We knew we wanted a King, and we knew we wanted a Tempurpedic, the only remaining question was deciding between the “Cloud” and the “Cloud Supreme.”  The difference is that the Supreme is softer, and for that extra softness you pay a $700 premium.

I’m quite sure that had we never laid on the Cloud Supreme we would have thought that the Cloud was the most.comfortable. bed.ever.  But comparing them side-by-side, there is an undeniable difference. On the Supreme I couldn’t feel ANY points of tension anywhere in my body, whereas on the Cloud I could feel it a bit in my lower back.

Given we plan on sleeping on this mattress for the next 10 years or more, I knew that if we let the price tag and not comfort be the deciding factor, the potential buyer’s remorse would drive me to the nuthouse.

So King Cloud Supreme arrived around lunchtime on Sunday..(and OMG it’s HUGE. Our bedroom now feels like it is half it’s previous size!)

Jasper was more than willing to help “break it in” as the sales person suggested we do. He’s a big fan of the new bed, when Jeff said that it was “Mommy and Daddy’s new bed” Jasper said “Yes, and Jasper’s too!”

He knows a good thing when he sees it:

Now all that is left is to order new bedding!

We went to Home Goods yesterday afternoon where I got some nice high threadcount plain white sheets (so we could sleep on it last night!) but they didn’t have any decent King Duvet covers (I checked TJ Maxx too.) So we need a Duvet cover, another sheet set and a Down Comforter. I was all set to order the down comforter on Overstock when I started reading the reviews, many of which said that some of the baffles had NO filling in them!

Do you have a favorite source for nice but reasonably priced bedding?

After a blissful night’s sleep last night (even Jasper seemed to sleep more soundly on the new bed!) I have to say that I’m thrilled with our decision, even though I’m still recovering a bit from the sticker shock!!

So, this morning I spoke to the daycare director to find out what their policy was on if parents did NOT want their children to nap. She told me that New York state actually requires that children sit on their cots for a minimum of 30 minutes and have quiet time (!). So what they would do to encourage him to stay awake is give him some books and/or toys to play with on his cot. Thank god daycare is totally supportive of whatever we want .  The director couldn’t believe when I told her how late he’s been going to sleep (later than she does!)

So I THINK this is the right thing to do but what if he is really tired and wants to go to sleep? It seems cruel to keep him from sleeping… But then again, I CAN NOT HANDLE another 10:30pm bedtime night.

Just wanted to give that update because the question of how daycare would handle it came up in the comments. Wish me luck tonight!!!!!!!

Truth be told, neither of us really care if he sleeps in bed with us or not, but the problem is that no one gets much sleep when squirmy worm is around.. even less so with all three of us squeezed into a full size bed. All four or five if you count Bear and Wheezy.

Simultaneously there has been a debate about whether or not we can fit a King size bed into our modestly sized bedroom.  We CAN fit the bed, but there won’t be much if any room for things like night tables etc. But last night we finally decided that if we were going to spend our sleeping hours with floppy fish, we might as well have a bed that puts as much distance between us as possible, so I think that King size Tempurpedic will be making an appearance this weekend.

I think it’s safe to say that Jasper was the Victor in that particular battle.

In other sleeping (or nonsleeping) news…  we are considering abolishing naptime out of necessity.  Yes, crazy isn’t it? If you’d told me I’d be voluntarily keeping Jasper from napping I’d have told you it must be a cold day in hell.

But the problem is that he is NOT TIRED until 10pm when he naps. Yes, you heard me right, 10PM!  Trying to get him to fall asleep is like herding cats.. he’s wide awake, nary a yawn or heavy eye lid in sight.   Last Friday when I picked him up from daycare he hadn’t napped at all, and since he hasn’t napped more than 1 hour, so I think he’s pretty much ready to give it up anyway.

We tested out my theory this past Sunday.  We had lots of errands to run which we normally would have tried squeezing around naptime but we decided to just forgo nap altogether and see if we’d live to tell about it…

And you know what? He was FINE. Even by 7 or 8pm there were not giant meltdowns or tantrums. And he went down much more easily at around 8:30.  But, (and this is a big but..) be woke up both Saturday and Sunday at 8am, a full 1.5-2 hours later than usual, so he was extra well rested.

So I’m thinking now that nap will depend on wake up time and evening plans.  If he wakes up unusually early, or we know we need him to be on excellent behavior (like we want to take him out to a restaurant for dinner etc) we will attempt the nap. Otherwise, we’ll skip nap in favor of decent bedtime.

This thing called “flexibility” is totally new territory for me, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

I’m wondering if any of you have experienced this extended wakefulness where bedtime creeped back later and later? I so, did you eliminate nap to compensate?

Selfishly, I want to write this post so that I don’t forget these little Jasperisms someday..some of these are so cute that I’m loathe to correct him. Is that wrong of me?

Elevator = “Eligator” I think this is my favorite.

Mine = “Mines” as in “This one is mines!”

Chicken Nuggets = “Chicken Uggets”

Mr Potato Head = “Matato”

Telephone STILL = “Lolo” (as in hello, hello)

Airport = “O=port”

If he wants to say “Mommy, come sit with me” he says “Mommy, come sit with You”.

He calls school buses “real buses” because of the song “the wheels on the bus” only he thinks it’s saying the “real bus” goes round and round.

OR.  If he doesn’t like the option presented, he’ll say “Or (insert his own preferred alternative here”) even though that option wasn’t offered.  Such as: Do you want mommy to carry you to the car? If he want’s Daddy to do it instead he’ll respond “Or Daddy?”.

Bear = “Pooh bay-uh”. I have NO idea who told him that his beloved bear was actually a Pooh Bear, but now Bear is called Pooh Bear, except that he says “Bear” like he has a Brooklyn accent. Beah.

Yes = “mmmmhmmm.” This is a new development, but lately instead of saying yes, he says mmmmnhmmm to EVERYTHING. Like you know how we essentially repeat everything toddlers say back to them for validation? Like if he says “Mommy, I want to go in the stroller” I’ll say “You want to go in your stroller? Ok. ” and he’ll go “mmmmnhmmm.”

I wondered where he got it until Jeff pointed out that I say this constantly. Oops!

In other news, why didn’t you tell me that bringing baby home after vacation = HELL?

Apparently, sleeping every night in bed with Mommy and Daddy for a week means that he will never go back to sleeping on his own again.   But not only do I have to lay with him while he falls asleep (which is not so comfortable because he is still sleeping on the floor!) but now when he wakes up in the middle of the night he gets HYSTERICAL for me.   Last night he SCREAMED for 20 minutes for Mommy until I broke down and went in even though I know I’m enabling this habbit.  In general, he’s been super clingy  for mommy and really insecure since we got back.

Is there something about them learning that there is a world outside their regular routine that throws them into a maelstrom of insecurity? Please tell me this won’t last!

How did you all get your toddlers back to their regular sleep habits after vacation??  I HATE the idea of “reFerberizing” but he’s become completely incapable of putting himself to sleep :(

For those of you that have been reading for a while, you may remember that Jasper has a bit of a shy streak.. ok, a BIG shy streak. Or maybe it’s more of an independent “I don’t do what I’m asked” or participate in group activities kind of attitude (or just Jasper being Jasper = difficult!).   It was most obvious when we were at gymboree and he would practically CLING to me the entire time, and when he did run off and play it was never to do any of the guided activities, or -god forbid- to tap the airlog like everyone else was doing!

It’s taken him three semesters to slowly warm up to the whole thing, only this past semester has he deigned to tap the airlog or go under the parachute but he still steadfastly refused to ride ON the parachute.. until yesterday!

One of the other moms was commenting on how much he’d come out of his shell the past few weeks and I said we would know he had really improved if he ever rode the parachute.. and then, as if to prove me wrong he climbed on the parachute and went for the ride without so much as a whine!

Yay, he’s not the sociopathic/misanthropic kid I was worried he was headed towards being after all.

As if to further prove the point, yesterday he met the little six year old boy who moved in accross the street who has two ride on cars. The boy (Joey) asked if Jasper wanted a ride and I was pretty sure Jasper would be much too shy to oblige. And at first he was, but within ten minutes he was riding around in the passenger seat next to his new friend.  An hour later the two of them were playing together so nicely.. Joey would make a pretend hamburger to give to Jasper to eat and Jasper would pretend eat it and ask for more!!  It made my heart melt.. and even more importantly, Joey’s mom and I got in at least 30 minutes of nearly uninterrupted discussion while the two of them played.

It was like a glimpse into the distant future when my mommy friends and I will sit on lawnchairs sipping cool drinks letting our kids play together in the back yard for hours.. vs the current “playdate” scenario where we are usually chasing after our toddlers who are running in opposite directions and yelling to each other what’s new in our lives.

So that’s the good news..

The bad news is that Jasper is still crying himself to sleep on the floor at night :(  We had a complete step backwards the night before last when Jasper figured out how to open his bedroom door.  We had no choice to bring him into bed with us pretty much the whole night which meant no body got a good night’s sleep.. last night Jeff installed a latch on the outside of the door so it was back to crying alone, sleeping on the floor. Thank god it was only about 5 minutes last night, but I really wish he’d get into his bed after he’s done protesting!

Have a great weekend everyone..

Then came the cape cod trip where he was unconstrained by a crib and we didn’t want him wandering around a strange unbabyproof room screaming so I would lie down next to him, rub his back and wait until he fell asleep to sneak out.  This actually worked ok because he wouldn’t wake until around 5am at which point  I would bring him in bed with us to sleep for another hour.

I’m sure you can see where this is heading..

When we got back home he would demand “Mommy lay down!” at bedtime and then once I was laying down he would say “Mommy lay down back!” which means mommy lay down and rub my back. Which of course I did, never mind that all the blood was draining out of my arm from holding it above my body and that I would have to twist it at the most awkward angle to get it through the crib bars.  Honestly, I’m so exhausted by 8:30pm that I don’t even mind being “forced” to lay down and take a cat nap while Jasper falls asleep at night, but this is clearly an untenable situation because a) The whole sleep routine time more than doubled and b) he completely lost the ability/willingness to fall asleep without someone in the room with him which of course started to extend to middle of the night wake ups.

So we knew we would have to referberize, but it wasn’t so easy because his crib bolts are stripped so can’t be lowered all the way.  His crib sides only come up to his lower chest which is way too dangerous. Our only other option was to convert the bed to a toddler bed which is what we ended up doing.

Because the mattress can’t be lowered all the way, the toddler bed is still a tad higher than it should be so I lay down blankets on the floor in case he somehow rolled out or stood up in bed and fell out.   We rigged his door so he can’t open it and shut the baby gate in the hall down the stairs just in case he DID somehow make it out. And then, we put him in bed and left.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH. Mommy Lay Doooooooowwwn! Mommy’s Bed… Mommeeeeeeeeeee lay dowwwwwwn!

Pulling on the door and screaming the whole time. Totally heartbreaking :(

Thank GOD he only has the endurance to be at this routine for about 10-15 minutes before he zonks out, the problem is that with the exception of the first night when he crawled back in to his toddler bed, he somehow ends up sleeping on the floor (with his butt in the air.)

This happens for naps and bedtime and I really don’t know what to do.. usually one of us goes in there and puts him in his bed, but I’m really hoping that eventually he will start going back into his bed.

For those of you that have made the toddler bed transition, did you have this problem with them not getting back into bed? If so, how long did it last? Also, did anyone else notice a sleep regression around 20-22 months?? I don’t understand why suddenly falling asleep became such a lonely/scary/traumatic experience for him when he used to just let it happen!

Sleepy tired cranky eyes say buh bye!

When Daylight Savings ended last November I cursed the person who thought it was a good idea to CHANGE TIME.  Obviously this person was not a parent of a toddler.

Before that fateful day in November, Jasper had no problem sleeping until 7:30 am…It was blissful.   Eventually he did get used to the time change and we had a good run for a month or two, but over the past few months Jasper’s wake up time has slowly migrated back towards 6:30.

First it was 7:15, then 7:oo, then 6:30 and on some bad days it’s 6:00-6:15 and it’s KILLING ME! The problem is that I was used to going to bed at midnight, which allowed me enough “mommy time” to get a few things done for myself, not the least of which is photography and blogging.  Midnight-7:30 or even 7 was more than enough sleep for me, but six hours is just not enough, so I’ve had to grudgingly resolve to put myself to bed an hour earlier than I want to go.. often leaving projects half way done or barely started.

So I have high hopes for this weekend, the weekend that the rest of the country dreads  as the one in which they  “lose an hour of sleep.”   If I am lucky and all goes according to plan, Jasper’s wake up time through the magic of DST will become 7ish instead of the ungodly hour of 6ish.

If you  have a similar mission, I wish you good luck and godspeed.  And if all else fails, lots and lots of caffeine!

Cockadoodle doo!

Today’s mommy SOS comes from JBhat’s friend Shannon:

A. has decided that she is getting up at 5.  That means leaving the room, running around trying to find me – which most days I am in bed – or up exercising.  I calmly but sternly tell her it is not time to get up, put her back into her bed and leave the room.  That is not good enough.  She continues to get out.  Or she will climb into S’s bed and wake her up, thinking it is really funny.  Poor S!

Other relevant info:

A. currently shares a room with S. – which will change after we sell our house and buy a new one.  She is not potty trained – that process is starting in March.  I have not tried letting her entertain herself yet…in another room.  I have tried giving her books in bed but that doesn’t seem to work.  I worry about her being alone in the living room while I shower – as she tends to be on the naughty side and I worry she will get into something and hurt herself.

This SOS is actually quite timely coming hot on the heals of our  transition to big kid bed dicussion last week  – it’s just the sort of thing that I fear when we transition Jasper who like clockwork wakes crying at 5:30am every morning. Currently I go in and comfort him and he usually falls back asleep for an hour and a half, but I don’t know how this would all play out should he have the independence to get out and roam about on his own upon waking!

But more than just the issue of a toddler roaming free, is there hope to solve the root of the problem i.e. getting the little one to sleep later in the first place?  Later bedtime, shorter (or no?) nap? Any other ideas? If anyone has had any success, please share your methods!

Jasper used to always cry when I put him down for naps and at bedtime. Usually not more than a minute or so, but still, I wanted to try something to make the transition to the crib a little smoother.

One thing I think we all instinctively feel is that cribs aren’t particularly cozy – a cold sheet, no pillow and blanket – it’s no wonder the transition isn’t so easy!  So I decided to add two things to Jasper’s crib, a soft blanket (a lovey really) and a Carter’s velour crib sheet (also available at BRU).

The lovey blanket we also picked up at BRU, though I don’t see it on their website.. the colors matched Jasper’s nursery perfectly!

CoCaLo Emory Sherpa Blanket

Obviously the exact blanket doesn’t matter, just that it’s soft and cozy!  Of course toddlers sleeping with blankets can be controversial and you must feel comfortable with this – if you are not, just the velour crib sheet will really make a difference.  How much you ask?

The day after I put on his new crib sheet he started playing this “game” with us when we would go to get him in the morning where he would lay down, and just look at you.. like he didn’t really want to get up!

These changes alone didn’t imake going down for bed or nap a completely tearless afair until I started saying “Good night Jasper” after his last book and then holding him and singing 4 short songs while I rock him in my arms. If I do this, there are no tears at all!

I think the little extra step in between books and bed really helps transition him into sleepy time.

It seems strange rethink something so simple at his age (like shouldn’t I have figured this out a long time ago?) but sometimes little changes can make a huge difference and a welcome change!

How did your little one adjust to the time change? (I should say that we kept him up an hour later Saturday night to no avail.)

On to more pleasant topics: Halloween!!

Here’s Super Jasper..

Shot with my Canon Digital Rebel XSi and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 Lens at 1/100th, f2.8 and ISO 400 – natural light.

Too bad he wasn’t Spiderman, look at that pose with his hand – I could have photoshopped in a web shooting out from it!

The H&M boots ended up working out great as part of the costume – so glad I picked those up. It wouldn’t have been the same in stride rights ;)

I had a hell of a time getting him to sit on the Plexiglas in front of the backdrop stand for this shot.  What finally worked was allowing him to play with a toy he liked for a little bit and then grabbing it and holding it up in front of me at which point I had a brief second to shoot before he’d get up and come after it.  Always a challenge at this age..

I hope you have some pictures online of your little ones all dressed up so you can post a link in the comments – I can’t wait to see all the cuties in costumes!