1. No early-evening naps (I think he would sleep almost all day if I let him. We have mandatory awake time so he isn't awake all night).
2. Bottle at 7,8, & 9pm to make sure his tummy is super full so he doesn't wake up hungry
3. Any sugestions?!
I am wondering if his new milk is causing the change- we found out Julie's milk is 19/20 calories per ouce, whereas my milk was 22/23 calories per ouce. Maybe upping the volume before bed will be the trick.
I know babies change their schedules as they grow. I just love my sleep and hate to drag my butt out of bed in the middle of the night. More than once I've almost fallen down the stairs because I'm still half asleep (not with zeke though, thankfully!). Anyhow, if this is an inevitable change, I will accept it. But if I can make it better, I want to. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am soliciting your advice!
In other news, we are trying to get the house spotless so we can call a realtor and get it on the market! I cannot wait to get our house sold. For many reasons- one- it is very spacious and therefore requires a lot of cleaning which I don't want to do. I mean, I am grateful for having plenty of room and a lovely house to live in- I really am. It's especially nice when we have guests because there is plenty of room for everyone to stay comfortably. But honestly we just don't need the space, and I am getting totally spoiled living in such a nice house. Two- once we sell the house we will be able to save up a lot more money/finnish paying off student loans. Three- Our house is the only thing keeping us in Texas. As soon as Daniel is out of the military (may 10 2010!!) we want to go HOME. HOME HOME HOME!! I miss it up there! Granted, we don't exactly know where home IS yet, but we want to be there. Daniel spends hours looking online for acerage under $80,000. He calls Josh (his brother in KY) and asks him to drive out to such and such a place to look at random farms. Most of you know that our goal in life is to raise good, Godly children on a sustainable farm- to live on and love one place. If anyone else has this vision or has ever even thought it sounded nice, I TOTALLY reccomend my FAVORITE book, "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry. It's a good one! ANYHOO... yes, selling the house- the point was that we don't want to be stuck here when Daniel's enlistment is up just because our house hasn't sold... that would mean Daniel would have to get a high-enough paying job to pay the mortgage, etc. And that is just not what we want to do. People give us funny looks when we say that we want to farm because Daniel has such a marketable set of skills from all his training. He could get a $100,000+ job no problem. But that is just not where his heart is- we have no desire at all to live that sort of life. We want to actually BOTH raise our children and live in a way that doesn't harm God's creation. We want to be in the country and do things like raise our own animals, have a garden, and so much more. We can't wait to get there!
Ok this blog was just a random rant, and if you made it all the way through, thanks for reading!
12 comments:
yes like someone told me and i tell everyone else- those first few months babies change so often. so we panic, then adjust, then they change it up again. but what i did for saylor that worked was slowly wean his middle-o'-night feeding. so he would feed for 9 minutes then a coupe nights later i'd bring it down to 8, then 7...5..etc. i would just hold my phone and stare at the time. THIS WORKED! [for me] he got down to one to two minutes and then i stopped feeding him and would rock him for a minute if needed then i weaned him off the rocking as well. he was sleeping great at 6months but got sick and i started feeding him at night again and didn't re-wean until 9months and that's when he started sleeping 12hours straight. i could go on and on about sleep schedule as i feel it is mucho importante for a happy/healthy child to get adequate sleep. and good to instill habits early...
3:30am is a time I am very familiar with....Last night Isaiah was in our bed off and on all night, Toby was in our bed from about 1 to 3:30, and Lydia came in and asked me to turn her closet light off around 3. I almost went to sleep on the couch because there were so many kids in our bed, but I decided instead to put them all back in their own beds. Feeding them well before bed always helps, but sometimes there is just mothing I can do to help. Oh, and did you all test Julie's milk yourselves, or did the dr.? Hope you get some sleep tonight! Love, Aimee
Aimee- since she was already donating to the milk bank, they had tested her milk, so she just gave us a copy of the paperwork.
Shell- Yes, I want good habits early too
Hey, I was just reading another blog and they were talking about how they were adding safflower oil to milk to get the calories upto 22calories instead of 20. They added 1/3 tsp. oil to 3 oz. of formula. I don't know if that is something you might consider or not, but I had never heard it before. Aimee
I think the uppage of milk at night is a good idea! As is the no naps in the evening. It was so good to chat with you today! I'm so excited about everything going on in our lives right now!! Yay for us! Love you.
Aimee- I would love to add cod liver oil, and we may start doing that soon. In general I wouldn't use safflower oil because it's not a very healthy oil- usually rancid by the time it makes it to the grocery store shelf.
Jamie- I had fun talking to you too :) See you soon Hudson!!
I handled the 3:30am feeding with both children until 5-6 months at which time I drew the line as I could tell that they weren't going to starve if they missed it. I didn't get them out of their crib, and simply handed them a small water bottle. If they cried, I would close my door and let them (within reason...about 15 minutes). If they continued to cry, I would again come in, pick the bottle of water up and hand it to them, verbally comfort them or rub their belly (not pick them up), and walk away again. After two or three nights of this, they realized I was serious and decided water wasn't worth waking up for. Good Luck!
I'm thinking he's just having a growth spurt. If I remember correctly it's somewhere around 3 wks, 6 wks, 3 months, 6 months etc that they start eating like crazy. Of course any time in between too...seems like the munchkins like to 'mix things up' a bit after we think we've got them figured out. Welcome to parenthood! ;) I'd try cluster feeding before bed, like you mentioned. Are you doing solids yet? He might be ready to try baby cereal. Especially if the new breastmilk doesn't have as many calories. I know there's the corected age thing. Jack was 3 months early, but I think we started solids with him around 4 months actual age because he was just so hungry all the time. It was so hard for me to look at him and not try to "correct" evrything in my head all the time. Finally after his MRI for his IVH (around 7 months) I was able to let a lot of my preemie/nicu fears go and just see him for a baby and not all the other scary stuff that comes along with prematurity. That really helped! Oh, and I totally hear you on wanting the land, farm etc! It's so important to do what is going to give you the most peace. Ok, enough rambling. ;)
Jessy-- we haven't started solids yet, but our pediatrician mentioned it at the last visit. It just seems so soon! He's about to hit 6 months actual age/3 months adjusted, so I guess it's not too soon...??? He's just still so small! The adjusted age thing really messes with my head... I never know how to think of him, really. When strangers ask how old he is I just make up an age that i think they will believe... I don't like explaining why he's small for his age. Anyhoo... yes, now I'm rambling, too. But that's what blogs are for! :)
Melissa-- hows baby sprocket coming along?? :) I would love to see you sometime if you aren't too busy!
I know. I hated the adjusted age thing and people's comments. We just got to the point where we would say something along the lines of, "Well, he probably won't be a quarter back, but maybe a kicker." Who cares what they think. It took me awhile to let that one go. Seriously though, he's probably ready. Not a lot to begin with, maybe just a Tbsp. It's so fun to start feeding them. I always put my kiddos in the bouncy seat when I first started feeding them. It was so much more comfortable than a big huge high chair. Just a thought.
Good Morning, This is Jessy,Greg,Grace,Jackson,Nora and Lexi's AUNT GINNY = and Just a little bit of "trivia" about kids sleeping = I'm a 76 yr. old grandma and last Thurs. nite, grandson, Isaac, spent the nite with us (as he does once a week)Or more!!!) AND this kid got UP at 3:00 a.m., was dressed, eating breakfast at 4:30, working on a puzzle at 5:30 and his mom picked him up at 7:30 to get on the bus and go to school for the day. Hang in there, it gets better, AND THEN, you become a grandma and it all starts over again (smile) LOVE IT!!! + AUNT GINNY
Oh WOW I can't believe he was up at 3!! Dressed, breakfast, puzzle, that is just too cute!
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