Mom & Baby: 8 Months

Kevin Troy III is 8 months old! This month was full of exciting things and new developments, so this will be a long one. I feel like he is all of a sudden changing in a lot of ways. It is awesome and scary at the same time! Time is passing so quickly!

Baby

We weighed him with our baby scale when he turned 8 months about a week ago and he was over 18 pounds. He is really packing on the weight recently! There are no weight issues whatsoever anymore! He is in mostly all 6-9 month clothing but still has a few 3-6 month jackets and onesies that fit him. He has graduated to size 3 disposables at night and when we are traveling, and is still in cloth diapers the rest of the time.

Here are the monthly comparison shots: 1 month to 8 months.

                              

                              

This boy LOVES to eat! And he has become an expert at feeding himself. He has even developed his pincer grip, using his index finger and thumb to pick up small pieces of food and puffs. He is super independent and doesn’t like to be fed by me. He would rather do it himself.

He tried a lot more new foods this month, like blueberries, apricot, pumpkin, raspberries, brown rice, pomegranate, white beans, lentils, acorn squash, green beans, egg yolk, toast, and puffs. We have gotten a lot more relaxed about introducing new foods. I have given him bites of my food if we are out to dinner and things like that. The only foods he has reacted badly to was yogurt, which he projectile vomited back up, and cinnamon, which gave him a little contact rash around his mouth. I read that some babies get this because of the grittiness of it rubbing his skin, but he really likes cinnamon and has no other issues with it.

 

He’s now eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I offer him snacks throughout the day as well. He has a BIG appetite and is also still nursing and/or drinking bottles 6-7 times a day.

Eating a Baby Mum Mum snack at daddy’s baseball game

Sometimes he gets lazy and instead of picking the food up, he will put his face right down to his tray and try to pick it up with his mouth! Silly baby! But it’s really funny to watch.

Kevin has become a master at sitting unassisted. He rarely falls over anymore and I can tell his core and back muscles are getting stronger. If he does fall over it is because he gets himself too excited and bounces all over the place

Still no crawling going on over here… I am wondering if and when that will happen, because he seems very content to just roll around the room to get to where he wants to be. It is so funny to watch him. He gets his sight on a toy or something across the room and rolls his way over to it. He will get on his tummy and push up with his arms, but doesn’t know what to do with his legs yet.

 

Sleep is going AMAZINGLY well. I wrote about our sleep training journey in more detail (Part 1 & Part 2), but he is doing awesome. This weekend we traveled back to Pennsylvania and he once again slept through the entire night in the crib at my dad’s house. We had a wedding last Saturday night and he fell asleep at my sister’s house, slept straight through getting put into the car seat, the car ride, getting out of the carseat and into his crib. I’m glad that he’s still sleeping so well despite the interruptions in his normal routine.

Happy baby when I went to get him in the morning

He sleeps so well that now he falls asleep for naps everywhere and in strange positions. This includes bent over like a pretzel on daddy’s legs, in his exersaucer with his head pressing on a button that was playing loud music, and in mommy and daddy’s bed while playing.

 

He looks so big in this picture!

Probably the biggest development this month is that we now have TWO teeth! He has been “teething” for months now- tons of drool, swollen gums, congestion and a constant runny nose, gnawing on everything, fussiness- and then one day he was nursing and I felt something sharp as he clamped down on me (OUCH). I looked in his mouth and there it was! A little white tooth that had just broken through. A week later another one broke through, so now he has his two bottom teeth! The days and nights before they came through he was super cranky, didn’t have much of an appetite, and slept horribly. So I’m not really looking forward to when he gets the rest of them!

We have been trying to teach him not to bite, because that is what he wants to do to everything he can get his hands on. And those babies are SHARP!

Brushing my teeth!

At the beginning of the month we had a little issue when he developed a little bump on his bottom that turned into a staph infection. Our babysitter noticed it got worse and took him to the pediatrician for us. Thankfully it wasn’t MRSA or anything like that, and it cleared up quickly with cream and antibiotics and he wasn’t fazed at all by it. We think it happened because we took a long road trip to West Virginia where he was sleeping in the car seat for awhile and developed a little sore. I felt really guilty, but it ended up being fine.

Road Trip!

Everyone says that Kevin has such a great temperament, and it’s really true. He is in a good mood most of the time, and always smiling. He has no fear of strangers and will laugh and coo and smile at anyone who gives him attention. Basically he is a little ham

Baby boy has been babbling like crazy! He is constantly making noise. His favorite things to say are yayayaya, mamama, and dadadada. Although he doesn’t know what he is saying. Sometimes he says “mmmmm” when he is eating. I don’t know if he is copying us or what, but it’s really cute.

Another new skill that he started is CLAPPING! It was the cutest thing, we were at my friends rehearsal dinner and I kept putting puffs in front of him for him to pick up and eat. I noticed he was doing this thing with his hands every time he fed himself one. Eventually I realized he was clapping! I figured it out because he wouldn’t do it if he dropped one on the ground, only if he actually made it into his mouth. He was so proud of himself!

This boy loves his daddy so much, and I love seeing the special bond they have. Kevin does a lot of the nighttime routine, including the baby and baby massage. The baby has learned to expect these things and gets so excited when he sees Kevin get the bottle of lotion. He also squeals and smiles when daddy comes home from work. It is so, so, SO adorable!

    

Lastly, one of baby’s favorite things is being outside. He loves the sun and the fresh air. He looks around in wonder at everything and is captivated by people, animals, trees, everything! He still loves the stroller but now he also is loving going in the bucket swings. I can’t believe he is big enough to go in there!

Kevin and his cousin Austin at a baseball game

Body

I’m feeling pretty good about myself lately. I’m still right around my pre-pregnancy weight of 130 and wearing pretty much all of my old clothes. I was in one of my best friend’s weddings last weekend and actually felt beautiful for the first time in a long while. It has been a long time since I got all dressed up and did things like get my nails, hair and makeup done. Then I went to go pump every 3 hours on wedding day and was reminded that I am, in fact, a mommy

I think once I get back into strength training more consistently I will feel even better. I definitely need to tone and tighten up some areas. I have regained some strength back in my arms, probably from carting around my 18 pound baby!

Breastfeeding is going well and my supply is still going strong. Kevin gets about one or two bottles of formula a day and the rest is all me. I’m still taking the Domperidone and by now I should be able to wean myself off of it, but I’m scared it will affect my supply so I haven’t yet.

I am finally in a place where I am excited about running again! After the Nike Women’s Half, I was re-energized and ready to get back into it. And I have! I’ve been running 3 times a week and feeling amazing because of it. I have still been running a race a month (or more) and next up is a 5K on Memorial Day. I’m working on getting my endurance back and my speed is still lacking these days, so I don’t expect anything great time-wise. That’s fine though- I’m just happy to be back out there.

Mind

I am in a really great place mentally and emotionally. The school year is winding down, and I’m enjoying motherhood SO MUCH lately. I also was able to celebrate my first Mothers Day on the same day that Kevin turned 8 months old!

The only issue that I have had to deal with this month is watching many of my friends and coworkers make the decision to stay at home with their babies. This is something I wish I could do with all of my heart, but it is not possible for us financially. I had accepted this and moved on from it a couple of months ago, until it seemed like everyone around me was making announcements that they were quitting their jobs and staying home. It’s been tough, but I know  that I am lucky to have summers off and good holiday breaks as a teacher, so I keep reminding myself of that. Plus, my job provides us with good benefits and allows us to save money for Kevin’s future, fun family trips, and lets us live comfortably. I try to look at the positive side.

I love this little face so much!

This month was extra special because we got to see a lot of family that we hadn’t seen in a while. We took a trip to West Virginia to visit Kevin’s grandfather, who hadn’t met the baby yet, and some other family. We also went home to Pennsylvania TWO times, where Kevin got to spend some time with his Poppy (my dad) and his Aunt Lauren.

With his Papaw

With his cousins Jordan, Jayda, and Jasmine

With Aunt Lauren

Remember my aunt Sacha? She’s the one who flew across the country from Oregon when my water broke to try to make it for Kevin’s birth- she missed it by 2 hours! Then she spent a week with us when he was 2 weeks old. She hadn’t seen him since then and came for a visit this month. It was so great to see her and for Kevin to spend some time with his Oma (which is what she wants to be called). She is my mom’s sister, so we have a special relationship and she has been like a mother to me since my mom passed away. It was great to see her and it made me really happy!

Exploring DC with Oma

While she was here she babysat Kevin and let us go out on a date. We went to the Arlington Mystery Dinner Theater, which has become an annual tradition since Kevin proposed to me there in 2010. This was our fourth year going, and it is always a lot of fun. Plus we hadn’t been out on a date since Valentine’s Day, so it was really nice to spend some alone time with my hubby. We had another date when we went out the next weekend for my friend’s wedding and my sister babysat. It feels strange to do things just the two of us, but it’s so good for our marriage!

We love you Kevin! Can’t wait to see what month 9 brings!

Previous Post Partum posts:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8
• 3 Months
• 4 Months
• 5 Months
• 6 Months
• 7 Months

Adventures in Sleep Training, Part 2

It has been a full month since we first started “sleep training.” In my first update we were two weeks in, and while things had improved, they were still pretty inconsistent and messy. I am happy to report that things are SO much better now.

Here’s a snapshot of last night, which was a pretty typical night for us these days: After our bedtime routine (bath, baby massage, PJs, nurse, put down in dark room with sound machine running), baby gets put down at 7:45 p.m. He doesn’t cry and falls right asleep. He sleeps soundly until 5:30 a.m. I change his diaper, feed him, and put him back down at 5:55. He whined for a few seconds and then fell back asleep until 7:35. YES!

The Good

• He goes down every night between 7:15 and 8:00 and falls right asleep. If he cries (very rare now) it’s for less than a minute.
• He hardly ever wakes up in the middle of the night anymore. The only time he was up and crying a few times during the night was the week that both of his two bottom teeth broke through.
• If he does wake up during a light sleep cycle or something, he will roll around, maybe whine softly, and then falls back asleep (except when he was teething- then he screamed and was inconsolable)
• He is not as sensitive to wet/dirty diapers. He won’t wake up and cry if he pees or poops and is fine until I change him in the morning.
• Most nights he does wake up between 4:00-5:30 a.m. and I feed him and put him back down. I really don’t mind doing this because he has been going back down much easier than before. Most of the time he will go back to sleep for another hour or two, waking up for the day between 6:15 and 7:30. There are some nights he sleeps straight through, so I think he will phase this feeding out soon.
• He is handling traveling better. He slept in a crib at my dad’s house and in my sister’s bed at her house and did fine sleeping through the night.
• He is waking up HAPPY! It’s the best!

Happy baby when I went to get him in the morning

The Bad

• Naps. They aren’t really bad or good, they’re just not consistent. We are becoming more aware of his signals that it’s time for a nap, and paying attention to how much wake time he has had since his last one. He takes 2-3 naps a day but the times vary, and sometimes they are 30 minutes long, other times they are 2 hours long. We’re working on it, but it’s definitely our weakest area right now. Right now we are also getting him used to napping in his crib, rather than the swing, the lounger, or on one of us. I am going to focus on all of this more once I’m home with him this summer and have more control over his daytime sleeping.

The Ugly

• Teething. Oh my god. That is all. It threw everything off. But luckily once the teeth broke through he was back to his normal sleeping habits. I’m scared for the rest of them!

He loves his taggie blanket, which has become his sleep “lovey”

I can’t really say that we did anything different since my last update. We just stayed consistent with everything we were doing and I think it just finally “clicked” for him. I am really happy with the way we approached sleep training. We wanted a gentler approach and while it did take longer than total extinction CIO methods, we were patient and it all paid off (so far). Let’s hope the rest of his teeth don’t mess this beautiful sleep up!

Mothers Day as a Mother

This is the first time in 9 years I have felt happy on Mothers Day. I’ve written many times before about how I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer in 2004 when I was 17 years old. Last year on this day I was 20 weeks pregnant, and while I knew I was technically a ‘mother’ already, I still felt more sadness than excitement about the holiday.

I obviously still miss my mom so much, and I think of her daily. I wish she could be here to experience Kevin’s milestones and see him growing up. I wish I could ask her a million questions. I wish I could see what she would be like as a grandma. But even though I still have these feelings, this Mothers Day feels different than the last nine that I have had without her. Because now I am a mother myself, to this beautiful, amazing little boy.

I finally have something to celebrate on Mothers Day, after mourning for 9 years. This does not mean I have moved on and forgotten about my mom at all. I will continue to think of her every single Mothers Day. But I realized today that she has been still living through me in the last 8 months. I’ve been taking what I learned from her in the 17 years that I had with her, and using it to be a mommy to my own child. Realizing this has helped me finally find peace and some closure.

I don’t know if I will ever be the kind of mother my mom was for my sister and me. But I’m going to try my best to keep her living through the way that I parent my children. What I remember most about my mom was how she treated us with respect and unconditional love. She was selfless, and always offered us encouragement and support in whatever we were pursuing. These are characteristics I have tried to embody and that I will remember for the rest of my life as a mother.

To celebrate my first real Mothers Day I spent the day with my two boys. We traveled back to Virginia from Pennsylvania, and Kevin drove which allowed me to take a nice long nap in the car. When we got home he gave me an adorable card that the baby “signed” and the new Mother bead from Pandora. I died when I saw the baby’s signature. It was so cute. Kevin took over baby duty and let me go on a wonderful 7 mile run. I felt great and it gave me time to reflect on everything I have written in this blog post.

When I got back I stretched on the floor and played with the baby (who turned 8 months old today!), while Kevin went to go get take-out from my favorite Japanese restaurant.

After I feasted on edamame, miso soup, salad, sushi, and vegetable teppanyaki, we gave the baby a bath and put him to bed. Then Kevin let me relax while he did laundry and dishes. It was a wonderful day

Happy Mothers Day to all of the amazing mothers out there, including my own.

Nike Women Half Marathon DC

A little over a month ago after the Rock & Roll DC Half I swore off big, corporate races. Then I ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon DC and was reminded that it is possible to do it right. I LOVED this race. It was exactly what I needed to get excited about running and racing again.

I entered the lottery for this race back in November along with my friend Danielle. Danielle got into running last summer and she was hoping to make the Nike Women’s Half her first half marathon. We were so excited when we were both picked in December. But she was also very nervous, so I promised her I would run the whole thing with her. I’ve run with a few friends in their first half marathons, and nothing makes me happier than to help them accomplish their goals. Plus, the finisher’s medal for this race was a Tiffany’s necklace! I couldn’t wait!

Danielle, Kevin, Baby K and I all headed to the “Expotique” in Georgetown on Saturday afternoon. I have to admit that I didn’t have the best first impression of the race at this point. Traffic was crazy getting into the area, and it seemed like an odd and crowded place to hold an expo for 15,000 people. Then we went down to where the expo was located and we saw a HUGE line of women waiting to get in. We somehow found the end of the line and waited 45 minutes just to get through the line and to the big tent where we could pick up our bibs. It was hot and we weren’t prepared to wait outside with the baby for that long.

Luckily once we got to the tent my opinion changed. I was happy to be there and determined to enjoy the experience. We picked up our bibs and headed to the second tent where the expo was being held.

The expo was unlike any other expo I have been to before. It was small, only featured a few outside vendors, and was mostly based around the Nike company. But I thought it was awesome. It was really interactive and entertaining, and a nice change from the other expos I have been to recently.

           

Nike had a lot of cool giveaway opportunities, like this card that you could swipe at different locations to see if you won a free pair of shoes. They also gave away cute bracelets.

There was a lot to look at, like this cool course map and a huge wall you could sign.

       

I thought it was cool how they took over Georgetown, with running signs everywhere!

Even with all the women, there were a couple of my favorite boys there

I left the expo very excited for the race. We went home, ate dinner, and I went to bed feeling relaxed. I was loving that this race was all about Danielle and not about me. I was focused on helping her get to the finish line, not stressed about getting a PR for once. That felt good.

I woke up at 4 a.m. the next day to get ready to run. I got dressed in my blue and yellow for Boston, ate my oatmeal, drank my coffee, and woke up the baby to get ready to go.

We left the house at 5:00 to head north to pick up Danielle. We decided to drive into DC this time rather than take metro, thinking that it would be easier since this was a smaller race. We were right. We arrived at 6:00 a.m., one hour before the race start. There was no traffic and we were dropped off right at the start. Kevin was able to find parking a block away. Perfect!

Danielle and I walked around the start area, taking pictures at all the places they had set up, used the porta potties which had NO line, sipped on cups of water and Nuun that they had set up, and got EXCITED!

Eventually, it was time to say goodbye to Kevin and get into our corral. I’m not going to lie, I was more than a little nervous about leaving them at the start/finish area, thinking about what had happened at Boston. But I knew there was increased security including bomb sniffing dogs, so I felt better. It’s still ridiculous that there needs to be bomb sniffing dogs at a race, but I guess that is what it’s come to.

We listened to the National Anthem and had a moment of silence for Boston. I could see Shalane Flanagan and Joan Benoit Samuelson up there and it was awesome.

Right on time, we were off and running!

15,000 women (and some men too!) on the streets of D.C.!

I have to say that from start to finish this race was just enjoyable. Even though the beginning was crowded and my knee hurt a little bit, I was loving the course, being with Danielle, and feeding off the energy from all the women.

It was just FUN. Nike did a great job designing the course, which went through the National Mall and around there before heading out to Hains Point along the Tidal Basin and back. It was unlike many of the other races I have done in D.C. recently and I really liked it.

Nike did a great job of planning entertainment in strategic places. They had music from speakers and live bands, including some awesome marching bands, all along the course. They also hung tons of motivational posters.

You know I loved this one! We run inspired!

When we were running the long out and back portion of the race, these posters were hung every 10 yards or so. Each one said something different. It was very entertaining and kept our mind off of the long out & back we were running.

Danielle did AWESOME. I’m not going to post splits and things like that, because that’s not what this race was about. It was about her dominating her first half marathon and us enjoying the experience together.

Mile 4.5 and feeling strong!

She really underestimated her training. She had told me that she hadn’t really been running much and when she did she was stopping to walk a lot. The longest she had run in her training was 8 miles. She ended up blowing me away by not needing to stop and walk at all, except for a few seconds through water stations. She kept setting goals for herself, like no walking until the halfway point. When the halfway point came she didn’t want to walk and kept pushing on. I was so proud of her!

Mile 8.5!

There did come a point where she walked a little bit up a hill, but before the hill was even over she started up again. I was amazed at her strength and determination. She kept telling me she was thinking of her grandfather, who passed away last year, and that kept her going. What was really awesome was that we passed the 10 mile mark TWENTY MINUTES faster than she had run the Army 10 miler last October. That is huge!

Mile 11.5 and smiling!

All of a sudden we were back near the Capitol Building and I knew we were close to the end. The course had us run right by the finish line around mile 11 which was a little torturous, but I knew we only had to run down to the capitol, run a big square, and then make our way back to the finish.

Danielle was DONE at this point. Truthfully, I was too because my knee was killing me. I kept reminding her that soon she would be finishing her first half marathon, our boys were waiting for us, and so were our necklaces!

I let Danielle go ahead and I stayed back to capture her crossing the finish line. She finished in 2:38:03 and I was a few seconds behind her. She had predicted that she would finish around 3 hours so we were so shocked at her amazing time!

We went through the line and got our little blue box, along with our finishers shirts and some food. We put it all into little blue Tiffany’s bags and met up with our boys.

I am so proud of Danielle. It’s been great to see her journey into running and watch her accomplish her goals. I feel special that I was able to share this experience with her, and I can’t wait until we run the next one- The Divas Half in September!

This race was a good reminder for me about what races should be like. They are supposed to be fun and a celebration of this hobby I love so much. I think I had lost that mentality recently, and I’m SO glad to have it back. Since this race 2 weeks ago I have had more motivation to get out and run than I have in the last 6 months. I’M BACK!!!

Day in the Life with a 7 Month Old

Here is a 24 hour snapshot of what life is like for us at 7 months old. I took these pictures on Wednesday, April 24th. It was a typical work day and we were in the middle of sleep training, so it looks much different than the last DITL post when I was on Spring Break!

5:30 a.m. Alarm goes off. I get up, shower, and get ready for the day. I also pump. Now that Kevin wakes up later and sleeps longer at night I need it to pump right when I wake up.

6:15 a.m. I finish getting ready and head downstairs. Kevin’s already down there making lunches and breakfast for both of us. Today I have cereal with blueberries and almond milk.

6:27 a.m. I hear the baby wake up on the monitor, a little earlier than usual. Daddy goes up to get him and play for a few minutes before he leaves for work.

6:45 a.m. Daddy’s gone, so I change the baby’s diaper and feed him a 6 oz. bottle of the milk I pumped earlier that morning.

7:00 a.m. I put Kevin in the exersaucer while I clean spit up off my dress and drink coffee

7:10 a.m. Breakfast time for baby! He eats apple cinnamon oatmeal and loves it.

7:25 a.m. We go upstairs to clean the baby up and get him dressed for the day.

7:30 a.m. My babysitter arrives and we chat for a few minutes. Then I somehow drag myself away from this cute face to go to work.

7:35 – 8:05 a.m. Drive to work. There is traffic and I’m 5 minutes late for a meeting. Ugh.

8:05 – 8:45 a.m. Meeting 

8:45 – 10:00 a.m. Teaching

10:00 – 10:45 a.m. Planning period. I had to pump during this time since I had a meeting before school and  couldn’t pump before kids arrive like usual. I don’t like doing this because it messes with the timing of my regular pumping sessions and causes me to pump a little less overall.

10:45 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. Teaching

12:20 – 12:50 p.m. Lunch and another pump session

12:50 – 3:30 p.m. Recess then more teaching

3:30 p.m. I eat a snack, take care of some things at work, pump one last time, and then I’m out of there.

4:10 p.m. Leave work. Sit in traffic. Boo!

5:05 p.m. Finally make it home and our babysitter is in the middle of giving Kevin his bottle so I take over. I’m SO happy to see him!

5:15 p.m. Baby finishes eating and we play together on the floor for a little while. After being apart from him all day this is one of my favorite things to do when I get home.

6:00 p.m. Dinner time for baby! He is having pumpkin and banana. It was his first time trying pumpkin and he liked it! He devoured the whole pouch fast!

6:15 p.m. Kevin gets home with dinner from our favorite Mexican restaurant. He goes to work early now (7-3) because he coaches middle school baseball from 3-5.  He loves it, but it makes his days really long. We decided to get dinner out tonight because we had no groceries and no motivation to cook. I got cheese and onion enchiladas with vegetarian refried beans and rice… and ate it all! My appetite is  out of control lately. Also, baby is tolerating dairy fine when I eat it these days. YAY for cheese!!! While we eat, baby munches on a Baby Mum Mum cracker. He loves them.

6:45 p.m. Kevin takes the baby upstairs for a bath and I run downstairs to put the cloth diapers in the wash.

7:00 p.m. Bath is done, now time for daddy’s special baby massage! Followed by a fresh diaper and PJs.

7:05 p.m. I fed baby a little 2 oz. bottle of formula, then nursed him. I do this to make sure he’s full before going to sleep with the hope that he will sleep longer.

7:23 p.m. He’s starting to fall asleep after he finishes eating, so I quickly put him down in his crib. He didn’t cry at all and fell right asleep.

7:30 p.m. I go downstairs to add detergent to the washing machine, then make bottles for the next day. I pumped almost 12 ounces between my 3 sessions at work. Big difference from only 7 weeks ago when I was only pumping 4 oz. total at work!

7:50 – 8:35 p.m. My friend Cynthia calls and we talk for a while. As we are talking I sanitize the parts to my new manual breast pump and clean up the house. I bought this pump for times that I can’t have easy access to my electric one (in a car, before/after a race, etc.)

8:40 p.m. After I hang up with Cynthia, Kevin and I start to watch Survivor.

8:49 – 8:51 p.m. Baby cries softly and then falls back asleep.

8:52 p.m. I run downstairs to put the diapers in the dryer. Then we continue watching Survivor.

9:35 p.m. We go upstairs to get ready for bed.

9:50 p.m. I pump 3.5 ounces before going to sleep and make fun of Kevin, who is wearing a sleep mask since I keep the light on while I pump.

10:00 p.m. – 5:00 a.m. SLEEP! Without any wake-ups from the baby! I woke up SUPER full and leaking, so I pump and get 7.5 ounces!

5:15 a.m. I get in the shower and the baby wakes up. Daddy feeds him a 6 ounce bottle of the milk I just pumped and changes his diaper.

5:35 a.m.  Daddy puts baby back down in his crib while I get myself ready for work. He cries lightly.

5:45 a.m.  Baby falls back asleep for a little while longer.

What was baby up to while I was at work? Here are the notes my babysitter wrote down for me from this day.

• 8:25 - Bottle (6 oz. breastmilk), diaper change
• 11:00 – 11:15 - Super short nap
• 11:15 - Bottle (6 oz. breastmilk), diaper change
• 11:30 – 12:00 - Playtime, happy, really doing well sitting up!
• 12:00 – 2:40 - Nap in swing, had a hard time falling asleep
• 3:00 - Bottle (5 oz. formula), diaper change
• 3:20 – 5:00 - Playtime
• 5:00 – Diaper change, Bottle (5 oz. formula) – this is the bottle I finished giving him.

24 Hour Totals (5:30 a.m. – 5:30 a.m.)

• # of feedings: 7 + 2 meals of solids (breakfast and dinner)
• # of diaper changes: 7
• # of outfit changes: 3 (in and out of PJs + the babysitter changed his outfit, not sure why)
• # of hours of sleep for mom: ~7 hours
• # of hours of sleep for baby: ~15 hours
• # of hours spent nursing: Only 15 minutes the joys of being a working mom.
• # of hours spent pumping: ~1 hour 45 minutes (6 sessions- 5:30 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:45 p.m. 9:50 p.m., 5:00 a.m.)
• # of formula ounces eaten: 12 ounces
• # of breast milk ounces eaten: 24 ounces in bottles + a little more directly from me

Previous “Day in the Life” posts:

• 2 weeks
• 2 months
• 3 months
• 4 months
• 5 months
• 6 months

Adventures in Sleep Training, Part 1

Before I had Kevin and in my first few months as a new mom, I never thought I would be one to ‘sleep train’ with crying methods. I had nothing against those who did, but it wasn’t really the style of parenting that I envisioned myself adopting. Listening to him cry broke my heart and I hated when it lasted more than a few minutes. Plus we practiced a lot of attachment parenting things like co-sleeping, breastfeeding and baby wearing, to name a few, and attachment parenting isn’t usually associated with letting babies ‘cry it out’ in order to learn to sleep.

Fast forward a few more months and Kevin is now 7 months old. He never really recovered from his 4 month sleep regression, and was still sleeping only 8-9 hours of fragmented sleep each night. He was VERY dependent on me for everything at night and became too attached. The only way he would sleep through the night was if he was in our bed with us. He wouldn’t take a pacifier anymore and only wanted to nurse to soothe himself. We all weren’t getting enough sleep, and my sleep deprivation started causing feelings of frustration, lack of energy at home and at work, and resentment towards my husband because I was the only one who could soothe the baby. I also knew that the baby should be sleeping 10-12 hours a night and I was worried that not sleeping enough would affect his health and development.

And with that, we decided enough was enough. It was time to sleep train. I wouldn’t change the way we did things in the beginning at all though. I love the bond that we developed and I think I set up a positive, loving and nurturing relationship between the baby and us, but once he hit 7 months I knew it was time to try some sleep training. I knew he was old enough to be able to handle it, and at this age he understood that when I left I would come back eventually so he wouldn’t think I was abandoning him. I did my research by reading the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, reading a few blogs by moms who had sleep trained, and talked to my mommy friends about what they did. I also love the My Baby Sleep Guide Website. Between all of these sources we developed our own ‘plan.’

I knew I couldn’t do the total extinction method where you are supposed to ignore all crying and never go into the room. I wanted a somewhat gentler approach, so we decided to do comfort checks, starting with every 5 minutes of hard crying. I knew it would take longer doing it this way rather than total extinction, but that was okay with us. If the baby calmed down or got quiet then started crying again, we would start the clock over. We planned to only rub the baby’s back, SHHH him, and tell him we love him during a comfort check- no picking him up. We would stay in the room for only 30 seconds then we would leave. We decided we would eventually increase the time from 5 minutes to 10, and so on.

In order to keep myself calm and confident I kept telling myself that all he’s ever known since he has been born is that when he cries we will come to him. He doesn’t know any differently because we’ve never done it any other way. I had to remind myself that we are teaching him an important lesson in how to self soothe and sleep. And that this is something he will need to know the rest of his life. The teacher in me understood this, but the mother in me still had a hard time at first. There were many tears shed the first few nights, But it got easier with time especially when we realized he was learning.

A quick summary: The first night we put him down (Sunday, April 14th), he cried for 18 minutes. Last night when we put him down he whined for about 5 seconds and then fell right asleep. He used to go to sleep around 9 p.m.- we were never successful at getting him to go to bed earlier than that- and he always woke for the day at 5 a.m, sometimes even earlier! Now, he goes to bed around 7:30 p.m. and wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m (except for a couple days where he woke up a little earlier). He went from getting 8-9 hours of sleep to 11-12 hours. Yeah!!!

Here are all my notes from the nights that we have sleep trained so far. It’s a lot of information, but I wanted to remember the details of what happened.

Night 1 (the most detailed of my notes!)

• 7:00 – did bedtime routine: bath (happy), massage (fussy), PJs, nursed (kept falling asleep while eating).
• 7:40 – put him down in crib awake. He suddenly became hyper and was calling out, kicking, rolling around, and happy. Then he started whimpering/whining/light fussing. He flipped to his belly.
• 7:52 – started crying harder.
• 7:57 – I went in after 5 minutes for 30 seconds of comforting. I told him I loved him, rubbed his back, and he calmed down. When I left the room he started crying hard again.
• 8:03 – went in after another 5 minutes for 30 seconds of comforting. When I left he cried even harder. This is when I started to cry too. It broke my heart to watch the monitor and listen to him cry.
• 8:04 – 8:11 – crying, but had periods of time where he calmed down then started up again, so I didn’t go in again. Eventually his cries turn into soft whimpers.
• 8:12 – and all of a sudden he FELL ASLEEP after 18 minutes of crying.
• 8:13 – just kidding, he’s not. He cried again for 30 seconds and then he was out for real.
• 8:13 – 2:36 – SLEEP!
• 2:36 – light cries for less than a minute
• 2:40 – little noises from crib and back to sleep
• 4:35 – more little noises then back to sleep
• 4:57 – crying. These cries sound different. I know he’s hungry at this point since it had been 10 hours since he had last eaten, so I fed him. I also realized his diaper had leaked and he was wet and I felt really guilty.
• 5:30 – tried to put him back down in the crib and he was not having it. He was wide awake and ready for the day.
• 5:55 – 7:30 – fell back asleep in dad’s arms and then in the lounger pillow. I guess he was still tired anyway! Live and learn.

Night 2… a TON of night wakings.

• 7:40 – put him in his crib and he fell right asleep, no crying!
• 8:21 – soft cry, back to sleep in less than 10 seconds
• 8:30 – cried softly for 2 minutes then fell back asleep
• 9:19 – cried for 5 seconds
• 9:58 – cried for 2 minutes
• 11:09 – crying hard. I went in every 5 minutes to comfort him, then moved it to 10 minutes after a little while. Crying started to slow down periodically so I only had to go in 3 times.
• 12:10 – finally back asleep after crying for an hour
• 3:15 – crying. After 5 minutes daddy went in to change him and I fed him.
• 4:18- we both accidentally fall asleep together while I’m feeding him. Oops! I go to put him back in his crib and he cries.
• 4:23 – asleep after 5 minutes of crying
• 7:15 – woke up for the day!

Night 3… getting better.

• 7:38 – put in crib, started crying, but became soft after 3 minutes
• 7:43 – asleep
• 3:40 – soft cries
• 3:43 – back asleep
• 5:45 – soft noise, started moving around, then fell back asleep
• 6:30 – awake for the day

Night 4… waking to eat, or not?

• 7:28 – put in crib, cried loudly for 3 minutes then got softer
• 7:33- asleep
• 3:53- crying, but it sounds like a different cry. I wonder if he is hungry.
• 4:00 – decided to go in to change his diaper and feed him
• 4:30 – put back down, cried hard
• 5:00 – asleep
• 7:20 – awake for the day

Night 5… same as the previous night.

• 8:08 – put down later than usual because we were stuck in traffic after daddy’s baseball game, cried for a minute
• 8:09 – asleep
• 3:22 – crying, again it sounds like he’s hungry
• 3:33 – crying hasn’t let up so I go in to get him changed and fed
• 4:00 – put back down in crib, cried hard and long again for the 2nd night in a row. Definitely having trouble getting back to sleep after his feeding.
• 4:33 – asleep
• 7:45 – awake for the day

Night 6… started our weekend trip to PA.

• 7:31 – put down in crib, cried for a minute
• 7:32 – asleep
• 12:00 – woke him up to get in the car to leave for our trip
• 12:25 – fell back asleep
• 2:30 – all of a sudden wide awake in the car right before we arrived. Fed and changed him once we got there.
• 3:32 – put down down into the crib at my dad’s house, cried hard. I think he was unsure of his new environment.
• 3:54 – fell asleep after 22 minutes of crying
• 6:30 – woke up for the day

Night 7… trips away aren’t ideal in the middle of sleep training. DUH.

• 6:50 – acting super tired so we put him down early, cried
• 6:54 – asleep
• 7:25 – awake and crying… already? Back and forth between hard and soft.
• 8:05 – I pick him up because his crying is getting stronger, discovered that he pooped and is still hungry. Feel really guilty
• 8:18 – lay him back down dry and fed, cried for 10 seconds and fell asleep
• 4:15 – awake and crying so I fed him
• 4:51 – put him down, cried
• 5:13 – still crying, change diaper and put back down
• 5:25 – still crying, so I give up and bring him in bed with us. Fail!

Night 8… back at home and back at it again! 1 big step forward…

• 7:43 – put in crib, cried for a few minutes
• 7:46 – asleep
• ALMOST 10 HOUR STRETCH!
• 5:27 – woke up crying, fed him and was awake for the day.

Night 9… and then 2 steps back after a day of refusing to nap.

• 7:51 – put down in crib, whined for a few seconds, fell asleep
• 10:46 – awake and crying hysterically
• 10:56 – go in to change diaper, won’t stop crying even when held
• 11:00 – put back down and he continued to cry hard
• 11:10 – went in to get him and tried to figure out what was wrong. He wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t stop crying. Wouldn’t even really open his eyes, even when we turned on lights. It was almost like he was having a night terror, probably due to sleep deprivation from not napping more than 25 minutes at a time that day. Finally got him to nurse and we both fell asleep together for the rest of the night. Fail

Night 10… better, but still a lot of night waking.

• 7:42 – put down in crib, no crying at all, fell right asleep
• 10:10 – crying softly
• 10:15 – asleep
• 2:18 – crying, back and forth between loud and quiet
• 2:40 – still crying. Is he hungry? I go to feed him and change diaper
• 3:00 – put back down, cried for a minute
• 3:01 – asleep
• 4:20 – light cries
• 4:23 – asleep
• 6:27 – awake for the day

Night 11… getting back to longer stretches.

• 7:23 – put down in crib, no crying at all before falling asleep
• 8:49 – light cries
• 8:51 – asleep again
• 8.5 HOUR STRETCH
• 5:15 – awake and hungry? I feed him, and daddy changes diaper
• 5:35 – put back down, light fussing and crying
• 5:46 – back asleep
• 6:00 – awake and crying lightly, maybe he’ll go back to sleep
• 6:25 – rolling around in crib wide awake so I go to get him

Night 12… more night wakings and more setbacks.

• 7:20 – put down in crib, cried for less than a minute then asleep
• 8 HOUR STRETCH
• 3:33 – awake and crying, again not sure if he’s hungry or not
• 3:38 – crying hard still so I go get him for diaper change and feeding
• 4:06 – put him back down, cried for less than a minute and was asleep. Is he finally learning to go back to sleep easily after a feeding?
• 4:15 – nope… he’s up again and crying.
• 4:27 – dad goes in for a comfort check
• 5:10 – finally asleep after going back and forth between hard and soft crying for 30 more minutes
• 6:18 – soft whimpers
• 7:00 – awake for the day

Night 13… rocky beginning, good ending!

• 7:50 – put in crib, asleep after one little whine
• 10:02 – crying hard and thrashing around in crib
• 10:12 – dad goes in for comfort check, he calms down but is still crying
• 10:22 – I go in for the second comfort check and discover that he pooped. I change him and hold him for a few minutes, trying to calm him down
• 10:31 – put back down, crying hard
• 10:41 – dad does comfort check, gets more upset. We decide to wait 15 minutes now, but his cries start getting softer so we never went in again.
• 11:11 – asleep after an hour and 9 minutes of crying
• 3:03 – awake like usual around 3 a.m. I waited to see if he would put himself back to sleep, and he did!
• 3:05 – asleep
• 7:21 – awake for the day

We are now almost two weeks into our training, and while we have made some good progress, we definitely aren’t done yet, obviously! As you can see from my notes, we have had some bumps in the road. It definitely hasn’t been a situation where it gets better every night. There’s been a few instances where I feel like we have taken 2 steps forward and 1 step back. I wanted to write this post now while we’re still figuring things out to get a snapshot of our progress.

According to Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, using a controlled crying approach like we are could take anywhere from 3-14 days, and since our trip to PA was right in the middle of it we were set behind a bit. In hindsight, maybe we should’ve waited until after our trip to start sleep training. But we have so much going on right now that we don’t have a clear block of time until JUNE! I felt like I kept coming up with excuse after excuse for why we hadn’t done it yet… he was sick, he is teething, we’re going away for a bunch of weekends soon, we have visitors staying with us, etc. I knew we had to do it now or never, or else something would always come up. I also knew that 6-7 months is the ideal time to sleep train, and I didn’t want to miss our window before he starts being able to stand in his crib and things like that. So we are just making the best of it, doing what we can, trying to be patient and celebrating the small accomplishments and progress he is making with his sleep.

Happy boy in the morning!

Positives

• A consistent, predictable bedtime routine: for about a month now we’ve done the same bedtime routine- bath, baby massage, PJs, nurse, put down in dark room with sound machine running. I think he really is associating these things with bedtime and it makes him start to get drowsy.
• Earlier bedtime: He used to fall asleep around 9 p.m., and now he goes down between 7:15 and 7:45 p.m most days.
• Waking up later in the morning: He went from waking up between 4:45 – 5:15 a.m. to about 6:30 – 7:30 a.m!
• Able to put himself back to sleep: This one is HUGE for us! Now he can fall back asleep within 5 minutes (most of the time.) It’s not perfect yet and there are still some nights he’s not able to do this, but considering before he only fell asleep if I held or nursed him, it’s a big improvement.
• Meeting the recommended hours of night sleep for his age: He is now sleeping between 11-12 hours a night, and before he was sleeping only 8-9 hours.

Things We Still Need to Work On

• Night wakings: I know it’s normal for children to stir a little bit at the end of their sleep cycles, but he’s doing more than just stirring- he’s actually crying a lot of the time. Hopefully with more time he will stop doing this and sleep for a continuous block of time more consistently.
• Figuring out the nighttime feeding- should I or shouldn’t I?: I think one of the main issues is that I’m never sure if I should feed him or not when he wakes up around the 3-5 a.m. mark. I feel like 12 hours is really long for a 7 month old to go for a feeding, but there are some nights that he doesn’t wake at all to eat or falls back to sleep on his own. To me, that shows that he doesn’t necessarily need to eat during the night, right? I just feel guilty if he wakes up around the time crying, wondering if he’s hungry or wet and uncomfortable.
• How to get him back to sleep afterwards: I wouldn’t mind getting up to feed him in the middle of the night if he went down easier afterwards. Even though I don’t stimulate him and keep the lights off, he has a hard time falling back to sleep after he eats. I feel like it ends up interrupting things too much and gets him too worked up.
• Naps: My initial plan was to first work on nighttime sleep and then once that was better established work on naps. However, I’m starting to second guess that now. His sleep is noticeably worse when he doesn’t get good naps in during the day, which makes perfect sense because then he’s overtired. Should I be nap training too and trying to get him on a better schedule? He currently takes 2-3 naps, one between 8-10ish, one between 1-3ish, and sometimes one around 5. But these are very variable. Sometimes he sleeps for 15 minutes at a time, and sometimes he will sleep for 1 or 2 hours. It isn’t consistent at all.

So that’s where we are with our sleep training, 2 weeks into it. I will do another update after another 2 weeks or so to talk about where we are at that point. I am hopeful that things will improve once we figure out more about how to help our little man learn to sleep better.

Experienced mommies, do you have any advice for me? I would love to hear your input!

Kevin’s 6 Month Photo Shoot

On March 24, 2013, we had Kevin’s 6 month photo shoot. We finally got the pictures back and could not be happier with how they turned out. I just want to freeze time and keep him at this age for a little while longer. He is so much fun, and it is a joy to watch him learn new things every day. It’s crazy to look back at his newborn shoot and see how much he has changed since then.

Time for me to show him off, like I don’t already do that enough

This little rocking chair actually belongs to my husband Kevin’s dad, Kevin Sr. Kevin III is the third generation of Spauldings to use it! It is a very special family heirloom.

          

          

Thankfully he was in a great mood during the shoot, and warmed up to the camera more and more as time passed.

          

I love how our photographer captured how expressive he is!

We were told this photo shoot would focus on him and wouldn’t include us, so we didn’t bother getting ready and looking nice. Then the photographer told us she wanted us in a few photos. Surprise! But they turned out fine

A few side-by-side comparisons. 4 days old vs. 6 1/2 months.

          

          

These next few photos of Kevin with his daddy warm my heart.  I will cherish these forever!

          

          

My little boy is growing up so fast…