Co-Sleeping- Part Deux

Here's a little illustration I found about Co-sleeping. Just to revisit yesterday's post. The first one is very popular in our bed. I could say that we havent experienced the last one yet. Although sometimes I do end up sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed. More shoulder room down there! Enjoy!

Ni -xox-

Co-Sleeping Family

Lately we've gone backwards in terms of Baby sleeping in his crib. I don't know what happened. Is it because he's scared of the dark (night light in room and all)? Is he afraid of being alone? Or does he just like sleeping squished in between us? Maybe he secretly enjoys kicking, punching and headbutting us at night. Who knows. All I know is that as of the last couple of weeks, we are officially a co-sleeping family. I've tried putting Baby into his bed after he falls asleep. Sometimes he'll stay for a little while before waking up. However, most of the time as soon as he feels his crib mattress, it's cryingville! For awhile before this, we had tried the crying it out method. Which I didn't really like, but I was kinda desperate. For the first couple of days it was crying for 30 minutes to an hour. Poor baby. I was in bed convulsing with my broken heart. But I stuck to it and after a few days, the crying was less and less until it was no more than 30 seconds to a minute. Victory!! So I thought. Like I said before, we have gone backwards totally. And now when I try the crying method, he just cries and cries. The worst part now is that he calls for me "MOMMY". I cannot handle that. As soon as I hear that "mommy", I break and go get him. (Shame on me...no will power). It's come to a point now that I'd say 4 out of 7 days I don't even try to put him in his bed. Bad on my part, but not having slept properly for...well 16 months, doesn't exactly make me have the best judgement sometimes.

Some people actually opt for the co-sleeping arrangement. Why you may ask? Honestly, I have no clue! Lol! Ok sure, at first when they're teeny tiny and don't move, it's nice having that little bundle to cuddle up to. However, we seem to forget that babies DO grow. Eventually they're taking over half of your side of the bed and half of your hubbie's side (And that's if you're lucky). Pretty much at this point both you and hubby are sleeping (or sorta) with one leg hanging off the bed, one arm resting on the night table along with your head and whatever you could salvage of your pillow. Am I right?? By now it's 3am and your arm is asleep, your leg is freezing and you're silently praying for morning to come. Meanwhile, your little one is sleeping with his butt in your face or his knees in your spine and snoring away! I'm sure most of you who sleep with baby have experienced one or more of these events. Not to mention when Baby decides that its a good idea to sleep on top of you all together and not to wake him up, you don't scooch back into place on the bed that now isn't being occupied. So now you're hanging off the bed AND you have the little bundle on top of you. (Swear.....it's ok sometimes! hehe)

Solutions?
1- I thought about putting his crib in our room. Which would require some removal of furniture or else it won't fit. Maybe when he wakes up and sees that we're there he'll feel safe enough to stay in his crib.
2- Put a mattress in his room and sleep on it for a while (me, not him) until he gets used to his crib and room and doesn't wake up. (I'm sure that wont work...he'll just want to sleep on the mattress with me)
3- Last but not least, I will buy an actual double mattress and put it on the floor and sleep there with him. And slowly sneak out when he falls asleep. At least this way he'll get used to sleeping in his room. Could it work? Who knows!

So that's it! If anyone had the same problem as me and fixed it....PLEASE help! Any suggestions would be great. And one word of advice to all you new mothers or mothers to be. Yes it's cute to have your baby in bed with you when they're born....DON'T DO IT! Let me tell you....next baby I have, straight to his\her room. (That's what I say now....) Remind me to read this post if ever I don't follow my own advice!

So with a headbutt and a good elbow in the eye, I say Goodnight!! *eye roll*

Ni- xox-

7-1\2 months.....pretty good!

This weekend I finally decided that it was time to stop breastfeeding. It wasnt like baby was really breastfeeding all that much. During the day he isnt interested. The only time I was doing it was once before bed, during the night and once in the morning. These last couple of days, baby falls asleep before his last feeding and he doesnt wake up at night to eat. It was really pointless to breastfeed just once a day for 5 minutes. It was a hard decision to make because it was a good backup plan if I was stuck somewhere without a bottle. Honestly, it was just a comfort thing for me. Anyway. It was time to stop. Baby weaned himself, so I shouldn`t complain. So now I`m just waiting for the milk to dry up. It`s been 2 days. It hasnt been so bad since I was only feeding him like 2 times a day, it already has gradually lowered in supply significantly. So thats it. I`m proud for having breastfed for 7 1\2 months.

Like I was saying before, Baby hasnt been waking up at night. It`s been a couple of days now that he just sleeps all night. It`s wonderful. I think its all the fresh air he`s been getting. When its nice outside, I go for long walks with him every chance I get. I`ve noticed that on those days he sleep much heavier and less restless. It`s fantastic. This week is supposed to be nice. I will try and go walking everyday. Oh and last night he slept all night in his crib!!!!! Yay! Hope this good streak comtinues. *crossing fingers*

Ni-xox-

Not Much but Pretty Busy

I havent posted in forever. Mainly because nothing is new really. However, I have been pretty busy. After everone was done being sick, I had to get back to planning that baby shower for my cousin. It`s in three weekends and I hadnt started buying anything yet. So this weekend (except for Sunday because it was Easter), I went shopping. I bought almost everything. Decorations, games, prizes, etc. I have a few things left that I didnt find or forgot to buy. I still need some prizes, another bag of M&M`s for my guess how many M&M`s in the jar, and the food of course. I decided I`m going to make a brunch menu. I`ll bake different types of muffins, get fresh bread, different jams and jellies, quiche, deviled eggs, fruit platter, cheese platter, small tea sandwiches, etc. I think it`ll just be an easier menu to make and I mean, who doesnt love brunch!?!

Besides the shower, nothing really has been going on. Luca is doing well. He`s been a very happy baby lately. He`s also napping a lot less. Yesterday he only took a nap of an hour and then was awake all day. He wasnt even cranky. Weird! As long as he`s happy, he could stay awake all day if he wants. His nights are getting better too. He`s almost always doing his nights. The other night he slept from 9:30pm-9:00am! Awesome! He`s back in his basinette though. Since he was sick for three weeks, he wouldnt sleep in his crib and it was just easier for me to have him near since he was waking up every 2 seconds. I havent decided when I will try the crib again. Maybe next week.

His feedings are also going pretty well. He mostly likes his food. Some days are a little tricker than others. I find it harder to feed him when we`re out. At home its much easier. Who knows why....whatever! As for the breastfeeding, I only breastfeed him at night. Once before bed, then if he wakes up during the night and once in the morning. The rest of the day he has formula in a bottle. It just seems to work better this way. During the day, he doesnt seem too interested in breastfeeding. I guess he`s weaned himself. Pretty good for me.

So thats pretty much it.

Ni -xox-

Sleepy Sleepy!

Last night marked the first night that Luca slept in his crib. I decided that he was outgrowing his basinette and it was time to make the transfer. I cant lie, I had a little bit of seperation anxiety. He isnt really doing his full nights yet. Sometimes he does, sometimes he still wakes up once to eat. So last night I decided to make the big move. You`re going to laugh though, as I slept on an inflatable mattress on the floor in his room. Haha! I know I know. I DO have a good explanation for it though. Hubby was VERY sick yesterday with high fever and coughing, etc. Saturday night he ended up sleeping on the sofa because he didnt want to wake me and the baby up with his coughing. So last night, since I wanted Luca to sleep in his crib anyways, I thought it was a good idea to sleep in his room and leave the bed to hubby so he was more comfortable. It ended up working out for everyone. Hubby had the whole bed and didnt have to feel bad about coughing and waking us up. Luca was more comfortable in his crib and I didnt panic so much leaving Luca alone.

How did last night go?? Excellent. Luca slept all night until 5am and then woke up, I fed him and he fell asleep again. I had to wake him up at 7:45am because he had his 6 month vaccination this morning. Or else I think he would have continued sleeping. He didnt wake up once crying like he always did in his basinette. Hopefully it wasnt a one time deal. I really hope that he`s more comfortable and he starts sleeping his full nights. Fingers crossed.

He`ll probably be sleepy all day today because of the vaccinations. All good, he`s in his crib right now. Looks like he`s loving it. Funny thing is, I covered him last night expecting to see the blanket at the bottom of the bed this morning, especially since I heard him rolling around last night. When I went to check on him this morning, he was completely on the opposite side of the bed and turned around.....but the blanket was still tucked around him as if I had just put it on him! LOL! Hilarious. I will try not to cover him tonight, the blanket thing stresses me out. I will see if his sleep sack still fits him.

Ni -xox-

Progress

Here are a few things that have beem going on. To follow up my last post, yesterday I put Luca in his crib to play while I was doing some cleaning. All of a sudden he started crying, but it sounded muffled. I thought that maybe he had put his blanky on his face (which he thinks is fun, until he realizes he cant take it off). I went to see, and to my suprise, he was face down. LOL! Poor baby. So my little Luca is officially a rolling baby (well he rolls one way, still working on rolling back over). Guess I have to be really careful now. Cant leave him alone on the sofa anymore. Not convenient, but thats ok.

Update on the eating situation. Luca is a little glutton. He gets sooooo excited when he sees his bowl of cereal and sits forward with his mouth open. The cutest thing is, every bite he has, follows with a `MMMMM`. Adorable!!! I guess he`s really loving his cereal now. Big change in 2 weeks. He has graduated from one tablespoon for breakfast, to 2 tablespoons for breakfast and 2 for supper. He still opens his mouth when he`s done. I think tomorrow I`ll add another tablespoon for breakfast. I cant believe how well he`s taken to his cereal. This week sometime, I`m going to make my own baby food. First on the menu, Peas. I already bought some mini peas. Cant wait to see his face. I think that it might take a while to get used to food food (not cereal). We`ll see, maybe he`ll love it. Who knows.

It`s already been two nights this week that Luca does his nights. Last night being the second time. I put him to bed at 9:30pm and he only woke up at 6:00am. To my suprise he ate and fell asleep again until 8:30am. It was awesome. I really welcomed the sleep. It felt so good not to have to sit up in bed 1-3 times during the night to feed. Awesome. I might be that he was awake from noon until 9:30pm with only a 30 minute nap. He was exhausted. Well, we`ll see if this continues, it`s really great. I wonder if the food is helping to keep him satisfied longer?? Or was it just because he hadnt napped all day??

Ni -xox-

Sleeping

Lately the nights have been pretty awesome. Luca is on a very nice schedule. This weekend I feel like I caught up on some sleep. Friday night, we went to bed at 10:30pm and Luca only woke up at 3am to eat and then again at 6am. Not too bad. Last night he went to bed at 10:30pm, woke up at 3am and then 7am and then fell asleep again and only woke up at 8:45am. He stayed in his basinette until 9:15ish just talking and playing, until he got fed up. Pretty good!!! Lets hope he keeps this schedule.

There was one night last week that he woke up every 2 hours to eat. I was soooooooooo tired I couldnt stay awake during his feedings. LOL! I guess he was having a bit of a growth spurt.

He still sleeps in his basinette next to our bed. Until he starts doing his full nights without eating, I think its just easier for me to have him beside me. Its going to be so hard to transition him to his room. I think more for me than him. I always joke saying that I'm going to end up sleeping on a matress on the floor in his room. hehe! It's going to be interesting, thats for sure. I guess we'll see when the time comes. I'm lucky that he's a petite baby, so he'll fit in his basinette longer. Fewf for me! :o)

Ni