9 Months Old

At 9 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked).  This is about the 25th percentile.

-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile

-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.

-He wears size 3 diapers.

-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick).  The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small.  Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big.  We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.

-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.

-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.

-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger.  And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction.  "See??  Look at my toy!!"

-His pincer grasp is getting better.  He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger.  He could still make improvement in this area.  But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.

-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day.  Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.

-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day.  More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.

-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.

-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total.  He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep.  He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit.  If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45.  He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.

-Naps are still crap.  A usual day has three 30 minute naps.  We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent.  It's bad, I know.

-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark.  The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.

-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in.  So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.

-He had his fourth haircut today.

-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding.  No such luck for me.

-He's very capable, physically.  He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now.  He's a great climber, too.

-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.

-He waves!

-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT.  He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed.  He thinks it's hilarious.

-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet.  As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."

-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face.  He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever.  It's so cute.

-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.

-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer.  He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it.  Whatever!

-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror.  This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.

-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often.  He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped.  It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.

-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment.  It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.

-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month.  Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine.  But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again.  He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol).  And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it.  Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper.  After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing.  But getting the diaper on is HARD.

~~~~~~~~~~

This past month has had ups and downs.  Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me.  I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out.  As a SAHM, this gets very tiring.  I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me.  Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping.  It got tough after several long days.

I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though.  It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut).  Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.

Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits.  3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes.  This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training.  There are several reasons for this.  One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train.  Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep.  He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times).  It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.

Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu.  I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great.  Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.

There have also been good times this month.  Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long.  Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted!  I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part.  Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people.  That's how bad a sleeper I am.  But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience.  And that being your NORMAL?  It's fantastic.

There have also been GREAT times this past month.  The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son.  The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big.  Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate.  Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow.  Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over.  Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is.  Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep.  Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us. 

I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah.  He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us.  I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here.  And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different.  He completes my life.  I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child. 

I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst.  I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different.  THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.


(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters?  I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post.  What is the purpose of that limit?  Let people label as much as they want!!)

I May Have Spoken Too Soon

I may have spoken too soon.  Last night Noah woke up and cried for a couple of minutes at 8:30pm, and cried off and on for about 10 minutes at 10:40pm.  Then he suddenly woke up screaming at 5:10am.  That one caught me off guard, and because of the time I got him up and fed him.  He was very very sleepy after that, but not fully asleep.  I put him in his crib and went back to bed myself.  I left the monitor off because he needed to stay in bed until at least 7am anyway, and I CAN hear him from my room when he gets loud, even though the doors are closed and we both have loud fans on. 

I didn't fall back asleep, and at one point (about 6:20am) I turned the monitor on to see what was going on.  Noah was crying.  I thought he'd just been having a hard time falling back asleep for the last hour, so I went in there to try and rock him to sleep, which didn't work.  I put him back in his crib, because I wasn't going to rock him in the dark for half an hour, at which point he would probably eventually fall back asleep since he got less than 10 hours of sleep last night and had been up since 5:20am. 

He started crying, of course.  Then after about 5 minutes he stopped and was just sitting in bed playing.  Eventually he folded himself in half and fell asleep.  He was in a sitting position and just leaned forward and put his face on the mattress and fell asleep like that.  That was about 6:50am.  He slept like that until almost 8.

I was thinking we may need to start swaddling again, but honestly, we can't swaddle him forever.  It has to stop at some point, and whenever we stop it we're probably going to have this issue of early wakeup times.  He has to learn to sleep until a proper wakeup time.

I'm sure he'll get it eventually.

Swaddle-Free?

I think we may just be swaddle-free.  Last night went well.  Noah went to sleep between 7:15 and 7:30.  I I didn't hear from him until 6:10, when I fed him.  Like usual at that time, he was awake after nursing.  I put him back in his crib and he stayed there pretty happily until 7:15, but he didn't fall back asleep.  I don't know for sure if this is because he wasn't swaddled, because that does happen occasionally even when he IS swaddled.  I guess we'll see what the pattern is over the next few days. 

Tonight Noah did wake up after an hour of sleep and start crying.  It only lasted a couple of minutes, tops, but now he is in the weirdest positon in his crib.  He seems to always end up with his head pressed against the bars of the crib.  Last night when I checked on him around 3am he had his head pushed up in the corner of the crib and his face was about 1cm from the bumpers.  Thank goodness we have breathable bumper pads!

I think I may do the occasional swaddle, still.  When we need him to nap in a pack 'n play it is extremely hard to get him in there when he is swaddled.  I think it would be nearly impossible if he wasn't.  And Christmas time is going to include several pack 'n play naps.  So I may need to keep the swaddle in our reptoire until then.

Attempting a Swaddle-Free Night

(Noah is 8 months and 2 days old)

Swaddle-free naptimes seem to be going as well as can be expected for Noah.  I've been starting to feel guilty for having him all wrapped up while he migrates around his crib at night, sometimes getting himself in less than desirable positions that seem hard to get out of with no arms.  He really really loves to sleep on his stomach, and every single time he has an hour long nap it's been because he moved to his stomach at some point.  He sleeps on his stomach even though he's swaddled, which makes me feel bad for him.

I've been so hesitant to take him out of the swaddle at night because he's been sleeping so well.  When he wakes up during the night he'll usually just lie there awake and then eventually fall back asleep.  After he nurses he is almost always awake, so I just lay him in his crib (swaddled) and he eventually drifts off to sleep.  I am extremely worried that since he's not swaddled, he won't just lie there, he'll stand up.  He's in a sleep sack, but he stands up no problem in his sleep sack.

I don't want to have to do CIO again, but I know my son and I know that's the best way to "teach" him not to do ridiculous things like that that interfere with his sleep.  I'm thinking that just reswaddling him won't be the best solution to the standing up problem, because I obviously can't swaddle him forever.  So AT SOME POINT he will have to learn to not stand up in his crib as soon as he wakes up when he's not swaddled.

Maybe I'm borrowing trouble.  He could be totally fine tonight.  Besides the freezing cold hands he gets when his arms are free all night long.  Anybody have any tips for that?  His hands are like little icicles when he's not swaddled at night!!



Sidenote:  Justin just told me that they discovered a planet out in space (not our solar system) that is bigger than Jupiter.  I said "So what?"  He said Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.  And again, I said, "So what?"  He told me that you can fit 1320 Earths in Jupiter, that's how big it is.  And they found another planet out there that's bigger than that.

My swaddling "issues" suddenly seem very small.

lol

8 Months Old!

I can't even believe my baby is 8 months old. He's been outside of me for as long as I knew he was inside of me (I found out I was pregnant on July 19th and he was born on March 18th - his EDD was March 29). Where oh where has the time gone??

Here's what Noah is up to at 8 months old:

-He weighs 18lbs 12oz (less than 50th percentile)

-He is 29.5 inches (about 95th percentile)

-He is 10th percentile for weight for height... just a little stringbean.

-He wears 12 month and 18 month clothing.

-He wears size 3 diapers (most Pampers BabyDry).

-He has 4 teeth, three from when he was 5 months old and one he just got in the past week. I think he may be working on his top-right-middle tooth, too. We'll see!

-He is still exclusively breastfed (except for solids at dinner; he still has never had a bottle), and he is getting to be a very cuddly nurser again.

-He eats about 4oz of solids before bedtime, but during the rest of the day it's just breastfeeding. He has finally ingested a small amount of liquid (1/3 pear juice, 2/3 water) from a "sippy cup" (a silicone spout sort of thing, not a true sippy cup). He's usually not that into it, though.

-Most solids still constipate him. So far the only safe foods are pears, prunes, peaches, and butternut squash. Peas, carrots, rice cereal, bananas, apples, apples and apricots, sweet potato, and sweet potato and turkey all constipate him. It's very frustrating, because it takes forever to unplug him again, and it makes it very difficult to introduce new foods. I think the fact that we keep having to switch back to strictly pears and prunes is starting to make him a bit pickier. He was at a point where he loved everything we offered him, but I don't know anymore.

-We just started Oat cereal in hopes that it won't constipate him.

-He's going to sleep at night usually between 7 and 7:30.

-He sleeps amazingly well at night after a very short bout with CIO. He pretty much sleeps 10 to 11 hours straight (with an outside range of 9.5 to 11.5), nurses, and then usually goes back to bed, depending on how long that stretch was (if it was 11.5 hours, he usually won't fall asleep again). He is usually awake when I put him back in his crib, but that seems to be the only time during the day and night that I can lay him down in his crib, walk away, and he'll often drift off to sleep, even if it's 45 minutes later.

-Bedtime routine is boob, solids, bath, boob, bed. He falls asleep nursing nearly every night.

-He has 2 or 3 naps a day.

-His normal awake time is about 2.5 hours.  Sometimes as short as an hour and 15 minutes, and often he has a stretch of 3 hours or more in the evening.

-His naps are still crappy most of the time. In an entire week he maybe has 2 or 3 naps that are about an hour long. The rest are all 30-40 minutes.

-He's still rocked to sleep with a soother for all his naps. I've tried letting him CIO for naps, but the crying is usually much worse than it was at nighttime when we used CIO, so I don't feel he's ready to go to sleep independently for all his naps.
-He is still swaddled at nighttime, but we recently have stopped swaddling for naps. I think it's going okay.

-He sleeps on his tummy even when he's swaddled.  I thought this was just the worst thing until I remembered that when I used to sleep on my tummy (before being pregnant and nursing... I haven't slept on my tummy in a very very long time) I would always sleep with my arms straight down at my sides.  So it's not like it's uncomfortable.

-Everytime we go to get him out of his crib he's standing up waiting for us. It's one of those things I always dreamed of about being a mom:)

-He crawls on his hands and knees exclusively. He started doing this right at 7 months, and had ditched army crawling completely by 7.5 months. The only time he'll army crawl is if he's trying to get under something that's too low to crawl under.

-He pulls up to standing using everything (even just a flat wall) and can sit down again on his own. His crib is on the 2nd lowest setting. He no longer needs someone to sit behind him when he's standing in case he falls, because he pretty much never falls. He doesn't even lean on the things that are supporting him. He just needs a hand on something to steady himself.

-He can just sit there in a squatting position, not holding on to anything.

-He can stand on his own - without holding on to anything - for a few seconds at a time. His record is about 5 seconds. This is by no means something he has mastered, though.

-He is understanding object permanence and looks for dropped objects.

-He has seperation anxiety and stranger anxiety. Fun fun!:)

-If he wants to be picked up and you are across the room, he will whine and crawl over to you and use your legs to stand up until you pick him up.

-He gives me lots of kisses everyday. He's started to "talk" while he does it, I think because when I kiss him I often am going "Muah, muah muah, muah." He's started to open his mouth, plant it on me, and go "Ahhhhhh." He doesn't kiss anybody else, usually, but yesterday he gave his friend Aubrey (3 weeks older) a kiss on the cheek, "Ahhh" and everything..

-He likes to sit in the bumbo on the kitchen counter while I cook.

-He babbles lots and sometimes purposefully imitates the sounds we make ("bat"). His most common sound is "Dada."

-He laughs his head off when Justin turns the ring stacker upside down, spins it like a top, and says "BING!"

-He doesn't get his soother much during the day, so he's falling out of love with it. When he does get it during the day, he plays with it more than he sucks on it.

-He still does the head-tilt thing, but it's becoming less frequent than it was a month ago.

-He loves our cats, but they do not love him. It makes me not love them.

There it is!  Happy 8 months, my sweet little Noah!  The past 8 months have been the best and happiest 8 months of my life.

Sending Mixed Signals

I think Noah is sending me mixed signals.  Last night I swaddled him for bed and he didn't make a peep for 11.5 hours.  Now I'm not so sure he wants to be unswaddled after all.

Make up your mind, child!!

Still Swaddling the CuddleBug, and Tooth #4

De-swaddling didn't go so well for us today.

Granted, it went way better than the first day of our last Operation NoSwaddle (which, coincidentally, coincided with the last time Noah was teething... so weird).  This time I just put him in a sleep sack for all 3 of his naps. He went to sleep okay for all of them. His first nap was normal, about 30 minutes long.  I thought we might be in the clear.

His second nap he slept 10 minutes - INCLUDING the time he spent in my arms. He had been up for awhile, so I let him CIO after he woke up.  I don't usually do CIO during the daytime.  In fact, I never really have.  But I'm never sure what to do during the day.  At nighttime I now know he won't cry for too long, and that he's actually tired and will fall asleep on his own.  Naptime is another story.  He's a chronic short napper anyway, and he seems more than happy with his 30 minute naps (I'm not, but I've learned to live with it).  So when he wakes up even earlier than that, I never really know what to do.  I always get him eventually, because I don't like him to CIO in the daytime, especially when I don't actually know if he's tired or not.  Anyway, after this nap of only 10 minutes, I let him CIO basically by default.  He started crying, and I waited to see if he would calm down and go back to sleep.  Then because I waited, I didn't want to go in there because I didn't want to teach him that if he cries for a long time Mommy will eventually come.  It would be terrible if that lesson spilled over into nighttime.  Even though the research says that daytime and nighttime are controlled by different areas of the brain and have nothing to do with each other, really, it still worries me.  So I defaulted.   He cried for 25 minutes, and it was awful.  He was SCREAMING, and he was all over his crib, standing up, sitting down, rolling around, standing up again, just screaming.  Seriously, it was terrible.  But I'm fairly certain he was just mad, because he would bury his face in the mattress and be quiet for 10 seconds and then start screaming again (I was watching through the crack in the door).

After 25 minutes of wailing he went back to sleep for 40 minutes. But then he woke up crying and crying again and I didn't have the heart to put him through that again, so I got him up.

Then his third nap he woke up after 10 minutes AGAIN.  I just got him that time. It was 5pm and I didn't want him to take forever to fall asleep and then go to bed late because his nap went to late.

He was in a mood the whole rest of the day after that CIO nap. I discovered that he's cutting another tooth. On his bottom to the right of his middle teeth. He already has had the matching tooth on the other side for over 2 months, so I've been wondering when this one will come in. I discovered that it's cutting at the grocery store, of all places. So for dinner he had pears and prunes laced with Motrin and Tylenol.   Yes, just pears and prunes.  That's all he's had for days.  We're still waiting on a normal poop. It's been weeks.
So I think we might stick it out with no swaddle for most of his naps, but I'm still swaddling him at night for now.  I was hoping to just put him in the sleep sack tonight, but I can't have him be exhausted from not sleeping during the day OR at night.


On a much more positive note, Noah has been SO cuddly the past few days. SO cuddly. Lots of hugs and kisses and just constantly climbing into my lap whiel we're on the ground playing.  Plus, each day we've had about 3 marathon cuddle/nursing sessions.  Noah is still nursed pretty much exclusively, we just add in a meal of solids at nighttime before bed.  During the day I usually nurse him when he's wide awake, not to put him to sleep, so he eats for MAYBE 10 minutes and then he wants to be on the go and play. But everyday for the past few days he's just laid there in my lap, awake, cuddling, suckling, staring at me, and playing with my face.  He's not even eating, he's just suckling with no swallowing.  He touches my nose, and I say "Nose!" He touches my mouth and I say "Mouth!"  I nibble his fingers and he smiles and laughs.  I started being able to say "Where's Mommy's nose??" and he'll grab or touch my nose. I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but he does it about 75% of the time that I say "Where's Mommy's nose??"
 
I love that he's just about 8 months old and we're having these long cuddle sessions.  Especially since at about 4 months he became a very distractable eater, and generally only nurses for about 7-10 minutes at a time.  I know he's not actually eating for most of the time that he's lying there, but I don't care. I adore the cuddle time.  I like the cuddles I get during the rest of the day, because I do get lots of hugs and kisses and cuddles.  But there is no other time during the day (unless he's sleeping) that he would lie in my lap, quiet and still, for half an hour.  And I'm getting 3 of these cuddle/nursing sessions everyday lately!  I love it.  LOVE it.

The End of Swaddling?

I know, I know, he's almost 8 months old, you can't believe he's still swaddled.  Neither can I, frankly.  But when we tried not swaddling just before 6 months it was a disaster.  I swaddle weaned him and everything - it took forever, but I thought things were good.  Then it all went to hell in a handbasket so I started up again.

However, I think Noah is ready to be done with his swaddle. Last night he was screaming (he usually doesn't cry very hard now when he wakes up at night, but it was pretty hard last night) for like 7 minutes and when he finally quieted down he was turned around at the bottom of his crib lying on his tummy with his head smushed against the rails.

In his swaddle.

Sleeping, of course.

Eventually he rolled onto his back and his head was bent completely sideways to his body because of the sides of the crib. I moved him back to the middle of the crib, and when I went to check on him at 3am or something he had his arms out of his swaddle and was turned around, scrunched up on his tummy at the bottom of the crib again. I don't know when he got his arms out because he didn't do any crying after the first 7 minutes - maybe just a short fuss - but his arms were free and he was very far from the position I had moved him to around 9pm.  Furthermore, he didn't wake me up to eat until 5:45am even though he went to sleep at 7pm.  He was awake playing in his bed for awhile before he woke me up, because when I got him he was standing at the side rails and his lovey was thrown in a different place than it usually is.  But he probably wasn't awake for any longer than 10 minutes.

He's sleeping on his tummy even while he's swaddled a LOT lately. And then last night he freed himself and slept over 10.5 hours without needing me.  So maybe he's ready to be unswaddled. 

The only problem is the sleeping transfer from my arms to the crib when all his limbs are splaying out everywhere... doesn't seem like it will be very successful.

I will report back.

Night 4

Total Success.

I didn't want to call this post "CIO Night 4," because... drum roll...

Last night Noah didn't cry at all. 

He was asleep at 7:30 and didn't cry once until 6am.  I got him up to nurse him (I'm fine with feeding him after 10.5 hours, that's a long time for a 7 1/2 month old to go without food), and after that he was awake.  I put him back in his crib and went back to bed and he didn't cry or make much noise at all.  I dozed until 8:10 and then decided we should all get up.  I could hear Noah making little noises, but he must have fallen asleep in those 2 hours because he was still fully swaddled at 8:10.  There's no way he would have lied there for 2 hours quietly and not broken free of his swaddle.

I did hear him making little whining noises 2 or 3 times during the night, but they maybe lasted 30 seconds.  They were just little noises like he used to make back when he was STTN, before he needed me to help him fall back asleep everytime he slightly woke up.

This morning he had another good nap of an hour and 15 minutes.  I heard him sneeze and cough at the time he would normally wake up (after 30 or 40 minutes) but he fell back asleep on his own.

Yay for Noah.  And yay for me.  I feel like a new woman.

7 Months Old!!

At 7 months old, here is where Noah is at:


-Noah weighs about 18.5lbs. He was 18lbs 12oz after just eating and with his diaper and sleeper on. His sleeper weighs 5 oz, a dry size 3 diaper weighs 1oz (and his was a little wet, so add at least an ounce). So subtract 7oz there. Even if you don't include the fact that he just ate, that brings him in at, say, 18lbs 5oz. We'll stick with 18 1/2lbs. That's about the 50th percentile.

-He is 29 inches tall, still. That's 100th percentile.

-He's about 10th percentile for "weight for height."

-He wears size 3 Pampers Baby Dry diapers.

-He wears all 12 month clothing and it fits him perfectly. Hopefully we can stick at this size for longer than we were in all the other sizes, since his growth seems to have slowed down due to his age. Every other size got less than 2 months of wear, but he's been in 12 month since he was 5 months. I think we'll make it past the 2 month mark!

-He has 3 teeth - two from when he had just turned 5 months and one he got just before 6 months.

-He's basically exclusively breastfed, still. No bottles or cups. We started solids at 6 1/2 months (rice cereal, bananas, sweet potato, and pears - just a tablespoon or two at night before bed) but he got very constipated so we stopped everything but the occasional tablespoon of pears or prunes (or mixed) once a day. It took him a week and a half for his poops to get soft again (at 7 months 2 days), so we'll see how solids go from here. No rice cereal, though.

-He nurses 7 or 8 times in a 24 hour period.

-He nurses about every 2 hours during the day, sometimes a little shorter depending on how he ate last, sometimes up to 3 hours. I'm not too concerned about timing because he only eats when he's hungry and he stops when he's not.

-We don't follow any sort of Sleep, Eat, Play schedule. Noah doesn't eat huge amounts at once, because once he's not feeling hungry anymore he wants to go play. So sometimes it's sleep, play, eat, play, sometimes it's sleep, eat, play, eat, sleep.... whatever works for us.

-He's very distractable while nursing and when he's done, if he's not feeling cuddly, he literally climbs off of my lap. But sometimes he lies there and we talk to each other and laugh. I love those times.

-He loves to play with my face while he's nursing, especially my mouth. When I bite his fingers he starts giggling around my nipple and loses his latch. It's so adorable. Except when he fish-hooks my lip. Ouch!

-He is still swaddled at night and for all his naps. Since the nights are cooler now I often double wrap him, once in his swaddler and then overtop with a giant receiving blanket. This keeps him warmer and he gets out of it less easily. The swaddler or receiving blanket on their own he gets out of in about 10 seconds flat when he wants to.

-He goes to bed between 7 and 7:45, depending on when he woke up from his last nap. It's usually closer to 7. He wakes up in the morning between 6 and 6:40, but we don't allow him to get out of bed before 7 because the time change is coming up and I do NOT want to have to get up with him at 5am! We just treat early wakings like it's still nighttime until we hit 7am.

-His nighttime sleeping is all over the place at the moment. Throughout his seventh month he's had a couple of great nights where he sleeps almost 11 hours straight, and he's had terrible nights where I'm up over and over. The worst was when I was up with him no less than 15 times one night. In general I'd say he sleeps 6.5-9 hours straight overnight and gets up to nurse once or twice. Probably 3/4 of his nights he eats only once. If he eats twice it's not that he's hungry, he's just kind of struggling with sleeping.

-For most of his seventh month he had four 30 minute naps a day with awake times of about 2 hours. I'm not interested in trying to do anything about this at the moment, and especially not before the time change (when trying to make it to his 7 oclock bedtime will be like staying up until 8 oclock to his little body. He's definitely going to need that fourth nap).

-He gets a soother for all of his naps, but I try not to give it to him much during the rest of the day unless he's really cranky. For awhile I tried giving him a soother more often during the day because I thought maybe it would help him fill his sucking needs so he wouldn't need it at night, but it actually seemed to do the opposite.

-He's a master at army crawling, and has been for over a month.

-He can crawl backwards on his hands and knees, and is almost crawling forward on his hands and knees as well. He can move an arm and a leg forward together, but gets confused after that.

-He can go from a lying down position to a sitting position all on his own, and has gotten pretty smooth at it.

-He's a very good sitter (obviously, since he can even get into that position on his own). But that's old news. He's been sitting for a couple of months.

-He started "walking" holding on to my hands again. He did this at 2 months, but then stopped doing it. He's started up again.

-He objects when you take a toy away and looks for a dropped object some of the time, depending on how interested he was in the toy or the object.

-He has some very babble-y days, and some more quiet days.

-He is starting to close his mouth more the past few days. I know that sounds weird, but when your child constantly has a kind of shocked look on his face (mouth open) and then starts keeping his mouth closed, it's kind of alarming. He seems so much more grown up!

-He recently started tilting his head all the way to the side to look at us and other things. It's so silly:)

-He is getting into everything. It's fun to watch, but it really is a pain. The most annoying part is how he likes to chew on cords, and makes a beeline for them from across the room. No matter how many times I remove him from the area and distract him with a different toy, within 10 seconds he's crawling back over to the cords.

-We had to put our top of the stairs gate up and get rid of all of our "decor" because Noah is such a crazy rascal. We have an open concept house, so baby proofing is challenging. We can't just block off one room and make it baby proofed. Upstairs our kitchen/dining room/living room is all one big room. And downstairs our family room is very difficult because of our entertainment unit and various cords that we're going to have to hide somehow.

-He enjoys crawling all over my lap when we're sitting on the floor.

-He likes to grab everyone's hair, especially Daddy's since Daddy actually lets him.

-He still loves his jolly jumper, but he jumps so high now that the spring snaps shut and he doesn't really like that.

-He loves to jump in your lap.

-He still puts absolutely everything into his mouth, more so than the other babies his age that we spend time around; they look at things before they put them in their mouths. Noah just puts them straight into his mouth.

-He loves other kids. I've forgot to mention this in previous months, but he absolutely loves other kids. Babies, toddlers, whatever. He finds them so interesting to watch and play with. His cousin Elijah, who's exactly a year older than him, is not a fan of this:)

-Sometimes he's cooperative when he's being changed, sometimes he's not. I rearranged his room this month so his change table is in different spot. He no longer has a curtain hanging right beside him that he can grab, so he's not quite as squirmy there. He's probably actually more cooperative now than he was a month ago.

-He loves peekabo, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Head, and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

-He doesn't use his playmat ever unless he crawls onto it to chew on the toys while on his tummy.

-He almost NEVER lies on his back, except when he's sleeping.

-He slams his legs around less while he's sleeping, although he does do it. I don't have to pin his legs down after I lay him in bed very often anymore.

-He has started with the separation anxiety. What fun!


Our day is pretty much the same as it has been for the past two or three months. Noah gets up, gets his diaper changed, but isn't hungry for awhile so he doesn't eat for 30-60 minutes. We play upstairs for awhile until about 2 hours has passed, and then Noah goes down for his first nap. This is when I grab a quick shower. Since he only naps for 30 minutes I usually end up finishing getting ready with him playing on the floor of our bedroom.

For the rest of the day it's pretty much awake for 2 hours, sleep for 30 minutes. 3 or 4 naps a day, depending on if something happened to make a fourth nap too hard to fit in. Noah loves running around doing errands with me, and never fusses when we're out. He just loves seeing all the different sights and people. Still, we don't tend to run errands very often because his 18lbs plus our carseat that weighs probably 20lbs is a pain to get in and out of the van. So we only go do errands maybe once a week, if I can help it.

We have tea with Erin and Aubrey once a week (usually Wednesday) and often go visit Granny (my mom) and Grandper (my dad) if he's home in town once a week as well. We haven't been making it to church for awhile now because... well, that's a post on it's own.

Bedtime routine goes boob, solids (if he has them), bath, boob, bed. Whether he has solids or not makes no difference to how long he sleeps overnight, so if we can't fit them in without going to bed too late (since they take forever for Noah to eat) or simply because I don't want to give them to him because I have a lot of milk for Noah to drain before bedtime, then we don't worry about it. Daddy always feeds Noah his solids if he's home, but he goes back to the school to coach from 6:45-9:10 most nights, so he often isn't home for this.
Noah still loves his bath and that's always a nice time for us. After bathtime he gets swaddled up and then nurses right to sleep. Sometimes he'll pop himself off after 8 minutes, often I have to pop him off after 25 to 30 minutes. Then he goes in his crib, sleeping. If he wakes up after awhile it totally depends on him what I have to do. Sometimes he just needs a soother, sometimes he needs a cuddle while still lying down, sometimes I have to pick him up, and sometimes I actually have to rock him to sleep again.

There is no sleep training in our house because Noah doesn't have the temperament for it and it doesn't mesh with my parenting style. Plus, there are so many things that disrupt a baby's sleep (teething, milestones, growth spurts, hunger, separation anxiety, gas, constipation, throwing up, etc) I think I'd just get so frustrated whenever things didn't go perfectly because I had put so much effort into sleep training. I'd rather just go with the flow. We have great nights and we have bad nights, but most nights are somewhere in the middle. And that's okay.

I LOVE being Noah's mom. And I feel so blessed that I am a stay-at-home mom. It's not perfect. Yes, I miss adult interaction sometimes, but I do get together with people throughout the week, and my husband is home from 3 to 6:45 most evenings. And frankly, I was a teacher, so it's not like I had much adult interaction anyway! I'd much rather spend the day with my own child than with somebody else's children.

It's a lot of work being a SAHM. Your house gets a lot dirtier when you're actually there 24/7. I try to spend most of my time with Noah instead of running to household, so I actually end up doing a lot of my chores when Justin is actually home so that I don't have to leave Noah playing alone for hours while I clean the house or fold laundry. But it works for us this way. Noah gets to play with his mom or dad most of the time, Justin doesn't have to do any housework (although he does help with some things out of the goodness of his heart), and I get to spend a lot of time loving my child.

Both Justin and I are so glad I can stay home. It's a lot less money (I couldn't believe it when I calculated how much money we'd be clearing every month if I were to go back to work), but we are all a lot happier for it. I'm happier being the one who takes care of Noah (instead of someone else doing it), Justin is happier because he doesn't have to do half of the housework (he just does the "man chores" like cutting the grass and putting the garbage out to the road), and Noah is happier because he gets to be with me, in his own house, and gets to be on his own schedule in his own timing without trying to fit it in to the ideas of someone else. I couldn't imagine working and then trying to get all the household chores done in the small window of time that I'm actually home, instead of spending time with Noah. I would be extremely unhappy.

Life is great, and my sleeping is improved (although it's the sleep of the drugged). We're doing well at the 7 month mark.

Worst Night EVER

 Last night was Noah's worst night ever.  In his entire 7 months of being alive he has not had such a terrible night.  Not even when he was a newborn, or when he was really sick with a cold and woke up choking all the time.

I had to rock or nurse Noah back to sleep no fewer than 15 times.  He only slept longer than an hour at a time ONCE the entire night. Every single time he woke up he was in a full blown panic, screaming his face off. It was ridiculous!

He went to bed at 7 and normally doesn't get any more than 11 hours a night, but he slept until 8:15 this morning (after me putting him back to sleep for the billionth time) because he missed out on so much sleep last night.  The fact that I was able to get him back to sleep at 7:30AM really tells me a lot!

I'm not even sure what's causing these terrible nights, anymore. Everything and anything is coming to my mind. Is it the constipation? Is it separation anxiety? Is he starting to despise being swaddled? Is the nightlight in his room too bright?  Is he hot? Is he cold?  Is it a growth spurt? Is he teething?

The reason I think it might be separation anxiety is because of how he'll totally lose his mind. If he's lying in his crib semi-awake and I'm right there stroking his face and kissing him, he could be completely calm and if I walk away to let him fall asleep on his own, (something he used to be okay doing after a feeding in the middle of the night if he was still awake) he immediately panics.
 
The reason I think it might be something else is because sometimes when I'm holding him he is STILL crying. It must be a combination. I really don't know what to do though, because none of us are getting any sleep (except Justin; he can sleep through anything) and that's really not good for any of us. Especially Noah. I'm afraid of him getting so overtired he just cannot sleep. Which is another option in my list of things I think might be wrong.
 
I don't think it was the constipation last night (although the horrible night the night before was from constipation, I believe).  Noah had the happiest, most cheerful day he's had in awhile, with no crying or straining.  No pooping either, but that's normal for him.  So if it was the constipation pain waking him up last night and he never did end up pooping, he should still be struggling with it, and he's not.
 
I don't think it's teething because he's not fussy during the day.
 
I don't think it's a growth spurt because he's 7 months old... I don't think there's a 7 month growth spurt.  Plus he doesn't always want to eat when he wakes up.  He'll comfort nurse sometimes, but more often than not I have to actually rock him back to sleep.
 
It actually might be a milestone thing.  He's right on the verge of really crawling, not just army crawling (hands and knees are moving forward in sync, just not consistently), and he's figuring out how to get into a sitting position from a lying down position.  He's done this several times in the past few days.  The thing is, he's swaddled at night.  So is that why he wakes up screaming?  Because he wants to practice his moves and is bound up tight like a mummy??
 
All I know is that this can't continue. It's worse now than when he was a newborn. He was NEVER like this as a newborn. Sure, he got up every hour or two all night long, but he just ate and went back to sleep. I could handle this much better if he would do that now.
 
The problem is I absolutely refuse to let Noah cry it out.  I think even a supporter of CIO would realize that my child cannot do that if they were here.  He doesn't just cry, he gets hysterical.  And since he's starting OUT hysterical with these night wakings, I can't let him keep going like that.
 
I'm not counting on a good night tonight, but I sure could use one!  Even if he would just get up every two hours I would appreciate it over this 40 minute business.  I'm really trying to not get anxious about it though.  What happens happens, and we'll deal with it as it comes.

Constipation Station

Last night was awful. Noah went to bed really well at 8 (later than normal because of a late nap) and stayed asleep for a couple of hours. At 10 he cried bloody murder and needed a soother. Then at 12:30 he cried bloody murder and needed to nurse back to sleep because he was crying and bending his knees up to his chest while I tried to rock him. That clearly wasn't working.

Then at 2:30 he was crying really hard again but he wouldn't eat. Everytime he got my nipple in his mouth he would do 3 suckles and then pull off once he got any milk. So I tried to get him back to sleep with a soother and rocking. He was really tired, but he was in too much pain and just kept crying really hard. Justin and I were at a total loss of what to do. Eventually shortly after 3am I unswaddled him and then he just passed out in my arms pretty much as soon as I did that (he was sleepy like a newborn). But he's not used to sleeping unswaddled, so I had to lie down with him in my arms instead of putting him in his crib. But then I didn't sleep a wink because I can't sleep with a baby in my arms!!

He slept like that until 5, and then woke up and thought it was playtime because he was in bed with me and wasn't swaddled. So I had to go get another swaddler (at this point we were on our fourth and last one because of the number of times he was swaddled and unswaddled already that night), swaddle him back up, and nurse him. LUCKILY he fell asleep nursing even though he wasn't very hungry. I was so thankful, because I really didn't think he would go to sleep again. I put him in his crib at about 5:30 and he slept until 7.

If you're keeping track, I slept from about 11:00 to 12:30, then 1:45 to 2:30, then 6:15-7:00, then 7:30-8:20 (Justin got up with him). That's not even 4 hours. And it's extremely fragmented. And because I'm nursing I don't ingest caffeine. Which makes it suck a lot more.

Today was awful. Noah was crying off and on the whole day for seemingly no reason (although I knew it was because he was trying to poop). I was massaging his tummy and bicycling his legs, but it didn't seem to help. I even put a vaseline-covered q-tip in his bum, because I read in multiple places that that can stimulate the bowels of a constipated baby and make them poop. I know that sounds so weird, but I was desperate! He was so miserable!

The first time it didn't do anything but I tried again a few hours later, along with putting a warm wet cotton ball in him bum crack (apparently something else that works). A couple of minutes later he started crying really hard again so I kept him lying down and kept his legs bent up to his chest because he kept trying to straighten them. He was crying so hard, but when I realized he was actually pooping (very slowly) I had to keep him like that so that he could get it all out, because he was holding it in for so many days.

I don't think he got it all out, but he got a better portion than his two tiny poops on Friday. Poor little guy. Pooping shouldn't make you cry and sweat.

I called telehealth today (a government hotline where you can talk to registered nurses) to see what they said about Noah's constipation.  I just wanted to know if I should give him a glycerin suppository.  I got a man, and he was so useless.  I've called twice before and been satisfied, but this guy was a complete tool.  I told him all the information: exclusively breastfed baby, just introduced a small amount of solids (about 2 tablespoons, max) once a day about 2 weeks ago, solids introduced were rice cereal, banana, sweet potato, and pear.  Since last Saturday he's only done two small, pretty dry poops - on FRIDAY, and he's been crying pretty hard off and on for several days, which is very unlike him.  He was suggested all the "typical" foods for constipation (prunes, pears, peaches, plums, peas, etc).  Well, first of all, my child hardly eats any solids, so it's not like I can just change up his diet and feed him these foods all day long.  It would probably make things worse.  Second of all, you're only supposed to introduce one new food every 3 to 5 days.  I'm not going to throw a whole bunch of new foods at once at my constipated 7 month old!

He also suggested fruit juice.  I told him there's no way Noah would drink fruit juice; he refuses any liquids that don't come out of my boobs.  Besides, he's 7 months old; I'm not exactly keen on giving him juice!  Especially when he's taking in less breastmilk anyway right now (either that or I'm making way more) AND he wants me to give him all these solids.  So I told the guy fruit juice is out, Noah would never ever take it.  He acted like this was the end of the world.  He was like "You really should try and find a way to get him to take it."  Well buddy, it's not happening.  Then he told me, "That's something you should talk to your doctor about.  You don't want your baby to be dictating that sort of thing and not allowing you to give him a bottle or a cup."

Um, EXCUSE ME?  HE'S 7 MONTHS OLD.  He's a breastfed baby of a stay-at-home mom, who is going to continue to be a stay-at-home mom beyond his first year of life.  I have no burning desire to spend hours and hours away from him, and absolutely no desire to wean him from breastfeeding anytime before he's a year old, maybe even later.  At some point he will drink from a cup, but there is no reason for my particular child to have to take a cup or a bottle at 7 months old.  I don't need to talk to my doctor about this, you idiot!  Do you know NOTHING about breastfeeding?

Apparently not, because he asked me how many ounces Noah has drank in the past 8 hours.  Hmmm, let me check the dial on my boobs... HE'S BREASTFED YOU MORON!  I don't know how many ounces he's had!!

He also told me to call back if Noah cries while he's pooping (I already told you this was happening, retard), and if he goes 3 days without pooping (I already told you he just went SIX days and then only pooped a miniscule amount.  Basically just a large shart.  What don't you understand?)

Men are idiots.

As I close this long blog post, I leave you with two pictures of Noah's reaction to a sippy cup:

He shudders just looking at it.  He hadn't even put it in his mouth when I took these pictures.  He tried it the first time I gave it to him, and HATED it.  Now everytime he sees it he has that reaction.

HILARIOUS.  You should see the video.

Worst Night in Forever

I'm not letting myself stress out about it, but last night was Noah's worst night since he was like, a month old.  With the exception of when he was 3 1/2 months and he was very sick with a cold and was up choking on mucous every time we laid him down.  But at least he was trying to sleep that night!  Last night: not so much.

He was asleep by 7:30, in bed by 7:40, up crying by 7:50.  He got a soother, but that wasn't enough, he needed kisses, too.  That was fine, I gave him kisses.  He fell asleep.  And stayed asleep for a bit.  But not for long. 

I went to bed at 9:15.  At 10:15 Noah was awake crying.  I gave him a soother.  He went to sleep.

At 11:15 Noah was awake crying.  I gave him a soother.  He went to sleep.

At 12:15 Noah was awake crying.  I gave him a soother.  He went to sleep.

At about 2:30 Noah was awake.  By the time I got to him both arms were out of his swaddle, so who knows how long he was awake for.  I reswaddled him and nursed him.  He was asleep and back in bed at about 3.

At 4:30 he woke me up making noise.  I didn't get up because he wasn't making much noise.  But by 5 he was fussing.  I went in, his arms were out of the swaddle.  I reswaddled him and gave him a soother, but he seemed very awake.  I waited for a bit, but he eventually started crying.  Justin and I discussed what I should do, and I just decided to try and fix every possible problem.  I changed his bum in case the full diaper was keeping him awake.  I reswaddled him in two layers (swaddler and then big receiving blanket) in case he was cold and that was waking him up.  Then I nursed him again.  He went to sleep and was back in bed at 5:45.  He slept until 7:30.  That was better than I was expecting, since his internal alarm clock wakes him up around 6:30 every single day (6:40 at the absolute latest).

Pretty bad night, eh?  The night before also was not great, but it wasn't as bad as that.  Two nights ago he was in his crib asleep by 7:40, crying for a soother at 8:40, then up to eat at 2am, then up for the day at 5:30am.  I tried to nurse him back to sleep and he did fall back asleep, but he woke up when I transferred him to his crib.  I didn't talk, change his bum, or turn on any lights until past 7am, but he didn't go back to sleep.

I realize that me giving him a soother when he wakes up crying is possibly making it so that he needs it more and more.  But I do wait until it's clear that he's not going to stop crying on his own and needs a soother.  And I'm not going to let him lie there and cry it out.  It goes against every instinct I have as a mother.  To be honest, I would rather start sleeping with him beside me so that I can give him a soother whenever he needs it instead of letting him cry it out.  I just can't do it.

There have been many nights lately that I've had the pack 'n play bassinet set up right beside my bed in case we have a bad night and I'm constantly getting up to give him a soother.  Last night was that exact night, but for some reason I just kept putting him back in his crib. I kept hoping that that time would be the last time he would get up for the night (it never was), and I didn't want him to disturb my sleep or Justin or I to disturb his sleep.  As it turns out I never did fall back asleep after he woke me up at 4:30.

We'll see how it goes tonight.  Something tells me we're in for another crappy one.  But like I said, I'm not letting it upset me.  I'm okay with nighttime parenting.  I'll deal.

My Kid Has Mad Skills

Noah is 6 months, 1 weeks, and 2 days old

This morning Noah discovered that he can do something that I knew he could do, but I was quite happy that he hadn't realized it yet:

He can now roll onto his stomach while he's swaddled.

This is not a welcome development in our household.  He did this several times this morning and several times after naps throughout the day. 

Not cool.

I truly wish I could strap him to his mattress and tape a soother to his face.  I probably wouldn't have to get up all night!!  *sigh*  That would be wonderful.

I wonder when Noah will actually be able to sleep unswaddled and be fine?  We have been back to swaddling for all of his naps (as well as nighttime) for about a week now.  He seems much happier when going to sleep, and is having more frequent long naps (although we are still lucky when they happen, and they never happen more than once a day).

I'm extremely exhausted lately.  Last week on Thursday and Friday it took me 45 minutes to get Noah down for each nap.  Not to mention the hour and a half I spent trying to get him down for a nap that he never even ended up falling asleep for.  At 3 or 4 naps a day, that's a lot of time to spend trying to get a baby to sleep.  He was just so squirmy, even though I could tell from his eyes that he was tired.

By his last nap on Friday I just couldn't fight that battle anymore, so I nursed him to sleep.  And then I did that for most of his naps for the past 3 days, as well.  I just don't have the energy to rock a baby who's fighting sleep.  I'm just so exhausted. 

I don't know what it is.  I haven't felt this tired since Noah was in his first couple of months and I would only get 2-3 hours of sleep in each 24 hour period. He was getting up to nurse literally every hour or two all night long, and I wasn't able to fall back asleep in between nursings.  It took at least a month before he finally started doing a 3 hour stretch at the beginning of the night, and even then it was still every hour or hour and a half all night after that.  The only time I would get any sleep would be the first part of the night. I would nurse Noah, then send him downstairs with Justin so I could get maybe 2 hours of sleep at once. Then Justin would come upstairs with Noah and wake me up again because he'd be hungry. I would be at my most tired during those periods because I was just woken up out of a deep sleep (something I rarely get). Sometimes I would just sit there and cry while I was nursing him because I was so exhausted from exisiting on such little sleep for so many weeks.

That's how tired I felt today.  When Justin came home from work he took Noah and let me have a 45 minute nap.  That was only, like, my third nap since Noah was born more than 6 months ago.  I could have slept for hours, but I forced myself awake so that I'll be able to sleep tonight.

I don't know why I'm so tired lately, but I am.  Maybe it's because I've been staying up until 9:30 every night and Justin and Noah wake me up by 6:30 every morning.  And I'm not sleeping that whole time, obviously.  I've always been a person who needs 9 hours a night to not be tired, and I think I'm getting about 7, total.  It's not terrible - in fact, it's pretty good now that I drug myself with gravol and antihistamines every night and can get more than 4 or 5 hours - but it's not quite enough for me.  Maybe I'm getting just enough sleep to make my body think "Oh, I can finally feel tired, I don't have to exist on adrenaline," but not enough to actually feel rested.

I'm feeling tired again, despite my nap.  Hopefully I can get to bed earlier than 9:30!

Another Great Night, Thanks to Swaddling

Last night was another great night. Noah was asleep by 7:40 and slept all the way until 5, when he got up to nurse. He went straight back to bed and didn't make another peep until 8AM!! How fantastic is that?

He did cough on several occasions last night, and each time I worried that I would have to put him back to sleep, but I never had to. I'm not even sure if he actually woke up when he coughed.

I am still so amazed that he's back to sleeping so well. I'm really really thankful. We're still trying to figure out our days, though. Because of the 8am wake up time today, he only had 3 naps instead of four, because he woke up from his third nap at 3:50. That meant that he wouldn't be ready for his fourth nap until after 5:40 or so, and by the time he got to sleep he probably wouldn't wake up from it until 6:30. I'm not going to give him a 9 oclock bedtime just so I can give him 4 naps. So he stayed awake until 7, when bathtime was done and I started nursing him to sleep. I guess some days we'll have 4 naps and some days we'll have 3 naps. I would have liked to have more of a schedule, since my research on naps and bedtime said that if you have consistent nap times then the baby's circadian rhythms make them tired at those times, making it easier for them to sleep. But Noah's not a good napper, so I'm not about to wake him up in the morning before he would have woken up on his own just to hopefully have a nap schedule. Makes no sense for our situation.

I also read in my research that daytime sleep is controlled by a different area of the brain than nightime sleep. I did not know that! But it makes so much sense, since generally Noah is a great nighttime sleeper and a not-so-great daytime sleeper. I always wondered about that dichotomy.


I slept pretty good once I finally fell asleep at midnight last night. I tried to go to bed at 9:30, and I was exhausted, but I couldn't sleep because I was feeling so anxious. Usually my anxiety like that happens when I'm lying awake in the middle of the night, but lately I've had more episodes at the beginning of the night. I have a doctor's appointment at the same time as Noah's on Tuesday, so I'll see what he says. I've mentioned before that last time I had anxiety like this surrounding sleep I had to go on antidepressants to make it go away - and it did. I don't really want to do on antidepressants, because the ones that are safe when breastfeeding also have a possible side effect of insomnia... yeah, that's the LAST thing an insomniac needs.

6 Months Old!

Here's where Noah is at 6 months old:

-Noah weighs 18lbs pretty much bang on.  This is about 60th percentile according to the chart I've been following, and 75th percentile according to the Dr.

-He is 29 inches long (over 100th percentile)

-He wears mostly 12 month clothes, although we have some 6-9 month sleepers that are extremely long and still fit him fine.

-He wears size 3 diapers all the time - this just started a few days before 6 months.

-He has his two bottom teeth; they came in at 5 months and 1 weeks, exactly.

-Noah is still exclusively breastfed - no solids or bottles.

-He nurses about every 2 to 2 1/2 hours during the day.

-He's very distractable while nursing. We have to be somewhere quiet, otherwise he pops off to look around. No people or TV.

-When he's nursing he always strokes my chest over and over again. He just rubs circles on it. Very cute. He also reaches up to touch my face.

-He is very difficult to diaper.  He's constantly twisting and trying to flip over.  It's like a wrestling match everytime.  Gone are the days where he actually helped with his diaper changes by putting his legs in the exact right position at the right time.

-He naps for 30-40 minutes three or four times a day. We were trying to transition down to 3 naps that were hopefully longer, but it didn't work out so we're back up to 4 naps.

-He has awake periods of about 2 hours, a little longer right before bedtime.

-He was down to sleeping about 10.5 hours a night total when he wasn't swaddled, waking up and needing to eat or be soothed back to sleep several times a night. I'm hoping that is over now that we're swaddling again.

-He is back to being swaddled at night and for naps because he was constantly turning over onto his tummy in his crib and fully waking up because of it. He couldn't get himself back to sleep after waking up so fully, and nighttime was torture for all of us. So swaddling made a comeback.

-He had a bedtime of 7pm (or even earlier) for most of his 6th month. Bedtime is now later somedays - 7-8pm - because we brought back his fourth nap.

-He started having earlier and earlier wake up times, so that for the last couple of weeks of his sixth month he was waking at 5:45 every morning. This seems to be corrected by the reintroduction of swaddling at night. Wake up time now seems to be 7am.

-He is a very good sitter, and can sit for several minutes on his own, although I would never leave him sitting on a hard surface without me there to catch him if he fell. Eventually he decides he wants to get something out of his reach and pitches forward or sideways and smashes his head. He rarely just falls though, it's generally his own fault because he leaned too far.

-He can creep really far really fast. He is very smart when deciding how to quickly get to a toy that's out of his reach, even if it's really far away. He uses both arms and legs to move around now. A month ago it was pretty much just legs. Now he can plant his hands down when he's on a hard surface, press really hard, and just pull himself forward with arm strength. But he generally uses both arms and legs at the same time, making him quite fast. I see top-of-the-stair gates needing to go up in the next month.

-He is a total pro at rolling from back to front, and does it every chance he gets.

-He is now starting to roll from front to back more often (although when compared with back to front, it's probably only a 1:10 ratio). It doesn't seem to be a mistake anymore - it's more deliberate.

-He's not as obsessed with standing as he used to be, although he does enjoy it.

-He doesn't "babble," but he talks. For consanants sounds, he says m, l, g (hard), k, h. He loves to stare at you, smiling, and say "ggggggg" from his throat. He also says "Mum!" indiscriminately sometimes.

-He has the cutest baby giggles and laughs.

-He smiles pretty easily.

-Noah loves playing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." He gets a huge smile on his face when I start, and often giggles throughout the songs.

-He loves playing peekaboo, and he can pull the burp cloth off his face himself now. When he sees it's about to go over his head he gets this giant smile on his face, breathes really fast, and gets crazy legs. He loves when he pulls the cloth off and I say "Peekaboo! Hi!!! Yaaaaay!!!"

-His breath still smells gloriously yummy, like sweet, sweet apples.

-He is extremely drooly, and has a bib on pretty much all the time.

-He loves to watch the cats, and always wants to touch them. The interest is not mutual.

-He puts everything in his mouth, much more so than other babies his age that we spend time around (there's 4 of them).

-He hangs out with Aubrey, Colton, and Bredan and Morrigan (twins).

-He loves his jolly jumper and jumperoo.

-He hardly ever uses his play mat anymore because he immediately rolls onto his tummy and creeps off of it.

-He cannot, under any circumstances, be left on any elevated surface without being watched pretty much every second. He can creep to the edge of our king sized bed very quickly. He also tries to roll out of his swing and bouncy chair, and totally would if we let him do so.

-He slams his legs around all the time. When I put him in bed I often have to pin his legs down because he lifts them up and slams them down on the mattress over and over, which will usually wake him up.

-About a week ago we had this hilarious night with Noah in the jolly jumper. He was so hyper, and Justin was kicking his plush soccer ball at him pretending he was a goalie. Noah would jump like mad, and when Justin would say "Ready????" it sounded like Noah was going "Uh huh!" He would stop jumping with stiff legs and wait for the ball. If the ball would hit his legs he would laugh hysterically. It was out of control. One of the funniest moments of our parenting career.

Mama Knows Best... Again

The swaddling worked. Last night was glorious. Noah was asleep by 8:15 and in bed by 8:25. It was a later bedtime than usual because he woke up from his last nap at 2:30, and instead of being obsessed with having an early bedtime and therefore not giving him a fourth nap, I decided he would HAVE that fourth nap, even if he didn't go down for it until 5:05. Even if I did have to wake him up at 5:50 because he was still sleeping soundly and would have probably stayed conked out until 6:30. (Man I felt guilty waking him up... I've never done that before! He was groggy for awhile.)

Anyway, with the minor exception of waking up and crying for 30 seconds at 10pm (and falling right back to sleep) he slept from 8:15 until 5:30. I changed his bum, re-swaddled him, nursed him for 10 minutes, and he felt right back asleep. I heard him talking to himself around 6:30, but because he was swaddled he couldn't roll over, so he fell back asleep. He then started fussing at 7:45 so I sent Justin to go get him.

It was a normal night again! I am so happy I made the decision to swaddle him again. He clearly still needs it.

Just as he clearly still needs his 4 crap naps everyday. I was trying to transition down to 3 naps, hoping he would have at least one good nap each day that would help this. He only occasionally did that though. So he always had a really early bedtime, which combined with no swaddling led to a really early wake up time, and a less happy baby.

I find I always screw things up when I try to listen to what books say my baby should be doing at his age. I'm really not sure why I decided that I didn't want him to be swaddled anymore. What's the problem with swaddling your 6 month old if that's what he likes?

Before I started concentrating much on his "schedule" we were all a lot happier. Now I find I'm obsessing too much about when he's napping and when he's eating and when he's going to bed and when he's waking up... So many places say that a 6 month old should be on a predictable schedule. Well, I don't care what they say anymore. Noah has a routine, but I'm sick of worrying about how he doesn't fit into some 6-month-old-baby mold. I'm sick of comparing him to the baby across the road, who is just 3 weeks older and used to be JUST like him in every way, but now eats every 3-3.5 hours, stays awake for 3 hours at a time, always puts herself to sleep, has stopped crying hysterically when she's put in her crib awake, and has just 2 long naps everyday instead of 4 short ones. Obviously Noah is not Aubrey, and I should stop wishing he would be.

I was very happy to find a baby sleep site that talked about many 6 month old babies napping just like Noah does, and that's it's perfectly normal. I felt reassured that as long as something is working for us - rocking him to sleep, nursing him to sleep, etc. - then it's not a problem. It's only when it becomes something we/I can no longer handle that we need to change it. Nursing Noah to sleep at night is perfectly fine for him. He started sleeping 8-10 hours straight every night on his own when I was still nursing him to sleep, and nursing him when we woke up at night, so obviously it wasn't creating an issue for us. Noah also naps the exact same amount of time whether he puts himself to sleep at naptime or whether Justin or I rock him to sleep. So it's not like I've created a monster in that area.

I'm guessing I'll know when he's ready to transition to 3 naps a day instead of 4. He'll probably start not falling asleep for naps as early as he usually does and still being happy during that time period. We'll see. I'm not going to force it.

Operation No-Swaddle... Semi-Fail

(Noah is 6 months old)

While I previously thought that we were completely done with swaddling, I have since changed my mind. These crazy nights of waking up over and over are hard on me, but they're also hard on Noah. He may have done well being unswaddled the first couple of nights, but for over a week now he's been sleeping like crap.

Last night he finally was asleep by 8:15 (bedtime started at 6:15, he should have been completely down for the night by 7). He woke up crying several times between that time and about 3:45. At 3:45 I decided to change his bum, swaddle him, and nurse him. I wasn't sure if he would fight the swaddling, since he hasn't been swaddled in several weeks. But he just laid there with limp arms and didn't squirm at all.

After I put him down he burst into wails about 10 minutes later. I went into his room to make sure he hadn't magically rolled over while he was swaddled. He hadn't, so I didn't do anything. He only cried for about a minute. I went back to bed. 5 minutes later he cried again for about 30 seconds. Then he was peaceful until 7:30am!!!!! That's almost 2 hours later than he has been sleeping!

He was awake for a bit before 7:30, but he must have felt rested because he was just lying there in his green swaddler looking like a little bean pod, staring at the ceiling. That's what he used to do almost every morning. Lie there looking around his room with his arms pinned to his sides... so cute.

I'm just going to go back to swaddling him all night again. He obviously can't handle the freedom. I'm going to leave him unswaddled for his naps, though. I don't want to have to actually wean him off the swaddle again. We'll just wait until he has a little more control over his body. He does fine for naps now. Well, not fine. He strictly takes crap naps and doesn't get nearly the amount of sleep he's supposed to. But that's a whole other post.

Operation No-Swaddle, Night 1

I think Night 1 of Operation No-Swaddle was a success. I decided to just go for broke and release BOTH arms at once. I just wrapped Noah up around the chest, and he was fine. He went to bed late - in his crib by 8:30 - because of his late nap. He got up to eat at 4, and then up for the day at 6:30. I'm not a fan of the fact that "night time" was only 10 hours long last night, but that seems to be the way he sleeps now, swaddled or not. I actually think he would have eaten at 2:45 instead of 4:00 if he was swaddled, because I heard him smacking away on his hands at that time. Hopefully he wasn't awake in his crib playing from 2:45 until 4!!

The only problem I have now is that his hands were like blocks of ice when I fed him at 4am. His body was okay because it had been wrapped in a blanket, but I'm assuming his arms were chilly as well. Our house is 70 degrees at night, which is still too warm for me (I'm in shorts and a t-shirt with just a light sheet on me), but it was way too cold for Noah's hands.

For the fall and winter I'm going to get him fleece sleepers, and maybe find some long sleeved onesies to put underneath so keep his arms warm. I also bought fleece sleep sacks that I'm going to try out soon instead of the blanket wrapped around his chest. But none of this is going to affect his poor little cold hands. And there's no way I'm keeping my house at 70 degrees all winter long!

Any tips for the cold hands??

Operation No-Swaddle, Day 8

I would say Day 8 of Operation No-Swaddle was fairly successful again. Noah went down so easily for all of his naps. His first three naps were 40 minutes, 40 minutes, and 30 minutes. None of the naps had him making so much as a peep before going to sleep. I just swaddled him around the chest, put his soother in, he cuddled his puppy head blanket, and I gently rocked him to sleep. He fell asleep within a couple of minutes each time.

He wasn't going to have a fourth nap, but my inlaws were over and because he was kind of tired they were making him cry. So I decided to put him down for another nap. We followed the same routine as the three naps before, but after I laid him down he woke up. I just kind of his in his room and watched him as he fell back asleep on his own. I had to go replace his soother twice after he pulled it out, but other than that he fell asleep on his own, no fussing. Then, of course, he slept an hour and 20 minutes. So he didn't wake up until 6pm. This has thrown us way off schedule, but whatever.

I was hoping for only 3 naps today, but he woke up for the day at 6:30am (after going to bed at 7:45 and waking to eat at 2:15am... not a stellar night). This makes it difficult to only have 3 naps since he was awake earlier than normal but would still be going to sleep no earlier than 7pm (he won't go to bed before then), so I kept him up for 2 1/2 hours between each nap. I was really hoping one of them would be a long one, and if it had been we would have been able to stick with only 3 naps. Of course he decided to catnap for his first three naps and have a long one for his fourth nap. A nap that he probably wouldn't have had if he was just at home with mommy and daddy.

I think tonight we are going to start swaddle weaning. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do one arm out or two arms out, but I think tonight might be the night to start.