The Curse of the 45 Minute Nap

It's baaaaa-aaack. Already? The 45 minute nap reared it's ugly face so soon into our lives again. Ethan is just 8 weeks old this week....and it's back already. Sigh. I don't recall the 45 minute nap finding Braden so fast, but this is the main cause of my lack of blogging lately. Ethan used to have a blissful 2-3 hour swing nap every morning while Braden ate his breakfast and did his usual morning things while mommy sipped her coffee and blogged. Not.any.more. About every other day Ethan has 45 minute naps all day. It is a big waste of my day. Yup, I said it and I know my mommy friends know exactly what I mean.

I spend about 30 minutes getting Ethan fed and rocking him until he's asleep to lay him down. So by the time that happens he's been sleeping for at least 5-10 minutes (depending on how tired he is) and if he pulls a 45 minute nap? Then that only gives me about 35ish minutes to myself to get stuff done around the house.

On a 45 minute nap day? I want to pull out all my hair. Braden senses this and becomes extra naughty. I'm trying to put Baby Brother to sleep in his room in the glider and Big Brother comes bounding in like a baby elephant, hides in Ethan's closet and starts kicking the door. He knows I can't yell at him because I have a trying-to-get-to-sleep baby in my arms, and if I have to rinse-lather-repeat this scenario all day...I'm just fried by the end of it.

But, luckily there is a silver lining to this. Yesterday was a 45 minute nap day, for the most part, and it's like he saves his sleep for night time and slept over 8 hours last night. So that? I will happily take it. He already has wake periods of up to 4 hours if he is having an I-don't-want-to-nap-day...but then he happily goes to bed at night for a long stretch.           

So why the 45 minute nap? I did read Baby Wise when I was pregnant with Braden and decided it wouldn't work for my family, but they coined the term "45 minute intruder" nap and it is SO true. We have sleep cycles of light-deep-light and that 2nd "light" phase comes in at 45 minutes. Eventually they are supposed to outgrow it, and Braden did when we sleep trained him.        

I know there's nothing I can do, Ethan is way too young to sleep train, so I guess I'll just have to suck it up on the 45 minute nap days and pray that he keeps having good nighttime sleeps.

Has your family fallen victim to the 45 minute nap? And now, I leave you with cute baby pictures that could have been cuter if I didn't take them so late in the day when my natural light was disappearing....but you get the point!

                   

The Nap Dilemma

Say it isn't so. I'm not ready to cut this proverbial cord. The weaning of the one and only afternoon nap. So Braden is 2 years and 4.5 months old, if we want to be exact. Normally he naps from about 1-3 every afternoon still. Sometimes after a lot of hullabalu in our life, he'll go on a 3 day nap strike but then happily get back into the napping cycle. Well, the problem now isn't the napping. In fact, he's been napping great. He had two 2.5 hour naps last week. BUT....(and it is a big but)....that meant not falling asleep until after 9 o'clock both those nights. I know that is *the* tell tale sign that most kids are ready to give up their afternoon nap. Both of those days he did have later naps and woke up at 4:15 and 4:30...so I think I will try to put him down between 12-1 to see if that helps so he's up between 2-3, but if not, I think it's so long and farewell, my dear 2-hours-of-toddler-free-time in the afternoon.



It is nice that on a day like Friday, when we went to the mall, that he can tolerate being up and about all day without *needing* to have a nap every.single.day. Not only that, but tolerating it as well. Not getting 100% cranky pants on us, only about 30% cranky pants! I know it won't be a cold-turkey nap stopping, there will probably still be 2 or 3 days a week where he will nap, and boy will I cherish those days. He's a great, great kid...but man do I ever enjoy my free time in the afternoon...I think we all do! I do plan on having Quiet Time though, after lunch still. I'll tell him he has to stay in his room until Mommy comes to get him. He can have a nap, read his books, or play with his trains. Yup, his train table is in his room and he does fabulously with it in there.

So, I guess we'll see how this next week pans out. Wish us luck. I'm not ready for this milestone. Someone hold me!

So, Video Monitors are HILARIOUS!

...and a necessity for toddler bed training! I never used a video monitor up until this point. Just for me and my family, I didn't see the point of one...really ever. When they're newborn all they do is lie there and cry, you go in. As they get older, I can see why it would be neat to have one, to see if they're actually awake or if they're just unsettled, to see if they're standing up in their cribs, etc. But I still didn't see the need to buy one. Well, God must have known that I would need one one day, and it just so happens that last year I won this awesome Tommee Tippee monitor from a blog giveaway, and I can't see getting through toddler bed training without one! And this is why:

EPIC. NAP. FAIL.

I was SO MAD when I found this. This was "nap" time on day #2. I knew he wasn't going to sleep but he wasn't being that noisy, so I didn't think much was going on. Plus, day #1 he took about 6 books off his shelf and quietly read them for the hour of quiet time. Well I wasn't prepared for the above, that a Toddler Tornado would take over my son during his supposed "nap time". I know I got tons of belly laughs from the people I shared this with. My I can just picture my brother Ben and my best friend's husband Steve with big belly laughs saying "wayta go, buddy!" And I do laugh now, I even laughed an hour later, but mommy lesson learned!

So I set up that video monitor pronto and used it for the first time for the designated nap time the next day. I gotta admit, looking into the screen I kept waiting for one of those scary ghosts to pop up and scare me.

The really cool thing about this monitor is that you can talk to your child through the baby unit. It worked really well! Laura was over that afternoon and she caught him climbing up on his change table. So I spoke to him through the monitor for the first time and said "Braden! You get down from there please!" He suddenly stopped, looked around and had this "how did she know!?" look on his face. Then he figured out that my voice was coming from the baby unit. Actually....he didn't think it was my voice at all....



He totally, 100% thinks that it's my mom when I talk through the video monitor! It's quite hilarious and we're all getting such a kick out of it! I'm really enjoying the monitor and I can calmly reassure him in the morning that "Mommy's coming soon!" so he knows it's okay. It was time to start sleep training again, this time for the toddler bed.

Daddy read him stories last night and I came in to sing a song with him. I told him that he had to go to bed by himself tonight and that I loved him. He cried not even the 30 seconds it took me to leave his room and go turn on the monitor. It took him quite awhile to even get out of his bed, he was so distracted/entertained by his new Thomas decals we put on his wall yesterday I could hear him talking to his trains. He ended up getting out of bed twice, running to the door, but all the while remaining calm and happy. I think it took between 1/2 hour and 45 minutes for him to settle and fall asleep. My boy has ALWAYS liked to be very comfortable, so I couldn't imagine him falling asleep in front of the door or or on the floor anywhere....this is how I found him:

How did I get so lucky? I was so nervous and anxious about this transition, but he has made it so easy on not only himself, but on me too. I'm so proud of him! I think with his history of sleep training, he just knew it was bed time and that he'd eventually have to fall asleep. There was no crying, kicking, screaming, he didn't fight it at all. And as my Mom says, I think the novelty of the freedom of the toddler bed will soon wear off and he'll just want to sleep there.

I know nap times will take awhile, as he was pretty inconsistent with them before the bed, as my friend Katie told me, it takes awhile for them to learn the toddler bed nap! But at night, I couldn't ask for better. He sleeps his usual 12ish hours a night, straight through, we did decide to keep his door locked, he knows he needs to stay in his room when the door is shut and there's no fussing, crying or fighting it. He just calls out for me when he's done and that is that! Thanks for all your support and kind words this week!

*Note: This was not an official review for Tommee Tippee, nor am I affiliated with them, I do love their products though!*

Toddler Sleep

If you've been around this blog for any length of time, you know that I have Braden on a good sleep routine. We did sleep training when he was 5 months and after some hiccups, colds, and teething....he had it down pat 100% by 7 months, sleeping 12+ hours through the night and never looked back. I admit it, I've been super lucky with a boy who loves his sleep. He probably gets this from his father! Don't hate me, but I can also attest that I have never, not once, been up with a sick or teething child in all his life. The rare time that he's been sick, he's slept even more. When he wakes up wailing, the odd time, I give it a minute and if he hasn't settled, I usually just go in, reassure him that everything is okay and he goes back to sleep no problem.

But now? He's 2, and so much has changed. Going to Maui he would cry and fuss for a few minutes, then be settled and fine for the night. It took awhile, but eventually he would settle for his monster 3-4 hour naps all by himself and was sleeping great at night. Ever since we got home, essentially since he's turned 2 he's so off with his sleep habits. Here's what we're dealing with now:

• Pretty much every time he goes down for a nap or night time he cries. Only for a minute or even just one "MOMMY!" but then he's fine
• Very inconsistent naps, sometimes 1 hour, sometimes 3 hours
• Always wakes up cranky from his naps
• Waking up very early, to what we're used to in the AM at 6
• Going to bed at the same time, 7

I know 11 hours of sleep is enough for him at this age, but he used to do at LEAST 12.5 hours, usually 13. Seems like a drastic drop to me. One thought that has crossed our minds, which scares me, is to drop his nap. I wonder if he wakes up cranky and pissed off from his naps because he doesn't need them anymore? I've read of this happening with other mommy bloggers, and one solution is to move them to a toddler bed...

I really don't know that I'm ready for this! Actually to the suggestion of one of Jay's daddy friends, we thought we'd set it up in his room, just so he can get used to it and see what he does.

He actually wasn't that impressed. Totally took the wind out of my sails. I thought I'd be Mom of the Year with a Thomas toddler bed and bedding!

At least the cat likes it! So for now...we have both his crib up and the bed. There's enough room and maybe one time he'll want to sleep in his new bed? Who knows.

I'm really in no hurry to get him out of his crib, he just needs to be out before another baby comes along, so we do have quite awhile! I'm just trying to think of anything for why he's been so off with his sleep now.

Any suggestions? I'm all ears! If you've had similar experiences with your toddlers, I'd love to hear them. For now, I'm just going to gauge day-by-day whether or not he needs to nap or not and not automatically put him down.

1+ Week Sans Soother

We knew it was coming. I've mentioned it before. We all knew...except for him. I don't know why I had it in my head that "when Braden turns 2, we're getting rid of the soother". But I did...so we did. Little did I know it would feel like I was killing one of his best friends. I had some major mommy guilt, let me tell you.

As many of you know, Braden has 2 comfort objects. His beloved blankie and his soother. Collectively known (by him) as "duckie soo". I really wanted to keep his soother around for selfish reasons. I wanted him to have it on our plane ride to Maui in hopes of helping with his ears, and also just to have an extra comfort item to rely on. Lately he's been using it mostly for teething. So to bridge the gap between his soother an no soother, I gave him a Molar Muncher that I bought off a steal site awhile ago. He's used it now and again over the months, but always preferred his soother. 

So on January 29, his 2nd day as a 2 year old, I took his soother away. He did ask for it for nap time, but I just said "no more soo. Soo is all gone." We read some books like we always do and I put him down with his blankie and his munchie (Molar Muncher). He fussed, not even cried, off and on for a half hour and then had a good 2 hour nap. not too bad! I thought to myself! This gave me so much hope, I wasn't a monster after all.

But then...came bed time.

He didn't ask for soo. But he sure went down fighting this time. He cried. He cried OUT for me. Do you know how heartbreaking it is to hear your child call out for you? "Mommy! Mommy!" He fussed/whined/cried off and on for 45 minutes. I do stress the one and off part, it was not constant and there were many times I thought he did fall asleep. But at the 45 minute mark, my heart couldn't bear it anymore. I went it, we had some snuggles and rocked in the glider for awhile. I put him back down to sleep and 5 minutes later he was out. He did wake up at 11:45 and cried for 5 minutes, but put himself back to sleep.

The next few days can be broken down like this:

Day #2: No nap and fussed for 20 minutes at bedtime. Meanwhile, I'm at work texting back and forth with Jay while tweeting to the world in desperation as to whether or not we have made the right decision. Should we have taken it? Should we wait until he's done teething? Is it really that bad? We decided since we invested so much time already into the no soother thing...we'd just push through it, because it would be harder if we had to give it back and take it away again.
Day #3: No nap and fussed for 5 minutes at bedtime.
Day #4: No nap and fussed for 20 minutes at bedtime.
Day #5: Finally had a 2 hour nap after he fussed for 20 minutes or so and about 5 minutes of fussing at bedtime.

And so on and so forth. The fussing thing, I actually believe, has nothing to do with the no soother thing. It probably isn't helping, but ever since about Christmas time he's been fussing off and on at bedtime for no particular reason. He could have 3 soothers in bed with him and still fuss. He's also so much more aware of his surroundings, that if he's in a new place, or even if he's in a place he's not at all the time (like my Mom's) he cries out and fusses for up to 10 minutes before he settles. When he settles, he typically settles all night.

It's times like this that I am so thankful that we sleep trained him with SleepEasy. If you want, just click the links to look through my old posts, but the gist of it is...Braden knows how to self soothe and put himself back to sleep. If I followed SleepEasy by the book, he shouldn't have kept his soother in the first place. At the time (and I still don't regret it), I did not want to take EVERYTHING away from him when we sleep trained and felt it was necessary for him to keep his soother. Also, I never, ever was running into his room to put his soother back in his mouth 50 times a night...so nothing like that was changing for us.

As I said before, Braden was having problems settling to sleep. This happened over Christmas at Mom's and it was even happening at home the odd time. I knew this would happen in Maui too. Pretty much every nap and bedtime for the first 3 days was up to 10 minutes of crying/fussing but then he'd be totally settled and sleep right through his nap or the night and wake up happy. This is always the sign of a well-rested Braden: waking up happy.

Had we not used SleepEasy for him or had he not been able to learn the art of self-soothing in one way or another? I imagine I would be in his room for HOURS reading books, singing rocking, praying, and begging for him to go to sleep. Not how I want to spend my should-be-child-free time on vacation....trying to get said child to sleep! I did spend extra time before lying him down singing and rocking with him and making sure he was nice and calm, but he would still fuss and cry for a bit.

I know there are tons of mamas who would disagree with letting Braden cry it out (CIO) but there is no other option for my family! I've done my research, Braden knows he's not abandoned, he's very much loved and comforted by us throughout the day. If I ran to him EVERY time he fussed or cried...neither of us would sleep, neither of us would be well rested and happy. He hasn't been a fall-asleep-in-my-arms baby sincee he was that...maybe the last time at 4 months? This way? We all get a full night's sleep at the price of him fussing (not even full on CRYING) for up to 10 minutes.

Has your 2ish year old(s) gone through this phase? He's fussing almost every night, even though we're at home now? I don't know if it's a new development stage? The soother? 2 year molars? Combo of everything or nothing? Just wondering your experiences!

Anywho, the soother is GONE! He hasn't even asked for it since we have taken it away, we're not looking back now!

So thaaaaaat's what's been bothering him!

My little sweetheart. My guy who loves to sleep. Has not been napping in the afternoon well. I've been toying with and experimenting cutting him down to 1 nap a day. Not working, so I ditched that idea. He sleeps 2 hours in the morning (lately) but is having the darndest time settling for his afternoon nap. He didn't nap at all yesterday afternoon and was up 7 hours until bedtime - a VERY rare thing in our house. He was content in his crib for awhile, but then he'd get ticked off and just want to come out and play, so we went with it.

He has still been sleeping well at night, so I just summed it up to him trying to decide whether or not he was ready for 1 nap a day. WELL. Last night after being up for 7 hours I thought it would be a head-hit-the-pillow and out kind of night for him....yeahnotsomuch. He screamed, and screamed, and cried. I only let him do that for a minute because he NEVER does this anymore. I went in and he was just beside himself. I picked him up and started checking for teeth. Found out that not only did he cut the other tooth beside his other big tooth, but his poor upper right gums are raw from working on a molar!! :( Poor guy, it just looks awful. So a dose of Advil and some stories and about 20 minutes later he was good to go. I can't imagine the pain he's in. He has been chewing on his index finger on the right side for a long time now, and he finally has something to show for it. I brought Sophie the giraffe out of retirement, but he's not too keen on her anymore - sorry, Sophie!

Just thought I'd share, and here's a couple of pictures for your enjoyment...

A "Then & Now" pictures of him in his high chair - 5 months and 14.5 months - wow!

Sometimes he can crawl in and out of the ottoman bench...he is quite proud!

Sleepy Sunday

This past Sunday...we got more snow. So I dubbed it "Sleepy Sunday". It was really nice to have Jay home, although I'm sure he wishes he could be out in the field just finishing that last 700 acres or so that they have left to harvest. So just take a look at the nice Sunday sleepers:

Those two are just best of friends. Zoey ALWAYS goes and curls up with Kihei - even on her bed! So cute. I've always been scared to take a picture of Braden napping/sleeping because I didn't want to wake him up. But, I took a chance on Sunday and I'm glad I did. He's so precious! Here's a pic at the beginning of his nap:

And then 2.5 hours later at the tail end of his nap:

Hardly moved a muscle! I love it when he takes 2+ hour naps! Although lately they're usually 1.5 hours.

Sleep! Wonderful, wonderful SLEEP!

My new mommy friends, or my mommy friends with newborns again...you might not wanna read this! Really, I'm not bragging though, because as much as I'd like to take credit for what a great baby Braden is - I can't. Because then I'd have to take responsibility for when he's not so great too! :)

Ever since we moved here, Braden has been sleeping phenomenally! First he'd wake up just once a night, 8-10 hours into his sleep...and if he ever did wake up twice, it was only 3 hours or so into his sleep before we went to bed. Well...3 nights ago he started sleeping right through the night, 12 hours straight! This is the first time he's ever done that! He has "STTN" before, as I have posted, but the most he's ever done was 10.5 in a row. I am so happy for him and proud of him. He's been the happiest little guy ever too...must be all that rest he's getting. He's also now usually taking a 2 hour nap in the morning, and sometimes even a 2 hour nap in the afternoon...so sometimes we're down to 2 naps a day, which is AWESOME! But, he still usually does 3 shorter naps.



Now..I have to learn to STTN again! The most I've ever gotten was 7 hours in a row, which happened the this past week! It was awesome and I was ready to get up at 5 when I woke up. BUT, usually I get about 4-5 hours in (which is still a lot, new mommies - I know!) and then the dog or Miles usually wakes me up...or my bladder! Hopefully this good habit keeps up...but I also know that 2 top teeth probably aren't too far around the corner and then I'm almost certain that I'll be getting up with a teething baby a few times a night again.

I am too chicken to take a picture of a sleeping baby, so this is completely unrelated to this post, but I couldn't leave it pictureless! Here's a pic of Braden standing on his own at his play table! So proud of himself!

The Update of all Updates!

Okay, so here I am on a beautiful Sunday morning sitting in Dad's man-chair watching my sweet baby boy babble "dadadadadada" in his excersaucer in between chewing on a blue toy and spinning this cylinder full of beads and also spitting with his tongue out and blowing bubbles! Busy boy! I had a wonderful sleep last night...Braden was only up once, as seems to be the norm lately, very late in the morning then he'll go back down for an hour or two...or even three! For some reason, "SleepEasy" isn't really working for us anymore. I do my checks when he starts to fuss and now that he's older he gets more and more and more worked up and eventually is wide awake. So I can deal with him waking up 8-10 hours into his sleep, eating quickly and going back down without a fuss. The best thing to come out of his sleep training was that he can put himself down for a nap and bedtime without a fuss 9.5/10 times. That 0.5 times that he doesn't...I just pop in, plop the soother back in his mouth, give him his taggie blanket and off he goes to sleep. But I will take that over up every hour ANY day! I am not getting obsessed with him sleeping through the night or not anymore, up only once and back down quickly is just fine by me! PLUS, there's always going to be sleep disturbances like teething, tummy aches, growth spurts...! Anywho, here's some new pics of the little man...

 Braden bonded so much with and loves his Uncle Ben!

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Still absolutely LOVES his Jolly Jumper!

Token baby with a beer picture....I was handing Jay a cold one, Braden was in his lap and he HAD to have it to suck on!

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Solids have been going great! We started meats this week (first being beef, of course!) and if I mix it with a veggie he just gobbles it up! I have also started giving him big hunks of meat, like pork in this picture, and he gnaws and sucks on it!

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This is probably my new favorite pic of him. He will do almost ANYTHING to get to our remote! I'm pretty sure I'll get him crawling by putting it in front of him!

He loves to stand now, his legs are so strong...note the remote again!

Also...we are SITTING NOW!!! Yay for Braden! This piano toy was a great thing getting him to want to sit for longer periods of time. He also loves pulling at his socks, probably trying to get his toes free as he loves to suck on them! Took him for his 6 months shots last week and low and behold, they changed the vaccination schedule and he only had to have 1 shot - yay! BUT, this means a potential of 4 shots for his 12 month appointment unless they add the varicella vaccine to the DPTP shot like they have in the States. He now weighs 15 lbs 3.5 oz but he's still on his growth curve, so that's all I could ask for. He's in the 25%ile for his weight and height combination. The nurse told me once he started on meat and got all that protein he'll start gaining weight, so I'll be interested to see what 2 weeks of meat does to his weight!

Our flooring is done and it's FABULOUS! It only took them 2.5 days and I am so thrilled. The hardwood looks great, I don't think we could've picked better stuff!

Braden's room has carpet! The only thing left is his closet....time to decorate!

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Hardwood in the great room...now it is completely done.

So remember our to do list on the house I had? It was from July 18...let's update that...

• walk through with our cabinet guy to make sure we are happy with everything, then he will do the finishing
• sign our granite/countertop quote this week, then within 2 days they will come and do templates and in 14-16 days do installs!
• Jay and Gerry will do the tongue and groove on the great room ceiling together
• Gerry will finish drywalling/taping/mudding the staircase
• finish painting the great room
• our tile guy came on Saturday to take a look, he's started the prep for our shower, and will begin tiling this week
• we are STILL waiting on our damn front DOOR from JayWest, that was supposed to come with the house GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Why do they ALWAYS manage to hold us up? The tile can't be done in the entry until the door is in as the temporary door leaks.
• the siding STILL isn't done from JayWest, but we really don't care, all the essential work is done and the faster they finish, the faster we have to pay them!
• then there's all the finishing....the window jams/trim have to be done in the great room while we have the scaffolding, before our hardwood can be installed...Ben is coming to help us the weekend of August 6th, so that is VERY much appreciated by his big sister!
• flooring is to be installed 1 week later than I originally booked, which will be not this Monday, but next. They can do all the carpet in the bedrooms and the hardwood in the living room/dining room....and hopefully will be able to get to the great room while they're there if all the aforementioned stuff gets done!

 Not too bad, eh? The north side of the garage and the front of the house need to be sided, finishing stuff like doors, closets, crown, and the rest of the baseboards...countertop installation and then the plumbing hookups and the last of the electrical! We're going to start moving in though. I can set up Braden's room and we can get our mattress over there, and we're waiting on delivery for our bedroom set, couch, and 2 chairs. Phew....that's a lot, isn't it!

Braden News

It feels like I haven't blogged forever! Sometimes I feel like I just can't keep up to the fast pace our life is set at right now. How is it June 14th already? The month is almost half gone. Braden is developing so fast. He's definitely slowed down on the physical growing part...he shot up the growth charts so fast at 1 month, but now he's at a plateau, and I imagine he will just slowly gain until we start solids at 6 months. So lately we have been...

Hanging out naked! And by "we", I mean just him! I give him a little nudey bum time before his bath every night now. And sucking his thumb TONS lately. He's getting really, really good hand-eye coordination. When he is in his car seat, I have this:

And he is getting so good at batting the little bugs with his hands. Jay says we should find a little plush volleyball so he can practice his spiking! P.S. I highly recommend this toy to add to your bucket car seat handle, it keeps him VERY entertained! It's $20 at Babies R Us but I scored it for $4 from a consignment sale! He has also enjoyed a lot of drooling:

And even more tummy time lately...and tolerating it much, much more!

So that's a new diaper I've tried on him. I feel like I'm cheating on my FuzziBunz! This is a Goodmama "One" all-in-one diaper. I love my FB's, but they have so few prints that I have to seek elsewhere. Check out this gallery for all of Goodmama's prints...they are adorable. I've got a couple more coming in the mail. If I don't end up liking them much, then I'll just sell them on DiaperSwappers.com which I've already sold one of my non-FB's!

We are now in a consistent schedule which I am so thankful for!! Bedtime is 8-8:30 and wake-time is usually 8 or shortly after, but I will let him get up if he is up at 7. First morning nap is 2 hours after wake-time and has consistently been 1.5 - 1.75 hrs! No more morning 45 minute nap, which is great. Second nap I really try and make him stay awake at least 2 hours in between, but sometimes it's hard...and this nap still is always 45 minutes. I'm hoping that magically one day it will be longer. Another 2ish hours later and then the third nap varies in length from 45 mins to about 1.5 hours. So three naps a day and 12 hours of sleep time at night.

Sleep training was on hiatus for 2 nights because he was congested, but he's over that now. The last 2 nights we've been getting back on track and he's only woken up once after 8 hrs the first night and 9 hrs last night. Since he's waking up between 5 & 6...he feels very rested and has a hard time self-soothing. So I'm modifying the training, letting him fuss for about 20-30 minutes and then making sure he's calm, I'll feed him, and he'll go back to sleep for another 2.5-3 hours. I think that with time this last wake-up will just extend until it really is his wake-time.

I miiiiiiiiiiiiight have to start solids earlier than I intended! I couldn't believe him last night at his Grandpa Schultz's birthday party! We were all eating cake for dessert, he was in the high chair, and he was literally smacking his lips! He was also following Carol's fork from her plate up to her mouth as she held him later. It's unbelievable! I really do want to hold off until 6 months, it's only 1.5 months to go...but we'll see how it goes in the next while, maybe I'll start him at 5.5 months or something!

Night #5 of Sleep Training

SUCCESS!!! Braden finally slept through the night again!! Being at the lake all afternoon probably helped a lot (I'll post about that later!) AND he even had a really good 1.5 hour nap on the way home! Put him down at about 8:50, he was unsettled a bit, but put himself to sleep around 9:15. I was so tired that I didn't do the usual dreamfeed before I went to bed, I figured I'd take my chances and just do the feeds 4 hours apart. So I fed him after midnight and after 4 and then he slept right until 6:30ish...fussed a bit until 7:30 and we're up! So he slept about 9 or 10 hours with that nap before! YAY BRADEN!! Now the next step is to keep increasing the length between his feeds and then I will wean him from those feeds. I am just so utterly happy with how this has worked for us. I am getting so much more sleep, it will be nice to have this "system" to fall back on!

Night #4 of Sleep Training

Was the best night yet! Put him down the earliest that I ever have at 8PM. I hung a black sheet over his doorway (yes, my son doesn't have any doors in his room right now!) to make it extra dark, especially because the sun is still out at 10PM these days...and up at about 4:45AM (trust me, I know!). But he still cried out at around that 45 minute mark! At least he knows how to go back to sleep easily now...but man oh man, why that darn 45 minutes! Then before his dreamfeed at 11PM he started to fuss a bit. Only for a few minutes, then I went in and fed him and went to sleep. Then, right on cue, he woke up 1 minute before I set my alarm to dream feed him at 2:30. Only fussed for 7 minutes and then I went and fed him. Woke up shortly after 6:30, fussed for 6 minutes, then I fed him and he woke up shortly after 8, happy as can be!

So last night (with a bit of fussing before) he slept 6.5 hours, 4 hrs, 1.5 hours! I'm very happy with how things are going and I think in a little while he won't even make noise when he wakes up and he'll just settle himself. I sure feel more well rested, and tonight I extend his feeds to 4 hours. Thanks for following, I'll blog about our progress for one more night and then just give periodic updates!

Night #3 of Sleep Training

YAY!!! Night #3 totally makes up for night #2! Last night was so great, I hope we continue on this trend. I put him down for bed at 8:30PM without a peep. We were finishing watching a movie...at at the 50 minute mark, we heard one cry. We both looked at each other, and I said "oh no! Not this again!" But it was just that one cry...and then blissful silence. So I did a dreamfeed before we went to bed at 10:30 and then set my alarm for 3 hours later at 1:30. What time did Braden start crying? 1:30 on the dot when my alarm went off! How does he do that? So I got up, charted that when he woke up...and let him go. He actually wasn't even "crying" it was more of a fussing. I didn't even go do a check-in at 5 minutes as it seems to tick him off even more. I thought I'd go check him at the 10 minute mark...but he stopped fussing at 1:36! Only 6 minutes this time! What a huge difference to the previous night. So I gave him 10 minutes, did a dreamfeed and went back to sleep. Set my alarm for 3 hours later and fed him again without a peep.

Next came him stirring at about 6:30. It only took about 10 minutes and back to sleep he went. He then stirred at 7:30 for one cry and then I got him up at 8! He wasn't as happy as he usually was, but he had a pretty decent scratch on his left cheek and his night diaper leaked a little bit. The way he's been soothing himself back to sleep is either by sucking his thumb or by smushing his taggie blanket on his face, which probably resulted in the scratch. I trimmed his nails AGAIN this morning so hopefully that won't happen anymore. The book suggests giving them a blanket or a "mommy bear" stuffed animal as a comfort object, so I bought him a homemade taggie off of Etsy, It's only 9x9 and breathable. He loves it!

So Braden slept 5 hrs, 5 hrs, and 1.5 hrs! What an improvement. I just have a really good feeling that this sleep training, or sleep learning as I should be calling it will really work for us. Braden was able to self-soothe at 8 weeks on, but seemed to have forgotten it when he turned 3 months so I know that he'll get the hang of it again. Tonight I'll do dreamfeeds every 3.5 hours...thanks for that 1/2 hour increment suggestion, Kathleen...if I ended up doing the 15 mins like I originally planned...I'd be doing this until he was 5! ;) Eventually I want to get to a dreamfeed before bed, then one feed at the half-way mark at about 4:30 and do that for awhile and then I'll wean those feeds, or just cut them out completely depending on how he's doing.

Thanks for reading, your support, and your positivity and encouragement!

Night #2 of Sleep Training

I've read in many places of reviewing this book that night 2 can be hard. Boy was it ever. I wish I could report that it went even better than the first night, but then I'd be lying. Firstly, he woke up not even 45 minutes into his sleep...which was very odd and he NEVER does that when I put him down. That resulted in almost 40 minutes of crying to start out the night! Jay did the check-ins and got a HUGE smile every time he went to talk to Braden - which proves right there that all Braden wants is to see us!

So the book recommends weaning night feedings by cutting the feed back by 2 minutes every night. Since I never know when Braden is going to eat, the first night I fed him every 2 hours and that worked well - he only beat me to the punch twice. Well, last night instead of decreasing the feeds by 2 minutes, I let him eat however long he wanted (when he was asleep), but I increased the time between feeds to every 2.5 hours. That's where it seems to have gone wrong :( He beat me to the punch EVERY time, except for the last feed. I had my alarm set to feed him every 2.5 hours and he'd beat me by 10-15 minutes every darn time, which resulted in crying of 50 minutes each time. It was so hard. I was doubting myself every 5 minutes. Why is he crying so long? Isn't this supposed to get better? But, CONSISTENCY is the key to this. It wouldn't be fair to let him cry for "no reason" by me going to console him and erasing everything he's been learning. I'm giving this sleep training 1 week and if I don't see results...then I guess I go back to the old way of doing things and pray that he just turns himself around?!

But, like I said at the beginning, everywhere I've read I've heard horrible things about night 2. So all I can do is hope night 3 goes better. I guess I have to keep thinking that Braden is NOT that hungry, it's not why he's waking up, and he is still getting 4 feeds per night! Yeesh! So tonight I increase the time between feeds to 3 hours. Wish me luck, pray for us, send us good sleep vibes...anything!! (If it gives you peace of mind...which it does for me, Braden STILL wakes up with a huuuuuuuuuuuge smile on his face and seems to not be mad at us for all this business we're putting him through!)

Night #1 of Sleep Training

Well, night 1 of sleep training is done. It actually went really well. And just for the record, I'm not looking to be judged, so if you have negative comments...please keep them to yourself :)

So I prolonged our bedtime routine and I fed him before his bath, had a nice long relaxing bath, then a baby massage, then I put him down on a nice soft blanket on the floor while he chewed on Sophie and I read him a few stories. Then I sang to him (poor fella!) and decided that he should have some snuggles with me because I wouldn't get to console him during the night. Sigh. He started getting a little restless so I decided to top him up. I had to talk to him the whole time he nursed to keep him awake (very important) and then he had a good burp. I gave him a pacifier (not ready to give this up yet) snuggled with him and sang him our sleep song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I put him down drowsy but awake at 8:40PM...and his first 5 minute check-in he was asleep!

The next step is to do a dreamfeed 1 hour before he usually eats. Since he's unpredictable, they say feed him at the earliest he's ever woken up. It was kind of a gamble, but he usually gives me a 2.5-3 hour stretch so I gently picked him up out of his pack and play (PNP), he had a good, long feed and I put him back down without a peep. I went to bed and he woke up shortly after midnight, so a 3.5 hour stretch. I had my alarm set to dreamfeed him at 1AM, so according to the training I had to let Braden cry. It actually wasn't bad at all, he did very well and only cried for 18 minutes. I did my check at 5 minutes and 10 minutes, then 3 minutes later he was asleep! I did another dreamfeed which was only 2 minutes and he went back down. So my goal was to do dreamfeeds every 2 hours, as that's what he's been used to and poor Braden woke up 5 minutes before my alarm was to go off to feed him! This was the worst part of the night as he cried and whimpered off and on for 1 hour exactly. Then I waited 15 minutes and he had a really good dreamfeed.

Next thing was to dreamfeed him one more time at 6AM and I was so tired that I slept through my alarm, but only by 10 minutes. Fed him successfully again (these dreamfeeds are AMAZING!) and he started stirring at about 7:30. As part of the training they HAVE to stay in their bed for 11 hours, which would be 7:40. So he fussed and cried just a little until 7:40 and Jay went to get him up and praised him with big smiles and cuddles for doing so well with his sleep training. So, really, he only woke up twice last night! A huge improvement from being up every hour and half or two!

He slept 3.5 hours, 2.5 hours, and 3.5 hours. The goal is 11 or 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep, so we have a ways to go, but I'm pleased with how it's gone so far. Now I have to be consistent and keep this going with his naps. He was actually rested enough to stay awake the recommended 2 hours until his morning nap, so I did the sameish routine again and he went down for his nap drowsy but awake without a fuss. For naps he has to stay in his PNP for 1 hour from when I put him down, and if he sleeps longer - great!

I just wanted to say that when Braden cries at night, it is an extremely tired cry and he is not in "tantrum" mode. I know his cries well enough that he is not in pain, not hungry, he's just crying for mommy to come and comfort him back to sleep because that's what he's used to. It's very tough to hear my baby cry, but in the long run, and even immediately, it's better. When Braden has been up so much crying all these nights, it frustrates me in my sleep deprived state and I have my moments when I want to "throw him out the proverbial window". I would never harm him, but I also know that my stress isn't helping him to relax and get the sleep he needs. This way, he is learning to self-soothe and he doesn't have to be put-off with my frustrations and I can be by myself, take deep breaths and send him positive sleep vibes!

Thanks for reading, more updates to come!

Something's Gotta Give...

We had the worst night ever last night. Poor Braden is soooooooo tired, he literally cannot sleep, no matter what we do. I am almost certain he's getting up out of habit now, not that he is hungry or needs anything. He's not in pain, he's not teething, he's had well over a week to practice his milestone of rolling over. Oi. I'm not going to cut night feedings cold turkey, I will be weaning him...and sleep training starting tonight. We'd sure appreciate your positive thoughts and prayers, it's going to be tough, but hopefully well worth it in the end. I'll keep you posted, but wish us luck.

Tales of a Sleep Deprived Mom

No, it's really not THAT bad. But my poor little man is sooooo inconsistent with his sleep. I imagine I'm driving my blog readers away with all my sleep rant, but really it's all I have....is to rant! Last night Braden was bathed, changed into a fresh, clean diaper and jammies, fed and burped. I sang to him and snuggled and he was drowsy so I put him down. And then came the crying. I decided to try out a night of the sleep training program to see what it was like, because I felt like I had nothing to lose. It involved letting him cry, but checking in on him at intervals and reassuring but not touching him. He cried for 36 minutes in total and drifted off into sleep. I hated hearing him cry, but I had tried everything else. I then dreamfed him, which involves slightly rousing him just enough to feed and then putting him back down to sleep in hopes of avoiding him waking up for the purpose of feeding. In doing this I did get a 4 hour stretch out of him. He woke up on his own, and according to the training I did let him cry some more. Another 34 torturous minutes. He settled and I dreamfed him two more times in the night and he woke up again at 6:30. I'd had enough of the crying, and even though I know I "erased" all of what I was teaching him in the night, I picked him up, cuddled and fed him and he slept until 9AM.

BUT...

I will not be continuing on with the training until at least a couple of weeks for a few reasons. Firstly, he doesn't weigh enough surprisingly. He needs to weigh 14 lbs and he's not quite there. Secondly, he just got his 4 month vaccinations today and I'm not going to put him through a crying night when I know he's sore and will need me. Thirdly, we're going to Edmonton this weekend and I'm just not going to trying something new on top of traveling. Lastly, he did just learn to roll over and I'm not supposed to start this training within 10 days of a new milestone! I'm glad I did it last night, and actually...I felt more rested getting up on my own schedule (I set my alarm for dreamfeeding). I know it will work for Braden, but the timing is just not right.

Naps suck too. The 45 minute napper has decreased to the 30 minute napper today. I'm really hoping it's because of his shots...because I really don't want to deal with 30 minute naps now...but what other choice do I have, really!? Hmmmmmmph. Oh well, the guys are almost done seeding, we're heading to Edmonton, and the drywalling is going well at our house. That's all!

New Things!

Unfortunately it's been very chilly around here lately, but if there was one bright side to the cold weather, I got to dress Braden in this adorable outfit for church yesterday. A cute husky sweater and matching toque from Gram:

So for play time, lately Braden has wanted more attention! He is getting to be VERY social and likes to be talked to and played with. So I figured it was time to try out the excersaucer:

So excited he's drooling over it!

A little stunned....but he'll get the hang of it!

Since he's holding up his head so well, I thought I would give the jumperoo a try. He "jumped" by accident a few times and I think he'll really love it as soon as he figures out how to use it. He absolutely loves kicking, so I assume he'll love to jump too.

Another new thing, is that yesterday, Braden....ROLLED OVER!!! I couldn't believe it! I was over visiting with my mother-in-law and I was telling her that how when Braden has been sleeping, he's so restless because he brings his legs up to his chest and rolls onto his side - it's like he's practicing rolling over in  his sleep (which is also a reason he probably hasn't been sleeping great again). Then I also mentioned that I thought they learned to roll from their tummies to their backs first...so I promptly took Braden and put him on his tummy and within 3 seconds he rolled over! I screamed with excitement, thought it was a fluke...so I put him on his tummy and he did it again. And again, and again, and again! I was so proud, I couldn't believe it! Then when I got home to take a video, all he wanted to do was suck on his hand when he was on his tummy and couldn't care less about trying to roll over! I know he can do it now, so I'll keep trying to get that video so I can post it on here.

Sleep is poop again. One night he'll almost STTN with one wake/feed...the next night he's up every 2 hours again. Sigh. I cannot WAIT for seeding to be done so we can do SleepEasy. Heading to Edmonton yet again this weekend for Allie's baby shower, which I'm very excited for!

Braden James, Go To Bed!

Braden James, Go To Bed! :)
Originally uploaded by NurseLovesFarmer

This afternoon I put Braden down for a nap and he was awake and content as can be. He was cooing and laughing to himself for over a half hour! I figured he probably wasn't tired afterall and went to go get him up!

This is much, MUCH improved from the last 2 weeks. He went through this really weird phase where he fussed and cried and we'd have to rock and sing him to sleep. I'm very glad that is done (although it will probably return at some time!) and would much rather take this happy content little guy! I can put him down for his naps awake and he'll settle himself right to sleep. The nighttime sleeping is pretty inconsistent still. Some nights (like 2 nights ago) he will wake up literally every hour for some unexplained reason, but last night was more "normal" as of late and he have 3+ hour stretches all night. What a difference even that makes. Mom is coming tomorrow for the long weekend and I'm looking very forward to having her here again, it's so nice to have the help when Jay is so busy with seeding. Speaking of seeding, they are allllllllmost 50% done!

Beginning in June when Braden is 4 months old, more than likely weighs 14+ lbs and Jay is done seeding, we are going to implement the SleepEasy sleep training for Braden. He is already putting himself to sleep, but he needs to learn how to soothe himself. He used to be able to do it with thumb sucking, but for some reason it's like he's forgotten how to do that! It will be involve a bit of crying, which will no doubt be hard, but supposedly we'll have him sleeping better, hopefully through the night, within a week. I'll be sure to keep you updated on that!

ARRRRGHHHHH!!!!!

Well the house frustration continues. With all this snowing and blowing water is getting into our house because they won't come and just seal it up! It's ruining things that Jay has done inside the house and we are sick to death of having to rely on Jay West to finish their stuff. Now our kitchen guy called all ready to install our cabinets as they have arrived....alas we cannot! We can't even store them in the house yet. Jay has almost all the insulation done, but we can't even start drywalling yet because we just keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the siders to show up. We don't even care if the siding gets done, we just want the house sealed up. So here's a couple of pictures:

Kitchen insulated.

I have some really cute pictures of Braden, but since we don't have our laptop back yet, they aren't edited so I can't post them! He's been sleeping better the last 2 nights, finally! And also napping well the last 2 days. One of my best buys at the baby items sale last weekend was a Fisher Price Aquarium, so I thought I would try it out for Braden today for his morning nap. It worked! He wasn't quite settled, so I put the aquarium in his playpen and within 10 minutes he had lulled off to sleep! I have heard great things about it from Katie, she used them with her twins, and we also had them kicking around when I worked at the Stollery. Awesome! If the weather smartens up and Braden doesn't sleep deprive me the rest of the week, I might head up to Edmonton. Well, that's about all for now!