25 Weeks

My Henry is almost 6 months old!! Can you believe it?!

I'm excited to take his 6 month photos - I've been browsing photographers websites for pose ideas.

Nursing: Continuing with 5 times a day, all is well.

Solids: To combat some of his nighttime wakings, we bumped up his solid amounts. This boy loves to eat! I think I'm going to add another tablespoon to each meal, because he's starting to still be fussy once the food is gone! Here's our meal plan for this past week:

7:00 nurse, 2 T cereal, 2 T fruit
10:30 nurse, 2 T fruit, 2 T veggie
2:00 nurse
5:00 nurse, 2 T cereal, 2 T veggie
7:00 nurse

He now eats bananas, applesauce, pears, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and rice cereal.

Waketime Length: Still 2 hours.

Naps: Still 30-45 minutes. Sometimes will fall back asleep in swing for another hour - about once a day.

Nighttime Sleep: Henry has been waking up at 3am consistently for the last week. We've tried feeding and CIO and it doesn't work. Last night he fussed/cried for 2 hours (I fell back asleep after turning monitor down a little, not off though... opps!!) The only solution that works is bringing him to our bed, where he promptly falls asleep until 7am. Bad Habit? Yes. Worth it for me to get sleep? Yes.

Milestones: He now can roll both ways, and is making his way across our floor. He's really working on crawling, he just needs to figure out how to get his arms involved!

24 Weeks and Sleeping Frustrations

Time for a long overdue update, inspired by sleepless nights!

This past weekend was my first mother's day with a live child in my arms. While the entire day I was blessed to spend time with loved ones - I still felt a little off. One of my blogger friends described this feeling as "survivors guilt" and it's so true. For those of us who went through IF to conviece our children - I do not think we ever fully recover from that pain. Of course we are beyond happy with our blessings - but we know that there are women out there who are dying for the same gift. And days like Mother's Day break their hearts ... we remember that pain all too clearly. I still pray daily for the friends I left behind when Henry joined us!

Henry Update:

Nursing: Henry and I are continuing our nursing relationship. He can be distractable, especially when he's not quite hungry. If he gets too many solids, he also doesn't nurse as well. I am thinking of moving to a 4 hour schedule to see if that helps - but I want to make sure he's still getting enough milk in his diet.

Solids: Henry now eats rice cereal, bananas, green beans, and sweet potatos. This week we are going to introduce peas and pears. See sample schedule below.

Waketime Length: He is now able to be awake for about 2 hours at a time. Sometimes, especially his first wake of the morning, this is still only 1 hour 45 minutes.

Naps: Henry continues to only nap for 30-45 minutes. Once in a while he'll sleep for over an hour, but these are rare and far between. He takes 3 naps a day. Most of the time he goes right down for a nap, but every once in a while we have to do CIO and battle the roll over monster.

Sample Schedule: Right now his schedule looks something like this:

7am: wake/nurse/2 T of rice cereal
9am: nap
10am: nurse/2 T of green beans or sweet potatos or banana
11:45am: nap
1pm: nurse
4pm: nurse/ 2 T of rice cereal
7pm: nurse/bedtime


Nighttime Sleep: Here is where the drama unfolds. Henry was sleeping beautifully from 7 to 6:30/7 for about 3 weeks. Then last week he caught a little cold and woke up in the middle of the night because he couldn't breathe. He also began rolling to his tummy in his crib at this time. The first night I nursed him, then put him in his carseat - the uprightness of that position helped his breathing. Since then - he has been up everynight. And after an hour or two of me being awake, I give in and bring him into our bed, where he's out like a light. I know - bad mommy. Last night was the worst - as he was awake from 12:20 until well after 2:30am - just happy to be awake. I didn't bring him into bed out of my own stubbornness, and now I'm tired as a result!

According to Babywise Theory, there is something called 5-8 Month Sleep Disruptions, and here are their suggestions of possible causes:

Teething
Ready to Drop 3rd Nap
Growth Spurt
Change in Routine

Plus, he had a cold, so I originally thought that was the problem. He still has a bit of a runny nose and congestion.

I thought that teething may be part of the problem - but he's not really extra fussy during the day and his gums look normal. He's extra chewy on my fingers, but he is using his back gums for this - is that normal if his teeth are coming in the front?

I'm thinking about trying to turn the 3rd nap into a shorter cat nap - but that would require him to take longer naps during the day and we all have seen how well that works. There is the suggestion of leaving him in his crib for the full 90 minutes and let him CIO once he's awake and eventually he'll learn that it's nap time no matter when he wakes up. But sometimes he wakes up happy and ready to go after 45 minutes, and sometimes he does wake up crying and I can tell he needs more sleep. The crying times we try to finish the nap in the swing - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Some people have also expressed concern that he goes to bed too early - but I know he needs 14-16 hours of sleep a day - and when he only naps for not even 3 hours during the day, I know he needs atleast 11 hours of sleep by night. And he was doing that.

So - the trial and error process begins. Unfortunately to try to rearrange his sleep in his nap schedule, this would involve staying home for a couple days and really working on it. Which is no fun for mommy - but we'll have to give it a try.... starting tomorrow because today is mall walking day, and I need my food court stromboli!! :)

20 weeks

Oh yes, my little boy is now 20 weeks old. A week and a half away from being 5 months old. Wowza!

No new milestones to report - unless finally fitting his toes into his mouth counts. He actually seems to have stopped rolling over. I think this is because he is now preoccupied with his feet again.

Oh, scratch that. He has slept through the night 3 out of the last 4 nights! I am glad that this new thing is coinciding with starting cereal again - because I worry that nursing 5 times a day isn't enough! He does seem to be moving towards a 4 hour schedule as well - which means only nursing 4 times a day!

On the sleep training front -- we are having difficulties with nap time. I decided to take Monday and Tuesday (today) as days to stay home and revisit the CIO for naptime. It has been a rough couple of days - he is screaming again when I put him down. I will update later this week how this all goes. It feels like we're starting over.

On the rice cereal front, we tried again yesterday and got this face for most of it:

And then tried again today, and by the end, I couldn't shovel it in his mouth fast enough - he was loving it!! I am so glad. Some people have mentioned it has a nasty taste -- but I tried it and it wasn't so bad!

Ok - that's all the updates for now!

19 weeks (and 1 day -- I had forgotten the day before!)

20 weeks

Overdue Update...

So it's been a week or so since our last update!

Henry Details:

~ Henry is so close to sitting up all by himself already! We barely have to support him - he has strong core muscles!

~ Henry now rolls from his back to his tummy, and does this more and more everyday. In fact - today I've found it frustrating because I usually lay him on his little gym while I'm running around getting stuff done, but now he keeps rolling to his tummy and then crying because he's uncomfortable there! But as soon as I roll him on his back - it's back to the stomach!

~ We gave rice cereal a go about a week ago. He opened his mouth for the spoon, but then just pushed it all back out. We're gonna give it another week or so and try again.

~ I am so proud of how he's doing being around different groups of people. Easter was great - he only had a few fuss moments, but overall he was the life of the party!

Sleep Training

Well, it's been an interesting week in this aspect. We had such a beautiful schedule down, and of course, now it's gone. Last Wednesday he cried through his whole morning nap - out of no where! Same thing Thursday. Then we've been gone and busy all weekend so nothing was done there.

Just based on today - I'm thinking he's extended his waketime by about 15 minutes. I also think because we've been on the go - he's not used to being put down in his crib. He's become accustomed to the car seat and swinging motions. So it's back to CIO we go!

I think that's about it for now! Enjoy these pics!

Before trying the cereal ... he was a happy duck!

Chillin' in the saucer!

Sleep Training - Settling in to a routine...

I know I know ... I'm going to write a wonderful post about how wonderful our schedule is -- and then something is going to throw it off and we're going to start all over. But I must share my joy and the sense of peace I have right now with you!

Henry handled the time change like a champ. I - however - battling a cold - did not. Another story - another time.

He's doing better with Crying It Out (CIO) -- down to about 15 minutes per nap - sometimes real crying, sometimes just fussy moaning. I think he's the type of child who just needs to release that extra energy before he can relax and nap. Bedtime CIO is almost non existent - and he still usually falls asleep while nursing for that last evening feed.

Since I wrote last week about our Swing After Nap victory - I've been using this method every day. But not for every nap. I'm finding it works best in our schedule to only make sure the middle nap is longer. So, here's our sample schedule:

7:30 wake, nurse
9:00 nap
9:45 wake
10:30 nurse
11:15 nap
12:00 wake, straight into swing
12:30 sleep
2:00 wake (I usually have to stop the swing here to wake him up), nurse
3:30 nap
4:15 wake
4:45 nurse
7:00 nurse
7:15 prayers, swaddle, bed
12:30 wake, nurse, straight back to bed

Henry has been hit with the "wake and talk" syndrome that I've read is popular around this age. Sometime around 4-5am I hear him over the monitor just babbling away. Since there's no tears - I just let it soothe myself back to sleep! He ends up falling back asleep!

I don't mind getting up once a night for him to eat still -- I tried squeezing in another daytime feeding to combat this - but he's just not hungry enough then to take full feedings.

I do mind having to get up a couple times a night because of poop! This little boy often gets his days/nights mixed up when it comes to when he's supposed to do a bowel movement. Last night was the first night in a long time that there was no pooping - and I was a much happier mom because of it. Something about how he lays at night - he almost always poops out the back. This never happens with his big poops during the day, only at nighttime. Weird right? He's already in size 3 diapers - so I can't really go up a size for night time yet.

Here's his 16 week picture! I think he looks smaller than last week... probably due to frog placement, lighting, zoom, etc.


And from visiting the Butterfly Exhibit this weekend:


We're getting Easter pics done this weekend, too!

One small victory for Team Mom...

First Sink Bath = Big Mess

Oh, my cute little Henry - he's helped me with some self realizations this week.

I made myself a cleaning schedule. Now that I'm a stay at home mommy for the time being - I want to get more housework done. Within two days I was completely frustrated with Henry and his lack of long naps and fussing during his independent playtime when I couldn't get things done.

Then I realized -- I'm staying home to be and take care of him -- not to clean my house! Duh!! I just needed to take a step back, relax, and do what I can when I can, and leave the rest for tomorrow.

As for his sleeping habits, I never did try the dreamfeed. Every time I thought about it - I just was too worried about him waking up and then not going back to sleep. This week we have evened out with the sleeping though, so I think it was a growth spurt last week that caused the 2-a-night wakings. We've settled into a nice little 3-hour schedule, and it's been consistent each day this week, which is also something new for us. He's been eating at 7:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4:30, 7:00 and then wake sometime in between midnight and 4am to eat again, and right back to bed. Now that we're back on the 3 hour schedule, he's taking the full 15 minutes to nurse again. So - I'm okay with this almost sleeping through the night system - it's working well.

Naps are still a disaster. He cries and fusses for at least 10 minutes, sometimes 30 before falling asleep - and still only sleeps for 30-40 minutes. I have tried:

• Less waketime
• More waketime
• Swaddle
• Unswaddle
• Colder room
• Warmer room
• Wake-t0-Sleep

The only good try I've had was yesterday -- he woke after 45 minutes while I was still cleaning the bathrooms, so I just put him in his swing and let him cry it out there. After about 10 minutes he fell back asleep for another hour! Victory!! I'll let you know if this works more than once...
We've also officially dropped the 3rd nap. He didn't want to go down to sleep after 5pm - so now he's usually awake from about 3:30 until bedtime at 7 -- though he has fallen asleep on his own for a cat nap a couple of times in the middle there.

Henry is so close to rolling over -- Nick swears that he did the other day, but I missed it so it doesn't count. He's holding his head up and practically sitting up like a champ. He no longer enjoys laying down and cuddling - he wants to be sitting upright and had started lifting his head and body to do so!

He's already showing interest in food - so I'm thinking we'll give the rice cereal a go earlier than I anticipated. Grandma suggested maybe that will help with some naptime sleeping - he's a big boy and needs his food!

The boy is also starting to show his temper -- he wants so badly to chew on all his toys, but screams when he does. I can't tell if this is because his gums are sore and it's hurting him - or if he just gets frustrated that it doesn't fit in his mouth the way he wants. He definitely gets angry when the toys don't do what he wants them to do -- stubborn like his mommy :)

We're taking him to see the butterfly exhibit tomorrow - I'm sure he'll sleep through the whole thing!


Every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory. 1 John 5:4

Oye Ve ... Night Wakings...

So after all my bragging of Henry doing good -- he's regressed to 2 night wakings. He did this a couple times last week, and I thought it may be because we gave him a bottle in the evening. Then - at midnight last night - I realized that he has been consistent the last three nights! He goes down around 7:30 - wakes at 11:45ish and again at 4am. I always try to just paci him and reswaddle first - but he never goes back to sleep so I've been feeding him. He takes a full meal each time.

So ... here are my ideas causing the disruption:

1.) Not enough feedings in the day ... right now we're averaging 6.

2.) Growth spurt ... though I don't think the wake times would be consistent with this.

3.) Nap Confusion ... I can't remember if he's getting 3 or 4 naps if he does better. But if I'm adding a feeding then 4 naps makes more sence.

4.) Wonder Week ... he has been a little bit fussier than usual as well, so maybe he's on the verge of something big, like rolling over!

5.) Teething ... I already mentioned the excess drool, minor fussiness ... but he doesn't seem to be in pain otherwise.

For today ... I'm picking #1 and #2 to try to combat this new awakening. Maybe even going to try a dreamfeed at 10pm ... I'll keep you posted :)

Sleep Training - What I'm learning...

Several people have asked me about the process thus far - so here's a list of what seems to be most important to learn in this process so far:

1. Optimal Wake Time -- very tricky to figure out, but you need to know how long your baby can stay awake before becoming overtired or overstimulated. Henry's current waketime is 1 hour 15 min - 1 hour 30 min. Another trick of wake time is that if he wakes up from a nap early, and doesn't eat for 30 more minutes, he may be going to bed right after eating ... it just happens sometimes.
   
2. Watch for Sleep Cues -- these are the signs you need to know for when baby's awake time is over, and they're ready for sleep. If you miss them - you risk baby becoming overtired/stimulated - and then they can't easily fall asleep. I know - it's wierd that the more tired they are, the harder it is to go to sleep. Henry's cues are: a small whine, and rapid leg kicks.
   
3. The Routines -- Henry now knows his nap routine - and tries to fight it. This is his signal that he knows he's going in the crib (or where ever) and he's going to be put to sleep.
4. Flexibility -- Just because we're aiming for a schedule, does not mean that it works every single time. You just gotta go with what you think is best, read baby's cues as best you can, and see what happens!

For those of you beginning or going to begin the training - feel free to leave comments so others can share in your success or worries!

Sidenote: Victory! Henry just took a 2 hour morning nap in his pack n play! Does this means he sleeps better in our room? Or is it a fluke? We shall see!!

Henry Mercer - 13 Weeks

I'm taking his 3 month photos today - check back for those!

Sleep Training - Week 1 Review

It has been a week since we started the Sleep Training process - and I couldn't be happier with the results!! Ultimately - there was never a time where Henry screamed for more than 5 minutes.

I'd say the average time for him to fall asleep at naptimes is 30 minutes - and this is usually just talking to himself with the occasional moan or groan cry session. And nighttime crying has all but disappeared!

Last night - the official one week mark - there was NO crying or fussing at all! He was drowsy but awake when Nick put him down too! I don't expect this every night but see it as a vast improvement.

I'd say the biggest achievement was that he actually took a nap at Grandma and Grumpa's house in the pack and play in the other room! He's never done this at their house before - mainly because he always cries and we'd go get him! It only took a little bit of fussing and he was out!

Next goal -- get naps to be longer than 45 minutes!!

Henry's first time in his exersaucer!

12 Weeks and Day 2

So far - the sleep training has been easier than anticipated! I just had such anxiety and tears over starting it in the first place -- just like I felt when moving him to his crib!

Nap Recap: His first two naps of the day yesterday were fantastic. He completely relaxed during our sit time, and went down with no fuss at all. The first only lasted 30 min. though, but the second was almost 2 hours (within his 3 hour eating schedule still). He woke up about 10 minutes before I was going to have to get him up, but still seemed tired. He almost fell asleep while nursing.

This threw us off for the next nap - I only gave him 1 hour of wake time because he seemed so tired (usually he's good with 1 hour 15 min or even sometimes 1 hour 30 min). He did not go down well and cried for 45 minutes before finally sleeping - and then only slept for 20 min. His last nap of the day he cried for a whole hour before I put him in his swing, I wanted him to get some kind of rest before the next cycle.

Bedtime Recap: He went down right away again, and woke up again about 45 minutes into his sleepy time. I'm sure this is the 45 min. intruder they talk about - he has difficulty transitioning from the light sleep to deep sleep. I went in, reswaddled, and retucked him in. He cried for about 10 minutes, slept for about 15, woke up and cried for 10 more - and then was out until 4:45am!

My question of the day ... when he awakes and I do a night feeding (or early morning, like 5am) - do I have to let him CIO then as well? In the past, after these feedings if I rock him for about 5 min or so he's out like a light - it's not the same struggle that bedtime was before.

My goal for today is to really watch his tired signals - I think I missed them for his last two naps yesterday, or put him down too early - hence the exessive crying.

So far today - nap 1 was great - nap 2 we had some crying, but he went to sleep after I did the 15 min. paci/tummy rub check.

Here's his 12 week Watch Me Grow picture!


Next week he'll be 3 months - I'm gearing up to take my own 3 month photos of him!!

And I leave you with scripture that I think we all need to hear from time to time...

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Colossians 3:12

Sleep Training - Day 1

Warning: Some of you may not agree with this - and at the beginning of Henry's life, I was not an advocate either. However, things have changed and hence inspired new thoughts and change in my parenting beliefs. Read on if interested - but keep your backlash thoughts to yourself.

What?!?

In our home, we have decided that it is necessary to start some sort of sleep training. Up until now, we have rocked Henry to sleep. This went well for some period of time. I absolutely love rocking him, and holding his sleepy self in my arms. However, he often wakes up as soon as you put him in the crib, and then you must start all over. After one evening of 4 hours of this back and forth - Nick gave in and let Henry sleep in his bouncy seat. We thought he was stirring around 1am, so I got up and rested on the couch, waiting for him to wake up. The next thing I knew - it was 6am.

This wonderful event let me know that a.) He is completely incapable of falling (and staying) asleep on his own and b.) He is now capable of going at least 8 hours in the night without eating.

So - how do we teach him to self soothe and fall asleep without us? There are many different books and opinions on the Sleep Training subject, and we have chosen to go with the Babywise method. I'd say the majority of my friends who are parents have raised Babywise babies, and have nothing but good things to say about it.

I'd already been following a loose based daily schedule that follows Babywise, simply because that's what seemed to naturally set in place for us. Henry's on a 2.5/3 hour schedule -- he eats, he has waketime that consists of playing independently, playing with us, or just hanging out. Then he naps. His naps right now range anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the day, etc. This I hope to even out with the Sleep Training process.

Nick and I sat down and discussed what our nap time and bedtime routines are going to be - which loosely is based on the 4 S's from the book, Baby Whisperer.

Naptime: Diaper Check, Wrap in Blanket, Sing Lullaby, Sit, Put down in crib
Bedtime: Bath (if bath night), PJ's, Diaper Check, Nurse, Prayer, Lullaby, Sit, Put down in Crib

And then comes the worst part ... Crying It Out (CIO). Babywise says to do this from Day 1. However, I personally do not think it's developmentally appropriate that young - their memories aren't developed and they could literally be feeling abandoned. (I do not know if that's accurate or not - I'm not a scientist, that's just my personal opinion).

However - in the past weeks Henry has begun showing us that he is developing an opinion. He went from taking the bottle easily to having issues. He decided for a period of time he would only take a bottle from me. This shows me that he's developing preferences and opinions, and we need to help him make the right opinion about sleep time! I do believe that we were doing him a huge disservice by not showing him how to fall asleep and self soothe on his own.

So - last night - Night 1 - went like this:

7:45pm - Bathtime
8:00 - PJ's, Diaper Change, Nurse

Unfortunately (or luckily? I don't know) Henry fell sound asleep while nursing. There was no waking him. So we prayed over him, and skipped the song/sitting and he went right down. But I knew it wouldn't last.

He woke up around 8:45 and started talking.
8:52 - crying began.

We have discovered that Henry is a roller coaster crier. He whimpers/talks to himself most of the time, with a shrill yelp here and there. Then, he goes through bouts of wailing. Then he calms down again - you think he might be out - and the whimpering starts again.

9:20 - I went in and put his pacifier in, put his blankets back on, and went back out.

Crying coaster continued.

9:55 - I went in, changed his diaper, reswaddled him, held and lullabyed him, and laid him back down.

10:00 Back aboard the crying coaster after about 5 minutes of hopeful silence.

10:10 - Asleep!!

And then he slept all the way until 8am!

I do have to set his waketime, which I think I'm going to do at 7am. But I was just so happy to sleep, I didn't do that today.

Check back later to see how the CIO goes for naptimes today - and hopefully we'll have less than an hour of CIO tonight. I just have to tell myself that we're teaching him something new, it will take time, and we're hoping to avoid this in the mornings because we're both still too tired: