The Beginnings of Sleep Training

Well, this week Gabe turned 25 weeks, and I decided it was time to try to night-wean him (aka get him to sleep past 3 or 4 in the morning to a more reasonable wake-up time).  Granted, he sleeps well from 7:30pm to sometime between 2-5am typically, but 5am or later would be more reasonable in my opinion!  I am a morning person, but not 3 or 4 in the morning!

I didn't think I'd be the biggest fan on "cry-it-out" (leaving him alone in his crib crying until he fell back asleep), so I am working with waiting a minute or two after he starts crying before going into the room and then soothing him by patting or rubbing his belly and popping his pacifier back in & staying until he falls back asleep.  NO picking him up and NO nursing.  Oy, it's hard!  Previously, when he would wake, I would nurse him and he'd be back asleep in 10 minutes or less.

So, our first night of this not-so-structured sleep training was spent with on and off crying (aka wailing since he has no "soft" volume) from 3-4am.  It wasn't straight through the hour, and, every time I said I would pick him up if he continued one more minute, he would stop and seem to go back asleep.  Finally, he passed back out around 4 and slept all the way till 6:20.

The next night he slept 7:30-5:00.  A fluke; I am now sure of it!

The third night, he woke at 3am again, but it only took a half hour of on & off crying to get him to fall back asleep (with my rubbing his belly and putting the pacifier back in).  The next day was Sunday; he took a cat nap during the last half of Mass, but then he had TWO 2-hour-long naps during the rest of the day!  Impressive, since Gabe is more often a cat-napper (20-45 min) and rarely takes naps over an hour.  We'll see how things continue as time goes on...

(Wow, I did not expect to take half of the blog talking about sleep training!  My apologies to anyone who has since nodded off to sleep themselves!  ...But perhaps this is good documentation for when he's an adult so I am able to tell him he was a pain at least for ONE aspect of his infancy!  He really is a good baby overall.)

Gabriel hit a few milestones earlier this week.  He managed to figure out how to roll from his back to his belly (click here for a video) and started making a "pthhhh" noise (that video here; sorry it's a bit dark - tough lighting in the evening with my phone's camera).  I am still working with him on sitting up on his own, but he is much more sturdy than before.  I also found that we can now "dust" a piece of fabric over Gabe's face and get lots of giggles (video here)!

This week we also attended the christening of Hudson (Gabe's Godparents' new little guy).  I have no idea how the ceremony went, as I was the honorary photographer (and I hope Chelsea got at least a few good shots from what I took!) and was kind of distracted with that, but I am sure Deacon Ron did a nice job as usual.  Craig, Gabe, & I dressed to match in various shades of purple (had to use his suit from Auntie Lorene again before it gets too small!). 

[On a side note, I never realized how difficult it is to find something to wear when you are a nursing mom.  I have all these lovely dresses, but many of them are not convenient for nursing.  That's why you'll see that I changed to a more suitable outfit at the after-party in one of the pictures below.  Most tops are ok because you can layer with a nursing tank top, and one shirt goes up as the other goes down to provide a lot of modesty coverage.  But that's definitely not the case with dresses with high necklines!]

Craig & his mini-me

The Kozaczka's awaiting the start of Hudson's baptism ceremony

Gabe & his Godmother at the after-party

Fun at the after-party

Lastly, I decided to pull apart my frozen breastmilk stash and figure out how much I really have (out of curiosity and the fact that I would like to not have to pump during work when I return in August.  Not to mention pumping at night is becoming really tiresome!).  Turns out I have 405 oz in 3-oz bags, plus 2 gift bags full of breastmilk bags of unknown volumes (I am "guestimating" 25+ oz).  So, at about 430 oz, that is about 14 days of milk if Gabe doesn't nurse and takes approximately 30 oz per day.  Too much math for you?  Haha!  I figured out that I can make up at least 2-3 weeks worth more over the summer by pumping at night.  (And if I can get the worm sleeping longer, I can spread out my pumping times and get more sleep of my own!)

Normally, I would add some other pictures from the week here, but I accidentally put a lot of them in the last blog post.  Oh well!  Here are a few I missed:

Halfway into 1st 2-hour nap (via the video monitor)

24 Weeks and No Winks

We are again battling sleep and naptime this week.  Gabriel turned 24 weeks, but Mommy is getting hardly any winks!

Here is a short video example of the "fun" times Mommy has had trying to get these age pictures recently!  Click here.

• We celebrated Wyatt's 2nd birthday with the Kozaczka's and their friends & family this past week.  The party was at the Little Gym, a place where kids can do all sorts of gymnastics and that sort of thing.  We'd never been to a place like it, so it was a neat experience (although Gabe was a little too small - and not mobile! - to play with the other kids).

 

• I was playing around with the printer/scanner/copier and got a fun image of Gabriel & my hands.  (I'm not sure why it made the white lines, but it's still cool!)

• Our neighbors across the street gave Gabriel a cute sun hat.  I made him model it for the camera, haha!

Thanks Cynthia!

• Gabriel is now almost the same size as his big bear from Father Paul!

Thanks Father Paul!

• Everyone always comments on how happy Gabriel is, so I decided to capture a non-happy moment to prove that he is not always sunshine & rainbows!!

Having a little freak-out moment...

Here are some more pictures from the week:

Loving these argyle socks!  (Thanks Janet!)

So happy to be heading to bed!

Love a boy in overalls!

 

Daddy making Gabe laugh

 

This is what happens when Gabe tries to sit on his own currently...

Sleepless in Worcester

Well, this week has been a mostly sleepless one for the LaTour household.  Ever since our trip to NY, Gabriel has been off on his sleep "schedule."  He had been sleeping from 7:30pm to 4:30am, then back to sleep till sometime between 5:30-7:00am after a quick feed, with a wake-up for the day at 7am.  Monday and Tuesday this past week were crazy; Gabe was up something like every hour and a half.  And he wanted to nurse EVERY time.  Wednesday was slightly better; he woke up only three or four times overnight.  Somehow, he knew when I was about 15 minutes into a pumping session and would start to cry.  So frustrating! 

I caved to giving a dose of Tylenol on Thursday night, which worked a little bit (though he drooled out most of it, doesn't like the taste) and we only had one wake-up around midnight.  Friday night was much better - I gave the Tylenol again - and Gabe slept all the way until 4:30am.  Mommy, Daddy, AND Gabriel were all better rested on Saturday! Sleep issues are usually said to be due to one of three things:  disturbing a regular schedule, a growth spurt, or teething.  Who knows if it's only one thing up with our little man.  I am just glad he is back to almost-normal!

We're up to 23 weeks this week!  I can't believe the worm will be 6 months soon!  That's half a year old!  This time it was kind of hard to get his weekly picture - he was too busy eye-balling the blocks and trying to pick up the "w."

• Gabriel makes the "Spock sign" with his hand pretty often when he nurses.  I finally snapped a picture.  Guess he's going to be a Trekkie like his Babcia!

 

• The cats and Gabe have been interacting a lot lately.  Gabe tries to pet them and ends up grabbing a chunk of their fur.  Zephyr has been the only one to tolerate that sort of handling without escaping.  The other day, Gabriel grabbed Chippy's tail and tried to eat it!  Thankfully, Chippy is good-natured about the rough handling (well, all of the cats are, really, which is good!).

 

• Gabe is doing much better with sitting up in his chair.  He only tolerates it for just so long, but it's longer than before!

 

 

•  I forgot to post these pictures of Gabriel in his bunny pjs from Easter.  He found his feet and kept trying to eat the bunny ears, haha!

 

• An interesting fact about Gabriel:  even though he's over 5 months old, this kid is still in newborn size diapers!
• I am getting excited - my countdown to end of work for the summer is <40 days!  The first few weeks back on full-time "baby duty" will probably be tough - we're going to try some sleep training with dropping the swaddling & pacifier and start introducing some solid food.

Other pictures from the week:

"Who me?"

Selfie!

Check out that neck control!

Thanks for the ABC monkey, Godparents!

In my birthday suit!

Happy Easter!

Gabriel had a delightful Easter, though his Mommy & Daddy were a little sleep deprived!  We traveled to NY to my mom's for Saturday into Sunday with Craig's mom along for the trip.  Gabriel just didn't get the memo that he still needed to sleep through the night, even if he wasn't at home in his crib!

Before we left for NY, I snapped his 22 week picture:

Snuggling with a new bunny on the drive to NY

First thing in the morning on Easter, we took a picture of Gabe in his holiday onesie (thanks Kristen!), including his bunny ears from Auntie Deb.  He then proceeded to drool through most of it, so we changed him into his party outfit after his morning nap (which was the one good sleep he got all weekend).  The purple suit was a gift from Auntie Lorene a few months back, and he FINALLY fit into it!  (Ok, the pants were still slightly big on the waist, but the shirt & vest fit perfectly.  That's what I get for having my son follow in the footsteps of his tall & skinny Daddy!)

Baby's 1st Easter

Enjoying another bunny toy

Can you stand how darn CUTE he is?

Babcia, who hadn't seen her grandson since January (stupid snowstorms EVERY time she planned to travel to MA!), was amazed at how much Gabriel had grown and the fun new things he can do.  We took some nice family pictures before everyone got there for the party.

First Easter as a family of 3

Surprisingly, even with the little sleep that he got, he was very well-behaved during Easter dinner with the Polish side of my family.  (Though now that I look back, he quite often has a look of surprise on his face in pictures!  Haha!)  A little language lesson for those that don't know, "Ciocia" in Polish means "Aunt."

With Ciocia Teresa

With cousin Ella

With Ciocia Jasia

With cousin Christina

With cousin Basia

This picture requires explanation - Gabriel was crying, so I told cousins Caitlin & Cathy to look sad too!