CHRISTmas is coming!

Christmas decorations are up and I find myself wanting to drink hot chocolate and watch Elf almost constantly. And my favorite channel is back on XM, Holiday Favorites. I love all the old classic Christmas songs. Wes doesn't get excited about Christmas the way I do, but he humors me by putting up decorations so I can enjoy them for the entire month of December. In fact, he put the whole tree up by himself yesterday and started putting lights on it just so I could enjoy it. What a sweet guy.

This is either the 2nd or 3rd tree we have inherited from family. Like the others, it's slightly broken, but we don't care, because we don't have to buy one. It is definitely a step up from the last one we had, where you had to put each branch on individually. Yuck!

So here is a picture of our awesome tree:

Yes, the lights don't match, and yes, there is a dark patch toward the top, but that's ok. I just have to go get one more strand of lights and it'll look good as new.

Reed loves looking at lights on a normal day, but the Christmas tree is out of control. He doesn't know where to look. There are SO MANY LIGHTS! OVER-STIMULATION!! We were talking the other day, and this will be the only Christmas that we can put ornaments on the whole tree. Next year we will probably be decorating the top-half of the tree. I'd better enjoy it now.

Enjoy your neglected November! (that time between Thanksgiving and December which most people already count as December or are wishing it was December already)

The Turners

Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 3

So it's been a week since we implemented the "cry-it-out" method, and we are still alive....and still crying.

Naps: Reed does pretty good for his naps. Most of the time he goes right to sleep when I put him down. If not, he will fuss for just a little bit before falling asleep. A few times he has woken up early, but has put himself back to sleep.

Nighttime: The first few days I was just sure Reed was going to sleep for like 7 hours straight. Not. About 2 hours into it he was up and ready to eat...and all this after crying for at least 30 minutes. Not sure this was going to work. But then Saturday night, he slept longer, and was only up ONCE during the night! WOW! I got such a good night's sleep and felt so awesome in the morning that I did my hair!!! WHAT?!?! I had forgotten what it felt like to be rested and have nice-looking hair. Sunday night rolled around, but I wasn't excited, I was thinking realistically. Reed has the knack for doing something awesome once. But Sunday night he was only up once, again! 3 great nights of sleep later, I am actually feeling optimistic. He still cries for a while before going to bed, but is only up once during the night, getting 5-6 hour stretches of sleep. AWESOME!

I hate to hear him cry, and wonder when he'll figure it out during bedtime, but I think there's progress being made.

A funny development in his sleeping:

He usually goes down like this:

The other morning, I found him like this:

Not sure how that happened. Pretty funny, though.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Turners

Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 2

Okay, a little back story:

Before Reed was born, I had ideas of the kind of mother I would be. Stern, but loving; always having the big picture in mind. I wanted to raise a gracious, disciplined, loving child. This meant having clear boundaries and practicing "tough love" if that's what was best. All of that changed when I became a mother.

I always wanted him near. I never wanted him to be upset. I would gladly stay up all night holding him so he wouldn't have to cry. I would probably let him do whatever he wanted. He had me wrapped around his finger. I am pretty much the antithesis of who I thought I would be. It has left me conflicted and confused (knowing what I should do vs. what my heart wants to do). Sleep training, UGH!! I just knew if I loved Reed enough, he would fall right asleep and stay asleep all by himself.

That's not how babies are made, unfortunately.

So sleep-training is underway in the Turner Home, and mom and baby are doing surprisingly well! So far, it's only been mom and baby involved, so we'll see how dad holds up when he's actually home and put to the test. Part 1 was encouraging because I actually lived through letting my sweet boy cry until he fell asleep (although I felt genuinely heartless watching TV in my jammies while he cried). I didn't have a break-down or even cry at all (I did that the previous night when Wes and I decided to let him cry for a little bit before bed - AWFUL!). So here is the update so far:

Try #2 (afternoon nap): I put Reed down at 4 because he seemed sleepy. Tucked his blanket tightly around him, turned on his noise bear and left......I didn't hear anything.....panic, PANIC! I went to check on him and he. was. ASLEEP! ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! Nope, slept for an hour and a half. I think it would have been longer, but Wes got home and the door beeped, and I was making noise in the kitchen. This cannot be that easy!

Try #3 (bedtime): Believe it or not, I was not optimistic about bedtime going as smoothly as his afternoon nap. Naps were always easy, bedtime was not. So I did a bedtime routine: bath, story, feeding, a little cuddle/tv time, then bed. He cried, of course, but only for 30 minutes. Woke up for 2 very brief moments to whine, then went to sleep. Success!! I will admit, I was disappointed in the 5 hours he slept. That was only a half hour longer than the night before, but at least I didn't have to pick him up 5 times to try and rock him back to sleep.

Try #4 (morning nap): Reed was pretty fussy only an hour after he was up for the day, so I tried to keep him distracted and awake a little longer. Only 30 minutes later I figured he was ready for a nap. Put him down, turned the sound on and left. Only cried for 15-20 minutes. Getting shorter!!

Wes has class Tuesday nights, and wasn't able to partake in the bedtime try last night, and is out of town today, which means he will miss it again. Reed will probably be a pro by the time Wes gets to help. That's probably a good thing. Daddy caves too quickly. :)

Enjoy your Wednesday! More updates tomorrow.

The Turners

Adventures in Sleep Training: Part 1

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ........

That's pretty much what my body wants to do all day and all night. In the past few weeks, it has happened VERY little.

Reed was such a good little sleeper. He would get about 6-7 hours straight before he would wake up hungry. We were doing so good! Then, it went downhill.

It decreased to 4-5 hours, then 3-4. One week he was up every 2.5 hours. All the while we were trying to get him to sleep without the swaddle (since he can now roll over). That was probably part of it, but safety over sleep! Then it started to get harder to put him down to sleep.

Reed is a people person. He loves people and loves being held, especially to sleep. So he'll fall asleep in one of our arms, or laying next to us. Once he is out, we will transfer him to his bed, only to find him awake within 20 minutes, or immediately. I can't fault him for loving people and being more comfortable sleeping near us, but mommy needs her sleep very badly.

After a long conversation with Reed's nurse about this behavior, my worst fears were coming true. We needed to sleep-train.

Over the past few months, just the thought of sleep-training would reduce me to tears. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle this, but exhaustion makes a person do crazy things.

Try #1: Reed had been awake for an amazing 4 hours (2x his normal limit). I thought, after feeding him, he'd crash for a few hours. He ate, then fell asleep. I put him in his bed and immediately, he was awake. Not cool. I figured I'd let him hang out for a while. He started to cry, of course. I made my call to the nurse, with Reed crying in the background. She confirmed that we should start getting him used to his bed and sleeping on his own. Reed's pediatrician seconded the advice and added that healthy babies can cry up to 8 hours and be fine. He'd already been crying for about 20 minutes off-and-on, so I figured I would see how it went. Thanks to our trusty DVR, I had some fun shows to watch to partially drown out the screaming. Burn Notice, Burn Notice, Burn Notice, Burn Notice......10 minutes later, I heard nothing. I rushed in to check, and he was ASLEEP! My goodness, that wasn't bad. But then......the screaming started again. I guess he woke up.Castle, Castle, Castle....I waited again, and he was asleep 5 minutes later. I didn't hold my breath this time because he was up in 5 more minutes crying. Dancing with the Stars, Dancing with the Stars, asleep. This time, he was truly out. 2 hours later, I had a very happy baby smiling at me from his crib. Praise the Lord!!

So proud of him for sleeping on his own and proud of me for sticking with it. I know this is only the beginning, but at least I had the courage to try.

To be continued...

Living off Envelopes

The Turner Home is a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. His common sense approach to money really speaks to us and we have been loyal followers for years.

Now, Dave's whole premise is living debt free, which means always paying cash. He has some really great reasons why in his course, Financial Peace University, and his book, The Total Money Makeover. The way he keeps track of his money is 'the envelope system.' We have been using this system for almost 2 years and we LOVE it! It is so simple! Dave uses envelopes for EVERY category of spending, but this was a little too much for us. We just chose to pay cash for food, and it works really well because food is the easiest category for us to cut back on if we need to. Here's an example:

1. Decide how much you want to spend on food in a month
2. Get that amount of money out of the bank at the beginning of the month and keep it in an envelope
3. When you buy food, ONLY use the money in the envelope. No credit cards!

The beauty of this system is you can see how much money you have left/get to spend. If I check the envelope and we are running low, I know how to plan the meals for the upcoming week. Before, when we used credit, I had a lot of random/impulse buys. This was costing us a lot of extra money! Now, I am very conscious of what I buy. No impulse buys, and I look for sale items. We aren't starving for food, just living within our means.

Here's the fun part: at the end of the month if we have any excess, Wes and I get to split it! Fun money!!

Seriously love this system. If you want to reign in your spending, it's a great way to start.

Have a good one!

The Turners

Prayer List

It's the beginning of the month, which means I need to update my prayer list. I thought I'd share my process here, since it has been very helpful to me.

I'm bad about keeping track of my prayers. I've tried starting prayer journals in the past, but with no success.
I am a visual person (more now than ever since having a baby and losing most of my ability to recall information). I have lists all over the house: on the fridge, iPad, mirrors, purse, EVERYWHERE! I actually need a list for where all my lists are. So to visually see all my prayers, I have started writing them on sticky notes and leaving them on the bathroom mirror. This way I can see them every day when brushing my teeth/getting ready for the day/bedtime. It works pretty well because, honestly, what else do you do when brushing your teeth? Seems like a perfect time to pray. You can't talk to anyone around you (well, without spraying them with toothpaste or dribbling it down your front, both of which are gross).
So, remembering my prayers was solved. Now for organization.

Yes, I organize my prayers. It's weird, I don't care.

I did want to keep track of my prayers, but only so many fit on a small sticky note. I wanted to have prayers we could see answered, but I also have lots of ongoing prayers the Lord has yet to answer positively. My solution was a month-by-month prayer list. So I choose some ongoing prayers to write down, plus some that we could see answered during the month. Ex: Last month we traveled to North Carolina. One of my prayers was that we would have safe travel and Reed would have a great experience. Prayer answered!

At the end of the month (like today) I will take my October sticky note and put it in my journal. Next to any prayers answered, I will write how and when answered. Then I will make a new sticky note for this month.

Of course, this doesn't mean I won't pray for other things, but you get the picture.

I really like the idea of knowing what I was praying for and when. I can look back through the months to see what was going on and see how God blessed our lives.

On an unrelated note, November 1st is a busy day for grocery stores. They have to get all the Halloween stuff out of the store and Christmas put up in 1 day. At least that's what was going on at my Kroger today. (A disaster zone)

And....Starbucks broke out their Christmas cups.

Happy November!

The Turners