Posts Tagged ‘baby sleep’
Stella and Suzy: 3 Months Old
Posted on: April 7, 2012
Little Stella is growing! As they all do I suppose…
New feets in her life?
- smiling lots
- starting to giggle
- rolling onto her side
- a solid(ish…) bedtime – that falls somewhere between 8 and 9 ish (Woot! Woot! We’ve got our evenings back!)
- and last night she moved out of her bassinet.
Yes, she was three months and still sleeping in that tiny baby bed. But now that her head and toes were touching the ends we figured it was time to move her. But not into a crib just yet, for this little dear. Nope. It’s onward to the pack’n’play. And not because we don’t have a crib. Because we do. And a whole room for her that’s painted and ready to go. It’s just that Daddy’s insistent that she sleep beside us for at least four months.
Ah well, I enjoy our little roomie and it certainly makes those middle of the night feeds a little more convenient.
Note: Stella and Suzy: One Month Old
Stella and Suzy: Two Months Old
Edelweiss Encore
Posted on: August 3, 2010
As 15 of us (including two large and “immaculately” behaved pooches) make the best of my parents’ three bedroom resort cottage, Edelweiss has been playing on repeat. What I mean is that in such cozy quarters a crying Niko doesn’t sit that well with me at 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 am. Not that he wakes up every hour, but when he does cry, I feel a slight panic that he’s going to wake my sleeping bro who’s on the pullout, or my sleeping sis and her hubbie who are just one thin wall away. You get the idea. Perhaps it is the new environment, or maybe he’s teething but he’s been waking up at least once in the wee hours followed by a 5, 6 or 7am final wake up. 6 or 7 is actually OK. But 5am? Come on!
The first day this happened I took him out to the dock and made the best of this Mommy and baby time by practicing with my SLR. I actually got some nice pics of the steam rising off the lake in the early morning grayness. Anyway, pics (and *sniff sniff* blog entries) will have to be posted later, once I am back the real world and have a better internet connection, or just a connection that is available at my fingertips. (I am currently at a public library.)
And where does the Edelweiss fit in? He’s got this musical bunny that dangles off his crib or pack n play, whatever the sleeping arrangements of the day may be, and it works wonders. This little bunny works to soothe him and he usually puts him to sleep. So now, it’s my sis, bro, et al, not only waking to the “wah, wah, wah” of Baby N, but also with an intermingling of bunny magic. But is crying mixed with Edelweiss an overall better scenario? At 3am it sure seems like it.
You know what, though? Despite the bouts of “wah wah wah” no one in the fam complains. They just wipe the bags from under their eyes and we continue on the with day as though nothing was amiss in the night. Most of them adamantly tell me not to worry about it, and this helps a lot, but still, not even I like to be woken in the middle of my reveries, and he’s my baby.
Update (Aug. 15): Yikes! We forgot Edelweiss Magic Bunny at the cottage. At first this caused a slight panic on the home front, but Niko doesn’t even seem to mind. I guess the magical sound of my own version of Edelweiss is equally impressive to the young bloke.
This is How I Say Goodnight
Posted on: July 12, 2010
Niko’s got a new trick and he usually does it right before he falls asleep. First we go through our usual sleep time routine: bottle, diaper, a round of Edelweiss (thanks to a musical bunny that dangles from his crib), and then he lies down with his “snugglebug” (a soft little toy) and some blankets. It’s when all these steps have been completed that the new trick kicks in, literally.
He basically lifts both of his legs straight up in the air, and then slams his heels down hard. He repeats this a few times in succession and then usually falls asleep. Although sometimes we can still here him kicking away even when we’re downstairs. He’s also taken to doing this when we’re changing his diaper. Which causes some concern because for one, it makes changing his diaper more challenging (hello heels in poop), and for two he risks hitting his heels on the raised ledge at the end of his change table. So far, only the former has proven to be an actual problem.
Baby Sleep and Inadvertent Parenting
Posted on: June 5, 2010
- In: Feeding | Parenting | Sleep Time | The Niko Files
- 2 Comments
Babies sure do go through many ups and downs in their sleeping patterns. I mean just when I think Niko is “sleeping through the night” it won’t be but a few days or maybe weeks (if I’m lucky), that he will start waking in the night again. And you know what? I somewhat came to accept this waking pattern over the last month or so. First he was waking at 1am and 6am, not bad: I would hear him, feed him and put him back to bed. This went on for a few weeks, then within the last couple of weeks he started waking at midnight, 3am, 6am, 8am, and I just sort of went with it, in a waking daze: feeding him and putting him back to bed, that was until last night. Here’s how a conversation went in our house yesterday.
Borys: How’s Niko sleeping these days? Is he still waking up at 1am? (Note: Yes you read that right! Daddy has no idea what goes on in the night! He just doesn’t hear him, partially due to the fact that he knows I’m listening for him. But still! WOW!)
Me: 1am!? He’s now waking up even more! 12, 3, 6, 8…
B: What? Oh my gosh! Are you serious?
Me: Yes! But you know what? When I go back to work (sniff, sniff…), we’re sharing this duty: one night me, one night you…
B: I know, I know…
But this convo. got me thinking. Niko, come on! I mean you’re a grown baby: waking up this often is not a necessity any more. And then I started wondering if I was inadvertently supporting this behaviour by feeding him every time he wakes. Bad Mommy, bad mommy! In talking with one of my friends over the weekend she told me her two year old son wakes up like clockwork five times every night! Yikes! I don’t want that under my repertoire of experience, so last night I made a conscious decision to try to put an end to these night wakings. I vowed that if I heard him, I would just let him fuss it out (he doesn’t actually cry too much when he wakes, which again leads me to believe he is not really hungry, just waking and waiting to go back to sleep) until he hit the zzzs once again.
So, last night went like this: fed him at midnight, but I was still up anyway. Went to bed. Heard him around 3am. Listened to him fuss for about five minutes or so, and then he went back to sleep and I didn’t even get out of bed: just a little long distance and quiet parenting from down the hall. And once he went back to sleep he didn’t wake again ’til 8am! What a good little monkey. This makes me think that if I dont’ go to see him and don’t interrupt him, he is more likely to fall back into a deep sleep and sleep for longer. However, as with most things baby related, time will tell, and it’s bound to change. But I’m trying this technique again tonight, and the next night, and the next night, and the next… I mean really, let’s just get this kid on a good sleeping routine!
Wiggle Worm
Posted on: May 10, 2010
I don’t know how he does it! Niko has turned into a Houdini of sorts – when he is sleeping that is. It started happening a few weeks ago. We would put the little guy to bed as we normally do (tucked in and lying perpendicular) and in the morning we would find him sideways or upside down. This morning when I heard his happy little chirps I went to get him and found that he’d outdone himself in the wiggle department. Somehow he had turned almost a complete 180 degrees, rolled to his stomach, and had one baby foot smooshed between the crib bars. When I called his name I could see that he was smiling: just lying upside down and on his tummy, smiling. What a guy!
It would be interesting to have a baby cam to see how this maneuvering takes place. Is it all at once, or a slow wiggly progression throughout the night?
Sleepy Yogi
Posted on: May 6, 2010
- In: Parenting | The Niko Files
- 1 Comment
It’s funny how babies can get so sleepy sometimes. Last night Borys was giving the Little N Man his last feeding of the day, and before he sucked it all back he was completely TKO, and still sitting up in Borys’ arms. I took a few pics as it was just so cute and strange to see our sleepy little monkey, all propped up in the lotus position.
Belly Full O’Barley
Posted on: March 9, 2010
- In: Feeding | The Niko Files | Toys and Fun
- 5 Comments
Well, it turns out that feeding solids (or the mush that is classified as solids and otherwise known as barley cereal) adds a whole new dimension to the process of getting ready. Niko had his swimming lesson today and I woke him (which I hate to do in the first place) with what I thought was enough time to eat some barley, get dressed and get out the door, and we did make it there with just a minute to spare, but the feeding of these “solids” takes longer than expected at times. I mean, Niko likes to look around, talk between spoonfuls, occasionally suck on his fingers and then proceed to rub barley all over his face, neck, nose, you name it. You really just can’t rush a baby into eating, and I don’t want to rush him, but I was definitely watching the minutes tick away as he was babbling between mouthfuls of barley this morning.
On a side note: Once we got to swimming Niko had a great time. The whole class donned lifejackets and he was happily floating around on his front and his back, and I gave him his weekly dunking, which he didn’t seem to mind either. We always end our lesson in the hot tub – which, from a purely selfish perspective, is a great way to relax and warm up. But little Niko got so relaxed that as we were sitting there, me chit chatting with some of the other moms and Niko sitting in the warm water, I felt him getting progressively heavier and heavier, and when I looked down I saw that he had completely nodded off. One mom noticed and laughed and said to me, “I saw him looking down further and further, and I thought he was really foucssing on something. But then I realized, I don’t think he’s focussing, I think he’s fallen asleep”! Who falls asleep at a swimming lesson!? I guess a baby with a belly full of barley does.
And the Angels Sang…
Posted on: February 21, 2010
You know in movies when something really good happens and you see the sky open up, the light shine through and a choir of angels starts singing? Well, that’s how I felt this morning, when after taking a double take at the clock I was actually correct in seeing that it read 6:55 am! Whaaaaaaat!? Yes it is true. Munchkin Niko Man slept for 11 hours straight last night: his longest stretch ever! At which time I got up, fed him and he fell back to sleep for another two. Sweet dreams little man.
I, on the other hand, had not gone to bed at 8 pm like he had – try closer to 1 am for Mommy. And why did I stay up so late, you (and I) may wonder? I guess it was the double combo pull of Daddy being up and watching SNL, that lured me in to the wee hours of Sunday morning. However, even six straight hours is record breaking for me these days.
While Niko’s sleep patterns are still proving to be irregular, these longer stretches are happening more frequently: so fingers crossed that this is just the beginning of a new era!
Sleep On, Baby Sleep On
Posted on: February 11, 2010
It’s time for a mini-celebration! Borys says, “Let’s not talk about it.” – because he doesn’t want to jinx it, but I can’t help but comment on Niko’s monumental sleeping patterns this week. Monumental seeing as when we were in Halifax he woke up every two hours – hello 1 am, 3 am, 5 am, 7 am – and I was contemplating starting him on rice cereal just to get him through the night. But then when we got back to Ottawa, and he was back in his regular crib, he has had three wonderful nights of sleep IN A ROW! Yes – the last two nights he did two 7.5 hours stretches, and the night before that he did an 8.5 hour stretch – followed up by another solid three hours on all three days! Not only that but he has been going to bed without as much fuss as well – 10 to 15 minutes of fussing as opposed to us having to calm him for a good hour!
They say good things come in threes – so hopefully this is a sign of what’s to come in the future. They also say that the only constant in a baby’s life is change – so time will tell how long this lasts! But for now, celebration time it is! YAH!
Two Hour Sleeps
Posted on: January 6, 2010
You know, I often feel really lucky that Niko sleeps so well in the night. A lot of the times he makes it from 10 or 11pm to 4 or 5 am. However, last night my luck seemed to have run out! He was up like clockwork every two hours and hungry! What is going on? Maybe he is going through a growth spurt? I don’t know. But ironically enough, today he has been napping for 3 hours (or more) straight! It seems like his clock is off for this last 24 hour cycle! At least I don’t have to worry about sleeping in or missing appointments: having Niko is like having a living, breathing alarm clock sleeping right next to me!
Parenting 2.0 