Life with Lydia

Halleluia! Paul found a miraculous sleep training book that really works, “Good Night, Sleep Tight” by Kim West. Thank you, Daddy! Woo hoo!

A couple of nights ago Lydia actually slept all night, yup, 10 and 11 hours straight, and for the first time. And boy, were we doing the dance of joy when we woke and realized it. What a difference continous sleep makes.
We had tried another technique with little to no results. The one in “The No-Cry Sleep Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley. We tried it for about two months. We did well following the basics that she prescribes: make and follow a daily routine, have a consistent bed time routine, no night feedings, etc. But the actual sleeping never really improved. This method trains the parent rather than the child, puts too much on the parents to get the child to sleep, and moves too slowly. Plus it’s poorly organized, making it hard to understand.

This new miracle technique we’re trying now works faster and is still pretty gentle on the child. It’s a much kinder, gentler version of Ferberizing. In fact it’s somewhere in between Ferberizing (letting them cry it out) and the no-cry sleep technique. Lydia learns to go to sleep on her own without feeling abandoned. Basically I sit next to her crib to help sooth her when necessary and gradually move my chair out the door over the course of two weeks. It’s more complicated than that but still fairly easy, and we are getting results quickly. We only started about a week ago. Each night gets easier and she falls asleep faster.

Who knew one has to sleep-train a child. We sure didn’t. We thought she’d just eventually figure it out as we did as babies. Well, that wasn’t the case for Lydia. So for anyone needing help, we HIGHLY recommend this book and technique, “Good Night, Sleep Tight” by Kim West.

There are lots of sophisticated solutions out there for baby safety. You can spend lots of money and time installing complex solutions. Or you can do what I did, install the Drawer Safety Taperino 2000. Uh, I taped the drawers shut. It works, it’s cheap and it took no time to install.

Ok, so after reading a blog on the baby center site, I have to share. In the blog she talks about a Web site that helps you understand the need for a supportive bra during exercise. Prior to clicking be warned that this is not a G rated site, but it is hilarious, especially to someone in the Web design biz. I can only imagine the fun the guys had who animated this one! Oh, and why do the “girls” in the regular bra bounce more than those sans bra!? Here’s the bounce-o-meter site. Have fun!

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV viewing for children under 2 and shows that the development of a child can be hampered by TV viewing above the age of 2. Verbal skills, social skills, etc. All aspects of development seem to be affected. Yikes. That seems scary. But it makes sense that actual interaction would be best for a child rather than virtual interaction. So, I know we’re going to try to follow the AAP’s recommendations. It only makes sense.

That said, I can see how it might be hard to meet these recommendations. I can see how parents would tend to lean on TV as a form of free baby sitting. In our world today, we live very solitary, independent lives. Away from our home towns and families and with very scheduled interactions with friends. Gone are the days of walking over to socialize with neighbors (who are also your friends). We’re lucky these days if we even know what they look like or what their names are. Child rearing used to be a more communal thing, at least you could get a break from one of your nearby family members or neighbors when you needed it. But these days that’s not so much reality, unless you’re one of the lucky ones. So, in the absence of family or friends helping out on short notice, unfortunately TV plays an easy second.. and it’s free.

Read more about the AAP’s recommendations.

Since I have so little time to do anything but care for Lydia these days, reducing the number of chores is high on my list. Any time I can gain to do what I want rather than what needs to be done is wonderful. I found one thing to do to help me and the environment at the same time: opt out of as much as possible. I mean junk mail, catalogs, and mail solicitations. I found a list of sites to do this with. Here’s the reducing junk mail article where I found the information.

Wondering what this photo has to do with this post? Nothing! I just love posting photos of Lydia!

Along with baby always comes more stuff. And in our “modern” society there seems to be lots of stuff the one MUST have for successfully bringing up a child. Well, that’s what they tell us (they being the stores and manufacturers). I agree, we do need some stuff, but not all of it. We’re hoping to keep our baby stuff under control. Here’s an interesting article on the battle with baby-stuff clutter.

BTW, I bought the book by Peter Walsh (my fav guy from TLC). I’ll tell you what I think of it in a future post.

I’ve started searching for audio versions of songs I used to sing when I was growing up in Costa Rica. Much to my surprise I’ve found several online. I wonder how many more I can find. One day Lydia and I can sing them together.

Listen to Los Pollitos

Listen to Arroz Con Leche

Listen to Dos Elefantes

Oh, and I even found a site with baby clothes with the “Los Pollitos” theme on them!

We chose the name “Lydia” for our sweety after much discussion and deliberation. The name happens to be a family name from the Welty family—Lydia Fox Welty, Paul’s great great grandmother, but that was not our original inspiration. The inspiration for her name came from one of the many amusing scenes from our favorite movie, “The Philadelphia Story”, with Catherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. We have always loved the scene where charming Dinah performs for the house visitors— “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”. Watch the scene. (The song scene starts at ~ minute 7…)

Read the complete Lyrics to “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”.

Watch the Groucho Marx version of “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”.