Kenny G is Sleep Training

It has been a week and a half since we started sleep training with baby K.  It has been a road of ups and downs, but for the most part I think we got lucky with her.  Since she was born, she has been a better sleeper than her brother (waking about 2-3 times a night), but would never sleep through the night.  Then about a month ago she started waking up every 1-2 hours at night, ugg!  It was Lincoln all over again and everyone was tired! 

At her 4 month appointment, our Dr said we could start sleep training with her.  She suggested we start putting her in her room and if we put her down at 7, to wake her up to feed before I went to bed.  While I agreed with putting her in her room, I did not think it would be good to wake her up to feed, so we did not do that. 

We decided to use the same sleep program we used with Lincoln.  In this program you are suppose to give it three days to work.  The basic principles of this are to put them down somewhere in the 6 o'clock hour, put them down slightly awake, let them try to work it out for up to an hour before you go in, and no crutches (ie, paci or rocking). 

We started two Sunday's ago with cereal (for the first time!) at 6, a bath at 6:30 and then pjs and nursing at 7.  After I fed her, I put her in her bed around 7:30.  That night she slept until 11:45 and then cried for about an hour.  I was on my way to get her and then she stopped crying and went back to sleep until 7 the next morning. Night 2 was great because she only woke up at 8pm and fussed for 10 minutes and then didn't make a peep until I got her up in the morning.  Night 3 was a whole different story!  She went down fine, but woke about 12:45 and cried for 15 minutes and seemingly went to sleep but then woke up and cried again for 30 minutes and this went on and off for 3 hours.  I finally gave in and went to get her and decided to feed her.  Turns out she was just hungry and went right sleep after I fed her, poor baby.  From that, Craig and I decide that I would feed her once at night (anytime after 12) and then let her work it out the rest of the times if she wakes. From night 4 on that is what we have been doing.  She now seems to wake up around 3-4am every day, so I guess that is her new pattern.  But I think 7pm to 3am is a great stretch.  And a bonus is that I can put her back in bed after the 3am feed and she goes back to sleep until I have to get her in the morning. 

Contrary to her face here, she does like her food!  We went back and fourth on whether or not to start her on food, but our Dr said we should at least do some cereal to get her use to the act of eating and it has gone good.  Our Dr actually prefers we do veggies over cereal, but she said sometimes they wont take it. 

We have tried the veggies too and she seems to like them too.  Mostly, she just likes to chew on the spoon which is fun.  So far, she seems like she will be a better eater than Lincoln, so I am hopeful!

Yum!

I hope we can continue this sleep training pattern and then at six months we may revisit not getting up to feed her until 5 or 6am.  I just don't think she is full enough to last that long.  I am very pleased with how this has worked, it was way easier at her age than at Lincoln (he was 13 months old).  I too use to be a person that could not let her child cry, but I guess now I understand that this is the way they process at night, much like we may say our prayers when we are laying down to sleep.  We all have some kind of comfort thing we do to help us sleep and since they can't talk yet, crying is their way.  Hopefully that makes sense. 

Now naps are a whole other issue!  The sleep training says do the same for naps, but I just can't stand letting her cry that long during the day.  We are working on it, but have not found anything that works for a nap longer than 20 minutes apart from holding her the whole time.  I do love holding her, so that is nice, but it makes it hard to get anything done!  For now, I will just enjoy my cuddle time with her, because before I know it, she won't want to anymore!  Here is Kenny and Daddy napping her favorite way.  They look so peaceful! 

Until next time, sleep well!

Four Months for K Mae

Kennedy, you turned four months on January 8th, your first milestone in 2011!  We are so excited with each month because we learn something new about you.

You continue to grow so fast!  Here is what is new this month:

-You weigh 16.3 pounds (90%)

-You are 25.5 inches long (97%)

-You wear size 3 diapers now.  I am kinda sad because the size three sensitive pampers don't have the pee indicator on them like the newborn - size 2.  It was just fun to see it turn from yellow to green, oh well.

-You still wear 3-6 month clothes, but that is because I don't want to go out and buy new ones.  I will squeeze you into them for as long as I can, haha.  You could easily fit into 6-9 month because we have a few outfits that size and they fit you great.

-Your nursing schedule bumped up this month.  You nurse about 10 times a day.

-Your nursing went up because you sleep stretches are worse.  You get up about 3-4 times a night now, and we are both feeling the tiredness. Now that you are four months, we can try a sleep training program.

-Your doctor said it would be a good idea to start solids, and you have slowly started to like them.  The doctor recommends veggies over cereal and you seem to like them better too but have only tried squash.

-You are trying hard to roll from back to front and sitting up a lot better, still not on your own.

-Daddy can get you to giggle and I just got you to today!  It is the best.

-You like to sit in your walker and hit the music board.

-No teeth yet, but you are drooling like crazy and teething on everything.

-You have the best smile and it just makes my day.

I have been back at work for a month now and sometimes I wonder if I will ever adjust.  It has been a lot harder to go back this time knowing all that I am missing with her.  I know as the months continue to come it will get easier. 

I mean, look at that face, how could you not want look at it all day long.  BTW, that hat is ridiculous, but I love it!

Happy four months Kennedy Mae, we love you!

Kennedy's 3 Month Shoot and Santa!

About a month ago, we had Kennedy's three month pictures taken.  We also squeezed in a little Santa for our Christmas Card pictures.  Jennifer Matlock does an excellent job and I think this was my favorite session yet!  We did this session over by our house close to these huge houses, it was a great back drop!

Linc is doing so great with taking pictures now and she got some really great ones of him!

My favorite!

Here is the dress I was talking about in the last post that my mom purchased.  She also has on a bracelet my grandparents got her that says her name on it.

Love her scrunched nose smile!

What a big boy!

Santa came to visit, my kids must have been good!

Love my kids!

Sweetness!

And she was done!  But she did great through all those outfit changes, what a champ!

I can't wait for her six months/Linc's 3 year pictures!

Christmas 2010

I know we are like two weeks out from Christmas, so these are real late, but I have a good excuse!  Blogger made me buy more space!!!  This happened to my friend Niki as well, so we must post a lot of pictures, haha.  Anyway, I finally gave in and purchased some space and I am back at it.

Christmas was wonderful but very hectic this year.  Double the trouble, double the fun!  Having two small children at Christmas can be super fun, but also draining.  Lincoln really got into gifts this year and on Christmas day, stayed up all day playing with them all, no naps for anyone, eek!  But he had a blast.  Here are some photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Here is Kennedy in her Christmas Eve outfit!  We headed to my moms like always to open gifts and hang out.

Linc still loves to hold his baby sister, so cute!

Smiles!

My mom got Kennedy this beautiful dress before she was born.  We wanted it to be a special take me home dress.  It ended up that this one only came in 3 months, so we decided she would wear it for her 3 month pictures instead.  It is so pretty, but I realized when I put it on for the pictures, she was almost to big for it.  So my mom wanted her to wear it as much as possible before she grew out of it.  When we got to my moms, she had an outfit change to her dress and bonnet!

Linc changed into his Christmas pjs!

I love the pretty lace details.

After Taco Stew, yum, we opened gifts.  Linc got a piano and other fun items!

Linc stayed up pretty late, so we actually had to wake him on Christmas morning.  His Santa gifts this year were a bounce house and scoot to skate board.

Other favorites included under ware, a potty watch and lots of toy story items.  I was excited about the potty stuff, yay for no more diapers, well big boy diapers!  I guess I started that over by having another baby, haha!

K is just hanging out while all the unwrapping mayhem is swirling around her!  She will have fun next year.

Crazy us decided it would be a good idea to have Christmas at our house.  In some ways it was good and others it was rough.  It was rough getting all the food ready we were in charge of with a fussy baby and over stimulated toddler.  It was much easier last year with just the over stimulated toddler, haha.  At least then I could help Craig.  I felt helpless to him this year because I was taking care of K.  I know he can handle it, I guess I just feel bad.  It was good because we didn't have to take the kids (really just Linc) away from their new toys and drive home after a big meal.  It was also nice to have people over to our house, it doesn't seem to happen often enough.  Overall, I am glad we had it here and will do it again!

Here is Doug helping out with my fussy baby!  He got her to sleep, yay!

Linc opening his Woody from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa!

This was a music year for Linc.  First a piano, then a song book and now guitar!

I am so thankful for our family and how wonderful it is we get to spend it together.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!