Operation Happier Baby and Momma

 I feed Mr. T almost every two hours during the day.  He nurses at 7:30 before going to bed, gets a bottle at 11:30 from my husband, and then still will wake 2-3 times more that night.  This is not working for me, but what are you going to do?  I have a big baby and he needs to eat a lot, right?  Well, today I learned that he does need to eat more, but maybe we can do something so he isn't needing to do the eating at night. 

This problem solving started when I called the doctor because he started spitting up again. He has gained 1.5 lbs since our 4 month appointment, so I thought maybe he needed his acid reflux meds adjusted.  The nurse did the usual discussion about my diet (and as you all know I am not adding things to my diet, but rather taking things away) and his eating/sleeping patterns.  She is convinced it can be better than it is...it just may take some tweeking.

So here is the initial plan:

• When he wakes up in the morning give him solids before nursing him.  (If he wakes up at 6 I can still nurse him and put him back to bed, but when I get him up for the day I should do solids first.

• Increase his solid intake from two times a day to three and always have either rice or oatmeal as part of the meal.  She prefers the rice cereal because she said it is easier on the stomach. This was not the case with Superman, but T is so different than S so I will try it. The idea is that the rice/oatmeal will be heavier in his stomach and hopefully keep him from spitting up. (I am making my own per the directions in Super Baby Food.)

• Work on getting "good" feedings during the day.  (Meaning: quiet room with minimal distractions and let him tell me when he is done.)  This will be difficult with a toddler, but is something I have already been working on.  

• If he wakes up in the middle of the night, try to get him to go back to sleep without eating. However, if he is hungry- feed him.  Hopefully after a few days he will stop being hungry and we will just need to break him of the habit of waking. 

Wish us luck!

Who needs sleep? (2nd Edition)

ME!!!!  I need sleep! 
 
Way back when Superman was about 3 months old I posted about my struggle to sleep when he stirred in his bassinet, Superman's struggles with sleep thanks to some gas, and how I had started singing "Who Needs Sleep" in order to just survive the day.  Well I am singing it once again...

Mr. T is a pretty good sleeper, for a newborn.  That isn't my issue.  My issue is that my body is screaming at me for more sleep.  Like most moms of newborns, I haven't slept for more than 4 hours in several months.  When I was pregnant it wasn't so bad because I was just getting up to pee and then heading back to sleep.  Now, even though I am only nursing him a couple of times a night, I am up for about 40-60 minutes each time and falling back to sleep isn't as easy.  I have also tried sleeping during Superman's nap time, but some days Mr. T's nursing schedule and a short nap just don't allow for that to happen.  If I do nap? Most of the time it is just an hour or so.

I am not asking for much.  I just want 6 straight hours of sleep.  I want to wake up and feel rested.  I am not even asking for this every night, just once or twice a week.

So tonight we are going to try out the bottle with Mr. T.  With his sucking issues, I have been hesitant to introduce it, but I am desperate so I am crossing my fingers and handing the feeding duties over to my husband tonight.  If things go well, he will take over the last feeding before midnight each night and I will get some much needed sleep. 

Wish us luck!  I am going to bed!

Nap Update

We had been doing great on one nap a day, but then on Friday Superman came down with a cold.   He ended up taking a short second nap that day.  Saturday he did one nap (and did fabulously), but Sunday, Monday, and today he has taken two naps.  Today's second nap is questionable.  He is more resting than he is sleeping at this point (25 minutes into the nap).  I almost didn't put him down, but he rubbed his eyes a little bit and seemed okay with the idea of putting him down (although if he put up a fight I probably would have just been more convinced that he needed a nap, so I suppose that is silly for me to list as a reason for putting him down).  I figure he will either sleep, rest or play and if he ends up playing, I will just go up and get him so he can play down here. 

So all the people that told me that it is a process dropping a nap were right...especially when a cold is involved.  We will get there someday and until then...I will gladly embrace two naps a day!

Day 2: Nap Transition

Sorry I didn't get a post up yesterday.  My husband and I went to the Blazer game last night and I was exhausted when we got home.

Yesterday went really well in the big scheme of things...overall I just want a well rested kid that is happy when he is awake and yesterday that is what I got.   In order for him to get there though? He needed a second nap.

Here is our day yesterday:

Wake up on Tuesday: 7:00-7:20ish
First Nap: 11:20am-12:40pm
Second Nap: 3:00-4:40PM
Bedtime: 7:00PM

At about 2:30 yesterday he started to get a bit cranky.  I gave him a snack and he started to rub his eyes.  I decided to try and put him down for a nap and he went down SO EASILY!  It isn't like I thought he would just drop his second nap all together, I was just surprised since he hadn't had a really good afternoon nap in a while (normally he spends 45 minutes of it playing and then crashes for about 30 minutes). His mood the rest of the day was pretty good.  He was a little upset when we left him with the sitter, but she said he calmed down relatively quickly.  She ended up putting him down about 15 minutes earlier than Monday night because he was starting to get tired (love that she was that attentive to him!). 

So today we have plans in the afternoon so we shall see how it goes.  He has been asleep for almost an hour now so if he can get another 30 minutes he might be good for the afternoon.  Stay tuned!!

Using DST To Our Advantage

So we decided to use day light savings to our advantage (even though I am not terribly thrilled with the idea).

Superman's afternoon naps have been hit or miss as I have mentioned before.  I suspected he was getting ready to drop the afternoon nap and (despite my desire to keep two naps for as long as possible) just needed to figure out a plan to get him into the new schedule.  Enter daylight savings time! 

So here we are dropping the afternoon nap all together and moving his bedtime earlier (or rather to the new 7pm) to compensate.  Maybe it would be easier if I showed you the two schedules.

Old Schedule (before time change):
Wake up: 6:20-6:40AM
First nap: 10:30-11AM to about 12:30-1:00PM
Second nap: 3-3:30PM to about 4:30-5 PM
Bedtime: 7pm

New schedule: 
Wake Up: 7:00-7:30 (hopefully)
Nap: 11:30-12 to ?????  (hopefully at least 2 hours)
Bedtime: 7pm (hopefully)

Today worked pretty well.  He slept for about an hour and a half when he went down at 11:30am.  He was really in a good mood most of the afternoon, except when he was hungry and needed a snack.  The only time he really struggled was at the end of the evening.  Our plan was to put him to be at 7:30PM since he went to bed at 8PM yesterday (thanks to DST).  Well he was tired and we took a toy away from him causing him to throw a huge tantrum.  Then my husband went to get him ready for bed and he really just wanted me.  I finally went up and did the rest of the night time routine and he was in bed about 7:30.  He cried off and on for the first hour, but he then fell fast asleep.  Hopefully it is a restful night and he sleeps in!!

 I will update you all on how he does tomorrow!!  In the meantime, how did you go about dropping a nap with your child?  What bumps did you hit along the way?

Superman is 14 Months Old!

I can't believe that Superman is 14 months old today.  Time continues to speed past me and has me routinely searching for a pause button. 

I realized today that I hadn't done a "Favorite Moments Friday" in a long time and wanted to take the opportunity to update you all on Superman.

WALKING
Superman is officially walking!  He still hasn't figured out how to stand up without pulling himself up on something or someone, but that will come in time.  He has gotten so good at walking that he can walk and drink from a sippy cup, dodge our dogs and their tails, change directions easily, and has even broken in some hard soled shoes for when it is wet outside.

TEETH
He has 14 teeth!!! The most surprising part about that is that he has gotten 4 of them in the last week (the two bottom molars came in last Wednesday, the upper right canine came in on Friday and then his upper left canine came in on Monday). 

SLEEP
Superman goes to bed about 7pm and wakes about 7am.  Although sometimes the wake up can be earlier and sometimes it can be as late as 7:30am.  He is still doing 2 naps, although the second nap is hit or miss in terms of quality and length.  Part of me really hopes that he will hold onto the second nap, but the other part looks forward to being able to go on bigger adventures in the afternoons. 

TALKING AND SIGNING

He says, "dada" and other versions like "da" and "dad" for both his dad and the dogs.  He will say "yeah" for yes and has started saying a mumbled "night night" when someone waves goodbye to him.  He has said "mama" and meant me twice.  I am sad that he doesn't say it consistently, although I am trying to appreciate the fact that some day I will want to change my name from Mama because I will hear it non-stop.  He is also starting to really babble with more sounds and intonation. He will even hum or sing to music when we are in the car.  

I think he is on the verge of signing A LOT more.  I think it is a matter of taking the time to teach him them.  He signs 'all done' pretty routinely.  He will sign 'more' when he is reminded and when I ask him to ask nicely instead of grunting, he will sign 'please'.  He will also sign 'eat' (by sticking a finger in his mouth) and 'drink' (open palm to mouth as if to blow a kiss goodbye) once and awhile.  He waves 'goodbye' and signs 'milk' and I can usually differentiate between the two. 

PLAYING
We have been going to an indoor playground for about a month now and I am constantly amazed at the things he picks up.  He will frequently find older children that will engage him in peek-a-boo or other game.  He will also mimic what the older kids are doing.  He loves to go down the little slide and can do so just holding onto my hand.  He is beginning to want the toys other children have and I am learning how to coordinate sharing with the other children and their parents.  I am grateful that the other parents are so understanding. 

My husband taught Superman how to put the mega blocks together.  It is so fun to watch them build structures together.  S seems to be very thoughtful in the blocks that he chooses.  He will sometimes only want the blocks with one connector and then other times he will want ones that are the same color. 

S is very cuddly and huggable lately.  He loves giving hugs to his stuffed animals and his baby doll.  The other day he put his baby doll on his little ride-on toy and pushed her around, just like his dad does with him.  My heart melts every time he shows how caring he is through hugs and sharing his toys and food with us.  I really look forward to seeing how he uses his kindness as he gets older. 

We went swimming at the local pool recently and I was glad we had went.  He took a little bit to get used to the water and that really surprised me.  He finally got comfortable and enjoyed blowing bubbles in the water and just putting his face in the water.  We have plans to go more regularly now so that he doesn't forget how much he likes it.  (smiley face)

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I think that is it, you are all caught up!  Till next time...

Don't Hate Me Because I Am Beautiful

Today I am talking about having a kid that sleeps through the night.  I know, right?  You totally hate me right now and I get that. The thing is, I feel like I had so little to do with this success that if you should hate anyone, it should be Superman, but don't hate Superman because then I would have to kick your butt.

There is one main thing that I think my husband and I do have control over (that seems to make a difference).  His bedtime.  I read in one of the many, many books in my new mommy collection that finding the right bedtime can be the key to better sleep.  Too early and they either won't fall asleep or wake up a couple hours later like it was a nap.  Too late and they might struggle to fall asleep because they are over tired.  And in both situations?  They will almost always wake up TOO EARLY.  So sleep begets sleep...I am sure you have heard of this too, right?

For a long time 8pm was Superman's bed time (Note: His bed time is really the time that I begin nursing him. He tends to fall asleep while nursing and only briefly wakes up when I transfer him to his bed.).  It worked fabulously, he went down easily and woke up around 8am.  Then one day he started waking up earlier and earlier and earlier .  With the above information in hand, we began to move his bedtime earlier and earlier until he was nursing at 7pm and he began sleeping till 7:30am again (frankly anything after 7am is just fine, but 7:30 is great!).

Then recently he started waking up early again AND with the upcoming time change, I knew we couldn't realistically move his bedtime any earlier, so we tried moving it later.  Sure enough we seemed to hit a sweet spot at 7:30, but decided to try 7:45 just to see what would happen.  Wouldn't you know he woke up early again!  So back to 7:30 we went and it is working beautifully!  In fact, the last two days we have had to wake him up at 7:45 for fear that if we let him sleep much longer his nap schedule would get thrown off.

There were hiccups along the way, don't get me wrong.  There was the whole change thing that was miserable and other times, but usually that meant there was some other factor causing the problem.  In fact, despite feeling like those moments would never end when I was living them, they have taken up a very small portion of his total nights since he was born.  I guess I needed to be out of those moments to really understand how small and insignificant they were.

So if you are in the midst of dealing with sleep issues, know that it won't actually last forever.  You will get through this, they will sleep through the night at some point, and you will one day feel rested again.  I wish I could send you endless amounts of wine hugs until you get there.

TTFN,

Mommy C

Change

Okay, so I have seen all of your Facebook updates and your tweets....you are in the same boat as I am and it makes me really wonder.  Why are so many people are having issues right now with their little one sleeping, teething, developing separation anxiety, a combination of these things, or all of them at once?  What is it about the seasons changing that does this?   Is it because the sun is rising later and setting sooner or that it is cooler outside?  Or could it be that it has nothing to do with the seasons and we are all just magically dealing with these things at once.   I know it can't be because all the babies are the same age because they range from 8 months to over a year. 

Whatever the reason, it sucks.  It means that we have to pull out our bag of tricks to keep our little ones happy and (in the case of the sleeping) revisit the strategies we have chosen and come up with a plan to correct this problem.

In our house we have been dealing with all of it...at once...and I may lose my mind before it is all over.  It began several weeks ago when he got his first cold and then my in-laws were here and then we had to go to NY for 3 days and then he got a rash on his face that made me think he might have Fifths Disease and then he started teething molars like a banshee.  Somewhere in there he developed separation anxiety...but not the "stranger danger" kind of anxiety.  It was the "don't leave the room or go where I can't see you, oh and pick me up now or I will scream my head off and don't even think about putting me down for a nap" anxiety.  Fun times. 

So as soon as we returned from NY I knew we needed to get back into our usual routine in order to fix some of the issues we were seeing regarding sleep.  After a few days of that not working, I brought him to the doctor only to be told that he is probably teething, he might have Fifth Disease but it doesn't matter because he isn't contagious and there is nothing we can do for it even though he might be cranky, but more likely than not most of his "issues" have to deal with the fact that this is around the age that babies learn that if they cry, they get attention. 

So what does one do about all this?  How do you let your little one know that you love them, do anything for them, and want to comfort them whenever they need it, at the same time teach them that they can in fact be on their own once and a while and be okay?   I think the answer is different for everyone.  You have to do what you feel most comfortable with, but whatever you decide, you have to be consistent. 

My husband and I talked and if we knew that he was fed, had a clean diaper and wasn't in any pain or discomfort, we were okay with letting him cry it out a little bit.   It has taken a little bit of time and tears (both Superman's and mine) but I think we might have our night time sleep back on track.  The nap stuff is hit or miss each day.  On Saturday he napped like a champ.  On Sunday he didn't nap at all (cried in crib for 1 hour each time).  On Monday he napped in the morning fantastically, but when it came time for his afternoon nap he was so wide awake I never put him down for it.  Today he didn't sleep (read: cried for 1 hour) and fell asleep on the way home from Gymboree (despite me trying every trick in the book to keep him awake) and so he was wide awake when I tried to get him ready for the afternoon nap.  Right now?  He is quietly playing on his own as I finish this post.  Thank goodness he is great at entertaining himself for 20 minutes or so 2-3 times a day.  It is the only thing keeping me sane on the days he won't nap.  (And now that 20 minutes is up and he wants me so this post will be finished later..)

I am back and have great news on today's nap front.  He needed a new diaper and I was changing him, he rubbed his eyes.  Ever an opportunist, I threw a sleep sack on him, nursed him and put him into his crib.  He was awake when I did that so he began to cry, but 4 minutes later? He was asleep!! 

I think that being a parent has taught me so many things, but my most recent lesson is that nothing stays the same for long.  Things might be bad at the moment, but they will improve and more likely than not, they will improve sooner than you think they will.  Last week I was asking myself if Superman would ever nap again...seriously.  I honestly was worried that he might just learn to soothe himself during naptime.  But here we are a week later and although things are perfect yet, they are looking up.  

I hope that all of you that are fighting with sleep, teething, separation anxiety, or anything else are hanging in there.  Remember, things will change eventually...their teeth will come in, they will learn that you are there for them when they need you and begin to be okay on their own, and with all of that- sleep will come.  (I say this for me as much as I say it for you.) 

Hugs to all of you!

TTFN,

Mommy C