liked the layout and easy recipes. We've both read through it and will be implementing some of the foods and recipes into our living. It's not just about healthy eating for the short term benefits, but living a healthy lifestyle.

Something my Grandparents did for all of us for Christmas this year was to make a basket of healthy eating items including things like spinach, pomegranate juice, low sodium soups, rice cakes, new toothbrushes, etc. This is a new spin on giving food items for Christmas. Instead of the fruitcake, peanut brittle or fudge it was a refreshing twist and helps us all live up to our goals of living and eating healthy.

Anyway, I would also recommend this book to the cook who likes to have pictures of what is being prepared. It is essential to me that I know what it is supposed to look like before I start attempting to make it. Nice glossy pictures and even pictures of the ingredient list help to make cooking and preparing an easier task.

Books in 2007

I was tagged by Jonathan to list the books I've read in the past year. I'm not always good about writing them down--but from memory here goes...


The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini
The Witness-Dee Henderson
The Expectant Father
Lovely Bones-Alice Seibold
All My Road Before Me- CS Lewis
The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd
Steven Cosgrove's Serendipity Books
Nigella Bites-Nigella Lawson
Domestic Goddess-Nigella Lawson
The Art of Raising a Puppy- The Monks of New Skete
Starting with Stories-Pam Schiller
Wicked-Gregory Maguire
1776-David McCullough
Tenth Circle-Jodi Picoult
The Undomestic Goddess-Sophie Kinsella
Positive Dog Training-Idiot's Guide
What to Eat
Zipporah, wife of Moses-Marek Halter
Harry Potter 7- JK Rowling
What to Expect When You're Expecting
Your Pregnancy & Birth
Planning Your Pregnancy & Birth
Miracle in the Making
The Pregnancy Journal
Soothe Your Baby the Natural Way
The Negotiator-Dee Henderson
Feed Your Children Right


I also read 2 books on sleep patterns for babies-but they are at work and I don't remember the titles. Some I'm looking forward to reading include: East to Eden by Steinbeck, I'd like to find a book on swimming with babies, training dogs for children, more on water supply and water contamination, I read one on pureeing food for your baby instead of buying baby food and want to read another and gather recipes for that.