The predominant theme this month is how big Dio is. Every day we get more comments and jokes about how big/heavy/chunky/dense/chubby/fat he is. He has a 7-week old cousin and next to her he's a freakish monster baby. He's usually pretty good natured, but I love this picture taken on Christmas morning. We all were tired and wanted more sleep.
A month ago, Dio had just started having occasional tastes of apples and oranges and bananas. Now he's eating something at almost every meal, mostly fruits and vegetables and occasionally pretzels or homemade bread. And of course plain Cheerios, which come in quite handy when I need to put him down for a minute and want to ward off a crying spell. It still seems strange that he's eating so much at this point, since Zari didn't have any solid foods at all until she was 10 months old. But Dio is eating with gusto and I don't know if I could have kept him away from food for that long. And all of that food is doing interesting things to his digestive system. Goodbye, sweet smelling runny breastmilk poop...hello stink!
I think Dio will walk in Zari's footsteps--literally--and walk almost as soon as he crawls. She crawled at 8 months and walked at 10. Dio wants to walk all the time, which means we have to walk him all around the house. He also loves standing up against the furniture. I've figured out that if I stand him at the coffee table with my feet on either side of him, I can read a book and he'll be happy for quite a while just standing and looking around. No crawling yet, and no interest in even trying out hands and knees positions at this point. He has started twisting over from a sitting position into a near crouch, and maybe he'll start crawling that way.
I feel envious of all those parents of 4-5-6-month-olds who sleep through the night (or at least 5-6 hour stretches). At best Dio sleeps 3 hour segments, maybe close to 4 when he first goes to bed. At worst he's up every hour at night. He doesn't always need to nurse to go back to sleep, but he does need help of some sort: shushing or cuddling or rocking. We've had a few really rough nights this week where Dio was up almost every hour all night, and then Zari woke up multiple times and/or talked in her sleep. We were like zombies in the mornings. Last night he only woke up every 3 hours, which felt amazing to me.
I just don't know what else to do to help him sleep longer stretches. I bundle him up, but leave at least one arm free so he doesn't struggle and get too mad trying to get free. I have Fuzzibunz on at night so he doesn't feel wet. I use white noise and/or a fan (or both!). When we're not at my parents, he starts off in another room and at some point in the middle of the night I bring him in with us. At my parent's house, he starts off in a portable crib and then spends the last half of the night in our bed. When it's warmer again, I might try leaving him in his room a bit more, but it's simply too cold right now to be out of the covers every 2-3 hours during the night. He's really good about falling asleep for naps and for bedtime without nursing. Usually I just set him down when he's relaxed but still awake, and he conks out really quickly. But at night, when he wakes, he needs help getting back down. Which is fine, and I don't at all resent snuggling him back to sleep (or kicking Eric and letting him do it!) But I would really, really love longer stretches of sleep...even 4-hour intervals would be heavenly.
We've been enjoying the snow: sledding, snow forts, snow tunnels, snow mountains, snow angels, snow drawings. And of course, eating snow! At home Zari just eats it straight from a cup or a bowl. But here the grandparents spoil her with maple syrup or raspberry syrup poured over the snow. I could do without the Minnesota temperatures, but at least it's been reasonable since we've been visiting. Reasonable = above 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-17 C).
Zari loves playing with her cousins. Yesterday they closed themselves in a tiny bathroom and played with glow sticks.
Morning snuggle earlier this month.
Oh Gosh, I am always so worried about my 2.5 month old because she will sleep for about 4-6 hours straight at night! I think I kind of preferred my son waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse back to sleep because then I knew he was ok!
ReplyDeletemy Ven who is 8 months old too (of course) does the same thing. he's had a night sprinkled here or there that's he;s slept more than 6hrs... but usually it's about every 2. some nights it's every hour... sometimes it'll be 3. infact I think he slept better when he was 2 months old!
ReplyDeletethat said, my boy would never go to sleep if i laid him down! no way buddy. that's be an all out heartbroken cry. he likes nursing too much ;)
I do wonder though if perhaps his reflux is what wakes him. it's awful haing reflux come up on you at night! I'm like that through all my pregnancies and i am up often at night because of it. hmmm..
He is soo cute!!
ReplyDeleteI too was bummed when the breastmilk poop was replaced by smelly poop :o)
Ugh...I have a 20 month old who still wakes up every three hours (and on some night every hour. Which, I think very well may be torture!) To make matters worse, he screams bloody murder until he gets to nurse.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I am not a happy mommy! Maybe someday he will sleep through the night.
Oh, Rixa, everything about your 2 reminds me of my Greta and Mickey days...including the giant baby stuff, the lack of sleep, and the "early" solids...I wish I had a digital camera back then, might have to somehow scan in some regular pics just to email you..little fuzzy headed chubby baby boy and long blonde haired 3 year old Greta : )
ReplyDeleteMickey started literally gaping at our dinner at 5 months old and we had to give him bites! This was on top of CONSTANT nursing and practically all night nursing as well. He was much more high needs than Greta from the get-go, and we had to do baby swings, gripe water, swaddling with extra large blankets, and yes, pacifier. He also outgrew his infant car seat by 4 months old which sucked for shopping...I did wear ring slings back then but he wanted to nurse in them and I was no good at it, so my shopping days were kind of a thing of the past as well until he was older.
But enough about me, Dio is so gorgeous and we love all your updates! Belated Merry Christmas to all!
Joy
It was fun to read your update. I hope Dio will settle into longer sleeping periods soon--although my own children never did that until they were weaned.I think I just get used to being somewhat sleep-deprived all the time! It was worst when I tandem nursed for a year after Luke was born--I felt like I was being woken up by one child or the other wanting to nurse every hour! I'm weaning Esther right now, and it's gotten worse not better--now she wakes up at night and won't go back to sleep...
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're doing everything you can. Our son not only was waking up at least twice a night till he was two and half, he was a terrible napper and stopped entirely at two.
ReplyDeleteHe's four now, only wakes up at night occasionally, but has a terrible time getting to sleep no matter how much we follow a routine/avoid sugar/yadda yadda. He used to go to sleep at 8:30; now it's 10. Sometimes 10:30. Argh!
All I can say is, until they're self-sufficient enough to handle their own sleep, it's one of the hardest parts of parenting.
My babe's weren' sleeper either... But in the winter I double jammie them, and one of them liked to be warmer, so with her I would also put on a light fleece suit also. It did help, but she was still up a lot at night too. In fact.. she's still up a lot at night, and she's 3 now! I have tried everything! But... With my others, I did let them cry little bits... like, waiting a few minutes before getting them, and if they kept up the fussing, then I would get them... But I often found that they would fuss in their sleep, and I was picking them up and waking them.... anyways, good luck! I hope you get some sleep soon!
ReplyDeleteI love your updates on Dio. Would love to hear more about your personal approach to introducing foods to your babies. What resources did you use to guide you?
ReplyDeleteBoth my babes were like twice that size! Seriously, they were huge. But rolly polly babes are awesome!
ReplyDeleteSo sleep, my daughter (3 now) woke up every two hours for the first year of her life (with exceptions here and there). But by 18 momths was sleeping through the night. My son (now 16 months) still wakes up every 3 hours to nurse back to sleep. And he needs to be nursed to sleep for naps. I accepted it a long time ago, that sleep will be scarce in this season of child-raising. But being a zombie still sucks! I feel your pain.
Merry Belated Christmas to you and your fam!
Will, Dio is really cute, Fruits and vegetables are good for health, as he is just 8month old now he will crawl,just take the photos when we first walk its amazing
ReplyDeleteMy first nursed every hour for 15 minutes until he was 7 months old, then he dropped to 'only' 18-20 nursings a day/night at 8 and 9 months. Then when he really started eating solids for every meal during the day around 10 months he dropped to nursing 3 times a day and slept for 3 or 4 hours directly after being put to bed (because we did dinner, nursing, and a bottle to 'tank him up')....then proceeded to continue to wake every hour or two for the rest of the night! Then, at 15 months its like someone flipped a switch and he just started sleeping through the night (except for one breif wake to move from crib to bed cuz we co sleep but put him down to sleep in his crib)! He's been sick recently, however, and for the last 3 weeks he's woken in the middle of the night and just refused to go back to sleep for at least 2 hours (frequently 3 or 4 hours) regardless of what I do.
ReplyDeletethe worst part, my in laws were very vocal about their belief that it was me continuing to nurse him that was 'ruining' his sleep! hang in there, eventually he'll either 1) start sleeping through the night or 2) get old enough that he can lay there by himself despite being awake (like I did as a child! never did start sleeping through the night, just got old enough to know not to wake my parents) Get husband to let you take a nap and hang in there!
Not sleeping is a drag. I hope you get some sleep soon.
ReplyDeleteTristan is almost 8 months old too, and is up every 45 min's- an hour and 1/2 all night long.
ReplyDeleteI have to nurse him to get him to sleep for naps and bedtime. I try to lay him down at night in our co-sleeper after he falls asleep, but half of the time his eyes pop wide open when I go to lay him down! So...most of the time he ends up sleeping on my chest. At 23 lbs, this is getting uncomfortable!! haa
I'm hoping that he will start to sleep for at least 3-4 hour stretches once we start solids....but am not holding my breath! ( we want to wait till close to a yr to start solids).
Hang in there...and know you are not alone! I keep trying to tell myself this too!
Aren't glow sticks great fun? LOL.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest has never been a good sleeper, she just turned 4 and some nights still wakes/makes noise. I would also think about reflux waking him; we used a small amount of liquid aluminum free Gaviscon; I think it was either 2.5mL or 4.5mL, LOL, not much help...the Yahoo breastfeeding reflux group helped with that.
I thought oranges weren't to be given till one year old...citrus can really upset a tummy too/cause reflux.
What about putting socks on him? I can't sleep if my feet are even the slightest bit cold :)
Your blog is super cute...so is your little one! Congrats!
ReplyDelete