Instagram

Followers

Powered by Blogger.

Popular Posts

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Gretchen 4 Month Update

Yes, I know I have been absent from the blog for quite some time, but between binge watching The Blacklist on Netflix and coping with postpartum hair loss, I haven't had much free time.  Here is my sweet baby girl's 4 month update.  I cannot believe how fast she is growing up.  I am trying to savor every second of every day (even the ones where she drives me nuts).  I love this girl to death and am so excited to keep watching her grow.















Weight:  12 pounds.

Height:  25.5 inches.

Clothing Size:  0-3 months and some 3-6 months (mainly pants and jammies)

Eating:  It was my every intention to make sure she would be an extra chubby baby, but that is not in the cards for her.  She is long and lean just like I was when I was a baby.  She has been slowly falling off her weight curve, but is meeting all of her milestones.  We went to the lactation consultant again so more to come on that later.

Sleeping:  Nighttime sleep is awesome!  Since sleep training her, she will fall asleep on her own, no fussing, within 10 minutes.  Naps on the other hand are a royal disaster and only 30-45 minutes. It is frustrating for both of us.

Health:  Happy and healthy.  Meeting all of her developmental milestones early!

Speech:  No words yet, but she sure is talkative!  Whenever we aren't paying attention to her, especially in the car, she just babbles on and on.  It is so cute!  I also like to whisper things in her ear and tell her to repeat them to her dad and she does!  Well not word for word, but I say something and then she says something.

Nicknames:  No new nicknames.

Personality:  Something happened when she started to roll over - she became the happiest baby on the block.  I think she just wanted to move.  She is independent and only likes to cuddle if you are holding her up on your shoulder so she can still look around or if she strapped to my chest:  the only other times we can truly snuggle the heck out of her is when she is sleeping.


Baby Gear Love:  Mesh Crib Bumper because she rolls around so much in her crib and would bang her head and get limbs stuck if we didn't have one.

Aquaphor!  Best diaper rash cream out there.  She got a little bit of a rash from when she got thrush and it cleared up in just a few hours!

She also loves playing with her Lamaze Toys.  So bright and colorful and she is getting really good at grabbing on to things.

Milestones:  Rolling, rolling, and more rolling.  Put the girl on the floor and she is a rolling machine!  She is also enjoying tummy time and can do a mini push up - sometimes getting her butt a little bit in the air.

Likes:  Being on the floor and so she can roll to wherever she wants.

Singing.  She squeals along while I sing in the shower.

Running errands with mommy.  She loves to look at new things and at peoples faces in the safety of her K'tan where she can look at me if she gets overwhelmed.

Dislikes:  Naps.

Signature Move:  Rolling (mainly left) and having her fist in her mouth - sometimes rolling with her fist in her mouth.

Mom's Proudest Moment:  Sleep training.  It was so hard but so worth it!

Dad's Proudest Moment:  Putting Gretchen on his shoulders for the first time.


Things I Don't Want To Forget: 
The way it feels to have her slobbery fingers grabbing at my face while we are playing.  It makes me so happy!

Her first Mariner's game.

How quickly she started rolling!  Back to belly at 3 months 1 week, and belly to back just a week later.

She transitioned from 4 naps to 3 naps.  The 3 naps are short!

She got thrush!  Ahhhh...I have no idea how and it is not super bad, but she got it.

Sleeping unswaddled!  We did it cold turkey and had no problem at all.  She loves the freedom but I miss her cute baby stretches that she did when we unwrapped her though.

And a feast for your eyes:  here are some random pictures snapped via my iPhone.









Toy overload!
  

  

  


Share to Pinterest

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Sleep Training: Part 2

This past week has been looooong!  The results of our sleep training though - sooooo worth it!

Spoiler alert:  Gretchen fell asleep by herself last night in 5 minutes!  Here is a recap...  



Let me give you a short rundown of where we were at the beginning of last week (you can also read about it here):  the plan was to sleep train cold turkey - naps and bedtime.  Well the first full day was so horrifically awful and filled with many many tears from both from Gretchen and me that I decided something needed to change. Here is  how the week went (just for bed time):

Monday 9/29/2014:  66 minutes of crying.  By this point we realized that it just made her more angry to go check on her so we put her to bed and didn't look back.  I also gave Dave the monitor and took the longest shower I have in years.  I also blow dried my hair - all this to drown out the crying.

Tuesday 9/30/2014:  30 seconds, but because she was more tired than any baby I have ever seen.  This was the day we realized we would have to do something different for naps because she cried for just over 5 hours total and slept for less than an hour the entire day. #parentingfail  I was reading online and found that nighttime and daytime sleep are completely different and babies can differentiate.  We decided we would just get her to sleep in her crib during the day and sleep train at night. 

Wednesday 10/1/2014:  I count this as the first "real" day of sleep training because she actually took naps and was well rested for bedtime.  Total crying time = 38 minutes

Thursday 10/2/2014:  15 minutes of crying, 15 minutes of tossing and turning.  Total time to get to sleep, 30 minutes.

Friday 10/3/2014:  35 minutes of crying.  

Saturday 10/4/2014:  33 minutes of crying...slowly getting better.

Sunday 10/5/2014:  This was a breakthrough day...she played and babbled for 10 minutes, whimpered for 15 minutes, tried to get cozy for 5 minutes and then, BAM! asleep.  Total time, 30 minutes.

Monday 10/6/2014:  Cried hard for 25 minutes.  At this point most people say their babies are sleep trained, but Gretchen was slowly getting better and I committed to a full 7 days so I kept going even though it still taking nearly half and hour every night.

Tuesday 10/7/2014:  Cried 5 minutes!  Had I gone deaf or was she really asleep?  I had to check the monitor extra close to make sure she was still breathing!  

It was a hard week with lots of crying, but in the long run, all of that crying is probably less than what she would have done without sleep training.  We are all so much happier and Gretchen sleeps better at night!  Since sleep training, she sleeps for 12 hours now with 1 nighttime feeding between 3am-4am (she even skipped that feeding twice in the past week).  In the morning, she is as happy a bird with a french fry and smiles and talks to her herself until we come get her up.

I could not have made it through the week without the support of my wonderful husband and fellow mommy friend, Krysta, who gave me advice and encouraged me throughout the week.  I am so glad we followed through and would recommend sleep training to anyone who wants a well rested family!  My best advice would be to start just with bed time and once that is established, move to naps.  Also, commit to a full 7 days because not all babies will show results he first night.  

Now that we are officially sleep trained, I have started with naps again and it has been going a million times better than last week.  I think it is because she now knows that her crib is for sleeping and I will come and get her when it is time to get up.  Here is how today has gone so far:

1st nap:  Played for 15 minutes, cried for 10 minutes, tossed for 10 minutes and was asleep!

2nd nap:  Cried pretty hard for 34 minutes.  And that is where we are at now...she is peacefully asleep and I am thinking about all of the things I will now be able to get done since I wont have to spend hours everyday bouncing her!

Have a Fangtastic day!


Share to Pinterest