Swaddle - Night 2

So it looks like the swaddle has worked for another night =)  Here was our schedule:

5:30 got home from daycare (where she took two naps - one was an hour and the other was two hours) & nursed her
6:00 she fell asleep and I put her in the swing in the living room while we made and ate dinner
7:30 woke up & ate a little bit of dinner (chicken, apples, bananas, oatmeal)
8:00 story time
8:30 bath time
9:00 ate 5oz bottle of breast milk
9:30 put down in her crib swaddled and she went right to sleep
10:30 woke up crying moderatly so I went down and gave her a pacifier and she went right back to sleep
2:30 woke up fussing and escaped her swaddle - we left her to go back to sleep on her own since she wasn't full fledge crying, which took about 10 minutes
7:00 woke up

Most of me hopes the swaddle will work forever or at least get her over whatever issue she's having right now and we won't need to do CIO.  But a little part of me feels like it's probably just a matter of time *sniff, sniff* Lauren, I read your post from the night you started CIO and you're right, there are SO many similarities.  I just don't think I'm ready to go there just yet...

Emma, thanks for the nap dropping thoughts.  She still seems to need all three most days.  When do you know it's time?

Dawn, if the seahorse works for you and Lara I'm just going to have to give it a shot!  Maybe if I sleep with it for a few nights and then put it in with her so she can cuddle it when she breaks out of the swaddle she'll be attached to it before I have to stop the swaddle all together. 

Thanks again girls!!!

Swaddle - Night 1

Let me first say a huge thank you for all your comments, suggestions and support yesterday.  I was so tired and they really helped!  The reasons why she's had this run of bad sleep could be any of the things you mentioned...growth spurt, teeth, separation anxiety, milestones, sick, etc.  I had never heard of the wonder weeks but she is close to leap 6 if I looked it up right.  I appreciate you sharing your experiences and thoughts. 

Some asked  if she's just waking up or if she is crying at night.  If she just fusses we leave her and sometimes she puts herself back to sleep. When she ramps up to a full on cry we go and calm her, give her pacifier back and many times she heads back to sleep. But in her party phase she'll take the pacifier, spit it out and stare at me while kicking her legs, fussing/crying, etc. I don't feed her in the middle of the night.  It appears that no matter how we may try it comes down to the fact that we have no idea what is causing it  =) 

The next question is what am I going to do about it.  Last night the swaddle actually worked 8-)  She slept 9 hours uninterrupted and didn't even fuss once.  So we'll give it a shot again tonight and see how it goes.  If it stops working it seems like the most popular suggestions to my last post were:

1. CIO.  We tried a version of CIO a few weeks ago.  We let her cry for 2 min, go calm, leave, cry for 5 min, go calm, leave, cry for 10 min, go calm, leave, cry for 15 min, go calm, leave and then return every 15.  She got so upset I swear she was going to pass out from crying so hard.  We tried it for three nights and for at least 3-4 days afterwards she was anxiety ridden anytime I put her in the crib and the all out crying started as soon as I put her down.  It seemed like it was doing more harm than good in getting her to sleep.  I guess most CIO advocates would suggest I need to let her fully cry it out, no matter how long that takes?  I just don't know if I can do it.  Maybe it's like Lauren commented in my last post, I may have to hit rock bottom to give it a shot.  
2. Cutting a nap.  This would be more of an option if I was at home with her.  She naps whenever she wants at daycare.  How do you go about cutting a nap anyway?   From what I've read I thought they just phased one out on their own.
3. Lovey.  I'll look into the night time toy if the swaddle doesn't work out, I've seen that seahorse and think it's totally adorable.  Maybe I could sleep with it for a night or two to make it smell like me and kill two birds with one stone =)

I know one of these days we'll have to give up the swaddle....but for now I'm going to ride the wave as long as it'll last...mama needs some sleep!

Spoke too soon

We really thought adding the heavier blanket did the trick...well it did for two nights.  Since Thursday night it's been back to the 3 hour party in the middle of the night, usually midnight to 3 or 1-4.   In all fairness she came down with a cold and fever last Thursday and had her 2nd tooth (the other bottom front) pop through on Saturday so I'm still not sure if it's do to those things or if a horrible sleep pattern is emerging. 

Last night in my bleary eyed state I started thinking that the last two weeks have been the worst sleep since she was a newborn.  The only difference I can really find are that she's been cutting her bottom teeth and that we took her out of the swaddle.  So at 2:30 I broke down and brought out the swaddle blanket.  She went to sleep at 3 and stayed asleep until 8 but she'd been up for three hours at that point so it might be that she was just done with her wake cycle or the swaddle helped.  Tonight we'll try the swaddle from the get go and she how she does.  She's strong enough to break out of it if she wants so it might not help...but at this point I'll try anything.

Any other suggestions ladies?  I'm starting to feel desperate.  We don't rock, nurse or walk her to sleep.  She lays down in her crib and sleeps 1-3 hours before the party begins.  After she's up 1/2 an hour I get her up and change her diaper and put her back in the crib.  I sit next to the crib on a stool and if I say anything it's a "shhh".  I keep the lights off and only have a blue nightlight in the room.  Her naps on most days have also been bad during this time.  She typically takes 3 naps of 1-2 hours each for a total of about 4 hours a day and lately we're lucky to get a total of 1.5 hours all day...so she's not catching up on nighttime sleep during the day.  I'm just stumped.

We were extremely sleep deprived this weekend so other than the normal chores and errands we didn't do a lot.  We did have friends over for a fun play date yesterday, here's a couple pics =)  We hadn't seen this crew in about 3 months so it was really nice to catch up.  Her little girlfriend is 4.5 months old and her boyfriend is 14 months old (don't worry Finn, Kylie still only has eyes for you!).

We also got some family photos over Christmas and here is my favorite of Kylie with her cousins =)

I'm eagerly awaiting any sleep advice you have!!!

Mystery Solved!

For five sleep deprived days we wracked our brains trying to figure out what was disturbing the sleep of our little girl.  Was it teeth?  Was it developmental milestones?  Was she getting yet another cold?  Worst possibility, was it her new routine?  Just when I thought I was going to lose it about 3am Sunday morning I thought, maybe I'll try an extra blanket.  Low and behold it worked.  I thought it was a fluke but on Sunday night I put the extra blanket on from the get go and she slept through the night without a peep.  So it turns out that she was cold and was requesting another blanket, poor baby girl.  I can't believe it took us five days to figure it out, I feel so bad! 

When we were swaddling her the warm footy pj's were too warm for her and she would wake up in a sweat but now that we're not swaddling she wants not only the warm footy pj's but a receiving blanket AND another blanket.  She prefers the satin trimmed ones so she can pet the satin while going to sleep.  So there it is folks, one extra blanket = full nights of rest, thank goodness =)   I can't help myself from including a couple recent pictures, hope everyone is having a great week!

A tough/wonderful week

It's always hard to go back to work after a holiday, the week just seems to drag on and on.  This was one of those weeks...and then add to it that on Tuesday and Wednesday nights Kylie wanted to have a little party in her room for 3 hours each night and I'm plain exhausted.  She's in a mommy phase so I'm the only one she'll allow to join her little parties.  Must be a girl thing ;-)  It's not normal for her to wake up in the middle of the night so we're thinking it's because of poor naps at daycare those two days and motor skill milestones.  She is moving so much more these days that she's losing her budda belly and fitting well into her 6-9 month clothes again.

The worst part of this week is ironically also the best, the middle of the night while I sit on the bottom stair playing angry birds on my cell phone hoping she'll go to sleep but wanting to be close in case she doesn't I find myself in a surprisingly peaceful place.  These are the sleepless nights I dreamed about for so long...and it's finally sinking in that they're here.  I really couldn't be more thankful or happy =)  She is a playful, loving, happy little girl and I'll gladly give up sleep as often as I need to. 

Here are a couple cute photos taken on New Year's Eve.  It was the first day she flipped from back to front.

 

Mid flip

In M's hat in the exersaucer...so cute!

Now I'll close in saying that while I love seeing my little girl in the middle of the night I hope she gives me a night or two off partying this weekend, I'm too old for that =)  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

Ok so I'm a day late but Happy New Year bloggy friends!!!  Kylie started her New Year off right and rolled over for the first time.  She went from back to front on New Year's Eve and front to back on New Year's Day.  What skills!  She is changing so much from day to day it seems, becoming more aware and interactive all the time.  She's mocking all kinds of things now, like she saw me drinking a soda on Christmas Eve and wanted to play with the can (I know...I know...in hind site I see the opening could have been dangerous).  But here is what she did...almost right away with the can:



It's amazing how quickly she's soaking up what's happening around her.  Note to self - must quite swearing while driving *lol*  She's also started a not so fun noise that I'm sure if she does it while eating food is going to fly!  We have yet to wear peas or spinach so I'm hoping ignoring her new noise will send it packing sooner rather than later =)

We are still working on getting the Christmas Day photos from M's Dad so I'll post one of her with her new toy I mentioned, Violet. 

Anyway, happy New Year's ladies.  May 2011 make all your dreams come true!!!

7 months old

Our little angel turned 7 months old yesterday.  Here are some general updates.

Stats:

She is doing great and from my home measurements she is 27" and 18.5 lbs.  My scale only goes in half pounds though so there's probably a range there.  That looks like around the 75th percentile for both so she's doing great.  Her very first tooth broke through the skin on Christmas Day.  It's a bottom front tooth and the days of letting her suck on our fingers are gone, that thing hurts!

Food:

She's now nursing 4-5 times a day and thankfully my milk is holding out.  She is also eating two meals a day.  Her morning meal is 2 oz of oatmeal and and 1-2 oz of apple sauce and the evening meal is usually three things, one of which is always oatmeal but the other two vary.  She's now had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, avocado, peas, spinach, potatoes, blueberries, pumpkin, chicken and bananas.  For the most part she loves most foods but the two she won't eat at all is acorn squash and bananas.  I think with bananas it's a texture thing, she still really prefers food to be pureed and doesn't like any chunks at all.

Favorite Toys:

She is loving her new toy Violet and it's pretty cute that you can program her name and a few other things into her little tunes.  She really enjoys sitting up and playing with just about anything.  Mouth toys are still a favorite and anything that isn't a mouth toy still ends up there.  She still enjoys batting at toys on her play mat and also enjoys sitting up in her playnest and being in her exersaucer.  We don't have a jumparoo type thing yet but are thinking of getting one soon. 

Skills:

She's sitting unassisted in the playnest but still throws herself backwards or to the side.  She rolls onto her sides for toys on the playmat and is strong enough to go all the way over but has no desire.  She really, really dislikes tummy time.

Sleep:

I think teething has been messing with her sleep a bit.  She's been waking up ~5 times a night but goes right back to sleep after you plug her back into her paci.  Her normal sleep is still from 9:30-7 and she goes to sleep easily in her crib and stays there for the night.  She takes three naps during the day, one is typically 2-3 hours and the other two are about an hour.  Naps are still in the swing.  No idea what we will do when she gets too big for the swing.  We've been transitioning her out of the swaddle for night time sleep and so far so good, she's slept with both arms out the last two nights.  We're thinking tomorrow night we'll take it off completely and see how it goes.

Picture:

This was taken on the 27th, I don't have her b-day pics uploaded just yet but I'll be sure to post them soon.