Co-Sleeping, the good, the bad and the ugly

Co-sleeping with our daughter started off great.  When she was a new-born, her bassinet was placed right beside our bed.  When she woke during the night to nurse, I reached over, picked her up and nursed her.  When she was finished back into the bassinet she went.  If she fussed, I just had to place one of my hands on her chest to let her know I was there, and back to sleep she went.

When she grew out of the bassinet, her crib took its place in our room and we continued happily with the same sleeping arrangement.

She is now 2.  She has her own big girl bed in her own room.  She loves this bed, and she loves being close to me too.  Every night she goes down to sleep quite happily in her own bed.  

But sometime during the night, she finds her way into our bed.  My husband who is a night owl and goes to bed much later than I more often than not, finds this.  And instead of fighting for his spot, goes to sleep in her bed (gotta love the game of musical beds).  This is also why she has a twin on the floor, rather than a toddler bed.

Now here's the kicker.  You would think that this would make everything happy in toddler land.  She gets to snuggle with Mama.  Daddy and Mommy still get a full night of sleep.  Wrong!  First, she considers our bed to be hers.  You would not believe how much space she takes up!  She often ends up sleeping on me in some manner of sorts, that I'm uncomfortable, or on the edge of the bed.  If I dare move, she wakes up and goes to instant loud protest (which we really don't want).  

Now, here's where my poor husband really deserves a medal.  In the morning, she gets up, goes into her room to pick out her clothes and as soon as she realises Daddy is in her bed she says as loud and demanding as possible, "Hey!  That's my bed! You get out!".  He's tried to reason with her, but there is no reasoning with toddlers.  The line of, "Well, you were in my bed" doesn't go over very well.  As far as she is concerned Daddy doesn't have a bed.  Her bed is her bed and our bed is really Mama and her bed.  She's as much said that Daddy's bed is gone and she doesn't know where it went.  

You may wonder why we just don't move her back into her own bed?  Truthfully, I usually don't wake up when she crawls in with me.  And her being the third child and knowing how difficult it can be to move a sleeping child without waking them up, it's easier just to play musical beds sometimes.  Our two older children do sleep in their own beds (our oldest 100% of the time) and our middle child most of the time, though he has been known to crawl in around 5am for that last hour to cuddle (BTW - if we knew then what we know now, we would have a King Size rather than a Queen, Queens were not made for this many people!).  I know that this won't last forever - my other children being living proof of it! There are glimmers of hope, nights when my husband comes to bed and his side is empty, nights where she sleeps through the whole night in her own room (we really lavish the praise on for that!).  There have been nights where I do the reverse and when she calls for me at 2:30 am, crawl into her bed instead, letting my husband have a good night's sleep in the big bed.  But this is our life most of the time, for now.

How to make a little taggie toy for baby

Two of my colleagues are expecting babies in about a month. Before they went on maternity leave we had a little shower for them. I had seen a little toy like this on Pinterest and thought it looked pretty cute and simple enough to make. Some of it was guess work as I'd made my own dear daughter a mini taggie blankie when she was smaller.  Some of it I did by guess work and some of it I was helped out by the trail left to me by Pinterest.  I first saw something similar on Tatertots and Jello which led me to Mmmcrafts which led me to Chez Beeper Bebe which had an amazing little Etsy story and tutorial (totally worth reading).  Here's what I did:


First I pre-washed some soft flannel (though any soft, cuddly fabric would do), folded it to double layer it and cut out a circle (making two identical circles).

I then cut a variety of pretty ribbons in varying lengths.  I folded them in half and pinned them on one circle (good side) facing in to the centre of the circle, so all the folded edged meet in the middle.  (This is probably the easiest step to get wrong as it doesn't seem to make sense, but it will - trust me!)

I then matched the other circle up and pinned it overtop all of the ribbons, good side facing in.   As you pin the outside circle on, you need to remove the inside pins that are holding the ribbons in place.  So basically, hold that ribbon down and re-place the inside pin on top so that it goes through all 4 layers (a fabric sandwich of flannel, ribbon, ribbon, flannel).  Continue on the circle.  Now you have a nice little packet ready to sew.

Now sew around the circle, leave a space a couple of cm (just under an inch) wide to turn the toy inside out.

Once you have turned the toy inside out so that all the ribbons are now on the outside you can start stuffing the toy with stuffing.

Once filled, sew up the little hole.

Use embroidery thread to stitch on a little face.  I'm certainly no expert at this, just go for it and see what you come up with :)

 

  There are my two little soft taggie toys ready to meet the new babies!

Adventures in sewing - baby pants and a headband

I bought this great stash of this purple fleece from the clearance bin. I thought that it would make some comfy pants for my daughter for when the weather got cold. I found the pattern at Make Baby Stuff . Com. It was aa very easy pattern to sew (even for a beginner like me). I kinda wish I had first made a pair with a different material because I found the polar fleece really thick to sew with (especially where the layers doubled up). But I did it! My first pair of pants! You can find the online pattern and tutorial here.

Seeing as I had the sewing machine out anyway...
I stumbled on this really easy baby headband pattern on the same site. This was really fast to make. I think I'll be making a few of these once I get a stash of really cool scraps. This pattern and tutorial are found here

I've been creative - a re-post (or the Taggie Blankie)

This is the little taggie blankie I made for O. the other night. I used stuff I already had. The blankie part is two pieces of the pink chenille I had leftover from the little quilt I made her. The ribbon is from piles of ribbon that I've kept just in case. This was really easy to do. I cut the chenille into two equal sizes and then put them together so the 'good' sides were facing each other. I then cut 10 pieces of different ribbons into different lengths (about 3-4 inches each). I folded each ribbon in half and then sandwiched the fold inside the fabric, leaving a tail out. The tails I folded over the fabric on each side and pinned on. I then sewed around the edges of the blankie, making sure to reinforce the ribbons. I left a 2 inch hole and started to turn the blankie out to the good side. It was then that I realised that I had pinned the ribbons backwards. So here marks the first time my seam ripper came in handy. I took out all the thread that was holding in the offending ribbons. Re-folded (correctly this time), reinserted and sewed it all together again. This time when I turned the blankie out, it looked great. I sewed the opening shut and decided to go around the whole thing once more to give it a finished look. The result I think is cute and more importantly, O. loves it!