Miserable failure

Well we haven't cracked it after all. Last night BabyM got up out of bed every time she woke up. Eventually, at about 5am I put her into her cot and she finally slept til about 7am.
She's exhausted today, but when we put her in her cot for a day sleep, she climbed out! I feel like I just can't win. Hubby has even suggested getting a lock for her bedroom door, and I'm almost at a stage where I will agree.

We've decided to just get a round handle for now, which she won't be able to open for a while, and I'll put a mattress on the floor so if she does climb out of her cot, she won't be able to get out of her room, but she'll have a comfortable place to drop off on.

I feel like such an evil parent, effectively locking my child in her bedroom til she conks out on the floor from exhaustion, but we have tried everything else we can think of.

I think we've cracked it!

Well BabyM is back in her cot for day sleeps and it's worked a treat. She's sleeping properly during the day again, and the first night she had one short wake-up and last night she slept through HURRAH!

Updates on my projects:
Today is a day off, so I've been off to my craft group this morning, making a mosaic pot stand. It's looking really nice, and I'll be adding it to my stock list once I have a few other things to sell. I'm still working on a website and have found a free webhoster who can give me a .co.nz address, which is fantastic. I'm knitting a pixie hood for BabyM and after that, I'll probably make a whole load of knitted toys as I have lots of oddments of wool that I want to use up.
I also need to finish the journalling in my latest scrapbook album, but I'm hoping to get together with some other scrappers and make an evening of it, so that can wait for a bit!
My fellow crafty friend, Liz, is back from her holidays now, so we're planning to get together soon and finish off painting some dough models we made. She's keen to have a stall at a market in the future, so we have a goal to build up a decent quantity of stock and start selling once the weather improves.

Sleep deprivation

Well BabyM has had 3 days in a row where she has continually got up out of bed during her day and night sleeps. Day sleeps I was resorting to putting her door gate on and leaving her til she dozed off on the floor, then transferring her to her bed (which was working, but only after a good hour of her getting up and me putting her back), night sleeps it was just a constant 2 hours of her getting up and me putting her back, all around the midnight to 2am mark.
Last night was the final straw. I had figured she was waking up due to the cold, so she was wrapped up extra warm and had a heater, and she can't possibly have been cold, but she still woke up at 4am and spent 2 hours getting up every time I put her back into bed. Finally she stopped getting up at about 6am, but lay in her bed and cried for 20 minutes before dozing off. She then decided that 7am was getting up time AAARGH!!

We've been doing a star chart for her and she was getting a star every time she stayed in bed for a full night, but I think after 3 days of no stars, she's really not getting it. She may be a little young yet (21 months). I was really feeling like I was slipping back into depression and considering going into counselling, but I saw my Midwife this morning and she said "just do whatever you have to do to get your sleep and you'll be OK", so I have told BabyM she is going back in her cot for day sleeps and we'll leave her in the bed for nights until Friday, but if she gets up during the night any time before Friday, she's going back in her cot at bedtime too.

I was hoping to have her comfortably sleeping in a bed when Baby2 arrives, so she won't feel like she's being pushed out by the Baby when we do move her, but it's either this or I really will go insane!

Starting all over again

Well I was attempting to create a website on Yahoo in order to list all my stock for sale, but before I'd even finished creating it (let alone getting it up and running), Yahoo have decided that I've violated their terms of service and deleted it for me.
I spent hours fiddling about with HTML on that only to have it all wiped out in one go! Well stuff Yahoo, I'll find another host for my site.

Today a good friend of mine and I decided we ought to write a parenting/pregnancy book to answer all those questions people are too afraid or embarrassed to ask, so I'm looking for contributions now! You can post a question here anonymously, and I'll get together with some good parents I know who aren't afraid to answer them, and we may have a best-seller on our hands!

The start of something

OK, so I've started ANOTHER web thing to keep updated. The thing is, I want a website, and I am not tech-savvy enough to create one, so I thought a blog with links is the next best thing. All the sites I regularly frequent are in the links section, so feel free to browse and find out a bit more about me.

I am a Stay At Home Mum and I'm always looking for ways to earn a little bit of income in order to pay off the mortgage a bit faster, so I've been looking around for home businesses and potential projects to do this with. So far, I have signed up with Usana to sell health and beauty products (see link), and I'm working on a parenting resource pack to help busy parents make the best use of their time.

I've also been getting into arts and crafts, and will be putting some of my pieces up for sale via email. I'll post pictures and prices here, and if you're interested in buying something, email me.

I also do a lot of voluntary work around my child (soon to be children!), where I run a Mainly Music group, chair the Toy Library Committee and attend various playgroups and coffee groups. I've been gathering a lot of useful parenting advice over the last couple of years, so please feel free to ask me any questions and I'll see what I can do.