This weekend was my first Mother’s Day! We had my parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin over to celebrate and hang out with Julius. He was good, as usual, and even took 2 naps! I think he’s gotten much better at crib sleeping after a couple weeks of sleep training. Did I tell you about sleep training? If not I must have mentally blocked it out! What’s sleep training you ask? Sleep training (also known as the Ferber method, cry it out method, or in our house group torture time method) is a method where you lay your child down to sleep and don’t pick them up no matter how much they cry until they go to sleep. I think the name “cry it out” pretty much sums it up.
Julius started waking up every two hours a week before we started daycare (and before I had to go back to work). Until this point he was a very, very good baby thanks at least partially (and potentially entirely) to the Baby Merlin Magic Sleepsuit. This is a ridiculous looking padded sleep suit that lessens the startle reflex but allows babies to move their arms and legs around. For Julius, it allowed him to suck on his fingers at night to comfort himself. Many people swear to swaddling, but Julius hated having his hands tucked away from him. (Even in the womb he sucked his thumb!) My friend Maren told me about the sleep suit, and now I buy one for every baby shower I go to. (I am not getting paid to tell you this but seriously, if you have an infant nearby, go buy one you’ll thank me later.)
Anyway this Magic Sleepsuit started losing effectiveness recently. We originally believed it was due to teething, but I’m not sure anymore. Enter sleep training. The first night was truly horrible, listening to the little guy cry for several hours, but every night since has gotten better. Sometimes he doesn’t cry at all. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries. But it definitely seems to be working, even though it is still torture for me to listen to him cry for 10 solid minutes in the middle of the night.
Sleeping baby (just days before he stopped sleeping in the suit!)
Speaking of sleep – did I mention that we don’t have naptime at work? I mean seriously. I am still off caffeine since I’m nursing (not that I was a big drinker before) so it has been a struggle for me to stay awake at work. I find myself frequently nodding off in the nursing mom’s room. Perhaps instead of focusing on getting Julius’ nap schedule in order before daycare, I should have focused on getting my lack of nap schedule in order.
The good news about the project I’m going to show you today is that you can finish it in a single naptime (as long as you skip the nap yourself)! For all my parties I like to cover my six foot folding tables with tablecloths. It makes things look so much classier. The problem is that most commercial tablecloths are slightly too wide for the folding tables, so they drape too far down the sides of the tables and people pull on the excess fabric when they sit down. My tablecloths not only have the perfect drop length but they are super easy to wash and come out wrinkle free from the dryer. On top of that, they are dirt cheap. I buy cotton polyester broadcloth from Fabric Wholesale Direct for $2.25 a yard, a grand total of $6.75 a tablecloth.
Folding Table Cloths
What You’ll Need:
- 3 yards of 60″ wide cotton polyester broadcloth from https://www.fabricwholesaledirect.com/
- polyester thread to match
- Cut a 102″ length of broadcloth.
Cut 102″ length of 60″ wide fabric.
- On one side of fabric fold under 1/2″ of broadcloth, press. Fold over another 1/2″ to form a rolled seam. Press & pin.
Fold an iron a 1/2″ turned hem.
- Repeat step 2 with other 3 sides of fabric. At corners, I simply fold the corner of the fabric under so the unfinished edge isn’t showing. But if you’re more motivated you can add a mitered corner.
- Stitch around the entire perimeter of fabric, 1mm from the fold line.
Tablecloths covering two 6″ folding tables.
