Enjoying the Journey

I’m totally in love with a new baby item. Our pediatrician recommended at our last appointment that we get a sound machine when I described to her what a sensitive sleeper Reese is. Mark and I tend to be noisy people by nature, add to that a noisy dog, and a sensitive baby…Not good! Reese was getting woken up all the time and I was having to tiptoe around the house all day. There had to be a solution! So I bought this sound machine from Bed Bath and Beyond, but I had serious doubts it would work.

Boy was I wrong! It has been wonderful! It has 6 different noises including a heartbeat sound, and it has a light projection onto the ceiling which Reese loves to watch, and also serves as a great night-light for me. It also plugs into an outlet, which I love because I am getting really sick of blowing through so many batteries in our various baby items. It’s small enough that I can throw it in the diaper bag and take it with me to babysitting jobs so when I put Reese down for a nap there she has the familiar sounds to help her sleep.

I was remembering the other day how well Reese slept during the summer, but she had a fan on in the window at night which created great white noise. Since I don’t want her to freeze during the winter by running a fan in her room, the white noise machine is awesome. We also have a space heater in her room to make sure it stays warm, it runs on it’s own thermostat so it keeps her room at a set temperature. It is unfortunately pretty noisy when it starts up, which it does every time the room falls below the set temperature, so the sound machine masks that really well so it doesn’t startle her.

Reese seems to prefer the music settings, particularly the basic lullaby. It’s funny, you wouldn’t think adding noise to a baby’s room would help them sleep better, but it works like a charm. I have found that I also fall asleep better just hearing the music coming from Reese’s room when I am going to sleep at night! The best part of all is that things like the phone ringing, the dog barking, me loading the dishwasher, and the garbage truck outside no longer wake Reese up. I no longer have to tiptoe around the house. Now that’s worth every penny!

Yet another great addition to my Mommy Must-Haves List!

I am still working on getting some Christmas videos edited, but here are some photos of Christmas morning in the M&M household.

I made a fire on Christmas morning and Meghan laid out Reese’s presents on a blanket

Reese liked the bows even better than the presents!

I thought I would take a moment to jot down a few of the things that I am most grateful for this year. I know that is traditionally a Thanksgiving-ey thing to do, but I am just feeling very grateful at the moment:) Prepare yourselves, this may get a bit like a Hallmark card. Read more »

Last month a reporter from the LA Times came to SmugMug to interview us for a piece in the popular newspaper (3rd largest circulation in the US). Well, it turned into a front-page, Column One article on Christmas Eve day! The full article can be found here. Happy Holidays indeed!

I am about to write a somewhat sappy post about my wonderful hubby. Proceed with caution:)
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Thanks for everyone’s great responses and comments on my previous post. I was overwhelmed by so much supportive and helpful information when- let’s face it- I was a wee bit at the end of my rope. Last night after putting Reese to bed a bit earlier-at 6 pm- she woke up only once- at 9pm- and we let her cry and she went back to sleep until 11pm, at which point I woke her up to feed her one last time so I could go to bed. Then she slept through the night (HALLELUJA!) and her first feeding of the day was at 8 am. It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing. She has woken up from all her naps early today and I have let her cry until she falls back asleep, which took 30 minutes this morning and on and off for an hour this afternoon. Plus, when she did fall back asleep she only slept for a short time before waking up again. But the feeling today is different. Maybe it’s because I finally got a full-night’s sleep, but I feel much more in control of the situation today. It might be that hearing everyone confirm what I already knew-that she needed to cry it out- made me feel like letting her cry didn’t make me a bad mommy. It’s nice to feel that even though it seems like I’m neglecting her when I let her cry-it’s really the best thing for her in the end.

So things are in no way perfect yet, but we’re making progress. So thanks for the advice- it didn’t go unnoticed!