Yeah, it's been awhile. So long that I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just start from the beginning:
1. Jason is now 3.5 months old! He's grabbing his toes, babbling, lifting his head while doing tummy time, and sitting up with only a little bit of support. It's amazing how much he's grown in the past month. I'm amazed to see him doing something new every week. He's so much more alert and oh, so curious, wanting to look at every little thing. Never in a million years would I have imagined that he'd grow up this fast.
2. BUT, there is a downside and that is sleep...The baby that used to only awake one time a night for a feed is now a sleep monster! I think we're in what the internet and the boards call the 4-Month Sleep Regression. He now wakes up 2-3 times between 7pm and 9pm and then wakes up at least 2 more times during the night for feeds. That is, if we're lucky he wakes up only 2 more times. If the stars are not aligned and the gods hate us, then we're looking at a wake up every hour. Anyone have any advice on this?
3. Sleep training...we're seriously considering doing sleep training. We were using the recommendations provided by the Baby Whisperer book and shh/patting to get him to sleep, but now he's beyond that and it really isn't working anymore. I would prefer having to resort to Ferberizing, but it may come down to that because he will not go back to sleep unless we pick him up and rock him for at least 5 minutes. Since I'm at home, I can do this 3-4 times per night, but once I have to go back to work, this isn't going to be feasible. Plus, my arms, wrists, and back are killing me.
4. Naps...let's not even get into that one. 30 minutes on the dot and he wakes up. Sometimes I can catch him right as he begins to stir and get him back to sleep, otherwise, forget about it. This is the same guy that used to sleep for 2+ hours for his naps. Oh, and did I mention that he only takes naps in his swing?
5. The next big thing we have to tackle is weaning him from the swaddle. We already tried going cold turkey and that did not work. The little guy was out of control...arms flailing, legs going every which way. It was almost comical watching him on the video monitor. Needless to say, he didn't get much sleep that night. So, I'm trying to nap him with only one arm in the swaddle, when I can actually get him to nap. I have a feeling this whole weaning process is going to take a long time.
6. And we're looking for a nanny. Not an easy process. We have a three interviews set up this week and we're hoping that one of them is a success. Two of the three responded to an ad I put in the local parents network forum and one of the three came with a recommendation from a parent. Crossing my fingers that we'll find a great nanny for Jason.
And, I could go on and on, but I won't. So for now, this is what has been consuming my life and rendering my unable to post regularly. I hope everyone is doing well and I send good sleep vibes to all....
Career Dream Come True and my Two Year Old
5 months ago
5 comments:
Sooz! So great to hear from you, it's been a while. It sounds like everything is going so well (sleep issues excepted!) I can't believe 3.5 months has already gone by...time is flying. Re: the nanny situation, one suggestion might be to see if there's a mother's group you can join in your area. I just joined one in my neighborhood and I swear every day people post about available nannies that they worked with and love. Just a thought. So happy everything is going well, and good luck with sleep training! Oh, and next time some pictures please!
3.5 months! Hope Jason's sleep issues get sorted out soon - it's so hard working through that. You would think that it would be getting easier! My sister has complaining about her 18 month old waking up at night! Good luck finding a great nanny for Jason. Keep us updated on what works for getting him to sleep on a better schedule :)
Wow! 3.5 months already...crazy! Great hearing from you!
It's already been 3.5 months? Crazy. I can comiserate with the nap situation, but don't have a good solution. We ended up toughing it out and as he's become more active, he's naturally gone to longer naps. FWIW, we didn't stop swaddling until he was breaking out of iton is own around 4 months, and then we would swaddle with both arms out. Then we started using sleep sacks a little while after that. Is there a reason to wean from the swaddle?
I hope you find a fantastic nanny! Good luck.
omg, i have tried 3x's now to post from my phone, only to lose the posts. i hate blogger! now i'm on a computer so hopefully this works now. sleep ... you know P has been the worst sleeper of all time. a month ago, we decided to try "extinction". put them baby down drowsy but awake and don't go back in until morning. this resulted in her sleeping in her puke for 3 nights straight but it worked. she quickly learned that we weren't coming to help, so she went from 5-10 wakeups per night to NONE. once in a while she wakes up and cries for a few minutes but gets herself back to sleep quickly. it's been 6 weeks now and we haven't gone in once to help her! AND 4 molars and 4 canines all came in in this time. i always thought this method was cruel and preferred ferber in the past, but turns out that me checking on her with ferber made her more upset bc i wouldn't pick her up. extinction worked in 3 days only (she stopped her puking) and it is still working!! with ferber, she would sleep well then as soon as soething bothered her, start her wakeups again. not with extinction.
re: swaddling. i'd wait to unswaddle J until you sleep train and do it all at once, cold turkey. otw it seems to be a drawn out process. we tried one arm out (fail), the other arm out (fail), starting swaddled then unswaddling later (fail) and every other variation possible. it was a nightmare. finally did cold turkey and got rid of swaddle and paci when we sleep trained her the first time and it worked!
are you going back to work? nore pics of J please. i can't believe it's been almost 4 months already.
i need to do a post soon. lots going on over here but i'm too lazy and busy to write but i should.
thinking of you! xoxo.
Post a Comment