Hellobee Boards

Lily has been so smiley, fun and pleasant lately! I've been noticing as long as we get in her first good nap, the rest of the day flows really well and she's such a happy little girl!Mi swear she smiles everytime I look at her!

She is starting to reject her rice cereal. I'm not sure why, just the last 3-4 nights she cries and cries and spits it out. I try to stop right away and cheer her up and do fun stuff, let her play so she doesn't get a negative feeding association. But, I think we are either going to try a different time of day, or just ditch cereal and move on. She does like to chew on/suck a piece of banana in the net feeder (thanks @lisa1783 for the suggestion!) and chew/suck on a spoon. Plus I've been letting her play around with a training straw sippy cup with a little bit of water in it and she likes that as well.

I'm also coming to the conclusion that we may have a sleep sharing family bed baby for now. She has been in her "sleep regression" for over a month now after really only ever sleeping decent for 2 weeks prior to that and nighttime sleep is still crap until I pull her into bed with me. Right now Lilys longest independent sleep stretch is 3-4 hours and after that if we keep her in her crib she gets up anywhere between 4-6 times in a 6-7 hour stretch. If she sleeps with us she will go up to 5 hours without waking. I'm trying to just relax and let that be ok. We have followed all of the suggestions in the "no cry sleep solution" book with no change and tried CIO a couple of times for up to no more than 6 minute intervals and I cannot handle CIO plus Lily just gets herself so upset by 6 minutes that she is gagging and choking from crying so hard, so I don't think she is developmentally ready for it. So, for now we will let her sleep in her bed for her long stretch and then she co-sleeps the rest of the night, and I'm finally ok with it for now! Maybe we will try longer times in the crib again in another couple of weeks.

@cvbee: Christmas sales. YES!
And yes, I've had well over a hundred pee leaks. I mean he is 115ish days old? Yeah, well over a hundred pee leaks. 2 poopsplosions (both in those darn disposables!)
I haven't left G with DH in a really long time, either.

@winniebee: He went back to sleep after the loud playful noises? That rocks! I turned off my parent monitor on Sunday because of that and tried to keep sleeping.... and now the parent monitor can't find the nursery monitor anymore.
Doesn't matter much since our apartment is only a 40 step round trip from my side of the bed to the crib so I can definitely hear him without it. I'm a little frustrated I can't hook it back up. I'll call AngelCare again tomorrow. I'm just glad the nursery part (with the motion sensor) is still working or I wouldn't be sleeping well at all.

@sarbear: pictures with the cat?

@Goldilocks1107: Good point about the flu shot. Maybe I can get mine when G gets his shots.... LOL @ 99.99999percentile for height. I am so curious to see how big G is!
Yay for new bras! And happy happy anniversary!

@lisa1783: He is so CUTE! And I am not happy when G is so big. I feel like I missed out on something because he is so freaking heavy! But he is pretty darn cute and that pretty much makes up for it.

@LAGS: Baby laughs are the greatest thing EVER!

@calsmom: Yay new haircut! Picture? And.... I keep wishing to be back at work but I would only see LO 2 hours a day and DH.... only on his days off. It would blow. And yet I keep looking (admittedly not hard enough to actually get anything).
@Coco Bee: Hey AF Go away! You're not wanted here. Bummer. How slim is the seat? We have a 4 seater... and it's really compact so we have to move the carseat to behind wherever I am sitting (DH is too tall).
C is getting so strong! And he has hair just like G but 2 months longer!

@Mrs.M57: Aww sorry about the rice cereal. I agree--change it to something else and try rice again later. (Unless L's ped says no)

@regebera yay for great family time and rolling! That's awesome car sleeping, how wonderful!

@LAGS yes, I get the e-mails from that sleep site. Sometimes I'm so tempted to pay to have them help me! There is some good stuff! I went through trying to break sleep associations, by vaRying how we get Lil to sleep (nursing, rocking, patting belly, singing), but Lil tends to only be able to fall asleep with nursing and bouncing. Also per the "no cry sleep solution" I try to put Lil down drowsy, then help her to sleep in the crib, but she gets so mad! I end up having to pick her up and calm her back to drowsy every 5 minutes! Bah, I think the more I have brought Lil into bed with me, the farther away from independent sleeping we have gotten, it's so easy for her to nurse back to sleep when laying right next to me! So I'm with you, on the nursing sleep association! If you have any luck with anything new let me know! Like I said, I think we are taking a break from worrying for now, but I would like to eventually have a sleeping through the night baby!

@lisa1783: He is so stinkin cute!! Is that a little playpen with his pictures all around?

@calsmom: Post pics of your sassy new do!

@LAGS: I finally did read up on sleep and a lot of it makes sense. The Healthy Sleep, Happy Baby book is good - a little repetitive. I'm following it loosely.

@pastemoo: Yes, crazy, he slept til 8:30 after all t\hat noise! And he's doing it again this morning...

@regberadaisy: AW how cute, go M!!!!

@Mrs.M57: Sometimes you just have to do what gets you through these periods - right now, it seems like it's just what she needs!

@cocobee: What a big boy! I can't believe you might have a crawler soon. I keep forgetting that as my baby gets older yours does too, LOL.

@cvbee: I hope you had a better night last night! I don't understand CD lingo but it sounds like not much fun last night!

Jelly jams music class yesterday was fun! Tyler was the youngest and everyone was oohing and aahing over him - he was so alert and watchful but I did most of the playing. He seemed to really like it! I think it will be even better once he can sit unassisted. We had some napping difficulties in the afternoon and ultimately I had to bounce him to sleep on me and he slept on me (swaddled) for over an hour. Led to a later bedtime but I started bedtime routine an hour after he woke up and he went down like a dream - no crying.

We tried swaddling one arm out last night - he woke up 45 mins later. Then a little over 2 hours later, then 3 hours later (2 a.m.) at which point I swaddled him fed him and he slept til 6:30....then some fun loud noises came from his room and same as yesterday, I got up, got my coffee, got his milk ready, and went to check on him....OUT. He's sleeping on his side in his swaddle though. Which reinforces/tells me we REALLY have to wean. So I'll keep at it this week.

He is just getting so fun, I can't stand it. I'm really glad I decided to take extended maternity leave : ) Here are some recent pics!

@cvbee: Good luck! I tried to CIO for a nap yesterday and gave in after 5 minutes. Sigh.

@regberadaisy: Glad to hear you had a great time with family and good job M!

@Mrs.M57: That's exactly how I feel and yet early this morning still let her come into bed Much easier said than done.

@winniebee: That's a great sign that he's waking so happy and able to fall back asleep on his own. When my LO has an early waking where she's up a little then goes back down she just grunts and moans T is so cute, I absolutely love little boys clothes, wee little men!

@cvbee: My husband has been expressing interest in CIO too, so am I he just has a stronger resolve than I do.

A went down the easiest she has in weeks last night. Down at 7:20 or so, moaning/grunting in her crib and asleep by 7:30. She woke up just before midnight, I fed her then she slept until a little after 1 and woke up crying. We tried to let her CIO b/c it obviously wasn't a food issue, but I caved and got her down about 1:45 but then she slept again until 5am. That's a big deal for her... 3-4am is usually her worst for frequent wakings. She was up at 7, I put her on the boob and we slept until just after 8am.

I'm attempting to let her cry a little more for this morning's nap too. I don't have her swaddled at all though so I'm going in to soothe her every now and then. Poor baby

@sarbear: haha soo cute! I had to show my husband that picture. I've never seen baby aviators!

@cvbee: Good luck with your CIO. I think I'm sort of where you were at 4 months. I'm just not ready to do it 100%, but want to stop coddling her too... I have been going in to soothe her with just moaning and grunting or light fussing. I'm not ready to leave her for real cries yet. I agree with you though about the confusion thing, so once I feel she's old enough if we're struggling I think its all or nothing.

DH and I put our heads together this morning and have our new plan of attack. I'd been going back and forth on the CIO, swaddling and pacifier issues because I want her to truly be able to sleep all on her own. We've decided we're going to put her down with just her arms wrapped in her swaddle blanket, so she can easily break out if she rolled or something, yet it controls her arms while she goes down. We're also going to let her keep her paci for the time being too. For now we're focusing on not responding to fusses, grunts, moans or chatter, but if she really cries I'm going to soothe her.

Once she's consistently able to put herself to sleep we'll address the wrapped arms and paci. I just feel a cold turkey approach for all three props is a little much for her at this point.

We did this for her morning nap and so far so good. I put her down about 9:15 not swaddled and even though she was so sleepy she kept hitting herself and getting upset so this is when I decided the no swaddle and paci was too much. I wrapped her and gave her the paci and she was asleep within 5 minutes around 9:45 or so. Now at 10:45 she's still down and I haven't been in her room for an hour. Doesn't sound like much but she hasn't napped for over 30mins in a week with the exception of the day of her shots.

I can't possibly keep up with all you ladies, but I pop over every now and then to see how everyone is doing.

Regarding all the CIO talk, we just started doing CIO with E at night last night, he turns 4 months tomorrow. Since 3 months his sleep has gotten progressively worse until the point where he was up nearly every hour and it was taking a good 45 minutes to get him to go back down. Even nursing him to sleep wasn't reliable. He was dead tired all day and we couldn't enjoy our time together in the evenings because he was just so over tired. Plus, I couldn't work and only get 3-4 hours of interrupted sleep in a night. If I wasn't working and could focus more on his sleep habits, maybe we could have gone a different way (cue mommy guilt) but after talking to his pediatrician we felt this was a good route for us.
We decided on a progressive waiting approach and went in to soothe him after 3 min, then 5, then 10. It took him an hour to fall asleep, but he would settle down every time I went in to check on him and sing to him for a minute. So, so hard to see him look up at me and sniffle. But it made a difference! He was waking up every 2-3 hours still, but settled after the 3minute check every time. A huge improvement over the hours in the rocking chair. I still fed him once last night as I don't think he should give up those calories yet, but he went right back to sleep after nursing too.
It's obviously super early to sing the CIO praises, but I'm cautiously optimistic that this is the beginning of our sleep solution.
I never wanted to do CIO, and at 8 weeks when he started sleeping in 7 hour stretches I thought I was so lucky I wouldn't have to sleep train, HA!

@winniebee: ohmygah he is so cute!! I have that sunglasses tee in white for next summer

@cvbee: Tampon trick? I missed something lol

@sarbear: Hahaha aww love it! He is so cute..

@cvbee: Eeek how nerve wracking!! But good- I'm excited forbyou and really hope that it works. It takes a lot of patience; it took us a few weeks for him to go to sleep easily and sometimes he still fusses/cries when I put him down but it's generally only a few minutes and because he's tired.
I do agree you have to be all in or not at all! I do think result would have come faster if we'd been more consistent but I really didn't want any regrets and followed my guy more than the book. I am happy with the way we did it even tho it took longer. I never let him cry more than 40 minutes, and often he hit his head on the crib so I always went in to soothe him.

Last night we had an odd night of sleep. He went to bed at 7, but was crying hysterically a 830 and DH had to soothe him. Then he woke up again at 1030 and I nursed him, then again at 1:55am and I nursed him til 2:25, but he was awake again at 4, so I told DH to deal with it. Well he was rocking, bouncing, walking him for an hour and Cobi screamed the whole time. I finally gave in and nursed him again and he was back asleep on his bed around 5, then he slept til 8:15. It was crazy!!!

Hopefully that was just a weird fluke night. Haven't had a night that bad since before sleep training.

@cvbee: good luck with CIO! I try to make it over 5 minutes but it never seems to help - I always cave and/or he continues crying to the point of screaming and choking. Also with the Ergo, we got the chewing covers right away because Owen just loves to chew on everything and I'm always covered in his drool. The chew covers just help absorb the spit and are softer for him to gum on.

Owen is just over 16 weeks old. I know he looks a lot older because he's pretty long but he was born in late May. His hair IS really fluffy - it's super soft and just floats around right after it dries. It's so adorable. My husband loves to blow on it to watch it move and he calls himself the Daddy Blowdryer.

@Coco Bee: I wish I had your crafty talent - then I could claim to have made his chevron blanket. But I bought it online at Carousel Designs. Maybe one day I'll learn to sew because they also sell the fabrics to you so you can coordinate to make other items.

Also, how old is your baby? My baby just started to hold his head up consistently - he's so not even close to lifting his body up! Also, how has it been with the teething? Is your LO really fussy and how is it during feedings? Does it hurt consistently or just sharp bites now and then?

P.S. He's so cute! His eyes are so blue - talk about a Gerber baby!

@Mrs. M57: I would rather have the uninterrupted sleep for 5 hours also. I wouldn't worry about her having to cosleep with you right now. They're only babies for so long and it's just a sign that your presence comforts her. You'll both be better rested and happier.

@PasteMoo: Now that you mention it, you are EXACTLY right. I do feel like I missed out a little on the newborn phase. It feels like he went straight from 8 lbs to 12 lbs in 2 weeks. It never felt like he was that small and delicate so I think I was a little bit more easy going when taking care of him because he always just felt so sturdy. But the rolls and chubs just make his giggles and smiles all the cuter and just so huggable!

@regerberadaisy: yay for rolling over! double yay for sleeping until morning! it's little things like that just makes all the bad moments forgotten. I like to facetime with my family so that they can see Owen - he gets a kick seeing the screen and it helps everyone keep up with him. How far away is your family again?

@winniebee: Your baby is so cute - I love his little hair fuzz. It looks so soft - I just want to pet it (without making your baby seem like an animal ). I also love his camo pants!

That is a playpen but it's at the drop in daycare we used for a few days. It does have pictures of asian babies on the side It's wonderful that you were able to take the extended maternity leave - it's personally really hard for me to leave in the mornings. At the beginning he was awake when I left so I could give him a million kisses and hugs but the past week he's been asleep so I just stare at him forever until my mom pushes me out the door to go to work.

Owen went through a phase also where he HAD to be swaddled or he wouldn't sleep and we did it for naps and night time. Then he started breaking out and we slowly weaned him based on how fussy he was being. For times when he was calmer or seemed to be really tired, we tried to not swaddle him. If he woke up quickly we would then swaddle but now he's gotten to the point of not needing it. But we'll see how it goes when he hits the 4 month sleep regression...blah.

@sarbear: holy cuteness-moly! so adorbs! Where did you get the baby aviators?

My husband modified his work schedule to work 4 days a week and have the 5th day off to work on our home renovation so for the last 2 weeks, Owen's been pretty much asleep every time he gets home. Now the only time during the week he can see him awake is in the morning after Owen wakes up at 5:30. After feeding, I'll bring him to bed and the two of them will play together while I try to sleep for another hour or two. It's so cute to see the two of them interact all cute in their pjs and it's cozy in bed. I love family moments - even if I'm only half conscious.

On a side note, demolition has begun which is crucial because we have to be out of our current apartment by Oct 12th. We are completely gutting the kitchen and bathroom so it'll be a lot of work that needs to be done quickly. As long as the bathroom is done by the time we move in, I'll be fine if the kitchen isn't ready yet. But I foresee a lot of stress in the upcoming weeks.

I am happy to report we had a sleep stretch of almost 5 hours last night. Longest we have had in a month! We put him down in the sleep sack with his paci buddy and mitts on his hands, after bath, story, nursing. He was awake when we put him down, but fell asleep quickly. I did a dream feed (which normally doesn't work) 2 hours later when we went to bed. Unfortunately I got hit by insomnia so I didn't get the sleep. He also did a 3 hour stretch in the crib and a 2 hour stretch in bed with me. He was fighting his nap just now though, so I had to swaddle his arms. I am really trying to get him out of the swaddle, because he can roll with his arms restrained. Tummy sleeping works occasionally, but not enough to rely on it. Sawyer is 5 months next week, so I am thinking he might be coming out of that damn 4 month sleep regression now though.

@cvbee: Good luck with CIO. Me and DH talked about it in the height of the sleep regression (when he was waking every 30-45 minutes), but we both decided that we would rather co-bed than CIO for now. I think DH likes seeing Sawyer snuggled up with me. He thinks it is adorable that "Mommy is Sawyer's favourite soother"

@Coco Bee: I have come to the conclusion that these babies always like to throw the odd wrench in things. Gotta keep the parents on their toes you know!

@sarbear: Great pictures and theme outfits! I love the baby aviators!

@LAGS: We are weaning our sleep props as well, we try to put him down without the swaddle, give it 10-15 minutes and if he is fighting sleep we wrap just his arms. He now has a paci buddy with his soother, so he is going to keep that, and when I start leaving his paci out, I will leave the buddy as a lovey.

@winniebee: I am not cut out for CIO either. I would give in after about 5 seconds I think. I let him fuss forever, but as soon as he actually cries I rescue him. Your music class sounds like fun. I might sign up for one after Sawyer is sitting up.

@cvbee: oh I know... CIO during naps or bedtime is totally different than CIO in the middle of the night. But he cried the entire time in DH's arms, is there a difference?!

I was thinking of night weaning him come 9 moths and after last night it will be soooo hard. I thought I could BBQ DH soothe him back to sleep (if I get him up he demands milk, like pulling my shirt until I give it to him). Well last night he fought sleep until he got milk don't tell me we'll have to do CIO for night weaning too. Bahhh don't even wanna think about it!

@regberadaisy: Well. DH is getting out of the military in January and plan is to go to school in August.... not where we live now. The military will only move us back to his home of record and then it's up to us. So... we either have to guess and move somewhere we *might* get into school and then maybe have to move again... or just move twice but stay with MIL. It's kind of a terrifying thought to move so far 2x in a year. (VA to OH to who knows) I don't have any friends there and DH has some so it'll be a big adjustment for me.

Also... work just called and I may go back to work (briefly until we move). Oh my goodness.

For all of you starting or looking to start CIO I just wanted to let you know how it's been going for us since we started a week ago. So the first night, he cried for an hour and it was miserable. We checked on him and rubbed his belly every 3,3,5,5,10,10,20 minutes. The next day, he only fussed a few minutes at nap times then for about 10 minutes at bedtime the next two nights. Let, me tell you, his sleep is so much better. He goes to bed around 8pm with minimal rocking (and just a few minutes of fussing, sometimes even just falls right to sleep) and wakes up around 4am to eat, then between 7 and 9am for the day. His naps immediately went from 30 to 45 minutes, but for the last 4 days I've gotten one 2-3 hour nap out of him every day. Before CIO I was at a point where I didn't think I could handle having another kid, but now life is soooo much better and I'm all for having more! I hope that is some encouragement for all of you. Obviously CIO is not for everyone, but I just wanted to share my experience.

I also read this article about a study that said CIO has no damaging effects on children, and actually makes everybody happier in the end:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/10/health/sleepless-infants-mom-depressed/index.html?iref=allsearch

@duckduckkristen: you're the second person on here that said the first night had to be one hour. YIKES.
Do you put him down drowsy?

@kiddosc: hah I was a little cocky bout LO's sleep in her first weeks too. It's almost like she's making us pay for how easy we had it. Good luck with night 2 of sleep training!

@sarbear: Well that one pic alone makes them totally worth while. So cute!

@Coco Bee: Poor fella, I hope he has a better night tonight.

@lisa1783: My LO has the fluff hair too. Where her swirl is on the back of her head is usually standing straight on end, although I've been combing it a different way lately and its been somewhat cooperating now. Good luck with the demo! We had a similar crunch and had to get our bathroom redone before moving in. We got the toilet installed the night we moved in and had a working tub and sink... showers came a few days after haha Such fun!

@MsMini: That's great S had some better stretches. Do the paci buddies help them keep the paci in a little better?

@pastemoo: Sorry there's so much up in the air for you guys Do you get along well with your ILs?

@duckduckkristen: Thank you so much for posting that article. Some form of CIO makes sense and I agree with it... then stumble upon some anti-cio article and feel like a monster. This helps ease the Mommy guilt!

I've been letting A fuss/grunt it out today and going in to replace her paci or rub her tummy if crying and I've gotten 3 hour+ naps and she's currently down for a 4th (which I assume will be a quickie just to get her to bedtime)... WOOT! And aside from nap #1, she has gone down with minimal fussing and the fussing she's done has just been paci related. I've noticed today too that her awake time is better at 1.25hrs. Thinking because she's been so overtired... maybe this will stretch back out to 90+mins again once we get her some better sleep.

@Goldilocks1107: I already applied and am just waiting. DH has yet to apply--medical school asks for applications much sooner than undergraduate schools. I may not get in anywhere though--my background is non traditional.
@duckduckkristen: Thanks for the article!

@LAGS: I am lucky and I love my FIL and my MIL. They are divorced though. And.... my BIL and his wife (My SIL-IL?) and their son (my 9 month old nephew!) live with FIL. So it would be kind of hilarious.... They live 30 min apart in a small town (well not small but a town, not a city). And I wouldn't know anyone but my family (in laws). I have (of course) had my moments with my MIL because we are very different but she is wonderful. I just don't know if I can share a shower with her for 6 months! (She has 1.5 bath)

I'm so behind and I'm not sure I can catch up. But please include me if you decide to move to a FB group.

@duckduckkristen: honestly what I've learned when it comes to issues like this - no amount of studies/science will persuade parents one way or another - it all comes down to doing what is best for the whole family.

I feel like so many studies are done simply to say what someone wants them to say. I've read many books about the harms of CIO and articles like the one you posted about there being no lasting effects... it's all contradicting. When it comes to that point - I trow out all the "professionals" and follow my motherly instincts