Quick wrap up of the "Eating Better" and onto new things

S, I abruptly stopped posting due to painful lack of sleep.  We were all wasted, grouchy and hurting.  Sickness was inevitable.  Needless to say, after my month long venture to eat as vegan as possible, I came away from it learning a few things.  Here they are.

1) I don't miss chicken at all.
2) Cheese was far easier to give up than I thought.  Now, I choose vegan cheese when out, very little or none at all.
3) I am now choosing to eat a vegetarian fare, with still finding as many vegan meals to enjoy as possible.
4) I learned to cook a bit!  And it was fun!  That made me feel good, especially when I would create a vegan meal that my whole family liked.  I knew I was providing whole foods, packed with nutrition for my family and it was made with love.
5) Hubbers and I both lost weight.  I lost 4 pounds and 1% of body fat (while never going to the gym) and Hubbers lost 6 pounds while going to the gym sparsely.

Onto new things:

Loki and sleep.  What ever we have been doing for the last year has not been working.  We are trying something new.  With that, we played musical beds with some of the family.  Hubbers is in Jeannes full sized bed, Jeanne is in Loki's crib, Loki is in the pak n play in my room, and I get the bed.  That way Jeanne and daddy are behind three doors, the better to buff agains the screaming.

Now, I will put Loki down after brief back rubs, a kiss and 'night night'.  If he cries, I let him be for about a  minute or two, then I rub his back, kiss his head, tell him it's 'time for sleep' and gently lie him down, without ever picking him up.  I repeat as often as needed, going back to him every minute or two, even a couple of times when he is calm and quite.  I do this so that when I tell him "mommy is close", he knows it since I prove it.

I feel like this is a much more gentle method than CIO, especially since Loki can clearly understand much of what I say to him, but not yet speak to me yet.

A) I don't leave him for extended times
B) Using CIO with young infant, basically takes the only form of communication babies have, and shows them that you will ignore them.  To me, you are telling your infant, I hear you crying, and I don't care.  Keep crying, and I will ignore you.  Get used to me ignoring you.  Either get used to me ignoring you faster, or keep crying.  This just doesn't fly with me.  I know plenty of people who have tried this and that its worked for, and people that have tried and it doesn't work.  I don't care really. I'm not doing it.