We are all doing well. Ben is growing quickly and Conrad is exceedingly busy. I get slightly cabin feverish and the weather is rather dreary, but all in all quite happy. We are currently working on getting our little guy to sleep on a schedule, working towards sleeping through the night. If anyone has any tips on what worked for them it would be GREATLY appreciated. Trying to get him on a schedule so that when I go back to work in a couple weeks it won't be so hard on either of us!! We feel very grateful, however, that he is such a good natured baby. He is such a sweet little boy and is already quite a character.Hope all is well with everyone and thank you again for all of the gifts and well wishes we have received. This is one very well dressed baby boy! love to all
4 comments:
Hey Meggie,
How often is he eating? I know Jeff was eating about every 2.5-3 hours in the day and then every 4-5 in the night (basically only me getting up once until he started sleeping through the night). I think the biggest advice I can give is to have him eat, then try to keep him AWAKE for a little while (if you can force it) :) and then put him down while he's still awake, so he isn't being put down in his crib, cradle, whatever, alseep. If they are put down asleep then they wake up and don't know how to fall asleep on their own very well. Also, it helps him be more settled with his food. It's so fun to hold them when they fall asleep, and sometimes that's fine, but that was HUGE for us getting Jeff on a schedule, and i'll have to say he was about the eaisest baby I could have imagined. He is still an amazing sleeper and just dives in his crib when it's time for bed, so I think getting that schedule and getting used to going to bed (literally) is really important. I was not sleep deprived ever and I knew at least what to expect with the feeding schedule (I almost felt guilty hearing about other people and how sleep deprived they were). Main thing: EAT (and make sure he has a full feeding, don't let him fall asleep and miss out on calories), then AWAKE TIME, then SLEEP.
Also, I know some people that just fed whenever the baby cried. I really tried to use my judgement, if it had only been an hour since he ate, and he was crying, and i thought he had a good feeding before, I thought he probably shouldn't be hungry, and I would think that maybe it was gas or whatever else, and that was the case most the time. I would try other things before just shoving food in his mouth. Obviously that can be a comfort (as we know as adults) so it works to calm them but it's not necessarily the best thing to think of food as the comfort. That made the eating schedule really predictable too, and many other things worked as a comfort, so I would know he wasn't actually hungry.
Most of the tips I learned were from a book called "Babywise" which has lots of supporters and lots of critics. It worked really well for us! In the book it gives lots of tips but also really makes sure to say that you have to be flexible according to your baby's needs (of course!) So that's what I did, and it worked great. But I followed their general theories and practices. I found that in general I agreed with most of what they said even though I hadn't been exposed to it before. Anyway...
To make my night a little more consistent, we usually put Jeff down for "bedtime" (even though he had a nap between every feeding at the beginning too) at around 7pm, and then I would actually sort of wake him up around 10pm (if he didn't wake up on his own) and feed him again, (oh and after a "night" feeding, there is no need for wake time after the feeding) and then he wouldn't wake up until about 4-4:30am. Then not too long after that he started sleeping from that 10pm feeding until 7am. And then a while after that, we dropped the 10pm feeding and he would sleep from 7pm-7am. Now he sleeps from about 8pm-7am. Anyway, I've written way too much, sorry for the novel!
Hope some of this is helpful, but if not I just hope you guys are doing well!!! Love to all of you!!
Will you text me your physical address by the way? Thanks.
I was just about to leave a big message like Megan just left, but read hers and she said exactly what I was going to say. We used "Babywise" and had Callie sleeping by week 8/9. I HIGHLY recommend it. It was the only thing that made it okay for me to go back to work. Anyway, I frequent a Babywise inspired blog: Babywisemom.blogspot.com since reading the book. Well, hope that you can get yourself a copy of that book and get to it! Do keep us updated on how Ben does--he is such a cutie!!!
My friend Brittney used Babywise also. I was always amazed at how her daughter followed a routine after a few months. By the way, our grandson is just adorable in the new photos!!! And that hair is still looking reddish! I can't wait to see him again-- I'll be a good abuelita and not spoil his routine.
Hugs y besos...
When I had my nanny business lots of those moms swore by a book, 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child' by Marc Weissbluth, and as the nanny I greatly appreciated it (wished I would have done it with my own kids!). Swaddling also helps (the babies protest at first then calm themselves in the coziness).
Good Luck!
Becky Fromhart
P.S. Love the photos and the blog.
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