Visiting Grandma & Grandpa

Last month Nick took a long weekend and went to a biking festival in Wisconsin. Ellie and I decided it would be fun to go and spend the night with Grandma & Grandpa while Daddy was gone.

It just so happened that our visit was the same weekend as the ISU vs. Iowa game, so two Hawks fans entered Cyclone Country decked out in their Hawk gear and all. Sorry, I don’t have a picture to show of us from Saturday, only pictures from Sunday. But we did wear out Hawks gear to church, and one gentleman did bow down to Ellie as we walked in (since Iowa was really handing it to ISU at the time). Anyway…

We had a great time. Aunt Megan came to visit on Sunday and Ellie had lots of playing time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Megan.
Grandpa also taught Ellie to clap! She was very proud and clapped for herself a lot.
And of course, Eleanor had to help Grandma empty the dishwasher! She still loves to do that (I hope this continues!)
It has taken me a while to get this posted, I apologize. We had a great time and it was wonderful to have a couple extra hands to help with Eleanor while Daddy was gone.

Oh, and Ellie and I slept in the same room (my choice, as there were other open rooms I could have slept in). I think Eleanor thought it was pretty neat to wake up and see Mommy sleeping in a bed a few feet away from her!

Dear Swaddle SleepSack,
You were a dear friend to us during Ellie’s first 3.5 months. You granted Mommy a decent amount of uninterrupted sleep, and kept her as sane as can be with the first born. For that, Daddy is very grateful. You helped provide Ellie with lots of quality sleep, which makes for a very happy little baby. Before we knew the full value of your contribution, Mommy and Ellie spent a night sleeping in the chair just waiting for you to make it though the wash. The next day we invested in more than one of you. Your ability to be purchased in different sizes was also a plus, and we now have multiples of each size and various fabric versions.

Unfortunately, our relationship must come to an end (at least until we have another newborn). It is time for Ellie to learn to sleep with her arms spread out, and the risk of whacking herself in the face in the middle of the night. We will now use an adapted version of you, the SleepSack. While you are not a part of our lives anymore, your role in our success has been noted and you will always be dear to our hearts.

In honor of you: a picture of Ellie and you on one of your final mornings together (as you can tell, Ellie is not ready for her night with you to be over- however day-care was waiting).

Forever indebted to you,
Mommy, Daddy and Ellie

The Sleep Project: A bunch of days all crammed into one post

I got a little behind in updating the sleep project status. So here is a quick wrap-up of the past few days, and where we are now.

The past few days: one day Ellie woke up at 2:00AM and cried for a half hour. Another day she woke up at 4:30AM and talked to herself for two minutes (we were visiting friends that night so she had a last feeding at 10:30PM- thus no night-time feeding that night). This past weekend she slept from around 9PM until 6AM (or slightly later)! She continues to put herself to sleep at night, although last night she required a lot of talking to herself before she finally went to sleep (which Dad thought was pretty funny, and Mom thought should end sooner then it did).

Where we are now: with a baby that doesn’t get swaddled at night, puts herself to sleep, and at 3 ¾ months old sleeps through the night! We are very happy with it, and hope it continues!!!!

The Sleep Project: Day 2

Side note: How fun is it to wake-up your baby in the morning, only to have them give you the biggest grin ever even before they open their eyes to start their day. I love it!

Here is an update on last nights sleeping adventure. It was fairly uneventful and we have an adaptable baby!

Falling asleep during feeding: we caught her before she got super tired and managed to get not only the feeding in, but a couple of books as well. She had been going to bed between 9:30 and 10:00, last night she was ready for bed a little after 9:00.

Swaddling: after the yawn signal during our second book, I semi-swaddled her up and laid her in bed. Tonight I am going to try taking off the swaddle wrap and just use the SleepSack on its own.

Walking Ellie to sleep: after laying her in bed, she was out within a few minutes and didn’t wake up until she was ready to eat at 5AM. After here ‘night’ feeding she went to bed immediately.

A good night in my book- no fussing or crying! Since she did so well and is a bigger than normal baby, I am debating whether to try and eliminate the night feeding. I think she could easily go from 9PM until 6AM, I just don’t know if she is ready to go from 9PM until 7AM. And unfortunately she needs to be feed at 7AM in order to work with her day-care feeding schedule (she cannot be feed within 1/5 hours after arriving at day-care and she eats every three hours during the day. Decisions, decisions.

The Sleep Project: Day 1

I want to preface this post by saying that we have a really easy sleeper and are very fortunate that Ellie knew the difference between night and day from the moment she was born. So while I may complain about our current situation, I do understand that it could be worse, a lot worse.

After battling a cold, the flu and another cold, our baby that used to sleep from 9:30PM until 6:30AM has now decided that a middle of the night visit with Mom is a lot of fun (at least for the last week plus). I started reading “Good Night, Sleep Tight” by Kim West. It focuses on the SleepLady’s approach to teaching the child to put themselves to sleep, without going to the extreme “Cry It Out” approach. From reading the book, and looking towards the future, I identified 4 areas that we need to work on:

1. Falling asleep during feeding: Ellie has recently started falling asleep during her before bed feedings. While this isn’t as much of an issue for us, according to the book it is a sign that she is ready for bed earlier than we have been putting her down. Meaning she is not getting the quality of sleep that she should be getting (i.E. she has been taking a nap an hour before bed, instead of adding that time into her nighttime ‘deeper’ sleep).

2. Swaddling: we love to swaddle Ellie and think the Halo SleepSacks are the greatest. Unfortunately, she is not allowed to use them at day-care. And at some point she is going to outgrow them and we are going to have to deal with her jolting herself awake at night. If we are going to work on the other areas, why not tackle this one at the same time and get the pain over with.

3. Walking Ellie to sleep: currently Nick or I, mainly Nick since he is the bedtime guy, walk with Ellie until she falls asleep each night. It doesn’t usually take long to get this done, but it does hinder her from learning to put herself to sleep.

4. Waking up to eat between 3:30AM and 5AM: this is the new habit that started when Ellie got sick. At which point we were just trying to keep her hydrated and healthy- so if she wanted to eat, we fed her. Since she is getting better, I would like to have my night sleeping back.

According to Ellie’s age, it is still alright for her to get up in the night for ONE feeding. Since that is all she has been doing, item #4 is on hold for the next few weeks. Last night was our first night of focusing on the other 4 areas. Here is how it all played out:

Falling asleep during feeding: Nick must not have understood the putting her to bed earlier instead of having her take a nap, because she managed to get a 30 minute nap in at 8PM last night. Which meant she was still tired and fell asleep during her before bed feeding.

Swaddling: we swaddled under her arms instead of swaddling her arms in last night. This did cause her to wake herself up around 2AM last night, at which time she decided since she was up she was hungry and should eat. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper when her mommy would not feed her. I tried some of the comforting techniques the book talked about, but they seemed to make Ellie madder since I was there, but not giving her what she wanted. After 30 minutes of trying to sooth her I gave up and let her cry it out. 15 minutes later she was asleep- on her own.

Walking Ellie to sleep: after semi-swaddling her at bedtime I laid her in her crib and let her be. Within 10 minutes she had fallen asleep. The 2AM wake-up was not as positive (see above). But after she ate at 5AM I semi-swaddled her again, placed her in bed and she was out within 5 minutes.

Overall, not a bad first night. We are all learning and hope that within a few weeks we will have a more established sleep schedule. Wish us luck!

Oh what a night

I am not sure if it was the newness of day-care, or all the fun Eleanor had at playing with her Aunt Megan yesterday- but something made her one tired baby. She fell asleep on the car ride home from Aunt Megan's, woke up for a diaper/clothing change, then had her before bedtime feeding. She feel asleep as Nick walked her back to swaddle her for bed (usually he walks/rocks with her for a few minutes before she zonks out) and she was out.* That was around 10:15PM.

It is 6:30AM and I am still waiting for her to wake up. When I looked at the clock at 6AM, I jumped out of bed so I could start getting ready before she woke up (in order to make it to work on time). I figured the minute she heard me moving around she would wake up. Thinking she would need me any minute, I rushed to take a shower, brush my teeth, do my hair and all the other fun morning routine items. Now I sit here, pretty much ready for the day--- still with a sleeping baby. I am not complaining. I LOVE that she is such a great sleeper and that she knew her nights and days from the minute she arrived. I just wish I didn't have extra time before work (valuable time that could have been spent sleeping).

It is almost 6:45AM, I am giving in and doing what I vowed I will never do since she obviously doesn't need to be forced to eat- wake a sleeping baby. If I don't, we will never make it to work in a timely manner.

On another quick Eleanor note: today is the big 2 month check-up. Complete with shots. I have told her all about it, but think Mom is more scared then baby. Good thing it is late enough in the day, so Nick is going to go with us.

*Poor Nick had a boy's bike ride night and didn't get to see Ellie all day! I think he secretly looks forward to their time together when he puts her to sleep, and he didn't get that yesterday since she went to sleep right away. I think I will let him have quality time with her at the Drs. appointment today- say during shot time!