vdH Family Blog

Claire slept 11 hours last night! From 7PM to about 6AM. She probably would have slept longer but I was already up so I fed her after the first little peeps she made. I realized after reading Healthy Sleep Habbits Happy Child that I was putting her to bed too late. And that her being more fussy at night was because she was ready to go to sleep (or past being ready for sleep). I thought this book was about "How to have confidence while your child cries/sleeps through the night". But its not!

Until last night, Claire has been sleeping in our room, in her swing or bassinet (depending on how tired I was and how much I wanted her to sleep- which usually meant she slept in the swing, because even when it was turned off, she slept longer in the swing). While in our bedroom, it is hard to not appease her every little cry. But I know she is not really hungry, because:

she is doing the "oww" - I am tired cry (see below for details)
she weighs 15 pounds now (As a side note, at 2 months she weighed 10 pounds, and in 5 weeks she gained 5 pounds! That sure beats the 5 oz. a week minimum or the "ounce a day" normal requirement too)
she slept better when she weighed 7 pounds

As I am pretty sure she is past the 3 month growth spurt (which started 2 weeks ago), I decided last night that I would give this a try. So here are the details:

I began the bedtime routine at 6pm with a quick bath, dress for bedtime, then soothing lullaby music and rocking while nursing to sleep. She fell asleep in my arms and then I put her in her crib with no problems. Then I accidentally knocked a blanket off the side of crib and into the trash can, and the crinkly trash liner woke her up. (Oops.. did I do that) She didn't cry, so I left her room, but she broke free from her swaddle me- which I knew would cause other problems if it wasn't fix later. (At 2 months old she began waking her self up with her hands scratching her face). When she realized that she was "being put to bed" she cried for about 5 minutes before Jason rescued her and lulled her back to sleep (and fixed her swaddle me in process...YAY for hubbies!) The only other time she had a hard time sleeping was from 10PM-11PM. She would cry softly for a little then sleep for 5 -10 minutes. I was about to get her after she was began crying loudly, but I told myself that I should let her cry at least 5 minutes (since it was still the "oww" tired cry), she was asleep by 4 1/2 minutes!

I know we still have more room for improvement.. like extending her sleeping until 7AM, without the swaddle me and without nursing her to sleep. But for now this works! We will work on the other stuff in time and once I know this is working consistently. Luckily this (more sleeping at night) should help improve her naps too! It also felt so good to have our bedroom back. Now I don't have to live in fear of waking her if I brush my teeth (Sonicare is noisy) after nursing her to sleep (something my husband will greatly appreciate)!

As a side note, I remember hearing that babies are supposed to sleep up to 10 hours after they are born. Claire was hungry and awake right after I was wheeled downstairs. Dr. Weissbluth explains that this is because she was born a week late. Have others, whose babies came on time experienced this? Wow... things to hope for with the next child!

Here is a picture of the cutie after her beauty sleep! Gotta love the hair!

Since I have a few friends who recently had babies, I wanted to write about some resources that have greatly helped me as a first time mom:

Lactation specialist- She taught me how to use the football hold position. This was huge! It helped me continue to nurse even though I was cracked and bleeding, and it greatly reduced the pain I felt because it allowed me to(watch out it gets graphic) better position my nipple at the roof of her mouth(okay all done- I only include because of how essential it was). Having less pain allowed me to have more let downs and build up my milk supply again!!!
Happiest Baby on the Block DVD- taught me how to soothe my baby with 5 S's:swaddling, shaking/jiggling, sushing (as loud as they are crying), sucking(including pacifiers), and swinging
Dunstan Baby Language DVD- great for first time moms who cannot magically discern what their baby is saying:
- Neh means "I'm hungry" (listen for the "n" sound)
- Oww means "I'm tired" (mouth open wide like yawning)
- Eh means "I need to burp" (I just thought Claire was grunting)
- Air means "I feel gassy"- need to pass "wind"(as the aussie mom teaches)(this is an urgent, pain cry)
- heh means "I'm uncomfortable"- need to change positions, need a diaper change, or am too hot/ cold (I find this the hardest to hear and distinguish between eh and neh)
(If you want to hear the examples on the DVD, just call me, its much easier to recognize when you hear it). Here is a preview.
Healthy Sleep Habbits Happy Child - enough said