Tiny Oranges – Fresh, fun blog for OC moms

This is an “it worked for us” post. Since I have been blogging about my awesome iComfort bed so much it gotten me thinking a lot about sleep.  More specifically, how much BETTER you feel mentally and physically when you are getting enough sleep.  Now that my kids are two and five, in retrospect, there were 5 things that helped my babies sleep better and become great sleepers so I thought it might be worth sharing.

In case any of you are sitting reading this right now, dark bags under your eyes pounding a big cup of coffee and exhausted, I hope that maybe even one of these tips might prove to be helpful to you!  And when you are that tired I know sometimes you are willing to try anything!

When my babies were born I became obsessed with sleep and my lack of it. I had no idea how much the interrupted sleep would affect me mentally. I felt horrible, like I was on the fast train to looney-town.  The only way I could describe it was that I just didn’t feel like myself.  Once my kids slept through the night, I felt like a different person.

Babies and the sleep topic can be a sensitive issue and everyone has different philosophies and styles.  From co-sleeping to cry it out sleep scheduling, I believe you have to trust your natural instincts on what is right for your babies, and if it works for your family, embrace it!

For me, it all started with a book. One day when my first baby was about six months old, I called my cousin (who was a seasoned mommy) almost crying with exhaustion asking her if she had any tips to help my baby sleep.

I will never forget it, she said, “Have you heard of THE BOOK?”  Me, being desperate, asked, “WHAT BOOK?!” I had read several of the sleep books and nothing seemed to connect with me or fit my instincts.  The book she recommended, which is number one on my list, was a lifesaver for me.  So that is where it all began….

5 Things That Helped My Babies Sleep Better

1. “The BOOK” was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. I swear by this book and used it with both my babies. It totally connected with me and it made sense to me.  I learned a lot about how important sleep is for children, quality sleep, and his philosophy and tools made my kids AWESOME sleepers.  I owe a lot of my sanity to Dr. Weissbluth!

2. Foster an attachment to a  lovey, blankie or some kind of attachment item. This was recommended in the book.  When they were itsy bitsy I introduced the lovies. Emma still sleeps with her two Angel Dear bear lovies, who at 2 1/2 she named “Carter & Siena” and she told me they are twins. No joke. And Morgan sleeps with her Darling Droolers Ribbon Lovey she calls, “Bee.”  They are both really attached and it has helped them get to sleep and soothe themselves when they are upset. Parenting expert, TheGoToMom.com, has a great video as well on just how important an attachment item is.  You can watch it here.

A note on the lovies & blankie! We have made it a ritual from early on that our kids don’t take lovies or blankie out of the car on errands or to the park, or anywhere (God forbid) they could get lost. The thought of it is too traumatic! So they will take them in the car, but I got them used to leaving them in their carseats and told them we didn’t want them to get dirty. Big help as they are always in the house or in the car, and no where else.

3. Blackout shade in their bedrooms – My husband bought and installed a cheap-o roll down blackout shade underneath both their blinds in their rooms so their rooms stay really dark. If someone puts them down and forgets to shut it, they will wake up WAY earlier due to the light. I swear by the blackout shade.  Especially for naptime.

4. Pavlov’s dog sound association- Just like Pavlov’s dog, I swear by some sort of sound that they associate with sleep. For my oldest, we had the Fischer Price Ocean Wonders Crib Aquarium in her crib that she would push to play a song and she goes to sleep to the same music. At 5, we still have that aquarium in her regular bed. For the little one, we got this Homedics SoundSpa Sound Machine and put it to the “ocean” setting.  Both these are helpful as you can take them with you to set up their same “sleep scenario” when traveling.

5. Regular crib naps & times and early bedtimes. One of the things Dr. Weissbluth preaches is the importance of quality, restful sleep.  Since they were about 6 months old, I have pretty much done anything I needed to do to get my kids home to nap in their crib at roughly the same time and get them to bed early at night. It has meant that I have had to say “no” to things if it meant interfering with a crib nap and has been often inconvenient, but it is just a way of life. The sacrifice of being a tad “home bound” is MORE than worth it to me because of the great sleepers they became because of it. Everything is a trade off! Many probably wouldn’t agree, so again, it is all about what works for your family and this has worked for us. Hallelujah!

Does anyone have their own tips to share?  I know kids and sleep is always a hot topic, so PLEASE comment and let us in to your “secrets!”

This post is LONG overdue!   But I figure better late than never!

Back in May at my Tiny Oranges Dream Dinners event I met so many amazing moms. It was so fun to meet some Tiny Oranges readers in person.   One of the moms mentioned that sometimes she forgets to check my site so she misses some posts.

I told her she could sign up to subscribe and receive emails when I do new posts and she told me she didn’t know that.  So I wanted to do a post on how YOU can subscribe if you didn’t know this too.   And for those of you reading this because you already do…thank you, thank you, thank you!

This is a simple “how to” on how blog email subscriptions work. I subscribe myself to some of my favorite blogs & I love it when I see updates in my inbox because it’s always fun to open the email and see what the latest topic is!

Want to be a Tiny Oranges subscriber? Here’s how…

Step 1

Enter your email address into the box in the top right hand column of my site that looks like this {below}.  Note, this is not the actual box below, I am just showing it as an example.  The REAL box is in the top right hand column. Do you see it? Yea, up there! To the right of The Juiciest graphic. Yep, that one!

Step 2

After your enter your email address, you will click on the little heart to the right.   When you click on that, it will bring up a screen like this:

This is to prevent spam, so what you will do is enter in the letters you see in green, then click “complete subscription request.”

Step 3 – Most important step!

Then go immediately to your email inbox and you should have an email from “FeedBurner Email Subscriptions.” Open that email, and then click on the link included. This is to confirm you wanted to subscribe. Once you click the link, it should give you a message like you have successfully subscribed. Voila! Just make sure to do this right away otherwise it risks getting lost in your email box.

Step 4

Done!

Once you sign up, anytime there is a new post on Tiny Oranges, you will get an email (usually around 7:30am) in the morning with the subject “Tiny Oranges New Post!“

When you open the email you will see the title of the post with the graphic and a little excerpt.    You can click on the title of the post or the “click here to read more” link (both in blue) and it will take you over to my blog to read the post in it’s entirety or comment.   Please always click over if you have a minute! It helps me and supports the wonderful companies that sponsor my blog.

The email looks like this…

Note: I NEVER sell email addresses or anything like that, so they are SOLELY used for communication purposes with my readers.

If you get annoyed with getting an email a day from Tiny Oranges, you can easily click “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of one of the emails and get taken off the list.  Super easy.  I hope you don’t, but you can, so it doesn’t hurt to try it out and see if you like gettin my little emails!

Thanks for listening and reading and SUBSCRIBING!  Take 1 minute and do it now – I would love to have you in the loop every time there is a new post.  Plus, it makes sure you don’t miss a post on a great giveaway or upcoming event! And, for all my giveaways, you can leave an extra comment that you are a subscriber and you get an extra entry!

I am excited to see how many new subscribers I can get today.  Will you be one?

Happy Thursday!

xo Jen

I met  The Container Store in Scottsdale last month at the Bosch Home Appliances “From Hamper to Hanger” laundry event where they did a presentation on laundry organization tips.  So, contain yourself. I am about to disclose 5 simple ways to organize your laundry days.  Little things made easier by The Container Store!

1. SORT in the hamper, not on the floor. Use a hamper with different compartments so you are sorting as you go.  These hampers have three separate sections for whites, darks and brights.  Check out this one or this one for great examples.

2. GET THE HANG OF IT.   The faster you can get your clothes out of the dryer and on a hanger, the less wrinkled they will be.  Consider installing some sort of hanging device in your laundry room so you can hang immediately instead of piling clothes in the laundry basket.   The ELFA systems have great options.

3. ASSIGN COLORED HANGERS.  Pick a different colored hanger for each family member so you can quickly grab Susie’s clothes or Bobby’s items and go directly from laundry room to closet.  I personally think this is BRILLIANT!

4. DEFEAT THE SOCK MONSTER! How much time do you spend searching for matching socks?  And, where do those missing socks go?   Defeat the sock monster by using these ingenious inventions.  The Sock Cop & Sock Pro products keep your socks together in the wash to save you time!

5. ORGANIZE YOUR LAUNDRY STUFF! Short on space?  These cool storage systems keep your detergents, soaps & stain treatment items neatly tucked into vertical, easy to pull out drawers.   Like this idea? They have larger ones to help organize your laundry and help with sorting too!

Just walking into The Container Store will make you feel more organized.  Click HERE for store locations or to shop online!

{Disclosure:  The Container Store provided a free item for the bloggers, but none of the above.  I personally shop at and love The Container Store!}

I wrote this post on September 4th, 2008, when my daughter was 2 years 3 months old and for some reason I never published it and it has been saved all this time.

Yesterday we were at the park with a friend whose daughter is 2 years 4 months and she asked me “did you guys go through the terrible twos?”   The answer was “YES” we went through the terrible twos and now we are onto the challenges of the threes, but I have to say it doesn’t hold a candle to the twos, at least for us.

It was good to go back to read this and laugh because it does really show, like everything, this TWO shall pass (pun intended.)

Here’s what I wrote back on that fateful day in September at the end of my rope…

“I am convinced my two-year-old has been body snatched by aliens.   If anyone has had the same thing happen to them, and your child has been safely returned, please advise.  To keep myself from crying after I finally got her down for a nap,  I sat staring at my computer to get my mind off of today’s unbelievable episodes.  None of which are logical.

I am not a cartoon fan.  I don’t even read cartoons, but I was so desperate for some sense of comic relief from the events that have transpired the last few days, I actually Googled “terrible twos cartoons.”  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The one with the parents tied up reminded me of my husband and I this weekend;  we were held hostage by a 25 pound bully.   One minute she would be playing and happy, the next moment something totally irrational would set her off.  My favorite was when she flipped out when  daddy asked her what she had for lunch.  Threw a complete fit as if it were the most offensive question she had ever heard.

The one with the suntan lotion cracked me up, as I am so tired today I didn’t even GET it.  I actually studied it for a few moments to get what was funny.   For those in my same position, look at the spelling of the lotion.  If you can’t read it (sorry it is so small) it says “Total SON Block.”

And, the Supernanny one hit home because we had to do a few time-outs this weekend, and I had Jo Frost in my head the whole time.  I wish Jo Frost lived with us to counsel me on this SO unchartered territory!  Sigh.”

{Cartoons found on www.cartoonstock.com}

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you have some fun plans for this last weekend in August. Where on earth did this summer go?

Tiny Oranges moved to a new platform this week, one that provides more opportunity for growth (hooray!) I hope the move was pretty seamless to you as a reader, but if you happen to notice something array, please let me know.  I also would love to hear from you if  there some particular feature you would like to see on Tiny Oranges.   I am on the constant quest to make our blog an ever-evolving fun, resourceful site for all you mamas out there.

You can comment below or email me at jennifer@tinyoranges.com.

We also now have a mobile edition, so if you want to pull up our site on your mobile phone, there should now be a more reader-friendly version for you.   Check it out!

Since I was on the topic of my updates, I wanted to say “hello” to anyone new to my blog  and let you know how to get the most out of your Tiny Oranges experience!

Subscribe!  Anytime there is a new post, you will receive an email and always be up-to-date on the latest and greatest.  Just enter your email address in the box at the top right column of our Home Page then click the little heart to complete the subscription.

Browse the Categories!   There are a whole bunch of Categories for you to get ideas.  You will see it in the right column. Click on it to expand, and then click by Category.    For example, want an Outing Idea?    A fun Park/Playground to meet a friend?  Need a fun Gift Idea?   Those are just a few of many categories you can use to reference!

Forum!  We  have a Forum where you can connect and share with other moms.  It is an easy, one time registration process.   I would love to get more moms participating regularly in the Forum.  I think it is a great  place to exchange ideas!  Will you join us?

Our Picks Directory and Sponsors:   We also have the Our Picks Directory (right hand column) and fabulous Home Page Sponsors, a group of  fabulous, family-oriented businesses that are part of our Tiny Oranges family.  Click and get to know them!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!  Email me by 5pm today (PST) to enter to win the Smart Girls Who Surf Grab-N-Go kit!  Details here!  Until Monday…keep cool!  xo Jen