A Very, Merry Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas!  We spent Christmas Eve at Jordan's parents with his brother's family, aunt and uncle, and cousins family.  It was pretty chaotic with so many children running around, but so much fun (and with five of the kids in diapers, pretty smelly too).  

Christmas day we woke up at home and our little family of three all had breakfast and opened our stockings together.  Silas was definitely pumped to open his first stocking ever!!  He wore his new Christmas duds for the day and we went back to Jordan's parents for lunch.  We then traveled across town to my moms to do more celebrating with my family, and eat more food of course (I probably gained five pounds in two days).

It is so amazing having a little one to celebrate with and share memories.  Baby's first Christmas was a success and we are excited for years to come when he actually is more aware the holidays.  We are very grateful to have such loving family and friends, and are feeling so blessed this year!

4 month sleep regression & my dirty little secret

So Silas turned 4 months old on Friday, December 6.  Oh my goodness, time is flying and he is growing way too fast and I know everybody says that, but it is true.

 He had a great check up at the doctor and his pediatrician said he is very active compared to most 4 month old babies and it looks like he is going to be a little athlete. Silas is in the 91st percentile for height and 51st percentile for weight.  He did great with his shots, and even smiled at the nurse who gave them to him as she walked out the room!

At four months, Silas can roll both from front to back, and back to front.  He loves to flail his limbs, bounce on our laps, stand (with our help of course) and everything must go in his mouth.  We are still waiting for a full belly laugh, but there is squeaking and squawking and lots of "ahh-ghoo"ing.  He has started rice cereal, but isn't quite sure how he feels about it yet.  Next week, we will try a vegetable!

Along with Silas turning 4 months old came a little something which we discovered to be called 4 month sleep regression (this blog post describes it to a tee: Wonder Week 19 aka 4 Month Sleep Regression). We were doing great with sleeping at night.  He had fallen into a pretty decent routine of bedtime around 9:30; I would feed and change him once, usually around 4AM, and then he would sleep again until 8:30 or so.  If he did wake up at any other time during the night he would usually just fall back to sleep on his own within minutes.  Well this all changed the other weekend.  He started waking more and NOT falling back to sleep on his own.  It started Friday night when he woke not too long after his feeding and started to cry... we are all for letting him cry it out if it's not too long, but this was getting borderline ridiculous... like there was something really wrong, maybe gas or tummy problems?  The next night he cried for almost TWO HOURS STRAIGHT!  I would go into his room and he would just start smiling at me so I knew he was fine.... he was just awake and did not want to sleep.  Jordan and I both were becoming very frustrated.  I want him to learn that he has to fall back to sleep on his own, but two hours is too long for me.  It is sad to listen to him, plus we need our sleep too and I for one can't sleep knowing he is crying, even if we manage to mask the sound.  Jordan put him on his tummy at one point just to settle him down, and he was instantly fine and fell back to sleep, BUT only on his stomach.  Maybe he was having tummy problems and this was helping, so we let him sleep like this until morning, with apprehension on my part.

Well, this started to become a common theme.  Silas started to revolt against sleeping on his back.  Every night we would put him to sleep on his back, and every night he would start crying instantly. Why now when he had been sleeping fine at night on his back for months? So we started to put him to sleep on his belly, and then flip him (very carefully) after he had fallen to sleep.  But he didn't sleep very long like this before waking again.  Now, some people might be thinking, whats wrong with letting him sleep on his tummy if that's the way he likes to sleep? Jordan's mom, my mom and many other mothers who raised children several decades ago were TOLD to put their babies to sleep on their bellies to prevent choking on spit-up, etc. We all turned out just fine sleeping face down. Now, its the complete opposite.  If I told fellow mothers that I put my baby to sleep on his stomach their jaws would drop, I would be shunned, I would be deemed a horrible parent.  Why? Because "The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that healthy infants be placed on their backs for sleep, as this is the safest position for an infant to sleep. Putting your baby to sleep on his back decreases his chance of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which is responsible for more infant deaths in the United States than any other cause during the first year of life (beyond the newborn period)."  Everything you read, and every doctor, nurse, healthcare professional will tell you to put your baby to sleep on their back, back is best!!.  So everynight at bedtime I have an internal struggle with placing Silas to sleep on his stomach.  I for one HATE doing it.  Why would I do something that may put my baby at risk of death?  But how likely is this really?  Are there facts to back this up?  He can roll both ways and has great head support so it is fine right? But you are not supposed to do it and he could stop breathing!!!!  So I should just let him cry and be sad and make us sad and no one sleeps?  

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH.  

There is so much controversey, but it really seems to be the only thing that works to get him to sleep now, and sleep for long periods of time.  I have read things online about other mothers putting their infants on their bellies to sleep as well, but doing so "quietly" (Girls Gone Child)..  So it has become my dirty little secret, and I still feel selfish, and horrible about doing it, but some of the best advice other parents will tell you is just do what you feel is best for you and your baby, you will just know.  
And we are all sleeping wonderfully.

The holiday weekend

It is so sad that the long holiday weekend is now over, but I can say it was one of the best that I have had in years.  Why?  Well for one, we got to share it with a cute little baby, but also, because I didn't have to work!!  It actually felt like a REAL 4 day weekend.  Okay, I know I have not worked in months, but not working on a holiday weekend is something that has not happened in probably 15 years or something.  This whole being a stay-at-home-mom thing has its perks (thanks to my amazing husband who goes to work everyday that I am able to do this).

Thanksgiving day was spent first with my side of the family, and with Jordan's side in the evening.  Way too much food was consumed, but it was all very delicious (and the leftovers were just as good!).  

We have a lot to be thankful for this year!

I am especially thankful for these two boys...

Saturday was spent getting our Christmas tree....

and taking naps.....

Sunday we helped a friend get her tree! Silas was a great helper :)

Can't wait for the next long weekend....but first, I must shop!

As of lately...

We officially moved Silas into his crib over the weekend, and started sleep training along with the transition.  For those unsure of what sleep training is (I didn't know myself until about a month ago), it is basically the process of trying to get your little one to sleep through the night, or at least sleep longer than what they normally do so you as a parent are getting up less. 

We usually put Silas to bed somewhere between 9 and 10.  We have a little routine we go through but nothing crazy (diaper change, sleepwear, sleep bag, bottle - bath first if it is a bath night).  Jordan always feeds him the bottle before bed and majority of the time Silas starts falling asleep while drinking the bottle so he goes down for bed pretty easily after a good burp.

Silas had been sleeping a good 6 or 7 hours straight for awhile, but over the past month he seemed to revert back to waking up more often and sleeping shorter amounts (I guess this is pretty common), but waking up three times a night to feed him was getting pretty old for me.  First night of sleep training he woke up around 2:30 and instead of getting up and feeding him, we just let him go.  He fussed for a few minutes, and Jordan was just about to try giving him the pacifier when we heard him sucking on his hand, which he was able to soothe himself back to sleep with! Great!  He woke again around 4:30, and I decided to get up and feed and change him at this point.  He went back to sleep easily, and woke again at 7.  We could have gotten up with him at this point to start the day, but hey, it was the weekend, and we are going to try and sleep in a little longer if we could!  We let Silas fuss for a bit, and again, Jordan was about to give the pacifier, but before he could, baby was asleep again.  He slept for about another hour and a half and woke around 8:30.  Overall a pretty good night!  The next night was similar, but instead of waking up at 7, he slept right up until about 8.

The end goal of this is to try not to get up at all, but as of right now Silas is sleeping around 10-12 hours a night and I feel getting up once to feed him during that time is quite reasonable.  I am sure he could probably go eight hours without a feeding, but timing-wise getting up once in the middle of a 12 hour period works just as well for now.

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This past weekend was also the first time we got a significant amount of snow, and the temperatures were absolutely frigid out there.  It definitely gets you in the holiday spirit though and I think we are all excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

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As far as things go with me, I am recovering quite well from my procedure/mini-surgery that I had on Tuesday.  I actually felt great the next day already and seemed to have a burst of energy, vacuuming the house and painting furniture.  The pain that I was having before the procedure immediately vanished and I have high hopes for being totally pain free very soon!  Yay!  My check up is December 17 and if everything checks out okay, I can start moving around like I used to and hopefully be able to shed these last pounds of baby weight!!  (I might as well wait until the new year though because I know all the holiday food will counteract with any working out I may or may not be doing ;)

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I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!

Birth story featured!

A cherubic boy: The birth of Silas | Pregnancy & Newborn MagazinePregnancy & Newborn Magazine 

My grandma, the centenarian!

My grandmother, Nelda Dome, experienced something that not many people get to experience.  On Tuesday (11/12/13) she had a birthday, and not just any birthday, her 100th birthday.  We all traveled down to the town of Tell City, Indiana over the weekend to celebrate.

My grandma and Silas, her great grandson (100 years apart)

My cousins daughter, Amelia "Mimi"

Four Generations

And bravo to Silas on his first road trip... ya done good boy.

3 months old

Wednesday Silas turned 3 months old!!

And what an exciting, challenging, joyful, exhausting, adventurous, unpredictable 3 months it has been!

Things I have learned these past few months....

All babies are different.  I have learned this not because of my experience with babies (which was virtually none before Silas came along) but because of what I have heard, read and seen.  Many parents who have more than one child would explain that one of their children was such a good baby, while the other was a complete opposite.  I look at other parents in the grocery store with jealousy as their young babies are sound asleep in car seats, strollers, and carriers, while I am making a mad-dash through the store before Silas may or may not have a complete meltdown (and yes I just fed and changed him right before I left the house).  I can say I am pretty sure Silas has not been the easiest baby... not an absolute terror, but definitely challenging, and often inconsolable.  And we are not failing as parents because of this.

Feeding a newborn is more intensive than expected.  I feel like I was pretty well prepared for life as a new mom from all the books, blogs, magazines, websites etc.  I knew it would be hard, I knew breastfeeding would be challenging, I knew an eight hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep would be something I would soon know nothing of, but I did not realize how often I would have to feed this baby.  Every 2 to 3 hours in their first weeks of life even if the baby is sleeping, WHAT, I thought you never wake a sleeping baby?  It seems there were times when we FINALLY got Silas to sleep, we would look at the clock, and realize he needs to feed again soon.  AAHHH.  When the baby starts to put on weight and is sleeping longer stretches it is not quite as critical and there is no need to wake them, but guess what!?  if you are breastfeeding you will probably still need to pump regularly to keep up your supply.  I was looking forward to the sleep I would get our first night away from baby, forgetting that I could not sleep TOO long without a pump session.

Fragmented sleep can feel just as bad as no sleep. I can say there was never a night in those first weeks that I didn't get any sleep and usually we actually ended up getting about six or seven hours a night. But it was an hour here, two hours there, and once awake, its not always easy to fall to sleep right away again (even if baby is).  A night of this is exhausting and makes for stressed out parents in the morning.  Being able to stay at home helps because I could always nap when Silas does (but I found this very difficult as I just wanted to get things done around the house when he slept).  It seemed as he started to sleep longer stretches at night, he also became more restless in his sleep, grunting, and straining, and tooting, and wiggling and making all sorts of noises, all while he was still asleep.  I recall one morning in particular... it was about 6:30, I had JUST fallen back asleep after a 5 AM feeding, but awoke shortly after to his "noises" and promptly picked up the bassinet, with Silas in it, angrily plopped it in his nursery and slammed the door shut.  I had had enough!  But then I proceeded to have a nightmare about forgetting about him and leaving him somewhere.  He was brought back in our room that night...

It helps to get out (sans baby).  If someone offers to babysit, take them up on it.  As much as we love our new baby boy, it really does give you back a sense of that freedom you once had when you can get out of the house once and while without the baby.  It kind of revives you.  I remember when Silas had just turned a month old, it was Friday morning, and I was on the verge of a breakdown (baby wanted to wake before I did and exhaustion and anger was setting in hardcore).  My phone rang, it was my mom offering to babysit that night if Jordan and I wanted to go out for dinner (almost like she knew what was happening at that very moment).  Yes YES YES!! Getting out once in awhile also gave me back that sense normalcy again, like a real human being out in society...not in pajamas or sweats, hair actually somewhat done, no-spit up on my shirt...

Through everything though, nothing has been quite as great as those first smiles, those first coos, seeing every new little development and seeing him change everyday.  And just thinking about the fact that we created this super cute baby (yes, he IS the cutest baby on earth) is an amazing feeling!!!

1. aden + anais swaddle wraps we use these for swaddling during naps; also great just to have to lay on the floor or a couch for the little one to play on.  we always have one in the diaper bag.

2. sassy Playmat we got this as a gift by recommendation (thanks Jamie and Amy!) and it has been great at entertaining Silas, as well as building his developmental skills.  he loves batting at all the hanging doodads! (any playmat would do, this is just the particular one we have-- there is another great one out there that had a keyboard for kicking).

3. Fisher Price Rock n Play another gift we did not register for but has been a lifesaver (thanks Melissa!).  we kind of broke the rules of safe sleep by letting Silas sleep in here during the night occasionally his first few weeks, but he did not want to sleep on his back and was dealing a bit with acid reflux.  now we just use it for daytime catnaps and just to hang out in.  we also bring it with us if we are going to be at someone's  house for awhile for a place for him to rest when not being held.

4. Halo Sleep Sack these have been great for nighttime sleep, as he tends to wiggle himself out of the swaddle blankets (the sacks keep him in tighter).  we got a free one from the hospital, and another free one from another program.  we have gotten so much use out of these (but he grew out of them quickly).

5. Boppy i use this for just about every feeding at home. also can be used for propping to sit, and tummy time.  different stages of use are diagrammed right on the tag.  voted number 1 for products mommys can't live without!

6. Summer Infant Swaddle Me it was easier to find these in larger sizes than the Halo sleep sacks so we transitioned to these after he outgrew the sacks.  they come in a bunch of fun prints as well!

7. NUK Pacifiers i remember our first night at home was rough.... Jordan and I took turns between trying to get Silas to sleep and try to get some sleep ourselves.  at one point I awoke and was surprised to not hear a crying baby.  it was the pacifier that saved us those first few weeks.  the Nuks worked best!

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