Me and Flatophant

 

 

Meet Flatophant.  Her new sleeping buddy.

 

 

And sometimes hat to protect her balding head.

 

Okay, okay...that wasn't very nice about the balding!

 

Also good for flying lessons.

 

 

 

And of course, to eat.

 

 

One more, just for fun.

 

Sleep training: Update after Night One!

Well, I'm baffled.  Here is a recap of last night:

6:30pm put C into the pack and play after a bedtime routine including bath and nursing.

She fell right asleep....no complaining. 

8:00pm put Ian to bed in his crib in the same room.  He was quiet!!!  He fell asleep around 8:20.

9:10pm  She woke up and I nursed her in their  bedroom, so as not to stimulate her with lights and sounds of the living room.  She fell back asleep nursing and I put her back in the pack and play.

9:30pm  She woke up and cried for a little while, but not a hysterical cry....just kind of fussy.  I went back in and held her for a minute and laid her back down and she fell back to sleep after fussing for a few more minutes.

12:10am She woke up and nursed, went right back to sleep.

1:00-2:00am  She was talking and fussing and crying during this hour.  It woke up Ian, so I took him out of his crib and he laid down in our bedroom with me while Rob let C fuss it out a little bit and then she fell back to sleep on her own.

4:55am  C woke up and I fed her and then she went back to sleep on her own.

7:14am  Ian woke up and was whispering from his crib for Mommy to get him up!  WHISPERING!  I can't believe it!

8:30am C FINALLY wakes up.....that's 14 hours.  I know, she wasn't sleeping the entire 14 hours, but this is much better than any sort of system we have had up until this point.

So overall, we had to get up to do something with her (feed, comfort, etc.) 5 different times and this is so much better than I was expecting.  I think she was really yearning for some good sleep in her own space.  She didn't ever really cry it out, and I fed her when I felt like she was hungry.  I'm not trying to get her to not eat at night....I'm happy to feed her if she is hungry.  This was really just an attempt to get her to sleep in her own room in the pack and play, and it was a success in my opinion!

We're sleep training...need I say more?

I'm not sure what I was thinking.  We bought this house and thought, "oh yes, we will put Caroline and Ian in the same room....they will share a room and this will be great."  Sure, in my head this sounded so easy.  In reality, I have a baby who doesn't really care to sleep...or doesn't really know how to sleep.  And I have a 2 1/2 year old who likes to push every button, and do the exact opposite of what I tell him to do. Like I'm going to put him to bed and he's going to be quiet like I tell him to????

What was I thinking?

So I was fed up.  I was fed up yesterday when C did not sleep well during the day for the umpteenth time.....because not sleeping well during the day translates into not sleeping well at night.  And I had been up with her by myself Wednesday night and Thursday night.....late.  And then early.  I was exhausted.

So exhausted that I whined about it on facebook.

"Okay, so I cried reading this, because it is so true and because we just went through a super tough night with husband out of town, baby not sleeping, toddler waking up to pee pee in the potty every 3 hours during the night because he doesn...'t want to wet his nighttime diaper (I know....it's a good thing, right?), baby completely rejecting one breast, and I'm tired and want to cry! But then I read this post and it helped me remember that every mom goes through this! There is someone (many) who are just as tired as I am this morning, and they still go on to handle their children with LOVE during the day."

 

Then my husband got back from out of town.  And C slept like an angel that night.  Go figure.

The next night was not so good, she was up for baby party time at 4:30am.  So then last night I guess Rob was done with all this baby-not-sleeping-nonsense and he sat with her while she cried it out....sort of.  She cried and he was there, and then eventually she fell asleep. 

I was mad about the CIO.  I felt terrible that she cried, my blood pressure was rising, so he took her upstairs where I could not hear her.  I googled "CIO" on my phone as I lay in bed, trying to find reasons why she shouldn't CIO so that I could march upstairs and give him a piece of my mind, and so that I could save her from the crying and cuddle her to sleep.  What I found was one of a gazillion sites on CIO, and this one convinced me that our baby indeed needed some sort of self-soothing training....not that CIO was the complete answer, but I read enough that I was able to go to sleep and let him handle her last night, and today I sprung into action. 

 

I moved the pack and play into Ian's room.  So Ian is still in his crib and C went down for a nap in the pack and play.  I put a super loud fan in there for white noise.  I put C down when she was very sleepy, full of milk, but still awake.  She cried.  I left and timed 5 minutes and went back in.  I picked her up (okay, have no idea if that was the right thing to do...it's what I wanted to do, but I felt like it might be a bad idea)....calmed her, laid her back down and she cried for 10 minutes.  Same routine, went back in and soothed, laid her back down and came back after 11 minutes.  It took 50 minutes, but then she fell asleep.

 

I couldn't believe it.  Yes, I thought my baby was going to really stay awake for ever.  I thought she would cry and never give up.  But she didn't.  Her cries got more and more tired and less "fighting", and then she got into a comfortable position and went to sleep.

 

Rob asked what I did while she was crying.

 

Crunches.  I figured it would help relieve some of the adrenaline I had flowing while she was crying and while I was getting stressed over the crying.

 

Well, not 50 minutes of crunches, but enough to take off the adrenaline flow ;)

 

Then I put Ian to bed.  He was a little noisy at first.  He was totally testing me.  He was kicking his feet on the crib mattress and then looking over at her pack and play to see if it would wake her up.  It did, and he didn't do it again after the talking to that he got.  But I had her back to sleep in 10 minutes.  And she continued to sleep and then he fell asleep.....by George, at one point they were both asleep in the same room.  I thought I was going to fly to the moon I was so excited.

 

So she took a good afternoon nap, and so did he.  But as the day progressed I started to get really anxious about what the night would hold.  She was getting cranky around dinner time and I thought there is no way to hold her off another 1 1/2 hrs.  So I gave her her nighttime bath and we got into pjs and nursed and I put her to sleep at 6:30pm.  It is now 7:29pm and she is still sleeping.  I have no idea how it will go trying to put Ian to bed in about 30 minutes.  The best I could think to do was at least get his pj's out of the room so that he can put them on somewhere other than his room, and then we will tiptoe to bed!?!? 

 

The other problem with my plan is that Ian has a cold.  So there is the potential of him sniffing, sneezing and being utterly cranky throughout the night which could also throw a big wrench into my sleep training plan. 

 

I guess only time will tell...the minutes keep on going by and it's only a matter of time until C decides she's going to wake back up.

 

From this....

 

 

To this.....

 

Wish me luck!

 

 

5 months old! Pics and milestones

I'm five months old!

I can almost sit up on my own for a few seconds.

 

 

I've lost almost all of my hair!

But I'm still cute :)  My new hair is coming in blonde.

 

At night, I am still a tricky baby.  Some nights I sleep great, and others I like to party until 12am....or wake up and party at 4am.  I still sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room, but I will be transitioning to the crib in my new room pretty soon.  I roll over onto my tummy at night, and that used to wake me up and make me really upset, but now I have figured out how to roll onto my tummy and sleep :) Ahhhhh.....

 

I can talk......a lot.  Mommy thinks it is just babble, but I know exactly what I am saying! 

I still love bathtime.  It might be my favorite time of the day! 

After baths, I like to sing a song about being "so fresh and so clean".

I've also started to eat baby food.  I am still in stage one foods and Mommy mixes in oatmeal cereal with them.  So far I have tried sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and pears.

 

 I'm about 14lbs and starting to look too long for my infant carseat!

Mommy can't believe I'm growing so fast! 

See you next month!