Hopping on that Sleep Train and our 5 month sleep regression

Well it happened to us.  The 5 month sleep regression.  I had heard about this.  Babies that previously slept through the night all of a sudden stop.  It can really happen at any month but ours was at month 5.

Hardcore attachment parents believe in doing nothing.  Just deal with it basically.  On the other end of the spectrum, some say baby will never sleep unless you sleep train aka. "cry it out".  Again, I believe I am somewhat of a moderate.  I'm not comfortable with any of the crying methods but I do think that it's valuable to help a baby to sleep and to self soothe.  Well, there's exactly one book I could find about a no cry sleep training method.  The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.  I naively thought that since we had a 'sleeping through the night' baby I wouldn't need this.  I couldn't just set her in her crib wide awake and have her go to sleep but once I got her down, she was a great sleeper.  I really don't mind rocking my baby to sleep.  I love it in fact.  That's one of the best parts of our day.  It's when things started getting worse and worse and I felt like I had a newborn again that I realized we had to do something.  I broke down and bought the book.  I sacrificed yet even more sleep to stay up and read.  I implemented the schedule right away and started on my journey.

This is NOT a quick fix.  It's a process so it takes commitment.  I was fully prepared for this.  My only other options are listen to my baby cry (possibly all night) until she could potentially vomit, choke, and scream for her mommy who had abandoned her OR deal with this sleep deprivation for both of us for potentially years.

Here's how to do it:

Log your progress every 10 days to look for improvement.

There's a lot of room for flexibility and forgiveness if you revert to old ways out of desperation.  That's one thing I love most about this method.  It's NO GUILT and there's no pressure to rush things.  Go at your own pace.

Start a schedule.
We now have a wake up time of 8am.  Blake gets 2 naps, one in the morning about 10am and one in the early afternoon about 2pm.  I try to watch for her cues and put her down when she's sleepy so I am flexible with the times.
Bedtime is tricky because of my work schedule and Blake being at her grandma's until I'm off.  Some nights I don't get done until 10:30 or 11.  This may need to be adjusted if the plan doesn't start working. When I'm home, bedtime starts about 8pm.

Naptime and Bedtime routine.
I was actually already doing this and didn't even know it.  I added a few things just to make it official and I have been keeping it consistent at every nap and every night.  It is about 30 minutes and consists of diaper change, pjs, story time, nursing, and rocking.  I tried to do bath time in my routine but her bath is not always relaxing as much as fun and active. She loves to kick and splash.  :) I also tried a massage but she really doesn't like it.
The naptime routine is a shortened version of the bedtime routine. About 10-15 minutes.

Other things to try:

• whispering "key words" to her as she is falling asleep so they become a sleep association.  I'm shocked at how well this worked.  I mostly just use "ssshhhh it's sleepy time". The shushing noise really calms her.
• trying to not use her pacifier when I put her down, although she has a really strong suck-to-sleep association.
• putting her down drowsy but still awake and staying with her and helping her to fall asleep while in her crib
• doing some calm playtime and story time in her crib throughout the day so she knows that is a positive and safe place to be.
• make sure she gets plenty of naptime.  I try for 2 2hr naps per day but at this point I don't always get them.

There are lots of tips in the book but these are the first ones I am trying.  You don't have to do all of them, just try things out and see what works.

I am also weaning her from being swaddled right now so that makes the sleep training harder.  She really loves her swaddle and still startles when she sleeps.  I am starting with one arm out for a while and then I will try two arms out and/or the Zipadee Zip.

I am planning to go in phases, starting with putting her down almost asleep and drowsy to progressively putting her down more and more awake.  Some people stop when they get to a phase where both baby and mom are comfortable and getting enough sleep.  I'm not sure where we will end up but we have already had enough progress to be rested and mentally sane again :) 

Skipping the Rice Cereal

On her 6 month birthday, we started Blakey on solid food.  It's more of an experiment really.  Just an exploration of different flavors and textures.  Her very first food was sweet potatoes.  I was so excited to bust out my Beaba Baby Cook baby food maker.  It steams and blends all in one.  I made her sweet potatoes and blended them smooth and then I made them really thin by adding breast milk.  Well, I would hardly call this first feeding a success.  She was so confused and pretty much just turned her head away from the spoon.  I didn't force her.  The next day, I tried again but with a little thicker texture.  I tossed the spoon and used my finger and she would actually take some into her mouth, yay success!!  But...every time I got any in her mouth, she gagged.  I hate to say but she had me cracking up with all the gagging.

After sweet potatoes came avocados, then bananas.  She actually swallowed some of the bananas.  I know this because I saw it come out the other end :)

Then I hit a little breastfeeding hiccup.  I'm not sure if it was the solids or something else but she stopped nursing well and my supply dropped a ton.  I quit the food and focused on breastfeeding for a week straight.  I am 100% committed to breastfeeding for the first year and maybe beyond so I was not about to let this be the end.  Solids are for fun at this point but her milk is 100% of her nutrition.  One week later, we are all good again but it was pretty stressful (which of course only makes things worse).

WARNING: Controversial topic ahead.
I skipped the rice cereal.  In fact I will never be giving my daughter rice cereal and that's ok.  It's good in fact.
Modern thinking (although plenty of people and pediatricians still believe rice cereal is the only option for baby's first food) is that rice cereal is just not necessary.  It has been the standard in recent generations but it has literally no nutritional value and is just a bunch of carbs that taste like cardboard.  Your doctor might tell you it's the iron.  Breastfed babies need iron, especially after the first 6 months.  Although this fact is debatable, iron can be found naturally in many fresh foods.  They might also tell you that allergies or baby's immature digestive system are factors.  Well, if you wait to start solids until baby is 6 months, their systems are ready.  There is less incidence of allergies and the digestive system has matured enough to handle lots of types of food.  Plus, rice cereal can just cause constipation, which I'm sure we can all agree is no fun.
We are choosing to go with fresh, healthy, homemade baby food for Blake.  It's easy, cheap, and good for her.  If you're still not convinced, remember, it wasn't very long ago that we didn't have boxed, processed, baby cereal and all of those babies thrived just fine.  :)

Here are some links with info about the topic.  There are tons of articles about this but here are a few that popped up when I was searching.

http://www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2011/12/nine-good-reasons-not-to-use-baby-rice.html

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/first-foods/

http://aapnews.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/09/19/aapnews.20120919-2.full

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/baby-diet-white-rice-cereal-pediatrician-dr-alan-greene-focuses/story?id=12801589

Blake Olivia: 6 months

What's been happening this month:

• Night waking.  This has been exhausting and stressful.  I have been going back and forth about what to do.  My natural instinct says NO to crying it out.  I really want to be patient and see if I can gently guide her into better sleep patterns without crying.  I downloaded The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley to my Kindle and sacrificed even more sleep to read it.  I have started using her techniques and they are helping, slowly.  Sometimes it feels painfully slow but I think it is working a little bit.  I'm trying to stop stressing about this and accept it for what it is.  Going to bed at night can give you anxiety if all you think about is that fact that you will be up in an hour or two.  If you accept it, it's less stressful :)
• Blake is loving different textures and scratching her nails against everything. 
• She is distracted and curious about EVERYTHING.
• She turns to her name.
• She rolls from her tummy to her back as soon as I put her down.  She still really does not like being on her tummy.  I just keep putting her her back on her belly :)
• She loves playing with her toys and has definite preferences.
• She tries to hold the bottle when Grammie is feeding her.
• She is growing out of her clothes like crazy.  
• I finally had to cut her toenails.
• Doesn't love the Ergo like she used to.  I want to get better with my sling and see if she will switch to that.
• We are weaning off the swaddle, starting with unswaddling one arm.  More to come on this later.
• Even though the night wakings can be frustrating, those moments in the middle of the night are a special time for us.  We rock and sway and I smell that addicting baby head smell and I can almost feel the "mommy hormones" running through my brain.  I know this is just a short time in her life so I'm trying to enjoy every moment. 

Mexican Quinoa

I was browsing Pinterest the other day looking for quinoa recipes and I came across this one.  We love a good taco night around here and I'm so sick of boring rice and beans as a side.  And to be honest I don't even really like rice.  I was so excited when I found this.  It turned out to be easy and delicious. Win-win!

Here's what you need:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 can diced tomatoes and green chilis (14.5 oz)
• 1 can black beans (15.5 oz)
• 1 can whole corn kernels (15.5 oz)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• grated cheddar cheese and sour cream (for topping)

WARNING: This makes a lot.  It doesn't look like it when you start but the quinoa gets huge. Could easily serve 6 people.

Here's what you do:

1. In a large sauce pan heat the olive oil over medium/high heat and add garlic.  Just saute until fragrant.  Less than a minute.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (minus the cilantro and the toppings) and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
4. Stir in cilantro just before serving and add toppings.

Lactation Shake

Peanut Butter Banana Lactation Smoothie: healthier than eating lactation cookies :)

• Protein Powder (I use vanilla)
• 1 banana
• splash of milk
• Chia Seeds (because they are a superfood and I put them in everything these days)
• Scoop of Peanut Butter
• 1/2 tbs flax seed meal (soak in water for a few minutes before to soften)
• 1/2 tbs. brewers yeast
• ice

You don't have to do peanut butter banana but this flavor is sweet and can cover up the bitterness of the brewers yeast.  I might try a fruity or green shake next.  Protein, flax seed meal, and brewers yeast are the important ingredients for lactation.  

Today I also heard that coconut oil and grass feed butter (whatever that is) are also good and some people put them in coffee (decaf).  There are so many home remedies for low milk supply out there and who knows if they really work but I have pretty much tried them all and now have a really great supply so I will keep doing what I'm doing. 

It's A Boy: A Shower For Shann

It’s A Boy!

We got in just under the wire here.  Little Patrick decided to make an early debut about 3 days later :)

Target diapers make the best diaper cakes.  Those polka dots are just too cute!

I wanted to do two large balloons with tassels but those tassels, although cute, can be really time consuming.  I can't help it though, I just love a giant balloon with a tassel string.  Blame Pinterest I guess. 

All the decorations were made by me.  I purchased the design from the Etsy shop called Haute Chocolate Favors.  The designer had a pink and blue girl whale theme and I had her do a custom package for me.  She sent the files over and I printed and put it all together.  

I made sparkling lemonade punch.  Just lemonade, club soda, lemon slices, blueberries, and ice.  Easy and refreshing.

The "salad party" has become the go-to with my girl friends.  Any time we have a party each girl makes a different salad and brings it.  It makes the food really easy and when it's all women (who eat like birds) it works perfectly.  WARNING: I would never serve this to a bunch of guys :)

My favors were small bags of candies.  I found Hershey kisses with "It's A Boy" strings which I thought were really cute.

A fun little diaper activity.  The guests write funny or inspirational messages on diapers to be reserved for late night diaper changes.  It's supposed to be a little something to get you through those incredibly tough/exhausting times in the beginning.

Blake's Grammie and Patrick's Grandma-to-be.

Making new friends :)

Niki, getting Blake down for a nap.  Thanks again for that one!!

The glowing momma-to-be opening her gifts :)

My daughter is 5 months and I still haven't gotten my hair done.  This is officially disgusting.  It has been over a year now.  This is first on my list if I ever get any "me" time and/or some money :)  But aren't her glasses adorable?

The whole crew

Blake Olivia: 5 months

What's been happening this month:

• 14 lb. 7oz at her doctor appointment.  Almost double her birth weight. 
• Doing much better at tummy time and rolling over from front to back.  She only gets to her side from her back though.
• Wearing size 6 month clothes.
• Laughing.
• Chewing her hands.
• Still drooling a lot.
• Understanding and anticipating games.
• Loves playing with toys, especially throwing them on the ground over and over and making me pick them up.
• Still needs to be swaddled for sleep.  I might get the Zipadee Zip soon to try to transition her.  It comes highly recommended from a few friends.
• Found her voice and loves to use it, loudly.
• Pulling hair. I can't ever wear mine down anymore.
• Loves to play with her feet.
• Waking up at night again. She wakes up about every other night.  I've read that this can happen at about 5 months because baby becomes more aware of their surroundings.  I am going to start some different methods for sleep so that I can create good habits.  I'm not a believer in "sleep training" but I am going to start gently helping her to learn to self soothe and fall asleep on her own.  I hope this works.  I didn't buy a book on it (because seriously, who has time to read a book?) but I have read up on a few different techniques and am going to sort of make up my own sleep techniques.  We'll see if it works.  More on that later.  I still really don't mind helping her to sleep but I would like to stop completely relying on nursing to sleep so that other people will be able to get her to bed.