Today....

Today is our 15 week milestone! So exciting but so sad at the same time. This mommy has to return to work tomorrow. Tear. The long awaited maternity leave is over and real life must commence. I'm going to miss the little guy; especially our great morning times. I was in tears all day yesterday after I got an email from my supervisor with my schedule. Reality hit me that I was going to have to start thinking about other things beside him. Let me tell you, Finn did not like seeing me cry!

So much has happened over the last week! We are starting to initiate Peek-a-Boo, engage in cause and effect activities/toys (the gumball machine I got him here), and I mentioned last week here, that Finn is now sleeping through the night! Hallelujah! He occasionally wakes up at some point in the night but will put himself back to sleep until he wakes for his 5 am feed, then sleep again until about 8:00. I'm loving catching up on my lost sleep over the last several months. 

And now....I'm going to give you my thoughts on all this sleep stuff now. Are you ready? I honestly believe that parenting is a give and take between parent and child. I learned this in my years of working with children birth to three and their families. We need to feed off of their strengths to help them through their weaknesses. However, sometimes they will need extra guidance and boundaries from us. And they thrive off of that! For some, kids will naturally fall into a sleeping rhythm, but others need to be taught. In our situation with sleeping, I had to give Finn some boundaries and teach him, not just let him guide me and be in control. He had no idea what he was doing! Getting up 4-5 times a night to eat was not okay, especially since he wasn't eating that much during the day. I put my foot down and Ferberized him. It worked in one night! I also used this idea for napping and getting him to nap longer. When he would wake up at 30-60 minutes, I would let him fuss and cry it out a bit to go back to sleep for another hour. It's not easy listening to my sweet baby cry, but as long as I know he is safe I know I'm helping to give him the precious gift of sleep to help him grow and learn. We had it easy in that Finn was already going to sleep just fine at night on his own, he'd just wake up a ton; that helped a lot.  Now to answer some questions, I don't make him sleep when he's not tired, just when I see it coming on during the day. Nighttime is pretty much a set time and he's so tired from the day by then. He's slowly starting to fall into a schedule that we've created together, and life is getting so much easier in that department! Just in time for me to start working again!

That's it for my weekly check in other than this: 

I love this baby more than I ever knew possible!

lauren

Friday Fun.

Mom & I have had quite the week. It started out very painful, though is ending with warm feelings of happiness and calmness. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you. I am now taking regular naps in my own bed for 1.5 hours or more! You see, I was giving mom a really hard time every time she'd try to do the nap thing with me. This left us having to escape the house in the car or stroller for me to get any rest during the day. Then I hit 2 months. I decided I wasn't going to sleep much at night in addition to the daytime and that meant that mom wasn't going to either. That was her last straw!

Wednesday she put her foot down and decided it was time for nap training again. And with some extra moral support from her friends Kim & Brittany, it seemed to work. Now part of it is that I was ready too...but we'll give mom most of the credit here. I might cry a bit when going down, but that's okay. It actually gets me ready for sleep. But the best part is I wake up so happy and ready to play & cuddle! Hopefully I'll be sleeping through the night soon. But if not, that's okay; at least I'm getting my brain sleep and mom can take a nap here & there if she chooses.

Yesterday, during play time, we pulled out the camera and had a little fun. Aren't I dingdang cute?

Finn

A Miracle.

First of all I want to say a big "Thank You" to all of you that left very helpful comments last week! I must let you know that it means a lot to me and comes in very handy! Yesterday, after several positive recommendations, I went out and bought the Miracle Blanket for little Mr. Finn-fuster. It is a miracle for sure! So much better than swaddling in blankets alone and for him, much better than the Swaddle Me. He instantly calmed and did not fuss, then slept for 5.5 hours straight and then 3.5 hours after that. He's always been a good sleeper though (goes down easily within about 5 minutes), I've just been worried about the blanket coming loose and suffocating him. What I'm hoping it will be helpful for is napping....Finn does not nap during the day very well. I'm lucky if he'll take a decent one outside of being in the stroller or car seat. Talk about a tired mom that doesn't get a break! This all changed for us at one month---to the day. It was a trying week to say the least; it's not all Starbucks & strollers for me anymore:).

Obviously this is not Finnley.
This is just a picture of the blanket in the color we have.
I failed to capture the moment last night!

So will the Miracle Blanket help for naps?? We'll find out! 

What's in store for us today, you ask? Well, hopefully a good long walk this morning before the SC heat turns on and this lady is going to try to run for part of it! Yay! Then hopefully an early afternoon nap for Finn, if all goes well. What will I do during that time if he graces me with a break? My options are: write thank you cards, shower, nap, or organize/redecorate the office (our new project as of late). But lets not get ahead of ourselves and jinx the day. Oh, and we do need to hit up the grocery store this afternoon.

**Oh my goodness! He's napping as I type (but not swaddled...he went to sleep in my arms...sweet baby boy)! What will be the first thing I do off that list???

Wish me luck ya'll.

lauren

Swaddling.

A few months ago I wrote about some books I was reading here. I'd mentioned that I'd fallen in love with this book, The Happiest Baby On The Block. It was true, and I was bound and determined to stick to the theory of the Five S's. What are those, you ask? Let me tell you:

1. Swaddle
2. Sway/Swing
3. Suck
4. Shhhing
5. Sideline

These are all a combination of techniques to make baby happy and feel as though he's back in the comfort of the familiar womb. Well I have to admit that I fell off the band wagon of probably the most important one, Swaddling! Just a little over two weeks after Finn was born I stopped swaddling him. I'm not sure why, but I think it was centered around a couple really bad gassy evenings that he wouldn't allow me to swaddle him and would bust out of them when I did. I tried everything, even the Swaddle Me velcro blankets. I finally decided to rid dairy from my diet to help with gassy tummies. This seemed to help with the frantic evening fits, but I never went back to swaddling. Huh.

This brings us to present day. Family has left and I'm bound and determined to get Finnie to sleep in his crib. Until now, he's been sleeping in his Rock 'n' Play Sleeper, of which he loves.

I'm just worried that he'll get too used to it and it will be even harder to transition him later. The problem is that in the crib he instantly reacts and spreads his arms wide open and legs go kicking....and he wakes up. He also immediately rolls to his side. I decided that if this was going to work, I would need to swaddle him again to keep him confined. And I was right. He loves it. It only took me until now to realize that I need to be swaddling him more during the day as well to keep him happier.

I had to relearn how to swaddle using my beloved Aiden & Anais blankets since he's a little too big now for the hospital blankets. I love these. They are so perfect for our weather being that they are super light and breathable and can be used for everything from swaddling, to a cover to block the sun when in the stroller or car, to a simple blanket, to a play mat in the back yard.

I ended up using this YouTube video to reteach me how to swaddle with such large blankets. Now I feel I may have close to the Happiest Baby On the Block again. Oh, but I'm still working on my swaddling technique. His hand snuck out here while napping this morning.

On a side note, does anyone remember this commercial from many moons ago? I always loved it as a kid and remember my mom crying every time she watched it. Life has reminded me of it lately, though I don't have a girl, it hits me right at home and I get teary. What a sweet song, right?

Have a happy Thursday! We are almost to the weekend!

lauren (& finnie minnie)