Waffling

On sleep training, at least at night. Co-sleeping sort of works for us. He starts out in the crib for a couple of hours, and then ends up in bed with us by midnight. Everyone gets sleep! Most of the time we can get about 5-7 hours at a stretch. And if baby wakes, I do not have to wake up completely. I have a toddler rail on my side of the bed to prevent baby from rolling off the edge of the bed. I guess it would help if I actually use it.

Naps are better once I realized that I could lay down with him, and then slip away while he is asleep. I stay in the room and work quietly while he is sleeping, so I can catch him before he rolls off the bed. It works best if we get out of the house or have some activity in the morning. I usually go to the gym, but I think letting him crawl on the floor works, too. Going to the gym has an added benefit of being a stress reliever. Hopefully this strategy will continue working. Keeping fingers crossed.

I am learning to take advantage of any time I have. Today I got off early from work. I did some housework before going to pick up Little Dude a little early. When I got there, he was not quite ready for anything. He had just woken up from a nap, and they had a bottle ready to give him. After talking with the caregiver, I decided to come back later. To kill time, I went and got a pedicure! Hooray! I have been meaning to get one done, but never could bring myself to leave the baby and do it. I love the fact that it just worked out. Now my feet feel pampered, and my brows are trimmed. It feels great! Now if only I can remember to do it on a regular basis.

Damn it!

I cannot win with baby! I tried waking with Hubby this morning to give me time to get it together before the baby wakes up. And what do I do? I wake the baby up putting him in the crib. We ended up co-sleeping last night, so I was sort of looking forward to a break from baby. I ended up passing him off to hubby for a while so that I could bathe and eat breakfast. He then feel asleep on my lap for a while. Now Hubby is showering and getting ready to go to work. Hopefully I can make it to the gym before trying to get baby down for a nap. (Trying being the key word. Baby pretty much naps in my lap.)

I think some sleep training is going to be inevitable. The night wakings are driving us both a little crazy, and the napping on my lap has got to stop. Co sleeping works most of the time. The reason I did it last night was because I was just too damn tired to wake up every hour with the baby. I think both Hubby and I are not willing to do CIO. I thought we could look at the No-Cry Sleep Solution. My mother got the No Cry Nap Solution, and I have looked at that. It looks like something we could do. It takes longer than CIO, but I think it could work. I keep hoping this will pass, and the baby will sleep through the night again, but right now it feels like there is no end in sight. All we want is some decent sleep!

I will keep trying with my mornings. Hopefully it will work out soon.

Fingers crossed.

Really hoping that baby sleeps tonight. He slept last night, and took a couple decent naps today, so hopefully he will sleep tonight.

The first couple nights in the crib were rough. We were up every couple of hours. It really sucked. But last night was great. I woke up around 2 AM for a feeding, and then went back to bed until about 7 AM. I got sleep, baby got sleep, and everyone was happy.

Really hoping that repeats tonight, but not expecting to get that lucky. We shall see.

We are now dealing with a baby who loves to move. Our boy has started standing and cruising when ever he can. Neither Hubby nor I were not expecting to see all of that appear at the same time. We had to lower our crib mattress because we were afraid he would topple out of the crib. We also had to move the crib away from the window because he likes to play with the blinds. I also moved a chair in there so that I would not have to leave the nursery to nurse the baby at night. It works great for naps, too. I think all that moving is wearing him out.

We are also playing around with solids. I am sort of doing baby led weaning. Basically giving the baby finger foods, and letting the baby feed himself. The amazing part is that he actually eats some of what is put in front of him. He loves watermelon, banana, peaches, my made from scratch biscuits, my made from scatch blueberry muffins. He also enjoys a good teething biscuit and likes to suck on the bones from barbecue ribs. I made a puree from peaches, banana and plain greek yogurt and added some rice cereal to that. A lot of people swear by rice cereal to help baby sleep, so I thought I would try it. He will eat it, but I do not think the rice cereal makes a whole lot of difference in his sleep. It is just another way to get food into him.

Other than that, things seem to be going well. I am trying to get lectures together for my class which starts in the fall. The more I can get done now, the better. It is also good to try to figure out how to work at home with the baby. Better to do it now while I have some time than be under the gun during the semester. I am also switching the days I work in the OR starting next block. It seems to be coming together. I think. I hope.

I think the time has come.

I think I have reached the point where we cannot use the bassinet anymore. He has started pulling up on the sides of the bassinet and trying to stand up. He does that in the crib, too, but the crib has higher sides. So far, he is doing fine in the crib, but this is the first night. We will see if it helps him sleep any better. It means I have to get out of bed to nurse him, but if I only have to get out of bed once, I think I will be fine. We will see how it all plays out.

I cannot believe he is 6 months already! He is really crawling, and this boy can move! He will be across the floor before you know it. He can sit up on his own, and is interested in everything. He has one tooth, and I expect more to come in before long. Though he is so cute with just the one tooth. It is wonderful that he is happy and sociable. I would not say that he is an easy baby, but he is a happy baby. And that is a gift.

I have to rave over our day care provider. I love her! She has been very supportive of me as a mother. We have started introducing solids, and I decided to do baby led weaning. She was so excited that I was planning on doing that. And she supports it! He got peaches the other day, and I think she is planning on watermelon later. If you are thinking of introducing solid foods, I highly recommend baby led weaning. No need to pureed foods, and the kids do not end up as picky eaters. Right now he is willing to try anything I put in front of him. And no need for baby food! Just give him what is on your plate. I love it. He feeds himself, so I do not have to spend time feeding him. And he eats! It is always surprising when I realize there is less food at the end.

And I discovered a great parenting site Ask Moxie is an awesome parenting blog. Highly recommend. Lots of great info on child development, and help with parenting issues.

Bad night.

We have been having sleep issues lately, and it is enough to make me want to tear my hair out. Little Dude is usually a good sleeper, but lately has really been fighting it. He goes down fine at the beginning of the night, but then will wake up a couple hours later, and not go back to sleep. Hubby says he is likely on the verge of a developmental leap, and he may be right. I just wish Little Dude would hurry up and make the leap so that we can go back to getting sleep. After discussing the issue with the pediatrician, we are going to try a couple things tonight, and see what happens. We are going to try putting him to bed a little later, and then not feeding him as often. We will see what happens. Hopefully it will get better soon.

I also have family stuff stressing me out. My grandmother fell and broke her pelvis recently, so she is really hurting. She is also coming up on the anniversary of my grandfather's death. So she is not doing well right now. She says she wants to go to the beach in a couple of weeks, but considering her pelvic fracture, and the pain she will be in, I do not think that will happen. The pelvic fracture worries me because the outcome for pelvic fractures from falls in the elderly is not that great. She already has fibromyalgia. I suspect that she could slip into depression very easily, and then slip away. She does not have a lot of fight left in her. She has been so lost since my grandfather's death. I heard from my aunt that she is not using her walker, and is just using a cane. I do not think that is best for her stability or the proper healing of her fracture. I think she is going to refuse to use the walker until there is no other choice. All I can do is wait and pray. She is going to be stubborn and do what she wants, no matter what any health professional will tell her.

On a brighter note, I go a new computer! Hooray! I have a new Mac. I was able to get the educational discount because I am teaching this fall. So I am typing this on a new Macbook Pro! It will make teaching easier, as I will be better able to make up lectures and research for lectures. Much faster and very easy to use.

The baby is asleep now, so I better go lay down while I can. Who knows what the night may bring.

A few more pics

The ongoing adventures of Alton...

Last week we went to the transportation museum and looked at all the trains.



We have also been playing with solids. We went to a barbecue place and had ribs. He really likes ribs, apparently.


We have also been doing regular lunches at the grandparent's house, where he has the opportunity to crawl on the floor.


I hope everyone had a good weekend and/or holiday!

Losing sleep.

Apparently, once babies start teething, they stop sleeping, too.

Two nights in a row of crappy sleep does not make for a happy mommy. And I never got the napping thing down. So I am really tired.

The fussiness has not been fun, either. There are times when he will not stop fussing, unless you pick him up. It is really draining. I think it is time to break out my carriers again, as that is probably the only way I will get anything done.

I really want my five hour stretches of sleep back. I really hope this phase passes soon. I miss my sleep!