Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Sleeping Like a Baby...?

The saying goes...they are sleeping like a baby. If sleeping like a baby means waking up every hour and crying or fidgeting until someone puts you back to sleep then no thank you! And, I think we need to redefine that saying because that is what my baby does...or did up until recently.


my books...I have not read Babywise yet,
but I have heard good things about it.
What I do when I need to figure something out, I read about it.  In fact, it's a joke amongst people that know me that I usually start with "I read that..." because I tend to read and read until the issue at hand makes sense. So what did I do to figure out this particular situation? I read about it. However, before I began my journey through books and articles about infant sleeping, my hubby and I tried the "letting them cry it out" method (he was much more strong in this area than I was or ever could be).  I quickly decided after a few nights of this that letting my baby cry into the night with no reponse was definitely not going to work for us.  Don't get me wrong...I do think that it works for some parents and babies, just as not my baby or for myself.

I have read several articles and a few books on this infant sleeping idea, it seemed that despite doing everything "right" my baby boy was just not a good sleeper.  Determined to find an answer and get some sleep, I turned to a book entitled The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.  Her philosophy on sleeping lined up with mine (actually hers probably helped me to find my own philosophy). She explains how brief awakenings are the culprits waking babies up at night and usually babies are not able to fall back asleep on their own.  Even as adults we have these brief awakenings...when you turn in your sleep, fix your pillow, nudge your partner, etc.  We can just fall back to sleep without having someone to soothe us.  Pantley's idea is to gently wean babies off of soothing from a parent by lessening the time spent rocking the baby to sleep.  She also has other ideas that have the more gentle (and quiet) approach to helping the baby and parent get a good night's sleep.  Instead of boring you with the details...I will skip straight to the good news...

Baby B slept 7 straight hours a few nights ago (granted we had an extremely long day with short naps)!!! You read that right...we went from up every hour to 7 straight hours! And since then we have had nights with 4 hour and 5 hour stretches (which is considered a full night's sleep for a baby his age)! Now, I don't know if the credit should be given to the strategies in Pantley's no-cry book or if my baby boy is just growing up but I do think we are turning a corner and starting to head in the right direction.

However, what I do know - from experience and its also mentioned in Pantley's book - that any type of success is more of a dance rather than a straight road.  Two steps forward, one step back and a possible few sideways steps. 

Now, I know I said before that I would post a few things about my cooking skills with actual meals. While I have been practicing and even had a few successes, I included another scone recipe with this one.  I did that because well, let's face it...I look forward to that morning cup of coffee (as you could imagine since I was running on little sleep) and what goes with coffee? A yummy scone. A yummy, pumpkin scone at that. I got this recipe from another mom-blog.  I hope you try it, especially since October is just a few days away.

Pumpkin Scones
Ingredients:
2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger (I did not have ginger, so I didn't use any and they came out just fine!)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pumpkin (if canned, be sure there are no spices or sugar added)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Mix together flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Cut butter into small pieces and cut into flour.  Mixture should look like coarse crumbs.  In a separate bowl mix together the pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to flour mixture and mix until the dough comes together (don't overmix).
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead gently 3-4 times, and then shape/pat dough into a circle about 1 1/2 inches thick.  Slice in half, and then cut each half into 3 equal pie-shaped wedges.  Brush with egg glaze (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk), and sprinkle with Turbinado sugar. 
Bake on a cookie sheet for @ 375° for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Makes 6 scones.
Optional:  Add white chocolate chips and/or chopped pecans. I used pecans and oh my goodness...good option!

The scone recipe also came with a sweeter pumpkin butter for those with a sweet tooth (like my hubby).
Pumpkin Spice Butter
1/4 cup (half a stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
Combine all and mix till creamy. 

Even though the weather still feels like summer...



Happy Fall, everyone! :)

2 comments:

  1. Blake is getting so big!!! I need to come see you soon! I love your bloggy blog! WOO HOO! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks jenny mo! :)

    come see us whenever!!!

    ReplyDelete