Three Accomplishments

7:30 came way too early this morning. Daylight Saving Time was so not my friend as I dragged myself out of bed. I didn't sleep great last night. I woke up sometime after 4 and had a hard time getting back to sleep, which is doubly unfortunate because Ethan slept AWESOME last night!

I try not to talk about our sleep issues too much. 1) I don't want to complain. Things have gotten much better, and as I improve my own sleep patterns I'm getting a better amount of sleep. 2) Sleep is one of those mommy-judging issues, as much as we may not want it to be. 3) I've read a ton of information, gotten a fair amount of advice, and tried several techniques, but sleeping through the night continually eludes us. We have had improvement though, as I said before, and that is nothing to sneeze at. 4)  I know some would disagree with the way we do things, and of course I don't want to get into disagreements. I'm still not 100% sure what I really believe is "best" for kids as far as sleep goes, but really, I think each child is just so different, and you have to rely on your instincts as a mother/parent and simply do your best.

First off, for you to realize just how monumental this was, you must know that although Ethan has technically slept through the night a number of times (meaning at least 5 hours in a row), I think he has done what most people think of as sleeping through the night maybe once before—and yes, he is 14 months old. There are a number of possible reasons for this (teething is definitely a culprit from time to time), but that really doesn't have much to do with what I really want to tell you, so I won't go into speculation.

Normally, I nurse Ethan to sleep and put him in his crib. He wakes up at least once, and will often finish the night with us in bed. Last night, I nursed him as usual, but he didn't go to sleep. He was just awake. So I put him in his crib. And he started crying right away. I stayed nearby, stroked his head, and talked to him. He continued crying. I could tell he felt a little abandoned even though I was right there, so I lowered the side of the crib. He leaned up against the side, I put my arm around him and sang to him, and he calmed right down. And that is how he fell asleep. So I propped some pillows around him and covered him with a blanket. And he didn't wake up once. It was absolutely amazing.

Ethan's other big accomplishment today was—skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about potty training—pooping in the toilet. But wait, you say, didn't he already do that? Well, yes, but the other times we caught it part-way through, so there was still poop in the diaper. This time he did it all in the toilet! And there was much rejoicing. :) He thought he was pretty hot stuff. I thought so too.

Ethan wasn't the only one accomplishing things today, though. I did something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I made cheese! Oh, how I love cheese! And after it was done, we used it to make delicious mediterranean pizzas on Terral's homemade pita bread. It was lovely.

And you are too. Lovely, I mean. Thanks for reading. And commenting occasionally. I appreciate the time you take to reach out.