Baby Life - 4 Months

I love the 4 month age, Ryley is SO fun. She smiles a lot, except when I'm taking pictures, giggles, "talks" and plays games. It's awesome! She's becoming so much aware of the world around her and enjoys being outside to investigate the world.

There is a thing called "4 month sleep regression" which I guess is the downside of this age. Ryley hasn't gone super crazy in this regression but has done a bit. She used to sleep totally through the night but recently has started waking once or twice a night. Sometimes just crying out for a couple minutes and other times wanting to feed. And my "mommy ears" have really turned on because I hear her crying even before I ever hear her on the monitor (guess I don't need that guy anymore).

Adorable!

I still feel lucky though because I'm in a Facebook group and people are talking about the troubles they are going through. There is this thing called Wonder Weeks and I guess around 4 months is called Leap 4. It's a great developmental stage - and you can see it. It's awesome. The way she looks around, taking in everything, it is truly amazing to watch. All that "learning" she is doing during the day is what affects her sleep. She started rolling over so that has definitely affected her falling asleep; when she rolls over she starts crying and hasn't learned to roll back over to her back. But she LOVES sleeping on her belly once she's actually asleep.

The past two nights we are back to sleeping full nights and I'm SO thankful! Even if she isn't making me get up to comfort her I still struggle getting back to sleep. You'd think since I don't even get out of bed it wouldn't affect me much in the morning but I can feel a huge difference when I get the full 8 hours uninterrupted. It's truly wonderful. We are almost done with this "regression" so hopefully her sleeping habits continue. Next up - teething...we'll see how that one goes!

Thanks!

Baby Life - Crying...

As a new parent crying can be a bit scary. You see the face on your little one and it hurts to see and/or hear them crying. And as a parent we want to make our baby feel better.

But sometimes crying isn't bad. I believe that crying can be part of the growing process for little babies. They need to learn to self sooth themselves so that they don't rely on mom or dad for everything. I wanted to share with your our process for working with Ryley for day time naps.

Age 0-1 Months

• During this time getting her to sleep was actually pretty easy because babies just tend to sleep a lot. I didn't stress too much about it and I often let her sleep on me or just in her rock n play. During the night she actually slept on me while I slept in a rocking chair. It wasn't the best idea but it worked at the time.

Age 1-2 Months

• I realized I needed to stop sleeping in the rocking chair so I told myself that if I could do two weeks of sleeping in my own bed I'd get myself a new Kate Spade wallet I really wanted. And it worked! If you are struggling with something give yourself a reward. A mani/pedi, a massage, a new purse, whatever it is that will motivate you DO IT!
• At this point we worked on getting her to a more structured schedule. We were trying to follow a babywise type schedule. Feeding every 2.5-3 hours with around an hr nap in there as well.
• When it came to crying we followed this:
• Put her down and if she cried let her cry for 2 minutes then go in
• When we go in we'd try to calm her in her bed for 30 seconds before picking her up
• Once we picked her up we'd shhh her until she calmed down and then we'd put her back down
• If she started crying while we were putting her down we'd still put her down all the way before picking her up and shhing again
• Once she was down that time I'd leave the room. If she started crying again this time I'd wait 3 minutes and then follow the same process above
• I would go thru this process until I had been trying for about 30 minutes. At that point I'd go ahead and sit down and try to rock her and do whatever needed to happen to get her to sleep

Age 2-3 Months

• We still followed the same process as above but the timing changed to 3 minutes on the first time we go in and 5 minutes on those after
• We never really ended up going in more than 3 times. If I have to go in a 4th time then I'll usually try to get her to sleep somewhere else (her swing, her rocker, etc.)
• We also moved to a 4 hour feeding schedule, this was seriously the best thing we ever did! I felt like a whole new person who wasn't just a milk machine anymore. Plus her naps are actually longer (usually 1 hr nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon with a 30 minute cat nap in the evening)

Age 3-4 Months

• Still same process but now we wait 5 minutes
• Sometimes we'll turn on her mobile, it really helps her fall asleep and now most times I don't even have to go in at all. It's been working very well
• She also switched to sleeping a bit more during the day (2 hr nap in the morning and afternoon and still the cat nap in the evening)

And that is where we are at now. Seriously one of my favorite things was moving to the 4 hour feeding schedule. I felt like a new woman and felt like I could actually get things done during the day. I get longer stretches of quality time with her but also longer stretches of time to do stuff around the house (or write in my blog :) )

Thanks!

Baby Life - Sleep Is A Wonderful Thing

I probably shouldn't write this post - it may jinx the amazing thing we have going for us....SLEEP! Sleep has been had in this household, it's amazing!!!!

Little Miss Ryley, at 6 weeks old, slept through the night for the first time on August 16th. She slept 7 hours!! What 6 week old does that? Apparently mine. Since that Saturday night there have only been 2 nights where she hasn't slept from about 10pm until 5am. And for the past week she's slept until 7am. Sleep is the most wonderful thing!

Sleepy baby!

I read a crap ton of books about sleeping so I thought I'd share a bit about how we "think" we made it work. First off I want to say - it's not normal for a 6 week old to be this good of a sleeper (now 9 weeks) so if your little one isn't sleeping this much, don't worry as you are actually the norm.

Let's start by saying that Ryley has always been a good sleeper. For the first 6 weeks of her life she only once woke up 3 times during the night, every other time it was either once, at 3am, or twice, at 1 and 4am. We never really had to do any training to get her to that point so we started out very lucky.

I read Babywise, Baby Whisperer, and 12 Hours of Sleep by 12 Weeks. All of the books had great ideas that I made my own. The main thing was creating a consistent plan but being flexible with what your child wants.

We focused on a few key points (**note that this is what worked for us, it may not work for everyone and we are definitely not experts, this is just my experience**):

1. Eat, Play, Sleep and repeat - this pattern helps the baby get into a habit so they know what to expect next and you to better understand the needs of the baby
2. Yawning? Time for a nap - during play time as soon as I see the first yawn it's time for a nap
3. Crying isn't bad - depending on her age I let her cry for a certain amount of time before I go in to comfort her. This isn't a hard and fast rule, I base it on her crying but I do let her cry. Plus if you go in for every sound you may actually wake the baby up - there have been many times where she will let out a little squawk while in the middle of a nap and then be asleep again
4. Put her down for a nap awake - I get longer naps when she gets herself to sleep over me getting her to sleep and then putting her down

These are all things that I've been very consistent about and it seems to have worked. We also LOVE our footie PJ's. The first night she slept through the night was the first nice we put her in the footie PJ's so now we put her in them every night - it's adorable!!

Footie pajamas are my friend!

I'll post more posts with additional information on each of the things we found helpful so be on the lookout.

Thanks!

Baby Life - So Much Information

Before Ryley was born people gave lots of advice and many included books I should read. I read many, probably too many, and now that she's here it's hard to figure out what Matt and I really want to do.

I've read Babywise, The Baby Whisperer and 12 Hours of Sleep by 12 Weeks most recently. All of them have things I like but combining this is a bit overwhelming. I don't think one way is the "best" way but rather just finding something that works with your child, and that my friend is the difficult part.

The Baby Whisperer is a great book - it focuses on understanding your own child. But it's not that easy. I'm trying to listen to her cries and her body language and I just don't know how to read it.
Then there is Babywise that has a relatively strict schedule. I'm a routine person so I like the idea and we've been going off of their suggested schedule mostly. The downside is, what if an activity we want to do falls during a time she is supposed to be doing something else?
12 Hours book also makes sense - similar idea of a schedule but more flexible.

I just don't know....honestly all I can think about is getting a full nights sleep again. I know we will get there but I'm dying with the middle of the night feeding. I know I'm lucky too because she isn't horrible or staying up all night or anything but I'm the type that used to get like 9-10 hours of sleep every night so to go from that to increments of 3 has been rough to say the least.

I think I want her to be older than she is, that's part of the problem. She's only a month old, I shouldn't expect her to sleep through the night yet. Give it a couple more months, I know. I just want some sanity back in my life :)

Another thing that I miss is going to bed with my husband. Matt and I made it a priority to go to bed together each night. It was always a great way to end the day and for us to reconnect after our very busy lives. I can't wait to have that back too. He's been so great and helpful, I really am lucky to have him!

Here a few pictures of the little one sleeping :)

I love this picture - she is just the sweetest thing ever!

Couldn't be happier

Thanks!