Brad and I are going to Mexico January 4th and my sweet Momma has agreed to watch Brock for the week. Love her. I'm nervous about it. Not because I think he will be bad or I'll miss him. I just feel bad that someone will have to get up and feed the little rascal 4 times a night. I know what it's like and I feel bad making someone else to go through it.
I've known about this trip for quite a while and have prepared the best I could by pumping a freezing enough for him for the whole week. Yay for me! I refer to those little frozen packets as "treasures" because they are so valuable to me! And because it takes a lot of effort to stock up on 8 full day and nights worth!
In order to make everyone's lives a little easier, I've been trying hard to sleep train him. I try and keep his naps shorter, started him on rice cereal & oatmeal cereal in an attempt to keep him full longer, and last night I let him "cry it out". He only cried at 3:30 for an hour before falling asleep again. He woke up at 5:00 and kept talking to himself. I eventually fed him at 5:30. I'm doing it again tonight. Other than those things I don't know what to do.
Seriously, any advice is appreciated.
Besides wanting to eat so often Brock is pretty cute these days.
He is still in the 99th percentile for weight. (Obviously. The kid eats 4 more meals a day than the average kid)
He has finally become okay with tummy time in short bursts.
He smiles and laughs all day long.
He falls asleep within 10 seconds of putting him down. (my favorite)
Recognizes Brad and I now.
He likes to hold onto anything. I think his favorite are the strings on hoodies
He plays with toys now
LOVES his jolly jumper. Brad looks at it as early jump training.
He tries so hard to talk and has a fake laugh too.
I am excited to head down to Lethbridge tomorrow for Christmas. Brock and I are leaving Brad during his finals week so he can focus all his attention on studying.
If anyone wants to play we will be back and forth between Raymond and Coalhurst from Dec 12 - Jan 3.
my advice is to keep him on a normal nap schedule, do not shorten his naps...I have been told a million times, kids sleep better when they get moe sleep, does not make sense to me, but for some reason it works. When they are over tired they do not sleep well. And, let him cry it out...it will take a couple of days, and when I mean let him cry it out, I don't mean, let him cry for 30 min-1 hour, let him cry until he falls asleep. It will be HORRIBLE the first few nights, but he will get it. The first night I let my little girl cry it out, she cried for over 4 hours...it was all I could do to not get her, but it really is worth it. Also, he does not need to eat at all at night. From what you have said about his weight and how he eats during the day, there is no reason he should be hungry at night. Babies are smarter than you think, and they cry because they know you will get them. I know a lot of people will say that you should go in, pat their back, give them their binky or whatever, but don't say a word. That never worked for my kids, if I went it, I had to start back at square one. I just had to close my ears off and ignore. I am a nazi mom...and people probably don't agree with me, but my kids are all wonderful sleepers (when they aren't sick), and I really think that is why. The reason I have come to the decision to do this, is through reading and trial and error, I have learned that it is SO important for the baby to learn to soothe him/herself....if we are constantly going in to give them what they want, they are only learning that if they cry, mom will come in, so by letting him cry, he will learn to soothe himself and then eventually when he does wake up at night, he will know how to put himself back to sleep....good luck! Sorry this was long! and fun that you get to go on a trip, kid free!!
ReplyDeleteOH, and one more thing,,,,if you are going to cry it out...make sure you husband DOES NOT go in there...and then when he is with your mom, make sure she gets it too!! otherwise all your hard work will backfire!
Thanks Vinnie, I appreciate it! You have great advice. Very interesting about kids sleeping better when they have more sleep. I'm trying this first thing tomorrow :)
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