Thoughts for a sunny spring day

A great day with Grandma.

Today we spent most of the day with Grandma (apart from a few hours at church). Its amazing seeing OB in a different environment. He can do more things than last time we were there!! He can sit up properly in the high chair, and ride the rocker!! So exciting!! We are so lucky to live so close to such great grandparents :)

To think about....

 'This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls?" ...the chief end of their lives is the salvation of their souls.' - J.C Ryle

This has got me thinking...that there is so much about OB's upbringing (that is yet to come) that I have not thought through! This scares me. I'm trying to think through discipline because that is what worries me the most. On one hand I want to be loving to OB, but on the other hand I want him to be well behaved. Above both of those I want him to become a christian. I don't want my actions to hinder that. 

Luckily I still have a bit of time to think through these issues and consult wise friends & family....

Proverbs 13:24 - He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him. 

OB has been sick, which put a stop to our sleep training, however we started back up again yesterday. A good friend lent me "Save our sleep" by Tizzie Hall which is a HOTLY contested book. Last night we started the 10 month-up down-sleep training which consisted of putting OB back down every time he climbed up the rails of the cot. This was quite tedious (and I was only listening through the monitor). Last night it took about 45 minutes before sleep was achieved. Tonight only 20 minutes. Lets see what tomorrow brings. Also, OB is having one night feed (a dream feed at about 10.30pm) and thats it until morning (7am is his usual wake up time). So night-weaning has been successful (if you consider him to be night weaned with a dream feed).! Yay (hes nearly 10 months). 

Smacks

OB is at the age where we need to decide how to discipline him. Although it will start small, we need a framework for how we will deal with discipline issues in the future as they arise.

We want to display God and justice through our discipline and rules and obeying.

He knows (at 9 months) already when he does the wrong thing there are consequences (has been reaching out to touch the heater whilst looking at me and smiling). So I say "no" and give him a smack, hard enough to make him know it's unpleasant. I am amazed at how fast he is picking up on this.

Learning "no" means there are consequences to behaviours. It's hard to know what he can understand....but that's a message we want to pass on...

The aim for further discipline:

Controlled smacking. Talking through the choices OB makes that lead to the smack. Giving him the smack. Look him in the eyes, give him a cuddle and say im not mad anymore.

We want to make sure we teach him the seriousness of doing the wrong thing, consequences, mercy, the nature of God and resolving issues.

Somehow we want to pass on the model of God disciplining us (and his anger when bad things are done) but with an unending love and forgiveness.

Vanilla extract

Today I made vanilla extract. Yum.

I don't know why I don't make more stuff from scratch.

Today I have been challenged to "live local" - sourcing products from where I live. I'm excited about the prospect. Some things we already get locally - eggs, meat, fruit & veg. The easy things. Will be interesting to see how easily other products are sourced. Apparently there is a shop here with local produce. Will check it out!!

I'm so excited to teach OB about where food comes from!! He already helps me water the veggies and pick oranges!

Night weaning

The time has come for night weaning...for no reason other than I'm keen to sleep for more than 5 hours in a row. OB was night weaned (by himself) at about 3.5 months and was sleeping 12 hours straight. But then we moved and he got a cold and it's been easier to night feed him since then - basically I've been lazy...

So on Sunday night when we got back from Katoomba I put him to bed as usual at 6.30 and was determined not to feed him (other than his "dream feed" before midnight) until 6am. He had his dream feed at 10.30pm and then woke at about 2.30am for his next usual feed. It took about an hour to resettle. At 3.30am he went back to sleep and slept until 6.30am (when he woke I fed him). I did have a backup plan incase he didn't just go back to sleep - I was going to feed him every second time he woke rather than every time and wean him slowly. 

Monday night he went to bed as usual, had his dream feed and woke at 3am for his usual feed. I gave him a sip of water and cuddled him and put him back in bed. It took about half an hour of cuddles and re settling to get him back to sleep. And he slept till 6.30am.

Last night (Tuesday) he went to bed at 6.30, slept all through taking him out to bible study, had his dream feed at about 10.30pm. Woke at 3.30am and I gave him a cuddle, changed his nappy (which i forgot to mention i did the previous nights) and put him back in bed. He went straight back to sleep (yippie) and slept till 5.30am. 

Not sure how keen I am on the 5.30am wake up - I'm quite tired today. Fingers crossed he will sleep right through tonight (theoretically that's what he should do, but what baby follows the book?!).

Looking forward to an uninterrupted nights sleep!

Weekends away

Over the weekend OB and I travelled to Katoomba Women's Convention. We left Friday midday and returned 7pm Sunday night. This was a pretty daunting task with an active 9 month old. I nearly pulled out at the last minute...but am thankful that I didn't as it was a wonderfully refreshing weekend with old and new friends :)

I took SO much stuff. Between the pram, capsule, cot, heater, bedding, extra clothes, extra food, towels, sleeping bags, monitor, toys and toiletries its amazing we fit everything in! (Luckily Liz has an iMax!). I tried to take enough stuff to make it as "like home" for OB as possible. I also tried to keep his routine pretty consistent even though we were traveling.

Things that I wouldn't do again:

* sleep OB in the pram - OB hates the porta cot (even though it's so cute!). I need to give him time before our next trip to become familiar with the cot so it isnt so strange. Friends have suggested giving him one of his day sleeps in the porta cot every ow and then so it is just a normal thing. Another friend suggested having it set up in his room and letting him play in it sometimes so he's familiar with it - although I don't know whether I was the cot to be for playing...just sleeping.

Things that I would do again:

*pack a few days before and keep going through to ensure I have everything. It was great being over prepared (much better than under prepared I'm sure!).  There wasnt anything that I wish I took but didnt.
*miss out on night time activities to give OB a consistent night time routine. I missed out on going out for dinner on the Saturday night, instead I bathed OB, read him a story and put him down at his usual time. This worked really well (with a 12 hr sleep). I'm a big fan of making the baby fit into our lives but it's also fair to be realistic (and not expect a baby to be up all night).


All in all it was a great weekend. I'll do an update soon as I've just started night weaning...fingers cross it goes alright tonight.