OK, so on Friday night, Morgan was supposed to go all night without eating. Technically, I think she did, because she slept 8 hours, before crying to be fed. However, this was at 3:00 a.m., so it depends on how you look at it. I was thinking about it and I don't think it's quite time to totally wean her off night feedings. I'm not very good about giving her enough solids during the daytime, so I think one night feeding, as long as she sleeps past midnight, is fair. She has been doing such a great job and when she cries at 2 in the morning, I know she's really hungry and not just asking for milk to be put back to sleep. She has proven to me that she can put herself to sleep on her own, so there's no need to force the issue on night feedings, just yet.
Saturday night, she only slept 4 hours and woke up at 11:00 wanting milk, though. Normally, I'd make her wait until after midnight, but I was late giving her solids and kinda messed up her feeding schedule, again, she shouldn't suffer for my mistakes. I fed her about 2.5 ounces and then she slept another 5hr15min. After that, I fed her a little more and she slept another 2 and half hours. Her total sleep for that night was 11 hours and 45 minutes, which is amazing to me!
Last night was a even better. I've read that "sleeping through the night" is sleeping 5 hours straight, usually from 12a-5a. Morgan went to bed at 7:30p and slept all the way to 5:15a! She did let out a single cry at 2:30a, but it was in her sleep, so I say that doesn't count. ;) She was very hungry when she woke up at 5:15a, and she had slept almost 10 hours, so I gladly gave her a little water and then a little milk. She slept from 5:30a-7:00a, for a total of 11 hours 10 minutes, with only one waking/feeding. This is a first for my sweet baby and I'm so proud of her! It only took her 8 months, but she finally slept through the night!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sleep Training - Week One almost complete! I ♥ Dr. Ferber!
As some of you may know, Morgan has never slept well. Only a few times in her life did she sleep 5+ hours straight. Her typical routine is to go to bed and wake up just about every sleep cycle. I was in her room every 45 minutes to an hour, most nights. Sometimes she'd sleep 2-3 hours at a time and give me a little break. Ever since she was a newborn, I've been reading books on baby sleep and doing research on the web. I've read the following 3 books: The Baby Whisperer (BW) by Tracy Hogg, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (SYCSP) by Dr. Richard Ferber, and The No-Cry Sleep Solution (NCSS) by Elizabeth Pantley. They are all good books, by respected authors. I believe the first book I read was the BW and I find it more helpful now, than I did when she was a small baby. I just couldn't seem to get into a structured routine, while at the same time trying to figure out what to do with a baby. The next book I got was the Ferber book and it is the best of the 3, when it comes to explaining the nature of baby sleep. He is a baby sleep expert and I found the information very helpful. Baby's just don't sleep like adults do, and I had a lot of learning to do on the subject. I was initially very wary of letting Morgan cry for any period of time, though, so I went out and bought the NCSS. I felt that the author was on a bit of a "high horse" about how her method did not involve crying, like that meant it was superior. The NCSS is different, not better. The BW and Ferber methods are also different, and not better/worse. I believe I went out and bought 3 tools and one ended up being right for the job at hand and the others were valid tools, but for someone else's workshop.
Let me provide a little more background before I get into recounting our sleep training. I distinctly remember watching an episode of "Mad About You", many years ago, where they had their little baby in her crib, behind closed doors and they were letting her "cry it out". Jamie was sitting on the floor, outside the door, with Paul and crying and wanting to go to her and saying something to the effect of, "I don't want her to think that nobody's going to be there for her and that she's all alone in the world." It was a touching scene and I decided then that I'd never leave my baby alone to "cry it out". It seemed like a cruel process and I didn't think I could ever do such a thing.
When I read the Ferber book, however, I realized that his method was not at all like the "crying it out" (CIO) that I had heard about. In my mind, CIO is leaving your baby alone, locked in their room, to cry for hours until they pass out from exhaustion and accept the fact that nobody's listening or coming to help them, so they might as well just shut up and sleep. THAT's the CIO that I was very much against. Ferber's method does not involve abandoning your child so that they lose faith in the world. As a friend put it, "he does changes their habits without breaking their spirit".
Ferber's method involves putting your child to bed awake (which is the same suggestion as in most baby sleep books), so that they learn to put themselves to sleep without the use of "crutches" like eating/nursing, being rocked, patted, walked around, etc. You are to go through a loving bedtime routine, which can include a bath, book, song, etc. After you place your baby in the crib and tell them that you goodnight and that you love them, you leave. When you do this, your baby's going to cry. Crying is their only form of communication and they are going to use it to tell you that they are not pleased. I should add that before you place them in the crib, you are to do a safety check and make sure that they are fed, dry and not suffering any discomfort that would otherwise explain their crying. That way, you know that their crying is merely a protest to a change in their routine.
Morgan had become used to the following routine: pajamas and a bottle of milk. She would fall asleep drinking that bottle of milk and then I would burp her on my shoulder and she'd be asleep as I got up and placed her gently in the crib and snuck out of the room. She'd roll over and go right to sleep, without a fuss. However, 30-60 minutes later...WAH!!! She'd cry for me to come soothe her. She'd probably eat every time, but I'd make her wait a few hours between feedings. Every night, I'd have 3-4 bottles of water ready and formula in the dispenser. In total, she drank about 6-8 oz. at night. It didn't matter how little or how much I fed her during the day. I soon realized that it was habit, more than hunger, driving these frequent night wakings.
When Morgan was 4 months old, I decided to give Ferberizing a try. The standard plan is to start with a 5-minute wait time. I didn't really have a bedtime routine then, so I just placed her in the crib. I went to the other room and she went bananas! She was screaming and after the 5 minutes was up, I went in and she had turned herself all around in the crib and was pitching a major hissy fit. I went away for another 5, unable to do 10 and when I went back, she was livid. She was looking at me with this pleading look - "why are you doing this to me??" So, I picked her up out of the crib, told her I was sorry and abandoned the project. She just wasn't ready and I wasn't doing it right.
I then decided to try out the No-Cry plan. It involves mostly the same principles, but instead of leaving the baby in the crib, you pick them up each time and put them down and give them the "shush-pat", where you make a "shush" sound and pat them on the back. This is an exhausting plan, because you might have to pick them up and put them down 10-15 times before they go to sleep. I don't see how this is a "no cry" plan, though, because she cried every time I put her back down and most of the time while I was holding her, too. It actually made her more upset if I'd pick her up and put her back down. She'd get more and more upset each time, instead of being calmed. I'd end up having to feed her to sleep to stop her crying. The logs in the NCSS book even have a space for "time spent crying" or something to that effect, and it's just supposed to lessen over time. I don't think it's fair for them to call themselves a "no-cry"solution. I honestly don't think there is such a thing. A baby is not going to like you taking away their sleep crutches or changing what they are used to and they will protest and the way babies protest is to cry. It's like she wants to stick a fork in an electrical outlet and I'm telling her she can't and she's crying.
Anyway, I tried to get some help from parents who had successfully sleep-trained with a "no-cry" method, but I couldn't find anyone. I was nearing 8 months of basically no sleep and I needed to find something that worked. After reading more and more and more, I decided to try Ferber again. I spoke to other mothers who had successfully Ferberized, without rendering their babies insane. They all tweaked the method to suit their needs and I decide to go with Ferber's alternate interval plan that starts with a single minute of wait time.
My husband rigged up our camcorder, which has a night-vision setting, and placed it on the shelf near her crib and hid it behind the shelf curtains. He hooked it up to a spare flat-panel computer monitor in the other room. That way, I could see her and know that nothing was wrong and go in earlier, if she looked like she was in distress. This made a world of difference in making the process tolerable. Nobody wants to hear their baby cry, and it's even worse when you're imagining what they're doing in the other room. Is she spinning around? Is she shooting laserbeams out her eyes??
(Wow, I just realized this is a ridiculously long blog...sorry!)
We decided to start on a Friday night, so my husband could offer more support, if needed. I decided the bedtime routine would be bottle (well before bedtime), pajamas, book(s), bed. I couldn't add a bath to the routine because of her eczema. Another really helpful addition to the process was the purchase of Huggies Overnites diapers. They are the best! They keep her so dry at night, no matter how much she wets. I never have to change her at night. Even when she drank a ton of milk at night and wet and wet and wet, her skin would be smooth and dry in the morning.
So, I put her in her jammies, read her a few books and turned off the lights. I held her close for a few minutes and sang her a little song. I told her that I loved her and that it was time for "night night" and I put her in the crib. She immediately began fussing and I patted her and told her it was OK and it was time for bed. I said a few more sweet words and then I left the room. I went to the other room and started the 1-minute timer. I watched on the monitor as she cried and rolled around, wondering what the heckamazoo was going on. I sat there for the longest 60 seconds, reminding myself that she was clothed, fed and dry and was just protesting. After the minute passed, I went to her crib and patted her and told her that everything was OK. She cried harded at seeing me, but then she settled down and I left again for another minute. This extended to 3 minutes, then 5 minutes. I had put her in the crib at 7:45 p.m. By 8:25 p.m., she had settled down, found a comfortable position and was sleeping soundly. The total "fuss time" for Night 1 was 40 minutes. - and it's not like she cried for 40 continuous minutes. It was broken up by my visits. She then slept for 4 hours straight, which was a wonderous improvement over her normal routine. She woke up at 12:25 a.m. and I fed her a few ounces. Another part of the process is weaning off the night feeds, so for Night 1 she had to go 2.5 hours between feedings and she had gone above and beyond my expectations. After I fed her, she slept another 5 hours! She awoke at 5:45 a.m. and I fed her a little more and she slept until 7:30 a.m. That was another 1.5 hours, for a total night's sleep of 10.5 hours. We went to wake her up at 7:30, so I don't know how much longer she would have slept, but I didn't want to let her sleep too late and throw off the next day. She was a happy camper when my husband and I went to get her out of the crib. It was probably the most restful night she had experienced in her entire life. Morgan has always been a happy baby, despite her lack of sleep, but she was in an impossibly good mood that day.
I continued the process for the next day's naps and she fussed and wiggled for about 15 minutes, before falling asleep. Again, she didn't cry that whole time. She definitely cried for the first couple of minutes, but then she tossed and turned to find a comfy spot and then drifted off to sleep.
That night (Night 2) she only fussed for FIVE minutes and went to sleep. She caught onto the routine very quickly and I was amazed. When she was down for a nap, I waited longer than the 1-minute interval, because she was settling and I knew that if I went in there, she'd feel the need to put on a show of protest for me. With me out of the room, she was free to get settled and go off to sleep.
Nights 3-7 were as follows: (remember that fuss time does not mean continuous crying time...)
Night 3:
Bedtime fuss time: 8 minutes
Sleep Stretch #1: 3hr 40min
Sleep Stretch #2: 3hr
Sleep Stretch #3: 2hr 35min
Total Sleep: 9hr 15min
Night 4:
Bedtime fuss time: 8 minutes
Sleep Stretch #1: 4hr 35min
Sleep Stretch #2: 5hr
Sleep Stretch #3: 1hr
Total Sleep: 10hr 35min
Night 5:
Bedtime fuss time: 18 minutes
(interrupted by coughing fit...)
Sleep Stretch #1: 3hr 50min
Sleep Stretch #2: 5hr 30min
Total Sleep: 9hr 20min
Night 6:
Bedtime fuss time: 1 minute!
Sleep Stretch #1: 6hr 45min
Sleep Stretch #2: 3hr 30min
Total Sleep: 10hr 15min
Night 7:
Bedtime fuss time: 2 minutes
Sleep Stretch #1: 5hr 50min
Sleep Stretch #2: 1hr 50min
Sleep Stretch #3: 2hr
Total Sleep: 9hr 40min
Tonight is Night 8 and she's supposed to go the whole night without a feeding, so we'll see how that goes. She only fussed for 5 minutes, so she's still doing well.
I should add that she developed some seasonal allergies (sneezing, coughing, no fever) right in the middle of our sleep training, but she's still doing really well. She was coughing in her sleep and I was afraid the whole process would be derailed, but thankfully not. The only "problem" now is that she knows the wind-down process and she starts to fuss right when I turn out the light. I'm always holding her when I turn the lights off and she leans back in protest, because she knows what's coming. I know she's tired and she knows she's tired, but she just has to give me that little protesting cry before nodding off to Dreamland.
I think the Ferber Method was a success for us, this time around, and I am so very pleased. I truly believe that she cries less now, using a "cry" method, than she did when trying either no method or the "no-cry" method. If there are mothers out there not getting any sleep night after night after night, I would like to tell them that Ferber is not the Devil and your baby won't die if he/she has to cry for a few minutes. Instead they (and you) will get the rest they need and be all the better for it. I know this method doesn't work for everyone and not all babies adjust quickly, but it's a viable, humane option and not an exercise in baby torture, like some would have you believe.
Let me provide a little more background before I get into recounting our sleep training. I distinctly remember watching an episode of "Mad About You", many years ago, where they had their little baby in her crib, behind closed doors and they were letting her "cry it out". Jamie was sitting on the floor, outside the door, with Paul and crying and wanting to go to her and saying something to the effect of, "I don't want her to think that nobody's going to be there for her and that she's all alone in the world." It was a touching scene and I decided then that I'd never leave my baby alone to "cry it out". It seemed like a cruel process and I didn't think I could ever do such a thing.
When I read the Ferber book, however, I realized that his method was not at all like the "crying it out" (CIO) that I had heard about. In my mind, CIO is leaving your baby alone, locked in their room, to cry for hours until they pass out from exhaustion and accept the fact that nobody's listening or coming to help them, so they might as well just shut up and sleep. THAT's the CIO that I was very much against. Ferber's method does not involve abandoning your child so that they lose faith in the world. As a friend put it, "he does changes their habits without breaking their spirit".
Ferber's method involves putting your child to bed awake (which is the same suggestion as in most baby sleep books), so that they learn to put themselves to sleep without the use of "crutches" like eating/nursing, being rocked, patted, walked around, etc. You are to go through a loving bedtime routine, which can include a bath, book, song, etc. After you place your baby in the crib and tell them that you goodnight and that you love them, you leave. When you do this, your baby's going to cry. Crying is their only form of communication and they are going to use it to tell you that they are not pleased. I should add that before you place them in the crib, you are to do a safety check and make sure that they are fed, dry and not suffering any discomfort that would otherwise explain their crying. That way, you know that their crying is merely a protest to a change in their routine.
Morgan had become used to the following routine: pajamas and a bottle of milk. She would fall asleep drinking that bottle of milk and then I would burp her on my shoulder and she'd be asleep as I got up and placed her gently in the crib and snuck out of the room. She'd roll over and go right to sleep, without a fuss. However, 30-60 minutes later...WAH!!! She'd cry for me to come soothe her. She'd probably eat every time, but I'd make her wait a few hours between feedings. Every night, I'd have 3-4 bottles of water ready and formula in the dispenser. In total, she drank about 6-8 oz. at night. It didn't matter how little or how much I fed her during the day. I soon realized that it was habit, more than hunger, driving these frequent night wakings.
When Morgan was 4 months old, I decided to give Ferberizing a try. The standard plan is to start with a 5-minute wait time. I didn't really have a bedtime routine then, so I just placed her in the crib. I went to the other room and she went bananas! She was screaming and after the 5 minutes was up, I went in and she had turned herself all around in the crib and was pitching a major hissy fit. I went away for another 5, unable to do 10 and when I went back, she was livid. She was looking at me with this pleading look - "why are you doing this to me??" So, I picked her up out of the crib, told her I was sorry and abandoned the project. She just wasn't ready and I wasn't doing it right.
I then decided to try out the No-Cry plan. It involves mostly the same principles, but instead of leaving the baby in the crib, you pick them up each time and put them down and give them the "shush-pat", where you make a "shush" sound and pat them on the back. This is an exhausting plan, because you might have to pick them up and put them down 10-15 times before they go to sleep. I don't see how this is a "no cry" plan, though, because she cried every time I put her back down and most of the time while I was holding her, too. It actually made her more upset if I'd pick her up and put her back down. She'd get more and more upset each time, instead of being calmed. I'd end up having to feed her to sleep to stop her crying. The logs in the NCSS book even have a space for "time spent crying" or something to that effect, and it's just supposed to lessen over time. I don't think it's fair for them to call themselves a "no-cry"solution. I honestly don't think there is such a thing. A baby is not going to like you taking away their sleep crutches or changing what they are used to and they will protest and the way babies protest is to cry. It's like she wants to stick a fork in an electrical outlet and I'm telling her she can't and she's crying.
Anyway, I tried to get some help from parents who had successfully sleep-trained with a "no-cry" method, but I couldn't find anyone. I was nearing 8 months of basically no sleep and I needed to find something that worked. After reading more and more and more, I decided to try Ferber again. I spoke to other mothers who had successfully Ferberized, without rendering their babies insane. They all tweaked the method to suit their needs and I decide to go with Ferber's alternate interval plan that starts with a single minute of wait time.
My husband rigged up our camcorder, which has a night-vision setting, and placed it on the shelf near her crib and hid it behind the shelf curtains. He hooked it up to a spare flat-panel computer monitor in the other room. That way, I could see her and know that nothing was wrong and go in earlier, if she looked like she was in distress. This made a world of difference in making the process tolerable. Nobody wants to hear their baby cry, and it's even worse when you're imagining what they're doing in the other room. Is she spinning around? Is she shooting laserbeams out her eyes??
(Wow, I just realized this is a ridiculously long blog...sorry!)
We decided to start on a Friday night, so my husband could offer more support, if needed. I decided the bedtime routine would be bottle (well before bedtime), pajamas, book(s), bed. I couldn't add a bath to the routine because of her eczema. Another really helpful addition to the process was the purchase of Huggies Overnites diapers. They are the best! They keep her so dry at night, no matter how much she wets. I never have to change her at night. Even when she drank a ton of milk at night and wet and wet and wet, her skin would be smooth and dry in the morning.
So, I put her in her jammies, read her a few books and turned off the lights. I held her close for a few minutes and sang her a little song. I told her that I loved her and that it was time for "night night" and I put her in the crib. She immediately began fussing and I patted her and told her it was OK and it was time for bed. I said a few more sweet words and then I left the room. I went to the other room and started the 1-minute timer. I watched on the monitor as she cried and rolled around, wondering what the heckamazoo was going on. I sat there for the longest 60 seconds, reminding myself that she was clothed, fed and dry and was just protesting. After the minute passed, I went to her crib and patted her and told her that everything was OK. She cried harded at seeing me, but then she settled down and I left again for another minute. This extended to 3 minutes, then 5 minutes. I had put her in the crib at 7:45 p.m. By 8:25 p.m., she had settled down, found a comfortable position and was sleeping soundly. The total "fuss time" for Night 1 was 40 minutes. - and it's not like she cried for 40 continuous minutes. It was broken up by my visits. She then slept for 4 hours straight, which was a wonderous improvement over her normal routine. She woke up at 12:25 a.m. and I fed her a few ounces. Another part of the process is weaning off the night feeds, so for Night 1 she had to go 2.5 hours between feedings and she had gone above and beyond my expectations. After I fed her, she slept another 5 hours! She awoke at 5:45 a.m. and I fed her a little more and she slept until 7:30 a.m. That was another 1.5 hours, for a total night's sleep of 10.5 hours. We went to wake her up at 7:30, so I don't know how much longer she would have slept, but I didn't want to let her sleep too late and throw off the next day. She was a happy camper when my husband and I went to get her out of the crib. It was probably the most restful night she had experienced in her entire life. Morgan has always been a happy baby, despite her lack of sleep, but she was in an impossibly good mood that day.
I continued the process for the next day's naps and she fussed and wiggled for about 15 minutes, before falling asleep. Again, she didn't cry that whole time. She definitely cried for the first couple of minutes, but then she tossed and turned to find a comfy spot and then drifted off to sleep.
That night (Night 2) she only fussed for FIVE minutes and went to sleep. She caught onto the routine very quickly and I was amazed. When she was down for a nap, I waited longer than the 1-minute interval, because she was settling and I knew that if I went in there, she'd feel the need to put on a show of protest for me. With me out of the room, she was free to get settled and go off to sleep.
Nights 3-7 were as follows: (remember that fuss time does not mean continuous crying time...)
Night 3:
Bedtime fuss time: 8 minutes
Sleep Stretch #1: 3hr 40min
Sleep Stretch #2: 3hr
Sleep Stretch #3: 2hr 35min
Total Sleep: 9hr 15min
Night 4:
Bedtime fuss time: 8 minutes
Sleep Stretch #1: 4hr 35min
Sleep Stretch #2: 5hr
Sleep Stretch #3: 1hr
Total Sleep: 10hr 35min
Night 5:
Bedtime fuss time: 18 minutes
(interrupted by coughing fit...)
Sleep Stretch #1: 3hr 50min
Sleep Stretch #2: 5hr 30min
Total Sleep: 9hr 20min
Night 6:
Bedtime fuss time: 1 minute!
Sleep Stretch #1: 6hr 45min
Sleep Stretch #2: 3hr 30min
Total Sleep: 10hr 15min
Night 7:
Bedtime fuss time: 2 minutes
Sleep Stretch #1: 5hr 50min
Sleep Stretch #2: 1hr 50min
Sleep Stretch #3: 2hr
Total Sleep: 9hr 40min
Tonight is Night 8 and she's supposed to go the whole night without a feeding, so we'll see how that goes. She only fussed for 5 minutes, so she's still doing well.
I should add that she developed some seasonal allergies (sneezing, coughing, no fever) right in the middle of our sleep training, but she's still doing really well. She was coughing in her sleep and I was afraid the whole process would be derailed, but thankfully not. The only "problem" now is that she knows the wind-down process and she starts to fuss right when I turn out the light. I'm always holding her when I turn the lights off and she leans back in protest, because she knows what's coming. I know she's tired and she knows she's tired, but she just has to give me that little protesting cry before nodding off to Dreamland.
I think the Ferber Method was a success for us, this time around, and I am so very pleased. I truly believe that she cries less now, using a "cry" method, than she did when trying either no method or the "no-cry" method. If there are mothers out there not getting any sleep night after night after night, I would like to tell them that Ferber is not the Devil and your baby won't die if he/she has to cry for a few minutes. Instead they (and you) will get the rest they need and be all the better for it. I know this method doesn't work for everyone and not all babies adjust quickly, but it's a viable, humane option and not an exercise in baby torture, like some would have you believe.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Crib Recall!
First off, let me say that if you are not already on their mailing list, please go to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's website at http://www.cpsc.gov and sign up. They will send you email notifications about product recalls that could save your child's life!
I received one such email yesterday for my daughter's Simplicity drop-side crib: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09260.html
I also received an email directly from Wal-Mart.com, which is where I ordered the crib, using their "Site-to-Store" feature. I checked the model/serial number on the bottom of her crib and, sure enough, it was on the recall list. I also called Wal-Mart customer service to confirm. I had bought the crib as part of Simplicity's "Nursery in a Box" set, which comes with a crib, changing table and dresser. I called Wal-Mart and they said I could just take the crib back and not the other pieces, as I explained that we had clothes in the drawers and items on the shelves of the changing table.
I was not going to let my daughter sleep one more night in that possible death-trap, so I disassembled the crib and we loaded it up in the truck bed and headed off to Wal-Mart. Just as we're driving up to Wal-Mart we see this HUGE wall of rain headed our way. It has barely rained 3 drops in months and now that we're carting a crib in the truck bed, it has to rain. We get the crib inside, ahead of the rain and take it to the customer service department. They didn't give us any trouble. We didn't have our receipt or anything, but they gave us a full refund for the cost of the entire set, which was amazing. We then went to pick out a new crib. There were only 2 brands left that weren't recalled, so we got the white one, to match her furniture and checked out. When we get outside, it's raining cats and dogs! We're got Morgan with us and so we're trying to get the crib in the back (the employees helped with that) and the car seat in the car and the stroller had to go in the back, too. My poor, beautiful stroller got doused. Anyway, we get home and we had called my dad to meet us at the house to bring in the crib, because Greg hurt his back and shouldn't lift anything heavy. My dad arrives and it's still pouring down. He helps bring the crib in one piece at a time and that's when they see that both the front and back boards are broken. One is slightly cracked and the other is flat out broken and splintered. Grr! We call Wal-Mart and ask that they bring another crib box to Customer Service and let us exchange just the broken parts, since we're not loading that thing up again. They agreed and my husband went to exchange the pieces. My husband and my dad got the crib all set up and just in time, because Morgan was so tired and fussy.
She went right to sleep in her new, hopefully safe, crib...for an hour...oh well, I guess her new crib didn't change anything, but at least I know she's not in a death-trap...until the next recall comes out...
I received one such email yesterday for my daughter's Simplicity drop-side crib: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09260.html
I also received an email directly from Wal-Mart.com, which is where I ordered the crib, using their "Site-to-Store" feature. I checked the model/serial number on the bottom of her crib and, sure enough, it was on the recall list. I also called Wal-Mart customer service to confirm. I had bought the crib as part of Simplicity's "Nursery in a Box" set, which comes with a crib, changing table and dresser. I called Wal-Mart and they said I could just take the crib back and not the other pieces, as I explained that we had clothes in the drawers and items on the shelves of the changing table.
I was not going to let my daughter sleep one more night in that possible death-trap, so I disassembled the crib and we loaded it up in the truck bed and headed off to Wal-Mart. Just as we're driving up to Wal-Mart we see this HUGE wall of rain headed our way. It has barely rained 3 drops in months and now that we're carting a crib in the truck bed, it has to rain. We get the crib inside, ahead of the rain and take it to the customer service department. They didn't give us any trouble. We didn't have our receipt or anything, but they gave us a full refund for the cost of the entire set, which was amazing. We then went to pick out a new crib. There were only 2 brands left that weren't recalled, so we got the white one, to match her furniture and checked out. When we get outside, it's raining cats and dogs! We're got Morgan with us and so we're trying to get the crib in the back (the employees helped with that) and the car seat in the car and the stroller had to go in the back, too. My poor, beautiful stroller got doused. Anyway, we get home and we had called my dad to meet us at the house to bring in the crib, because Greg hurt his back and shouldn't lift anything heavy. My dad arrives and it's still pouring down. He helps bring the crib in one piece at a time and that's when they see that both the front and back boards are broken. One is slightly cracked and the other is flat out broken and splintered. Grr! We call Wal-Mart and ask that they bring another crib box to Customer Service and let us exchange just the broken parts, since we're not loading that thing up again. They agreed and my husband went to exchange the pieces. My husband and my dad got the crib all set up and just in time, because Morgan was so tired and fussy.
She went right to sleep in her new, hopefully safe, crib...for an hour...oh well, I guess her new crib didn't change anything, but at least I know she's not in a death-trap...until the next recall comes out...
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Some days...
...it doesn't pay to leave the house!
Morgan woke up in a good mood, not that she slept very well, but she was very happy in the morning, as you can see:
Morgan woke up in a good mood, not that she slept very well, but she was very happy in the morning, as you can see:
I fed her at 10:30 a.m. and then agreed to meet up with someone from Craigslist to buy an enormous plush caterpillar. We agreed to meet at around 11:30 in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We recently installed a new car seat, because Morgan's getting too big for her first one. Now, I have to take her out of the seat, instead of taking the carrier out of the base. Anyway, I loaded her into the car and gave her a little sip of milk, just to make sure she wasn't hungry/thirsty. She was happy and content and off we went. About 3/4 of the way there, she starts rubbing her arms on the restraints, trying to scratch them. She's always wanting to scratch her arms and I'm trying to tell her to stop, but how do you tell a 7 1/2 month old anything? Just as I'm turning into the Wal-Mart parking lot I hear her cry and look in the baby-view mirror and she's spewing milk, projectile-style and choking. I panic, put on my hazard lights and pull into a spot out of traffic, but it's not really a parking spot. I leave the car on, jump out and into the back seat and frantically undo the buckles and pull her out. She's screaming because she finally cleared the milk from her throat and was understandably scared by having been choking. She's covered in soy formula and so is the bottom of the car seat. I think she spit up even more than I fed her. I've never seen this level of expulsion from her and it scared me. I was just glad I wasn't still on the highway, because things may have been worse. I pulled that car into the first available section of pavement and flew to my choking baby. Out on the highway, I might have swerved and I'm just getting used to my new Honda CR-V and SUVs (well, it's a "crossover") can roll if you're not careful.
Anyway, she calmed down after I got her out of the seat and I attempted to sop up some of the mess with burp cloths. I temporarily put her in the seat, unrestrained, and she was happy playin with the straps (she *loves* straps). She was too wet and I forgot a change of clothes, so I loaded her into the stroller and we went into Wal-Mart to buy her another onesie. Oh, and I had parked at the far end of the parking lot and she would not let me put her back in that car seat, so I had to walk the stroller all the way across the parking lot in the Texas heat. We go in, buy an outfit and proceed to the bathroom to change. I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm sure I haven't mentioned Morgan's intense fear of flushing public toilets. I know it must sounds like a swooshing vortex of evil, but you'd think she'd get used to it after a while. I found this out a couple of weeks ago in a Luby's bathroom. I was changing her diaper and every time someone would flush, she's looked panicked and scream. I even took her into a stall to show her where the noise was coming from and she was still freaking out. I held her tight, but she didn't want anything to do with it. So, there we are in the Wal-Mart bathroom and someone comes in and flushes and she gives me that look - "it's the evil swooshing vortex!!" and starts to scream. I console her and lay her back down and she screams again. After lots of picking up and putting down, I get her changed and then she doesn't want to get in the stroller, because she's still scared. I strap her in anyway, so we can get away from the bathroom. Then, she doesn't want to get back in the car seat, as she is assuredly reliving her recent choking trauma. I fixed her a bottle of juice to rehydrate her and that pacified her enough to get her in the car. I drove through the get some lunch and then went to a friend's to drop off a birthday present and we headed home. She seemed pretty happy and I had given her the juice bottle to hold, but she kept turning it upside down and the nipple was resting on the seat and I just knew juice was leaking everywhere. I really didn't care at that point, though, since it was going to be washed anyway. She fell asleep about 1/2 way home, but woke up just as we were getting into the neighborhood. She was fussing a little and when I pulled into the garage, she was wiggly. I parked, got out and as I was rounding the car, I heard her scream. I opened the door and she let out another scream and spewed juice everywhere. She started choking again and I fumbled to get her out of the seat and held her as she continued to vomit juice all over me. I didn't care one bit, though, as I was more worried about her choking and I felt so bad for her. I don't think she has ever thrown up in her life and I know I hate that feeling. It's not like spitting up, where it just runs out her mouth. She was actually heaving and choking and sputtering. I was near tears wondering what was wrong with her.
She finally stops spewing and I call my husband. I tell him what's going on and that I'm going to call the doctor. I then call the doctor's office and they make me an appointment for 2 hours later. Next, I call my dad to come over and take care of Morgan while I get the car cleaned up a little. I had to install the old car seat so I could drive her to the doctor, since the new one was saturated. My dad came over and Morgan was happy as a clam, like nothing happened. She didn't have a fever or anything. I fed her again and she kept it down for half an hour, so I called to cancel the doctor's appointment. She was perfectly fine the rest of the day and I think it was just a fluke. I think it was a combination of too many air bubbles from these cheap bottles I bought her (I got them so she could grip them better) and car sickness.
Anyway, we went through all that so we could get this ginormous caterpillar:
I guess all's well that ends well... :Þ
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