Freeze Frame

If I could freeze time, I would definitely have done so these last few days. There are still the moments of fussiness, as to be expected, but overall Mathew has been just wonderful. I'm enjoying this stage as his personality develops a little more and more each day. It's hard to believe how much he has changed in just 7 weeks. His smile and cooing is more and more prevalent and he's developed a new "skill" of sticking his tongue out. It's really cute....if you stick out yours at him, sometimes he will try to imitate it back. I would love to just freeze these moments and enjoy them over and over again.

I think one of the biggest things that has made a difference is beginning to get him into a little of a routine. Not a schedule so much, because the times are still fairly inconsistent, but just a routine. I began attempting it after those few reallllly fussy days last week. I was desperate to try something. So I did a little reading, a little soul searching, and braced myself for what I figured could be a few challenging days ahead as we made some changes. But he adjusted like a champ! In fact, I think he was even seeking it out. I think he was overly stimulated and overly tired....so tired in fact that he wasn't sleeping well. I thought I was doing him a favor by constantly trying to soothe him and comfort him, but in some ways I think I was just adding to the frustration. So, his new routine has been eating, having some alert time (playing on his activity mat, being read to, just holding/bouncing, etc.), and then down for a nap. Then, we repeat this over and over thoughout the entire day on a 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hour cycle. He still eats about that often during the day so I allow about 30 minutes to feed him, then about 45 minutes of alert time, and then down for a nap. How long he sleeps varies depending on when he wakes up hungry and then we just start all over. The biggest change is that I put him down for his nap when he's still awake. I had been waiting to put him down until he was fussy, crying, etc. but now I just do it and the beautiful part is he is falling to sleep on his own. We swaddle him up, turn on his sound machine, and off we go. Occasionally he might begin to cry, but it usually lasts no longer than 5 minutes and then he's out. That was the hardest part for me to get used to. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to stand to listen to him cry. I made a deal with myself that 10 minutes was my max. If he cried more than that, I'd go in and pick him up and rock him and try again. But that's hardly happened at all. I don't know that this would've worked in the beginning, but now that he's developing a little and has more ability to soothe himself to asleep, it seems to be working beautifully. I'm sure just when I think it's going really smoothly, something will change, but for the past four days I've had a much happier baby and a baby who sleeps SO much better during nap times. Even his evening sleep has gotten better, although I felt like it was pretty decent to begin with. But now the past few nights he's slept a 5-6 hour stretch in the beginning, wakes to eat, and then usually another 2-3 hour stretch after that. He's even effortlessly transitioned into sleeping in his own room. That wasn't even the goal. I was thinking it would be another week or two before we began gradually phasing him into that, but it just sort of happened all on it's own overnight. The day I began him on his new routine he was sleeping so well in his room for his naps that Mat and I agreed to just try him in his room for his first stretch of night time sleep. It felt really strange and a little lonely without him in the pack n play next to our bed. But once I fell asleep, I slept so much better and didn't wake until I heard him on the baby monitor. After he woke up for his feeding, then I put him in our room. But he didn't sleep as well, and neither did Mat and I, so the next night I tried him only in his room and it worked out perfectly. Granted, he still isn't sleeping in his crib. I hate to admit, but we're letting him sleep in his swing mostly. It works like a charm and he's so intent on being in motion, that we're not quite ready to fight that battle yet. We've really been trying to follow many of the premises of the book The Happiest Baby on the Block. So many of the methods have worked like a charm at soothing and calming Mathew and one of them is swinging. The research behind the book suggests that many babies need this motion until about 4 months of age. I'm hoping we can transition him into his crib, at least partially, before that. But for right now, I'm feeling good with the progress he's making! It's funny how my attitude and opinion about things change fairly quickly with time. When we first got the swing I didn't even want him to be in it without one of us nearby keeping an eye on him. Now it's in his room and I leave him in it for 6 hours at night while he sleeps. Ha! I'm sure many will disagree with that or think it's a bad idea. Who knows, perhaps it is. But you just kind of follow your intuition and hope you are doing what's best at the time and for right now I feel like we are.