trevor :: 27th week

7/12/14

trevor: slept through the night for the first time (12 hours) for 2 nights, then slept 12 hours with waking once about 430a for about an hour the rest of the nights, stayed in a seated position by himself for 5-10 seconds a couple of times, pulls his own hair, is getting bored of just being on the floor on his back or tummy, always sleeps on his tummy now, just about done with the chiropractor, poop is really stinky now since he's eating food, too big for 3 month clothes and just fits in 6 month clothes, size 2 diapers still, laughs often now, is ticklish on his tummy and sides, when he's done eating his baby food he loves to play with the spoon and a cup mostly just to chomp on them but it's good practice, took bottle eventually from my mom

------------------

wednesday was his 6 month appointment and we finally got our doctor back (from maternity leave); we were so glad to see her! he is 16 lbs 12 oz (up over a pound from his appt 3 weeks ago!) and 26.5 inches long. his weight is now up to the 40th percentile and his height is down to the 50th percentile. his head circumference is in the 80th percentile; lots of brains dr sarumi says. :) everything's great with him except we do need to go see the eye doctor for his crossed eye(s) or 'turned in' is the technical term at his young age. she helped solidfy that our sleep training efforts are good, normal and what should be happening. she wasn't concerned that he isn't sitting up on his own yet and loved that he is so strong when standing.

wednesday night, after just 2 days of ferber method sleep training, he slept through the night for the first time!!! 730p-730a! he only had a couple of little fusses but went right back to sleep after. i didn't get nearly that much sleep as i was constantly checking if he was still breathing :) but i was definitely more rested that morning! it also gave me a chance to pump a bottles worth due to being really full that morning. a win all around!

he also slept mostly through the night on thursday night, just waking crying at 630am, so i fed him and put him back down. then he slept until 730. i'll definitely take that! it also gave me the chance to get up and have some quiet, alone time in the morning as i wasn't able to fall back asleep after feeding him. i really think the earlier bed time, timing out his naps and bedtime instead of waiting for his tired cues, and the ferber method of sleep training did the job. but also feeding him some food (cereal or veggies) at night, chiro appts helping out his gas, and adjusting him to not nursing to sleep help as well.

his current schedule: 1st nap within 2 hours of waking, the nap is usually 1-1.5 hours, then awake for 3 hours, 2nd nap which is usually 2 hours or more, this hopefully puts him awake after 4 so that he's awake for 3 hours and in bed at 7 or after (whatever the 3 hours of awake time indicates, it's been about 730 lately). we haven't had to do him being awake before 4 from his 2nd nap yet since sleep training, but i'm assuming we'd give him a cat nap at 6ish then bed at 8? or maybe just bed anytime after 6, although that could mean waking for the next day at 6 which i wouldn't be very fond of. we'll have to see. also, when he sleeps through the night, i try to feed him every 2 hours during the day if he's awake so that he still gets in at 6 feedings each day.

this weekend was a busy one for me and the most i've been away from trevor. saturday i played on my brother's reigning champs team in the mud volleyball tournament in bloomer. it was tyler, me, my cousin aryn, her husband tyler, my brother's ex-girl friend/friend ashley and tyler's friend dan. we ended up winning it again after going into the loser's bracket and having to beat the team that beat us twice. they didn't time out the matches very well and we ended up playing until 9 pm and in the dark, but we beat them 4 games in a row to win. i rushed home to relieve mom as she wanted to head home. so we packed her vehicle full of the awkward sized stuff that needed to go to her house quickly and off she went. i then showered and went to bed at 11, only to be woken up by trevor at 430-530 then had to get up at 6 and on the road by 7.

while mom was watching him on saturday she had a little trouble getting him to take a bottle. the couple nights he had slept through the night, i was able to pump some so i had some milk for mom to feed him but we also have some formula. she tried to give him a bottle on his scheduled time (al was there helping too, before work) and he would have nothing to do with it. he cried and pushed it away. it scared me because the next day i was going to be canoeing on the river and not able to feed him. luckily, a couple hours later she was able to get him to take a bottle; we were hoping he just wasn't hungry enough the first time. and he ended up eating just fine out of the bottle on sunday for mom.

sunday mom babysat trevor again while i canoed the st croix river with some of my friends. it was manda and me in one canoe and meg and her friend shannon in the other. it was a blast and a gorgeous day! we stopped 3 times: once to explore a waterfall we heard, once for lunch and once right before the end to swim. meg's parents and shannon both had a canoe and the greeders have an inclosed trailer that fit the canoes so we left manda's car at o'brien and drove the suburban + trailer up to osceola and launched from there. the river was beautiful and there weren't a lot of people up in that area. i hope we can do it again soon!

monday i took trevor back to the chiro and she barely had to adjust him so it's sticking! then we had softball at 6 pm, we ended up tying but it was a beautiful night for ball. trevor and i headed back to bloomer early tuesday morning since al was off tuesday and wednesday. that was the last mom saw of trevor for almost 2 weeks since she's off to colorado with her golf friends on saturday for a week. it'll be weird going that long with seeing her, she's seen trevor once a week since he was born.

finger and fingernail marks on his cheek from sleeping

 he's not a fan of peas... yet

 playing/practicing with an empty cup

 he likes to play with the spoon when he's done eating

 eating books is just as fun as reading them

 mud volleyball tourney

 winners

 canoeing: shannon, meg, me and manda

 exploring a waterfall on the river

trevor :: 17th week

6/3/14

trevor: working on sleep training, finally slept thru the night! (10 hrs), getting better at getting things in his mouth, laughs a tiny bit at me, does great in his jumper even pushes up on his legs, might need to change to size 2 diapers, poops just about every day sometimes multiple times usually morning or midday, loves holding onto things esp blankets/fabric, cries every time uncle tyler holds him now and only does this with tyler.

----------------------------------------
wednesday-friday were al's weekend, and thank goodness. again the beginning of this week, trevor is still waking every hour or two at night and crying hard before falling asleep all the time. this momma is tired and going deaf. thursday night i decided to swaddle just his arms and see if that helped him sleep better. he did sleep better only up at 430 and then up at 645 for the morning. i'm hoping it was the swaddle that helped him sleep, not just the fact that he was up for 4 hours in a row thursday during the day (usually it's 2 hours, max). also hoping that the reason he was up for the day at 645 was because it's so light in his room in the morning; we later remedied this by moving a shade into his room from the guest room.

friday we went garage saling, the first run was not very successful: i only bought 3 things all at 1 garage sale. the second run was better although not very many garage sales but scored at one with a sweet tool puzzle book, a floor puzzle, farm little people, a doctor kit, a push and sit toy that i've been looking for for a while but hadn't found for under $7, and some cute hats. clothes are tricky: 1. because most garage sales have girl clothes and 2. because we're pretty set for clothes for him now thru the summer but not so much beyond that, i just don't have any idea what size he'll be in by fall/winter especially due to his length. his 4 month appointment is next week so we'll get to see his measurements and find out if his height is still in the 90th percentile. then the weekend right after that is the bloomer city wide garage sales that we loved last year! so hopefully i'll have a better idea of size for winter clothes that i'm looking for. garage saling for baby/kid stuff is so much more fun!!

sunday, t, t, & i went up to mom's in the morning. al had to work 7p-7a sunday night, 7p-5a monday night, 3p-3a tuesday night & 3p-3a wednesday night; yuck! we ran to sam's club and target and tried to keep trevor on time for his naps. tyler's friend molly and her 2.5 year old daughter vaeda came over; vaeda said she loved this baby :) and loved tator too. both my boys did really well with her and she was so cute! then sunday night he slept for 10 HOURS!!!! it was so nice although i was up at 430 and didn't really fall back asleep until after he ate at 630 since i was wondering if he was breathing and thought every little noise was him. :)

monday, for his morning nap, trevor fell asleep in the playpen without crying! i think the mobile helped; hopefully i can find one for his crib at a garage sale. monday night was softball; another win! i hit like crap and it was windy but still a good time! when i got home at 945, mom did not have trevor in bed! but it worked out ok, 'cause i fed him and he fell right asleep, and slept another ten hours!! tuesday we headed home and once there trevor fell asleep in his crib with only very little soft crying! hopefully this sleep training is working even though it hasn't been done every time he sleeps. also hopefully he's done with his sleep regression! i felt so refreshed tuesday when we got home that i got a ton of stuff done as he napped!

looking forward to: his 4 month appointment on thursday and the bloomer garage sales this weekend!!! then only a week left before our week long vacation at the cabin with mom's side, should be 48 of us there this year!

me: still losing tons of hair! my hair has been super greasy for a few weeks now too. even a couple hours after i wash it, it looks really dirty again. strange, as my hair is usually dry. dry shampoo has been helpful. saw 4 lbs away from my starting pregnancy weight but consistently 5 lbs away; thank you breastfeeding!! still have another 20 to go beyond that but hoping to fit into all my summer clothes!

our sleep training info below the pictures.

shocked he's in a jumper :) big boy 

 the cutest lounger

 nautical trevor sitting on the couch, waving :)

 his auntie althea loves cupcakes!

 his first "jersey"

 his feet are so tiny!

it was hot & humid!!!



 i love bowties!!!

our sleep training: after doing a bunch of research and reading up on what worked and didn't for others, i decided to try a version of cry-it-out (cio) sleep training with trevor. this was especially fitting for us because he was crying every time he was tired/ready to sleep no matter where he was. whether we were holding him, rocking him. walking around with him, in the car, stroller, etc. the version i chose and felt comfortable with goes like this: when you see that he's tired (before he's fussy, which is not always possible, but ideal) do a short version of your bedtime routine (for us in his room, read a book, swaddle him, sing "you are my sunshine," kisses, i love you's) then lay him down. at this point i try to give him his pacifier as well, but that doesn't always work. then walk out of the room; each time you walk out of the room, you try to make it when he's still awake or before he's fully asleep. if/when he starts crying, set a timer for 3 minutes. after the 3 minutes if he's still crying you go console him without picking him up for no longer than 2 minutes. walk out of the room. if/when he cries, set a timer for 5 minutes and repeat. if he continues to cry after, set timer for 10 minutes and repeat as necessary or until you believe he may be crying for another reason or not tired. lucky for me, we never got to the 10 minute timer as that would be a long time for me to handle hearing him cry.

the first day or so, he'd fall asleep directly after me consoling him after the 5 minute timer. on the second day, he fell asleep in the playpen without any crying. the third day, for his naps, he fell asleep within 2 minutes of small crying. i was not able to be super consistent with this due to travelling, and being at mom's, and walks, and timing of nursing, and such, but so far it's great! nap time is SO much easier and less stressful! and, it may be coincendence but he also started sleeping 10 hours at night after just one day of this!

i'm still working on the whole waking up thing. i'm trying hard to not just rush in his room when he makes a noise and/or cries. i have to take a second and think/analyze whether he's just stirring and going to fall back asleep, and what he's crying for if he wakes up crying. it's easy when he wakes up nicely: he just moves a bit around, talks a little bit and thanks to our wonderful video monitor, i can see his eyes open. then i know he's awake because he's had enough sleep. it's all the other times i struggle with. i figure if he wakes up crying, usually he hasn't had enough sleep yet. so if it's feeding time, i'll feed him, otherwise i'll go in there and console him, sometimes by picking him up. but i should give it a second or two and see if he'll fall back asleep on his own.

man, baby sleep is complicated! :)

side note: about the same time i decided to start sleep training, i also decided to start swaddling him. we didn't have much luck swaddling when he was little and turned out, he didn't need it. but once he really got use of his arms and hands, he'd wake up with scratches on his face and i'd see him hit himself in the face with his hands all the time while sleeping. so to keep him from flailing and waking himself (in case that was why or part of the why of him waking up every hour or 2 for a couple weeks), i decided to pull our swaddles back out. it was a tricky decision however, because it was also the weekend that was very hot and humid, and we don't have central air, just 2 box units. so i worried about him over heating. luckily, we had 2 thin, summer swaddles given to us as hand-me-downs. so on the 2 really hot, humid nights, i just had him in a onsie and the swaddle. he's done great with the swaddle and seems fine temperature-wise. i figure he'll be rolling back to front soon, so once he's sleeping well consistently, we'll try and wean him off the swaddle, but for now it's a life-saver!