Sunday, October 31, 2010

It's Been Too Long!

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It feels like forever since I have done a post and I have so much to catch everyone up on.  I'm not ever sure where to start!  

Avery finally cut her first tooth!  Last Sunday I noticed her bottom gum was swollen and white so I knew it was coming.  Then on Tuesday it finally made it's way through.  You still can't really see it but you can definitely feel it!  Pretty exciting, first tooth at 13 months old (it took long enough)! 

During the 5 days leading up to us going out of town Avery skipped 3 of her afternoon naps and the other 2 were less then 30 minutes (after staying awake for 30 minutes to an hour).  I began wondering if maybe she was trying to tell me she was ready to drop a nap.  When I talked to my sister (a toddler teacher) she confirmed my suspicions.  So I did a little more reading up on it and found this at Just The Facts Baby:

Signs your child is ready to change to one daily nap
Your child is ready to switch from two naps to one if . . .
  • when you put him down for a nap, he plays or fusses for at least 30 minutes before falling asleep. Then, he takes only a short nap.
  • he can go for car rides early in the day without falling asleep.
  • he can miss a nap and remain cheerful and energetic until his next nap, or bedtime.
  • he naps well for one of his naps, but totally resists the other nap
Well, all of these are true for Avery.  On our 2 hour last week, she didn't sleep the entire trip even though it was during a nap time!  Even though she was skipping or not sleeping much at her afternoon nap, she was still in a great mood and you never would have guessed that she hadn't slept since 11:30 in the morning.  Her morning nap was completely unaffected.  She'd go right in for nap, fall asleep no problem, and sleep for about an hour and a half.  So, I knew it was time to make the big switch!  However, I did not want to do it while we were away.  Sleep is so messed up when away from home anyway and I didn't want to mess everything up more.  So while we were gone she continued with her crazy naps, great in the morning and short or nonexistent in the afternoon.  The day after we got back I sucked it up and we dropped the morning nap.  We ended up going to a local children's museum that morning (which she LOVED) to help keep her active and happy.  She did great but the nap wasn't as long as I would have liked, only an hour and a half.  Then on Saturday we went to the Budweiser Clydesdale Ranch (which was so cool, those horses are huge) in the morning with my mom group and she had an awesome nap, 2 hours and 50 minutes.  Today, we played at the house and then ran some family errands in the morning.  Her nap was once again short, only an hour and a half.  So I'm wondering if it will get take her sometime to get into a new nap routine and settle into a regular nap length.  What have you other mom's who have gone through this noticed?  Was there a learning curve to it?  However, overall, I am really happy with how it has gone.  She has been in a great mood, handled the transition so well, and is going down much faster at nap time and bedtime.

Avery is talking and signing up a storm.  It's so fun to see and hear her communicate her wants and needs.  What's really fun is how she is putting multiple signs together and even tying spoken words with the signs.  Today at dinner she signed "eat" "more" "please" and said "more" when she signed it, and it was all without prompting.  She also signs "up" "please" and says "up" and signs "down" "please" and says "down."  I just love it!

Being gone all last week and then losing a nap time have gotten me so far behind on everything!  My house is not as clean as I would like it to be, I am so far behind on some organizing stuff for my mom group, and I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like to.  It's been so crazy!   


But I think that's enough for tonight, I need to go spend some time with the hubs, he's probably feeling a bit neglected this evening (I spent a long time catching up on everyone's blogs and then started writing this so we have barely talked at all).  I'll do a post with Halloween stuff soon!  Until then here are some pics from the children's museum and the Clydesdale ranch.








12 comments:

  1. Great pictures!! Congratulations on her new tooth ;-) Can't wait to see her Halloween costume. Have a great night!
    Blessings,
    Jill

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  2. Welcome back! Congrats on the tooth and surviving the switch to one nap! Sounds like Avery was really good about it. I think 1.5 hours is pretty decent for a nap, I would just assume that is what it will be and if you get longer then great but if not you won't be disappointed. :) Your pics are so cute! I love Avery in that hat!

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  3. Thanks for following me at Mom of all Trades! I'm already a follower of yours :)

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  4. Avery is way too cute. I'm sure you were anticipating that first tooth, but in a way, I'm jealous. Nate started getting teeth at 6 months and started biting me while nursing at 8 months. I almost thought I was going to have to quit because it was so painful, but eventually he stopped.

    I am so interested in learning more about signing. I didn't know much about it until recently. About a month ago, my husband started signing "eat" to Nate and last week, Nate started signing it, completely unprompted. I was shocked. I'm definitely going to look into signing more.

    Oh, and Nate quit taking two naps at 12 months. He started doing the same things that you mentioned, so now he just takes one long nap. It works!

    Looking forward to your Halloween pictures. I posted a few pics on my site and have asked others to share their links, so feel free to drop by.

    Take care, Liz!

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  5. Welcome back! So much going on for you guys! Welcome to the world, tooth number one :) I think Nate is probably ready for one nap as well, but every time I try to shift his morning nap later he doesn't nap for very long (like thirty minutes). But on days when we keep the morning nap where it is, he'll sleep for 80 minutes if I'm lucky. Then maybe he'll sleep for 30 minutes in the afternoon. But he's always been a horrible 30 minute napper, so I don't know quite what to do. I'm hoping we'll figure it out soon. Can't wait to see the Halloween pics!

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  6. Hey! I'm so glad things are going well for you. Yea on her first tooth!

    I hope my daughter will wait awhile before dropping one nap officially. When we have busy weekends she can survive on one, but I generally get her down for two a day still.

    Have a good one!

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  7. Welcome back! How exciting about Avery's tooth! Can't wait to see your Halloween pics :)

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  8. She's awfully cute and it's great that she's communicating so much! I was ok with going from two naps to one, but wow, was it hard to go to NONE!

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  9. Hi! I'm a new follower :) Your daughter is soo cute :) My kids gave up nap the two naps pretty early and then naps gone all together :(
    please stop by for a visit :) www.canadiancouponmom.blogspot.com

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  10. Aww good to have you back! I know the feeling of it being a little crazy and not having time to post. It all happens with time. She looks adorable and congrats of the first tooth. Hope you have a great week and Thanks for all of the kind words!

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  11. I'm your newest follower from the Tuesday blog hop. Avery is adorable!

    http://mommythecouponhunter.com

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  12. Thanks ladies! It's great to be back! It feels so weird to be gone for so long! @Ashley, I think that's a really good way to look at it! @Shoni, that's the one reason I was so glad it took her so long to get a tooth, I've heard so many biting stories! Baby sign is awesome, you should check out Amber's website (http://www.mylifewithnate.blogspot.com/), she and her son Nate are both awesome with baby sign and her website it a great resource! @ Amber, Yeah Avery hasn't always been a good napper and she still has her days, but she is so much better then she used to be. That really sucks that if he takes one nap it's so short, ugh! @Holly, I was in no rush to drop the nap (I loved having two "break" and it's been hard to adjust) but Avery just didn't agree! @blueviolet, I am NOT looking forward to that! It's been hard enough going to one, I can't imagine none!

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