Sleep Training

A little background: My hubby and I live in a sleep-deprived haze, as we do not believe in letting our son CIO (cry it out) or "sleep training."  We believe that it is important to our relationship/trust for him to feel confident we will respond to his needs, emotionally or physically.  We believe his only way to communicate right now is to cry, and we trust that his needs are real and not something for us to write off.  We respond quickly to him and we at least pretend to be compassionate :)  End rant. 

I found this on babycenter, and unfortunately...I do not know the source!  Here is sleep training...from the perspective of a baby.  Enjoy! 

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The first few months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 6 months. Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.  It goes like this:  Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.

 Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

 Night 3--every hour.

 Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights.  Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

 Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with.My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears. I hadn't eaten pears since lunch, what's up with that? The cat said "meow". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL. Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn't matter! Keep crying!! It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

 P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me

Stunning Art!

I recently discovered the artist Katie M. Berggren, and I wanted to share. "Painting intimate moments of motherhood."  She paints the beauty of attached families! 

Her work, "Pieces of Me"

 You can check out many more of her paintings at her shop here.

For a chance to win a painting, visit Zerbert's on Facebook! 

Cloth Diaper Washing

I have lots of people ask me how we wash our diapers.  Finding a good wash routine is probably the most challenging part of cloth diapering, and can make or break your experience!  Getting detergent build-up can cause leaking, and the wrong amount of detergent can cause some seriously nasty smells! After experimenting with many different detergents and cycles, this is what works for us:

1.  Short COLD cycle, with NO detergent.  This gets rid of the "nasties" before trying to get them really clean...and the cold water will help prevent stains from setting.
2. Regular HOT cycle, with two Tablespoons detergent.  We alternate using Rockin Green and Tide Original Powder.  I swear by this!  The Rockin Green is gentle and natural and prolongs the life of your dipes.  The Tide gets them CLEAN.
3. Extra COLD rinse, with NO detergent.  This is to make sure you get all of the detergent out, to prevent leaks.  If you peak in and there are still bubbles...you need to do another rinse. 

Washing every other day is the best way to prevent problems.  We occasionally go every 3 days, but try to avoid that on a regular basis.  We do not have a HE washing machine...if you do, you may need to alter your wash routine.  It's important to have enough water in your machine...we usually set it to "medium." 

We try to dry our diapers in the sun whenever possible...even in the winter! The sun is a natural disinfectant, and takes stains out better than any product I have found on the market. 

Happy washing!

Inspired By Finn Amber GIVEAWAY **CLOSED

**Giveaway closed, congratulations Tyson!

As I mentioned before, we got little man an amber necklace to help with teething.  Somewhere between 2-3 weeks in we noticed an incredible difference.  He was significantly less fussy, less drooly, and all around happier!  And did I mention super cute?!

I have been hearing more and more amazing benefits to Amber, including treatment of  general aches and pains, reducing inflammation, arthritis treatment, increasing energy, and even sensory issues.  When Amber is worn close to the skin, the body's warmth heats up the Amber and releases succinic acid healing oils.  Click here to read fascinating testimonials!

Inspired By Finn has been gracious enough to offer one of my followers a FREE piece of jewelry, 16" or smaller.  Woot woot!  Here's how to win:

Mandatory entry: "Like" Inspired by Finn on Facebook and become a follower of A Natural Transition.  Leave a comment telling me you did these things.  Also leave your email address so I know how to contact you if you win!  




Extra entries (more chances to win!):

• Visit Inspired by Finn and leave a comment with what piece of jewelry you would like to win
• Leave a comment with a link to your favorite "mommy blog"
• Put a link to this giveaway on your facebook page
• Tweet about this giveaway (please leave me a link)
• Purchase something from Inspired By Finn
• Leave a comment with something else Amber can be helpful for that I didn't mention

*Please leave a separate comment for each entry
**Winner will be drawn via random.org at approximately 10pm central time on 10/17/2010
***Winner will be notified immediately and will have 48 hours to claim their prize before another winner will   be drawn
****Winner's shipping info and and jewelry choice will be forwarded to Inspired by Finn and will be shipped directly from them

Here are a few current promotions/discounts from Inspired By Finn:

TO SAVE 20% on an order with us, join us by clicking the "Like" button toward the top of our "Wall" tab.

TO SAVE 25%, join us by clicking the "Like" button + use the "Suggest to Friends" link near the top left of this "Wall" tab to suggest this page to your Facebook friends.

The discount code is entered/applied during checkout, and the discount is given off of prices on our website - www.InspiredByFinn.com

The codes to use once you have completed the criteria above -

To save 20%: FB20
To save 25%: FB25

Fine Print: The views on this blog are my own, and I was not compensated in any way by Inspired by Finn.  

Little man showing off his Amber:


**

Homemade Baby Food Makin'

We've been amazed at how much money we save by making our own baby food...we figure it is close to 15x more expensive to buy Gerber jars.  We have also found it to be super easy, and FUN!  There are many different ways to make it, but these are the "tools" that we use:

• Food Processor
• Super cheap steamer basket that sits in a pot w/a lid
• Ice cube trays with lids (We use Fresh Baby)
• Freezer bags

So far, little man has only had one jar of Gerber food.  Oddly enough...it was the one meal he refused to eat!  It was peas.  A couple of days later we offered him our homemade baby peas, and he scarfed them down like nobody's business.  Interesting stuff!

The cooking: Baking or steaming fruits and veggies are probably the two best choices for preserving nutrients. We tend to steam just long enough to soften the food up a bit, then run them through the food processor.  You can add a little breast milk while pureeing, but note that you shouldn't use frozen milk for this and then refreeze.  Either use fresh milk or freeze the food without any milk and add milk after the food is thawed. 

The freezing: After pureeing, just spoon the food into your ice cube trays.  When they're frozen, pop them out into a freezer bag and label with date and type of food!  The trays can run through the dishwasher, and you are ready to go for another round of goodness.

The thawing: The safest method is probably to take a couple of cubes out the night before and let them thaw in the fridge overnight.  You can also run the bag of cubes under cool-warmish (not hot) water.  If you are comfortable microwaving, you can certainly thaw them that way.

Most of the foods we have made so far are fairly basic, since our little man has only been on solids for one month.  We did introduce spinach, egg yolk, and chicken this weekend, though!  Here's how.  The spinach: We took raw spinach leaves and steamed them until they looked wilted.  Tossed in the food processor and ready to rock!  The egg yolk: We hard boiled eggs and popped the yolk out (babies under 1 year should not have egg whites according to many).  We mashed the yolk up with a fork and mixed it with applesauce.  I realize this sounds disgusting to most adults, but he LOVED it!  The chicken: we cooked chicken all day in a slow cooker with nothing but water and carrots.  Pureed the shredded chicken with carrots and breast milk!  He loved this, too...but the texture was a little gritty.  Next time I will use more veggies with it, I think.

I will be adding more recipes as we try them out.  In the mean time, check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com for great meal ideas, tips, and other homemade baby food resources!

Coconut Oil

One of the challenges we discovered when we started cloth diapering was the fact that most diaper creams on the market are not "cloth diaper safe."  Using these creams with cloth diapers will cause the cloth diapers to repel moisture rather than absorb it.  Not good.

After some good old fashioned research, I read that some people have good luck using coconut oil as a rash cream.  Loving the natural idea of this, we picked some up from a local natural food store.  We bought a large peanut butter sized jar for about $10.  I was surprised to find it is thick, almost like a salve (it turns liquid when heated). 

Love, love, love it!  Works just as good or better as any of the rash creams we have tried.  Bonus: it doesn't cause little man's diapers to leak all over the place!   Along the way we have discovered many other wonderful uses for it:

• Skin care: does wonders for cradle cap/dandruff, dry/cracked skin, and even wrinkles (so I hear)
• Healthy cooking
• Hair conditioner
• First aid:  speeds up the healing of bruises and protects cuts/scrapes from bacteria 
• Arthritis treatment

Babywearing: More than just convenient!

I purchased my first baby carrier long before I discovered Attachment Parenting.  Admittedly, it was out of complete frustration that I was unable to put my baby down to do ANYTHING.  He mostly flat out refused to be set down for the first three months of his life.  As much as it would be great to cuddle all day...there are things that just plain need to get done!  Hearing good things about Hotslings, I purchased the first one I found that resembled it.  It was a Jelly Bean pouch sling by Munchkin.

My first attempt at getting him in it ended up with both of us crying.  After a couple hours of much needed sleep we tried again...and it was magic!  My fussy baby transformed into an easy going, happy little peanut before my very eyes.  Not to mention...the heaping piles of laundry and dishes were GONE!  Why didn't I do this sooner?!

It's pretty apparent that babywearing is convenient for mamas (and Dads!).  It's also incredibly beneficial for babies!  Here are just a few wonderful things babywearing does for babies:

• It provides an optimal learning environment.  Babies in carriers spend more time in a quiet state of alertness.  They are at the adult's level (not way down on the floor or in a stroller).  They hear more, see more, and feel more a part of the world!
• It comforts them.  It creates an environment really similar to the womb...rythmic motions, mom's heartbeat, swaddle-like feeling.  Several studies show that children who were "worn" grow up to be more confident and secure adults!
• It allows them to experience new situations while feeling safe against Mom or Dad, and keeps them physically safe!
• It can actually reduce SIDS.  The reasoning is too complicated for me to explain, you can read about it here  :)

• Promotes healthy, healthy attachment that is SO important for their future!

There are MANY different kinds of carriers...ring slings, pouches, soft structured front carriers, back packs, mei teis, wraps, and more.  I have limited experience with many of these, but check out The Babywearer for TONS of great info! 

My (current) carrier of choice is the Ergo.  It is a soft structured carrier that can be worn on the front or back. Happy babywearing!