More on sleep... and some pictures!

And the saga continues...

Let's do a re-cap (I don't remember exactly where I left off, so I'll go back to Friday, which was Day 5)

Day 5:

Nap 1- Fell asleep on his own. Slept 2 hours
Nap 2- Same

Yay!

Day 6:

Nap 1- Fell asleep on his own. Woke after 45 minutes, suckered Daddy into rocking him for 40 minutes before laying him down again. Oh daddy...
Nap 2- Fell asleep on his own. Needed a little soothing after an hour (mainly just needed his binky replaced). Finished off the nap in his crib.

Day 7:

Nap 1- Fell asleep on his own, woke after 45-60 minutes-ish. I got him up because we needed to leave for our family photoshoot

Nap 1.5- Slept in the car. Lost his binky and I saw him use his fingers to self soothe before falling asleep! That's kind of a big deal!

Nap 2- Fell asleep on his own (eventually, after a good bit of playing) slept 2 hours.

Today is day 8, and before I talk about naps, I need to talk about what happened last night. For a while now, Sam has been able to roll from his back onto his belly. He gets better and better at it everyday, which makes me more and more nervous about having him swaddled at all! Well 2 nights ago, he woke once because he had gotten his arms out and when I went to fix it, it was clear that he had been rolling around since he was in a far corner of the crib, and facing a different direction. I re swaddled him and he went back to sleep. Last night, same thing. And then this morning, around 6:30, I heard him a little over the monitor and hurried to his room to give him a binky (he doesn't sleep with it at night, only naps) in hopes of getting a little more sleep and regulating his internal clock to the time change that happened on Sunday morning. When I went into his room he was on his belly, and mostly asleep. I think he had been there for a while. Against everything that was drilled into my head while I was pregnant (Back is best Back is best Back is best Back is best) I patted his butt for a minute, and let him sleep there. He stayed asleep for a whole extra hour! I did NOT go back to sleep because I was paranoid about him on his stomach and went in every few minutes to wake him. Now I was having an inner conflict. Do what was pounded into my brain and keep putting him on his back and continue this dreaded swaddle battle? Or let him roll to his tummy where he was clearly more comfortable?

Apparently, the risk for SIDS drops 20% once a baby can roll over on their own. This makes sense to me. I mean, I can't be in his room whenever he is sleeping, and flipping him over as soon as he snuggles in on his belly can I? I decided to try this as an experiment, I was looking forward to naptime.

Naptime came. I put him in a sleep sack, with his arms completely free, gave him his binky and a kiss, and laid him down (on his back). A few minutes later, I went in to check on him and he was on his stomach and only half awake. I patted his butt a few times and left the room. A few minutes later? Fast asleep. Asleep! Unswaddled! And asleep! It's been about 40 minutes now, so the next 5 minutes will be the true test!! And then I will be spending the rest of the day with my friend Google, researching older baby's sleep habits. In my mind, it makes the most sense to start him off on his back, and after that leave it up to him. He can roll, he can scoot, he can push all the way up on his hands, he can move his head wherever he wants. I feel like once he's able to put himself in this position it should be okay. But as I said, I will be visiting my friend google before deciding what to do tonight.

In other news... we had our family photoshoot on the beach yesterday. The photographer posted 3 pictures as a 'sneak peak' on her Facebook page last night, and I want to share those 3 pictures here. They are amazing! I can't wait to see the rest!

Chronicles of Naptime... and some musings on food

Not doing too bad! Here's our most recent updates:

Day 4:

Went to a La Leche League meeting in the morning during what is usually his first nap. He slept a little on my lap.

What would normally be nap 2- Went to sleep by himself in his crib around 1:50, I let him sleep all the way til 4:30! Great nap!

Day 5:

We're currently on nap 1... he went to sleep on his own in his crib at 9:30 and now at 10:45 is still sleeping away! Once we pass that 45 minute hump I know we're good! I think the dreary day helps, it's niiiice and dark in his room. I need to get actual curtains, what I do know is close the blinds and then cover with a quilt and some pillows to help it to stay nice and dark. On sunny days a good bit of light still manages to get in. Not today though! Today is a good day for sleep!


So anyway, besides all that. I want to talk about the La Leche League meeting I went to yesterday. It was AWESOME to be able to spend time with some other breastfeeding mothers! It's always great to spend time with other mommies, but especially if they are going through exactly what you're going through! I can't wait til the next meeting :)

During the meeting I asked about starting solids. Sam's Dr. said we can start trying cereal to help him get used to food, but to not worry about really feeding him a lot of different things til 6 or 7 months. I like this advice. I was afraid I was going to be encouraged to start him on 3 meals a day at 4 months, which I do not agree with. However, I've been hesitant to even start trying with cereal. Sam seems perfectly satisfied with breastmilk, and while he does show interest when we're eating, I don't think it's so much an interest in the food as it is an interest in just Mommy and Daddy in general. I made baked sweet potatoes the other night, cooled a little bit on my plate and James tried to give it to him, there was no interest whatsoever.

So I brought all this up at the meeting yesterday and one of the leaders gave me a Baby Led Weaning book to borrow. Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is basically all about letting your baby set the pace as far as eating solid foods. And baby really does eat SOLID foods. With BLW you skip the baby cereals and purees, skip spoon feedings, and baby learns to eat actual food all by themselves. I've been interested in this since I first heard about it when I was pregnant. Obviously, this practice has been around LONG before baby food in jars and all that, it was only just recently even given a name. Around 6 months, or once baby can sit up mostly unsupported and can pick things up and put them into his mouth, you start putting 'sticks' of food onto the high chair tray. Bananas, avocado, sweet potatoes, broccoli. Mushy, but not completely smashed up. So baby can experiment and learn by picking the food up himself, looking at it, smelling it, and eventually putting it into his mouth and discovering, "Hey! This tastes good! And I'm doing that thing that Mommy and Daddy do a few times a day when they say, 'Mmmm yum' a lot. I think they call it eating? Whatever it is, I'm liking it!"

I talked to James about this last night, and read him a couple passages from the book I borrowed. He's all for it. So I think we're going to go the BLW route :) Sam will be 5 months on Monday. So he'll get another month or so of just nursing, which he is loving, and then we'll start giving him some finger food to see what he does with it! It's exciting how fast he's growing up! I can't believe he's already just about 5 months old. Time moves so incredibly quickly!

Sleep Update

I feel like if I don't post this here, I'm going to forget how each day goes. And maybe I'll feel like we're making progress when I can see it written out in front of me. (Plus I feel like I can't quit because I made my intentions 'public', if I just write it out in any old notebook it's awfully easy to just 'lose' said notebook... it's happened before!)

I never got to finish saying how day 1 went, so we'll start there.

Day 1:

Nap 1- fell asleep on his own in his crib. Woke after 45 minutes, would not go back to sleep until I put him in his swing. Finished off his nap there.

Nap 2- refused to sleep at all in his crib. Took a 2 hour nap in his swing

So Day 1 wasn't so great.... but I was optimistic!

Day 2:

Nap 1- fell asleep in his crib, woke after 45 minutes, ended up in swing.

Nap 2- fell asleep in his crib, slept for 2 hours!!

Day 2, MUCH BETTER!

Day 3:

Nap 1- same ole story... crib for 45 minutes, then swing

Nap 2- same thing again... crib 45, swing for the rest

Better than day 1, not as good as day 2.



If I could only get him past that yucky 45 minute mark consistently. Hmmm... may need to do a little reading. Perhaps when he gets moved to his swing and falls asleep I should go in and turn the swing off, so that he gets more used to sleeping without moving? I think I'll try that tomorrow. I just need to have faith that we will get there!!


So what else is going on in our lives right now? It can't all be sleep right? (Oh I just imagined a day of only sleep and nothing else... wouldn't that be heavenly right now!) Anyway... we're going to be pretty busy in the upcoming weeks! Tomorrow Sam and I are attending our first La Leche League Meeting. I'm excited to meet some more nursing mommies!! This weekend we're having family photos taken on the beach, which I am SUPER excited about! Next week I'll be attending colorguard tryouts at a local high school since I've been hired as their winterguard dance choreographer/instructor/coach-type person :) Excited to get back into something somewhat dance related! Then we'll be heading to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. Saturday is the Marine Corps Birthday Ball and Sunday we're doing some outlet shopping :) After that we'll hopefully have some days to unwind a bit, then James will be in the field for a few days, and then... TADA Thanksgiving!

Can I just say how incredibly INCREDIBLY excited I am for the holiday season this year?! Oh my goodness I can hardly contain myself!! I always love the holidays, but last year I was feeling a bit too miserable and newly pregnant to really enjoy them. They were still very nice, but not the best. This year, I have an appetite, I have energy, and I have an adorable little boy to introduce to all the magic that is the holiday season! I'm so excited for his first Christmas! Last year I laid on the couch for 3 days staring at a pile of Christmas ornaments before making a half hearted attempt at decorating the house, in between throwing up because, as it turned out, our holiday themed candles smelled nauseating to me! This year I'm ITCHING to dig out those decorations and make our home look aboslutely magical :) I've already started some Christmas shopping for Sam and for James, I'm just too excited!! :)

I'll end with a few pictures before going to wake up my little stinker so he can nurse :)

Operation Easy Baby Sleep

I know I know... my entire last post was also around baby sleep. But I have an almost 5 month old, sleep is my current obsession!

So the dreaded sleep regression has passed. Sam and I have also re-worked his 'schedule' since his old one (a nap in between every feeding) was seeming like it wasn't working as well. He now takes a 2 hour nap twice a day. He's been napping (tightly swaddled) in his swing. And sleeping (tightly swaddled) in his crib. This was all working great (and maybe 4 days out of 7 is still working great). I was putting him down in his swing drowsy, leaving him for a few minutes, then going in and rocking him the rest of the way to sleep. I was afraid this was messing up any chance of him falling asleep on his own, but on the contrary, it taught him HOW to go to sleep on his own. So he would be given a kiss, and placed all swaddled up into his swing. Within a few minutes he would be asleep and I would go get him 2 hours later. At night he wasn't quite nursing all the way to sleep anymore, he would wake up as I re swaddled him, but would go quietly into his crib and fall asleep on his own. Awesome right? Why change?

He's getting too big for his velcro swaddle blanket. Not too big as in he doesn't fit (I just bought a bigger size). But too big as in too old. He can roll from back to belly now, and although he doesn't even TRY to roll when he's swaddled, I'm still nervous that he'll manage to flip over and not have his hands to help get his face out of the mattress. He's also a lot stronger, so when he moves through sleep cycles and wiggles, he manages to wriggle those little arms up and out of the blanket, and in the process, wakes himself up. He ends up very grumpy that he is now awake and his arms are waving around. So a lot of nights I'm up and down a couple times to re wrap him. Very frustrating. So I know it's time to sleep 'like a big boy' with those arms out and free.

I tried 2 nights of leaving one arm out. Why I chose to do this during the week, and not the weekend when I can have James' help at night, is beyond me. The first night wasn't horrible. He woke up twice just needing me to pop in his binky and hold his arm down for a moment. He then woke up to eat, and went back down til morning. Not horrible. Not ideal, but not horrible. The next night? Absolute disaster. He woke up and it after an hour, or was it 2? It's blurry... we'll just say, after a LONG time of shushing him from outside his crib, rocking him to sleep only to have him wake up and cry the second I laid him down, walking around and around and around the nursery, he finally fell asleep after nursing for a few minutes (clearly wasn't hungry, but used nursing to settle enough to sleep) slept for maybe 2 or 3 hours, and woke again. This time I just gave up and reswaddled him after he ate.

Was this the worst night we could have possibly had? No. Really, he has spoiled us so much his first 4.5 months of life, that getting up any more than 1 time feels like a 'bad' night. Should I complain? No. No I really shouldn't. But after this night I did do a little re-evaluation of my plan for swaddle free sleeping. In doing research, I found that most people recommend starting with naps to wean off the swaddle. Hmmm and here I was still wrapping him up tight and depositing him in his swing. A bit of nighttime sleep sabotage I think. So I came up with a new plan. First, get him to nap in his crib. Second, get him to nap without being swaddled. LAST, get him to sleep at night without the swaddle. With this excellent plan in place, and feeling excited that a better sleep plan was in our future, I promptly forgot all about it, found a tighter way to swaddle, and enjoyed the weekend. My logic? I needed a few days to regroup and get myself good and rested before starting this journey. It worked, Sam slept pretty good in the new, tighter swaddle. When he did have a couple issues, I had James to help. So I was able to get in some good rest.

Now here we are. Monday morning! Sam slept great last night. In bed at 8:30, woke at 4:15to nurse, put him in his crib slightly awake around 4:45, didn't hear from him again til 7:30. So we are both rested and ready to start this!

Nap #1: 0930. Swaddled tightly, laid in crib awake with intentions of going in and rocking the rest of the way to sleep, as was done to help him fall asleep in his swing. Not needed! Feel asleep on his own! Currently 1036 and still sleeping! *knock on wood*

My goal is 4 days in a row of good naps in his crib. Then 4 days in a row of good naps without a swaddle for naps. Then we're on to nighttime.

Oh! I hear him... gotta go help him stay asleep!

Growing Boy = Tired Mama!

Today is October 1st. In less than a week Sam will be 4 months old. Whaaaat?! This is ridiculous... where the heck did summer go? Where the heck did my tiny baby go? He's trying really hard to sit up on his own, rolling from his tummy to his back, scooting around on his tummy, standing up and playing in his exersaucer, 'talking' up a storm, giggling, reaching for things, and I think soon we'll be seeing at least 2 little teeth poke on through!! He's growing so fast!

Let's talk a little about baby growth spurts. When a baby has a growth spurt, they want to eat constantly (for a breastfed baby, this helps in upping the mama's milk supply to fulfill the bigger baby's new nutritional needs) Babies tend to have growth spurts at 3 & 6 weeks, and 3 & 6 months. Sam's 3 & 6 week growth spurts were kinda rough, but not too bad. They only lasted a day or 2 and I just cancelled any and all plans we had and nursed constantly. So I said, "Bring it on 3 month growth spurt! I know how to handle these things" HA! This thing didn't last a day or 2, this thing didn't only consist of nursing 24/7, followed by a few days with an incredibly sleepy baby. OH NO, this growth spurt was brand new territory!! Perhaps it would have been a bit easier to handle if it weren't for a little something called the "4 Month Sleep Regression"...

What is the "4 Month Sleep Regression" you ask? Well, it's when babies start sleeping more 'adult-like' as in going through all the same sleep cycles that we do. The difference is, babies (well most of them anyway) have trouble transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next. Whereas an adult would hardly recognize the transition as they flip over, fix the covers, or smooth a pillow, a baby suddenly finds themselves awake when all they really want to do is sleep.

I like to think I was pretty well educated on pregnancy, child birth, newborn babyhood, and babyhood in general, even before I found out I was pregnant with Sam. When I did find out I was pregnant, I like to think I became even more educated, and besides for a few first time mom nerves, I felt pretty confident that I knew basically what to expect. And, so far, I was right. I'm not saying it was any easier since I knew what was going on, but it was helpful to have an idea ahead of time about what was to come.

Enter 4 month sleep regression....

I had NEVER heard of this thing before! So when my perfectly behaved little baby suddenly stopped wanting to take his (normally very structured, and led by him, not me) naps, at first I just chalked it up to him being older and more alert. I just made sure he got SOME sleep during the day, but still felt okay about it, as he was still sleeping great at night. Better and better each night in fact! He was always in his crib, fast asleep at 9, and was steadily increasing the amount of time he would sleep before waking up to eat. Then he would always go back to sleep after eating, and sleep until 7 or 8 in the morning. One night, a glorious thing happened. Sam was asleep at 9. James and I went to sleep between 10 and 11... and then were woken by Sam talking through the monitor at.... dun dun dun... 7 am!!!!! It was amazing! I didn't rememeber the last time I had had a full night's sleep! Certainly not when I was pregnant! This behavior kept up! I was full of energy! I was ridiculously productive! Everything was wonderful! Then James went to Florida for a week for some training. One night Sam was up to eat at 5, then back to sleep. No biggie, not a full night, but pretty darn close! The next night, ate at 4. Okay why are we going backwards? Next night, up at 3 and had a little trouble going back to sleep after eating. The next night, up at 2:30, lots of trouble going back to sleep. Next night, up at 2, 5, and 6:30. Ummm, what the heck? We proceeded in this pattern for a while, then James came back and we had a night or two of only waking once, around 4. Then back to up twice. Then up at 1:30, 3, 5, 5:45, 6:30... these nights were coupled with days of a cranky cranky boy fighting sleep like it was his job. I visited my old friend google, and this is when I discovered this lovely '4 Month Sleep Regression' Maybe I felt better knowing it had a name? I don't know, I was too tired!!

I got the book "The No Cry Sleep Solution" on my Nook. I am very opposed to the "Crying It Out Method" I fully understand taking a break from your crying baby because you might be getting frustrated, but I do not believe in leaving your baby to cry in his or her bed until he or she basically passes out from sheer exhaustion. Does it work for some people? Sure. Just doesn't work for our family.

So anyway... "The No Cry Sleep Solution". It sounded like a good plan. I would need to start with keeping a sleep log. Then use the tools in the book to tailor make a plan for us. My plan was to start with naps, I knew if I could get him to get enough sleep during the day, he would sleep better at night. I read the book in one day, planning to begin the next day. And what happened the next day you might ask?

Sam slept.

Here I was with a notebook and a plan, and the little stinker takes a 2 hour nap, plus 3 45 minute naps. That night he goes down at 9, wakes at 3:30, eats, back down by 4, and up for the day at 7. Did he know I just spent some time figuring out a plan and thought, "Meh... I'll just do it myself. Thanks anyway Mom." or was it just coincidence? Did I care either way? NOPE!

Now we're on the right track, we still have some nights where he's up more than once, but usually he just needs to be re-swaddled (yes... my 4 month old refuses to sleep without being swaddled... I'm just rolling with it, he'll sleep in freedom eventually) Once a night he does need to eat, but any other time he gets up, he goes back down pretty easily. Naps are hit or miss day to day, but lately there have more hit than miss days as I play around with a nap routine. Hopefully as this growth spurt (both physically and developmentally) slows down a bit, we'll settle back into a day to day routine. Probably just in time for the 6 month growth spurt ;) At least this time I'll know a little more what to expect!!

The 30 Day Shred I posted about last time? Postponed until I can get Sam's napping under control. I'm actually hoping to start up again on Monday :) Hopefully anyway

It's funny to me the things I find interesting enough to blog about these days... hehe Oh how my life has changed... but I'm loving it :)

Now... some more pictures of the cutest baby in the world...

30 Day Shred!

So now that we're home from visiting family, it's time for me to crack down on toning myself back up. Back when I was pregnant I bought Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, and this past Tuesday I opened it up and got started! I'm hoping to blog my way through it. I will have to take a few days off when we go camping for Labor Day, but what's a couple of days? ;)

Day 1: Holy moly. Who knew a 20 minute workout would be that difficult? I really felt how out of shape I've gotten! I made it through even though, I'm not going to lie, I was getting pretty pissed at little Miss Jillian Michaels by the end! While doing lunges with bicep curls she says, "You might think, 'Can't I just do bicep curls?' NO YOU CANNOT!" I guess if you need someone to whip your butt into shape... she's your girl!

Day 2: Knowing what to expect... did that make it easier or harder? Hmmm... how about both? It was nice knowing what was coming, and knowing how close I was to the end... but it also kinda sucked as I got tired and remembered what was to come. Felt a bit sore from day 1, but nothing unmanageable.

Day 3: Woke up unable to fully straighten my arms. No joke! So sore! I remember starting a ballet season... day 3 is ALWAYS the worst! So, knowing that, I'm hoping to start feeling better from here on out. I didn't get to do the entire workout today though, Sam had other plans. Today he seemed to feel his long morning nap was not necessary. He is currently taking that long nap now... (which, by the way, makes me nervous because I don't usually like him to take long naps in the afternoon/evening in case it screws up his nighttime sleep. But the poor little guy was so sleepy... so why torture him?) I got at least half the workout completed though, so better than nothing. I can already feel a difference in my stomach! Which is, of course, the area I was most interested in toning up. Feeling a difference on day 3 is very encouraging to me! :)

Well I hear my little man starting to wake up, so I'm going to feed him while watching The Weather Channel (Looks like Hurricane Irene is coming straight for us! *gulp* I hate storms!)





*Week 1*

So Many People to Meet!

Sam and I have been in Pennsylvania a week now, and we'll still be here until Monday. We've been so busy! Sam met his Uncle Andrew and Uncle Billy (Uncle Tommy was there the day he was born) he got to see his Nana and Grandpa again. Grandmama and Grandpa came over one day, and so did Mommy's godfather. He met Mommy's best friend, Analyn, he went to dinner with all of Mommy's Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. He met Mommy's Nanny and Poppop. He went to a wedding to meet all of Mommy's ballet friends, and he went to Maryland to visit Grandmama's work and Mommy's old roommate Sarah and her little baby Rachel. Busy busy busy! We still have more visits and a family reunion planned for the last few days. This mama is exhausted!! Sam has been sleeping great in the pack-n-play at night, and napping wonderfully in the swing during the day, I just haven't been sleeping so great. I'm obviously having an awesome time seeing friends and family, but OH BOY do I miss my husband! It seems extra weird to be away from him this time for some reason. I know he's missing us too, but in a few more days our little family will be together again :)

Can I just brag a bit about how incredibly good my little boy is?? I mean really! On the plane: Nursed during take-off, slept like a rock, nursed a bit more during the landing, perfect little angel at the airport. Driving to Nicole's wedding: Needed to stop only once to feed him on the drive up, not a peep out of him all the hours at the wedding. He just smiled and looked around and flirted with all of my friends. Angel baby! He wakes up once a night to eat, nurses very efficiently, and goes right back to sleep til 7 when he's ready to start the day. I never forced a schedule on him, but the little man made his own schedule and sticks to it like crazy! Makes my life so much easier. He rarely cries. He'll fuss if he's hungry and I'm taking to long to start feeding him, or if he's ready for a nap and has gotten a little overtired. He did cry in the car on the way home from Maryland yesterday, but only for about 5 minutes before conking out. Then another minute or so just as I was pulling in the driveway. When I got him out of his seat he was all smiles :) He's 10 weeks now. About 12 1/2 pounds and 24 inches long. I can't belive in a couple weeks he'll be 3 months!!!!!!!! Where did the time go??

Oh an example of how good my baby is... I put him in the swing a little while ago and he fell asleep. The swing is behind the couch I'm sitting on, I just peeked over to check on him, and he has woken up from his nap, but is just looking around and snuggling his little stuffed elephant that he loves. Such a cutie boy :) I'm going to end this with a few pictures from the wedding and then go give him his 2nd breakfast :)