2 months!

Ellison Jakeh is 2 months old.  Ok, and a week, but I kept forgetting to post this.  The weeks are flying, yet at the same time it feels like she’s been here forever!
Measuring
She growing good, that’s for sure.  I’ve packed away all the newborn and 0-3 clothes and her 3-6 months clothing fits great.  She’s also in size 2 diapers already.  At the doctor, she’s weighing in at 12 lbs, 6 oz (87th percentile)  and is 23.1 inches tall (80th percentile).  I thought these sounded huge, but looking back at Owen’s stats, she’s smaller in both ways than he was.   She got 2 shots, Pc and Hib at her well-baby appointment.  Dr. Melvin was fully on board with our delayed/refusal schedule. It just means I have to take her in every month instead of every other, which is harder with 2 kids, but worth it to me. Schedule
We’re definitely not on any definite time schedule yet, but she’s falling into a predictable routine that is somewhat helpful for planning our days.  She’s usually up for good at 7, eats, and is back down by 9.  And by down I mean in her swing.  That’s where she does almost all her naps.  I swore I would put her in her crib from day one.  Hahaha, eating my words.  Up by 10:30, eats, plays, down again around 12/12:30 just in time for me to Owen down.  She usually sleep for a good 3 hour chunk with maybe a quick wake to eat.  Love this as I can finally get something done take a nap.  Then we’re up again around 3.  Short cap nap around 5 or 6 and then it’s screaming for the rest of the night until bedtime around 10.  I will say that towards the end of this month, this has been getting better.  Looking forward to more wake time during the day which means earlier bedtime and me time again!  Sleeping:
Well, as you can see above in our schedule, she’s right on “track” with what her sleep should be looking like with about 4 naps a day.  Again, thank goodness for the swing.  I’ve been pretty lazy about swaddling her, so she’s turned into a side or stomach sleeper.  This would have scared me to death with Owen, but hey, if she’s sleeping good and I have my video monitor, I’m not as worried.  At night, she’s still snuggling in bed with me and has been giving me a 5 hour chunk at the beginning of the night!  And usually only nursing twice.  You go girl.    Feeding
What, you mean she’s not supposed to be eating solids in her highchair yet?  Just kidding.  She’s a great nurser.  And she should be great at it, since she does it ALL THE TIME.  She’s still refusing anything that resembles a pacifier unless it’s my boob.   And since she’s really fussy in the evenings, she’s nurses pretty much all evening until she’s out for bedtime.  While I do love nursing, I look forward to having some me-time back eventually.
Pooping
Where did all the poop go?  Owen’s pooped slowed down around this time too.  It’s nice to be able to look back at blogs about him to know that it's ok!   I was so worried about his little system.  With her, I’m just enjoying the every other day blow out and try to help her out by doing bicycle and tummy time legs to get the gas out. Little milestones
She's moving her head to follow sounds and people and she'll follow me with her eyes and head around the room.  She's reaching out to grab things with both hands and is enjoying her activity mat more.  She also is getting interested in watching toys that you hold up for her.  She’s smiling!   Lots!  So adorable.  I hope she keeps it up as it’s fun to get a different reaction than just a stare or frown.  Just staring to hear some cooing and other sweet noises from her! More about Ellie
I’m still not sure what color her eyes are going to be.  They definitely look more blue than Owen’s ever did but still need a bit more time for us to say for sure.  She ALWAYS has bubbles and drool coming out of her mouth.  And she’s much more of a puker.  Owen never did this, so it’s strange always having to keep a burp rag handy.  We also call her squeaks, because this girl is LOUD!  Her nose always sounds like it’s stuffed up, even after the booger sucker has helped.  And there’s no being discrete about nursing, because she slurps and snorts while eating. :)

Me:
I had my post partum check up with Ellen  It was great to see her again.  I took her a birth announcement and a little Starbucks giftcard since she has to stay up all night when she’s on call. :)   I got a prescription for the mini pill which is what I did after Owen.  Still haven’t decided when and if I’m going to start it.  We are losing our insurance next month (a long story for another post) so I really can’t get pregnant.  Although with the amount this girl is nursing, I think it’s be pretty hard to do that right now!
Here's a few more pictures of my darling girl: I love you so much sweet girl.  It feels like you’ve always been a part of this family and I can’t wait to do more life with you!

sleep training update

Just thought I'd update on how our sleep training is going. For the record, I will say that I'm more exhausted doing this than I ever was on my lack of sleep. But I know it's worth it in the end. If you ever do this, just be prepared to 1) cry yourself, 2) almost give up, 3) have a very sore back (from all the pick up/put downs as they're called), and 4) eventually fall asleep on the floor of the nursery.

I've kept explicit notes the last 4 days and plan on doing so for the next 2 weeks just so I can get a really good picture of this kid and his patterns. I made a log in excel created. (side note: why does Google docs turn everything into ugliness?) Anywhoo. Check out the binder that now holds all of these said logs:
Day #1 - Saturday
On our very first attempt at a nap on Saturday morning, I prayed and then geared up for a long haul. And it was. It took over and hour and 35+ pick up, put downs. I shhhed him and also repeated over and over "mommy loves you but it's time for you to go to sleep." His longest nap was still only 45 minutes though. Already by bedtime that night, the number of pu/pd was down to 3! He went to bed at 7:30. I tried to wake him for a dreamfeed, but couldn't get him to wake up. He woke to eat at 1am, 4:50, and then was "talking" in his crib at 6:05. I let him stay there until he got grumpy at 6:25 and then got him up for the day. Total sleep time for the day=14.4 hours.

Day #2 - Sunday
This day was kinda hit or miss with success. His second nap of the day was 45 minutes, but I went back in and did 2 pu/pd and he fell back asleep for another 45 minutes! That was his first nap of more than 40 minutes. But then I let him stay awake too long and had to do tons of pu/pd for his next nap in order for him to settle down. I was really nervous all day about taking him to small group because of all the work we had done in the 2 days. I'm realizing how many decisions parents have to make about what is best for them vs. best for baby. We decided that small group needs to be a priority for us (yeah Jesus) so we would deal with the ramifications of sleep later. I'm so glad we went (more on that in a later post). It was an awesome time and Owen took a short cap nap, but was not grouchy at all. He fell asleep on the car ride home and then after eating went back to sleep around 10ish. Total sleep time for the day=11.7. :(

Day #3 - Monday
Monday we started working on extending naps. The Baby Whisperer has 2 main solutions for doing this. Her basic premise is that our human sleep cycles are about 45 minutes. Most babies who are short nappers can't transition from the first to the second sleep cycle without waking themselves up. So, her first solution is called Hold Through the Jolts (httj). This means that I got in a few minutes before he usually wakes himself up and apply soft pressure to his arms and legs. This prevents him from jolting which is what usually wakes him up. You can release when his breathing has calmed down and for Owen, when his hands stop moving. The other strategy that we did today was called Wake to Sleep. A few minutes before he usually wakes up I go into his room and gently stir him. For us, that means rubbing his cheek. What this does is re-start his sleep cycle. I also hold with this one. If he becomes fully awake, then you have to go back to the pick up/put down which usually means another 20 minutes. Total sleep time for the day=15.9 hours!

Day #4 - Today
This morning he got up for good at 6:45 (still working on extending that to 7 or 7:30) and I watched the clock like a hawk. I'm learning that 1h15 min is the optimal time for him to be awake first thing in the morning. Then we did our wind down routine (turn lights low, 2 books, sing Jesus Loves Me, give him a kiss and lay him down. What did he do. . .rolled on his side and went to sleep. I had to do 0 (yes that's a zero) pick ups/put downs and even though I stayed in there 10 extra minutes, I didn't even need to hold his arms through any jolts. And for his second nap, after I held him through a few jolts, he slept for 1 1/2 hours and got up happy ready to take pictures with Auntie Jenna.

Thank you Jesus. I feel empowered and am so thankful that my little man is going to start getting the sleep his body needs! I know that there is a regression coming (I've been warned around day 6) but I'm ready. This is working!

I think we may be onto something

First night of sleep training:

7:35 - Owen asleep
9:40 - tried to dreamfeed, but he never woke up enough to eat so I just laid him back down and then went to bed myself
1:03 - woke up and ate
4:50 - woke up an ate
6:15 - babbled in crib and got up for the morning at 6:30

Who is this kid? Count them: I got almost 8 hours of sleep with basically 2 interruptions. And he's back down now for a nap (we're being bad and missing church today since we're going to small group tonight and I didn't want to totally screw him up.)

So far I'm a believer.

sleep, or lack thereof

This week, I'm thankful this week that I'm a quick reader. And by quick I mean that I've plowed through about 11 books on sleep. They range from Babywise, Great Sleep Habits Happy Baby, SleepEasy, The No-Cry Sleep Solution, The No-Cry Nap Solution, Good Night Sleep Tight, Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old, and a few more. No area has caused me more grief over what to do than sleep. I feel really good about most other things about parenting, but with such varying beliefs about sleep training and the like, I feel like I was drowning in everyone else's opinions... even those people who don't have kids yet. Before Owen arrived I full believed in crying it out. And then I tried it once and about died listening to my little man's screams. He cried so hard he threw up. So that was out.

But he doesn't sleep. And now that we're going on 100 days of not getting more than a 3-4 hour chunk of sleep, you can tell why I'm feeling desperate. And when logging his naps, he's only getting about 1/2 the sleep most of the books says he needs. He wakes up groggy, with rings under his eyes and overall, he's just not a super happy kid because he's always fighting sleep.

But I still really believe in not being a "baby-led" household. NO offense whatsoever if this is more your philosophy. One of the biggest things I'm learning as a mom is that you know your kid and your personality as a mom the best. So do what works for YOU and never apologize for that! Sorry, I digress.

So after my months of research, I think the book after my own heart is The Baby Whisperer. I've actually only read her handbook called The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems By Teaching You to Ask the Right Questions.
I know, obnoxiously long name. She's not a sleep doctor and she's from England so when I read it, I picture the Super Nanny reading it to me with an accent. :) Now I read the book in one sitting, so now I'm going back and re-reading and scouring the forums at www.babywhispererforums.com. Her main approach is using the EASY (eat, awake, sleep, you) approach. And since we've already followed that routine from day 1, this book makes sense to me.

Here are my 3 main goals of "sleep training":

1. Owen will be able to lay down for a nap or bedtime without the 20-30 minutes of rocking/walking that we've been doing.


2. Owen will extend his naps from one sleep cycle (45 minutes) to 2 sleep cycles (1 1/2 hours)


3. Owen will sleep for a 4-5 hour chunk at night and then be able to go back to sleep. Also, Owen will only need 2-3 feeds at night, instead of the 6 he wants right now.

We jumped in headfirst today even though I don't know exactly what I'm doing. While it's much more involved than this, here is what the basic premise is for going to sleep. She says to have a wind down routine and then kiss and put your baby down. If he starts crying pick him back up, pat and shh until he calms down. The minute he calms, lay him back down in the crib. Even if the minute he leaves your shoulder, he starts crying lay him all the way to mattress before picking him back up. Also keep a hand on him at all time and talk softly (I repeatedly said "Mama loves you, it's time to go to sleep.") Repeat until asleep. That is way oversimplifying things, but that's the general jist I used today. I felt like it was a good middle ground approach.

Our first nap, I was in his room for about an hour. I picked him up and put him down about 30 times. But the second nap, I picked him up 4 times. And for bedtime tonight, I picked him up once before he turned on his side and went to sleep. She recommends staying with him for 10 minutes repeating your phrase to be sure he's truly asleep. While it was an exhausting day, I think I'm going to stick with this. She's got some good strategies to extend naps which is what we'll start to tackle next. I've canceled many of my normal activities this week so we can really focus on this. I'll keep you posted on the results and if I would recommend this method to any other sleep deprived momma.

being organzied

I'm learning quickly that I love schedules and being organized when it comes to Owen. I know, shocker right? Summer made fun of the clipboard I was using when she came over, but it was what I lived by those first few days. I loved knowing when he ate, what side, and what kind of poops he was producing. Here's a link to the chart I made. It didn't save the cute clipart or fonts. Ohh well.

But now, I live my the IPhone app called Total Baby. It does quite a few things, but I mostly use it for keeping track of nursing. You can export all the data to Excel then. I do love my spreadsheets. :) My dad wondered out loud how they raised kids without IPhones since I use it for games, Facebook, and email while nursing, playing songs to Owen, and use this app for every feeding. Love it!