Soft Coos

It is 5:45 am and I'm listening to Ian coo softly in his crib. That is music to my ears! We just had a wonderful night. Ian went to bed at 7:30 pm, woke at 8:30 pm (at which point I went in to soothe him and let him cry it out for a couple of minutes) and then he slept until 5:30 am! Wow. I remember him crying out twice around 12:30 am, but he went right back to sleep before I even got myself out of bed. I was sure I was going to have to do a middle of the night feed, but nope! Ian went 10 hours in between feeds! After feeding him this morning, I thought he might not be ready to get up yet and so I put him back in his crib where he is cooing and talking softly.

Our trip in Florida is almost over. We leave this afternoon to head back to Boston. We had a wonderful time and I'm so happy that Ian got to meet my sister, my brother-in-law and his 2 Florida cousins. And we had lots of firsts down here. First time in pool, first time seeing ocean, first time eating rice cereal, first time napping in crib, first time sleeping without a pacifier and first time SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!

And as is typical of trips to Florida, we are leaving just a little bit fatter than when we came.

Pacifiers are the Work of the Devil

Here is the update on our sleep training without the pacifier using Ferber's "progressive wait" approach, also known as the cry it out approach (although Ferber dislikes such terminology):

Yesterday's morning nap: a total of 13 minutes of crying --> 40 minute nap
Yesterday's afternoon nap: 7 minutes of crying --> 30 minute nap
Nighttime sleep: 1 minute of crying
8:30 pm and 9:30 pm wakings: 1 minute of crying
10:45 pm feed: 1 minute of crying

And then...and then??? Ian slept until 6:45 am! There was no middle of the night feeding for the very first time in his life. Unreal. And now, this morning, Ian took a 75 minute nap, which is probably the longest nap he has ever taken in his crib and is certainly way better than the 30-40 minutes he has been napping.

THANK GOD WE DITCHED THE EVIL PACIFIER!

Eye Color

I have long been focused on what color my child's eyes will be. While I will love him no matter what color his eyes are, I was really hoping that they would be green. So many people have blue or brown eyes and I feel that green eyes are something special. My eyes are very green (as are my parents' eyes) and my husband (whose mom has brown eyes and dad has blue eyes) has these really amazing hazel eyes with a brown ring around the pupil. Ian was born with very dark eyes and although I sometimes saw a greenish tinge when the light struck him just right, I was starting to admit that his eyes would be brown. But on our way to the beach yesterday, I was sitting with Ian in the back seat of the car and the light hit his eyes. And I saw this:

His right eye (left in the picture) has these amazing brown spokes radiating out from the center. Can you see it?! I wonder if his eye will stay like this or whether the color is in the process of changing. I guess I will find out soon enough. :)

I love Dr. Ferber!

I came to Florida with a baby who wouldn't nap in his crib and who was completely addicted to his pacifier. But I also came to Florida with Dr. Richard Ferber's book and I have been soaking up every word and following Ferber's advice in order to help Ian sleep better. Within 1-2 days of "Ferberizing" Ian to sleep on his back in his crib, Ian was sleeping nicely in his crib. Okay, so his naps are super short (30-45 minutes), but he's sleeping in his crib. So I consider that a success. But he is still so addicted to his pacifier. When Ian wakes up in the middle of the night (which Ferber assures me is a completely normal part of a sleep cycle) , he can't soothe himself back to sleep because sometime between falling asleep and waking up, he has lost his pacifier. And then either my husband or I have to get out of bed, search around in the dark for the pacifier, and plug the hole that is my screaming child's mouth. And Ian will instantaneously shut off and go back to sleep. But I don't shut off so easily and I seriously worry about sleep deprivation when I have to go back to work in mid-September. Ferber tells me that Ian won't be able to soothe himself back to sleep in the middle of the night until his environment then is the same as the one in which he fell asleep. Thus, it's time to get rid of the pacifier.

I used this morning's nap as my first experiment. After seeing that Ian was starting to get crabby and after seeing him rub his eyes multiple times, I swaddled him and put him in his crib without his pacifier. He screamed for 7 minutes at which point I went in and patted him and sang him a song. He calmed down pretty quickly (which means he can, in fact, calm down without the pacifier). But when I left, he started screaming again. But this time, he screamed for only 6 minutes and fell asleep! HE IS ASLEEP WITHOUT HIS PACIFIER! I'm so damn excited. And I'm really proud of myself for sticking to my guns (and Ferber's advice) even though my mom was hinting very strongly that I was being cruel to my child by letting him cry.

As an aside, I'm quite proud of myself for handling the baby all by myself for the last 4 nights.

Missing my Husband

We just drove my husband to the airport so that he can catch a flight back home. I'm staying in Florida with the baby for an extra week. I thought it would be nice to stay a little longer because I'm on maternity leave anyway, my parents don't get to see us that often and I'm home alone with the baby all day while my husband is at work. In addition, we are having a deck built and so I hear the nail gun and hammering all day long. But now that the time has come to spend a week without my husband, I'm upset. I started crying at the airport while saying goodbye to him. I've never been apart from him for this long. And of course I started thinking horrible thoughts like the fact that my child won't have a father if his plane crashes. Ugh. I will be happy to hear his voice when he lands safely in Boston.

The Pool!

We put Ian in the pool for the first time. The water was so nice and warm for him because after all, it's summertime in Florida! I wish I could say that Ian liked being in the water, but honestly, it didn't really seem like he noticed he was in the water! He didn't try to splash and I just held him and played with him. So he was happy, but I think he would have been just as happy if I did these things on land with him. But overall, at least he didn't cry or seem to hate it.

I was fairly happy with the way I looked in the bathing suit, although I would love to lose the back fat that seemed to creep up on me during my pregnancy. I know I'm being hard on myself because everyone is telling me how great I look for only being 4.5 months post-partum. And I know I look good for the situation. I just look forward to looking a bit better. But I bet I won't be able to get my body looking the way I want it to until after I stop nursing Ian. These D boobs are starting to be cumbersome! But really, it's all worth it to me. I love nursing Ian. I love that he has grown so much and thrived on the nourishment that only I can provide to him. I'm very proud of that.

Ferberizing

We have been "Ferberizing" Ian to help him sleep better in his crib. Even after adding back in the swaddle, Ian did NOT want to go to sleep on his back in his crib. I think he really would prefer to be on his side, but not only is that not safe for him because of the risk of SIDS, he just wakes up again when he rolls onto his tummy or back. So we picked up the new edition of Dr. Richard Ferber's book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" and have been using his described methods to help Ian sleep in his crib. So far, it's been successful (although painful to do). The first night, we ended up Ferberizing Ian around midnight after he woke up and we couldn't get him back to sleep. He cried for 40 minutes (with intermittent soothing from us) and finally fell back asleep. The second night, we Ferberized Ian at bedtime and he cried for 30 minutes. The next time it was only 20 minutes and yesterday, when we did it for a nap, he only cried for 9 minutes. I hope that he will go to sleep soon without any crying!

We have been mostly successful at scheduling Ian's naps at 9ish, 12ish and 3ish, but today, when we went out food shopping, we couldn't keep him awake in his car seat and let him fall asleep at 10:45 am. It's 12:15 pm now and he's still sleeping! I wish he slept this well in his crib. We only get 30-45 minutes from him for naps in his crib. As my mom said, "He's not one for sleeping." But maybe he can learn to sleep better!