The Schedule

This is ironic. Within the last week or two I thought to myself "you know what, this is it. Tyler needs to be on a schedule. We need to know what time he is going to do what things- nap, wake up, etc." I was fully prepared to put my mom foot down and regulate on this situation.

Then, I got struck with some sort of flu like thing for 3 days and was home with him along with my mom who was here to help. I thought "now's the time to implement this schedule and get him running on human time not newborn baby time aka do whatever whenever I feel like it!"

Alas, it turns out I didn't have to regulate anything. Tyler regulated on himself- or more accurately- he WAS on his own schedule which I found myself fighting on a lot of days and therefore messing up his schedule.

As it turns out, when I actually started paying attention to it- Tyler naps from 830-930am pretty routinely. He  wakes up between 630-730am pretty routinely. His second nap rolls around between 1130 and 12pm. And guess what my friends, he's 8 months old and he still likes the third nap. This is probably what caused me and him the most harm...all those sleep doctor book type things say that around 6 months babies drop the 3rd nap and don't need it anymore. There may have been some statistic like ___% of babies keep the 3rd nap of the day for longer but obviously Tyler doesn't need the third nap. Why? Because the book says!

Actually he does. If he sleeps between 330-430pm he is a joy to be around until 7pm (bedtime). If he doesn't sleep between 330-430pm, he is not so joyous and bedtime becomes more like 6pm which then means wake up time is more like 6am. (yikes!)

So it appears that if I leave him to his own devices and stop trying to go all baby schedules-sleep book-doctor says- on him, he is quite capable of telling us what he needs when he needs it. Even if it includes a third nap. Tyler wins. But now I realize that when Tyler wins, we all win because he's a whole lot cuter when smiling and happy than crying and less-than-joyous.

The other major benefit to figuring out "his times"?  I can organize my day around him and it has some structure and flow and process to it. Like today...wake up, play, Tyler naps-I work, wake up- planned ahead to go to consignment sale upon wake up (it works), come home, play, take nap- I blog & wash dishes. You get it...this thing is a much more well-oiled machine.

Oh you know the funny thing I just thought about. Every time I think alright now we've got it, Tyler throws his next curve ball (which by the way, his latest skill is actually throwing toys!).

The latest adventure is...

Wool dryer balls. Homemade.

Here's the scoop.

I recently came across information about using wool dryer balls which have a myriad of benefits which I will disclose to you shortly. When I learned of these benefits (see below), I immediately knew we NEEDED them. And not only needed them, but needed them NOW! So I started checking online stores, how much do these things cost? Some were $3 each, some were $15 for a set of 3, etc. One of the locations of my searching was Etsy. Then I realized, people make these. Then I googled how I could be one of these people to make my own dryer balls. It turned out it didn't seem hard. And I'm no part of craft-y.

Step 1- I needed wool yarn. I could obtain it in 2 ways- said these google produced articles- either buy it (100% wool and not the washable kind!) or I could repurpose a wool sweater into yarn. I knew what I needed to do.

Step 2- I texted myself a coupon, drove to the nearest craft store with said coupon and my precious cash to buy myself some 100% wool yarn! Alas, wool yarn is expensive!

Step 3- Scour multiple Goodwill stores over a period of about a week and low and behold- I stumble upon 2 gems in 1 trip, a "new" to me dress that was compatible with nursing AND the greatest Goodwill sweater ever to set foot into a Goodwill donation pile. 100% pure wool- size adult large. SCORE! Oh yea, and it cost $3.

And so my friends, I have started making my own homemade dryer balls...one measly strand of 100% wool yarn at a time. It is glorious. It is currently getting close to being the size of a tennis ball but it's not there yet.


And now, you've waited this long to know the benefits of wool dryer balls...here they are-

1. chemical-free fabric softener: they bounce around in and among the clothes while they're drying and act as a softener.
2. chemical- free wrinkle reducer: they absorb water from the clothes while they're drying then "steam" as the drying process continues leaving no wrinkles
3. improve drying efficiency aka reduce drying time: because the dryer balls bounce around with the clothes as the dryer runs, they reduce the inevitable "big wadded lump of clothes" and allow more hot-dry air to circulate through all parts of the clothes



Ok...I know there are more but now I can't think of them all. These 3 are reason enough for me to keep deconstructing my sweater one measly strand at a time. I will update you all on the progress and the finished products, if I still have this blog when I finish the products. And also, if the internet still exists then. This could take years. Years.

Cloth Diapers

Awhile ago I mentioned that we had decided to give cloth diapers a try. It's been about a month now and so far, so good. I was able to collect the "supplies" we needed to get started over the course of a few weeks then spent another day or two getting them ready for action. Once we actually started diapering Tyler up with cloth, it was amazingly easy which is actually what everyone I talked to about it said but I totally didn't believe.

Here's what we do:
1. put the diaper on him
2. when it needs to be changed, take the diaper off of him
3. put it in the diaper pail (no lid, no special methods, nothing but tossing it in)
4. put a new one on
5. repeat.

Then wash them after 2-3 days. Then put them in the sun to dry (f it happens to be sunny, if not, dry in the house).

There's definitely a learning curve- how to fold, how to put on, how to adjust the sizes/tightening/etc, how to wash- but even that isn't so bad. Kevin and our daycare provider are definitely on board, I am learning as I go and there's nothing better than thinking during every diaper change how we aren't sending yet another diaper to the landfill along with another quarter to the garbage truck!

Tyler- 8 Months

8 Months

Likes:

• Food! At least more than he used to, now he actually opens his mouth every now and then
• Standing while holding on to toys, couches, pretty much anything
• Throwing toys or at least swinging his arms in a throwing motion
• Reaching for faces and hair...I really really really need to cut his fingernails more often!

Dislikes:

• Diaper and clothes changes! This is new...he never really cared before but now he fights every moment of it and cries, wriggles, tries to roll over, etc. It can be somewhat like a wrestling match and moving him to the floor usually ends up worse because then he really tries to get away.

Noteworthy:

• 1 tooth popped through- bottom front middle right
• His hair appears to be taking on the characteristics of Kevin's as a small boy- curly, fuzzy, moppy mess of blond-ish hair!
• Tyler was baptized on March 9th, it was a great day!