Progress Report

Well, it has been one week since the sleep boot camp began. I think it has gone well, especially since we handled it all ourselves. There was a period a few months back where we considered hiring a baby sleep specialist. But I knew they would all operate off of some sort of variation on crying it out, so I put my own plan together. Dr. Tolcher instructed us to wean him from the night feedings rather than simply stop cold turkey. Now first, understand that he was wanting to eat every 3-4 hours through the night and not hardly eating at all during the day. To battle this, we decided to pick him up and comfort him back to sleep any way we could without feeding him the first couple nights, with the exception of one feeding until he became a better daytime eater. He ate well enough during the day on Sunday that we thought we could push through with no feedings at all Sunday night. I think that was our roughest night. He was still up every 3-4 hours, but we refused not only to feed him, we also would not pick him up to comfort him any longer. It was time to cry it out. He never cried longer than maybe 20 minutes per stretch, some less, but it was tough on mom and dad. We stuck to our guns, though. Tuesday through Thursday nights have been much better. He has continued to wake only once each night, but we go in and give him his paci and blankie and he either goes right back to sleep or cries himself back to sleep in about 10-15 minutes. Last night he only woke when I went to check on him before I went to bed (darn my need to cover him back up!), then not again until 6 am. Unfortunately for me, I was hoping to make it to 7 am, but the progress on his part is great! Dare I say I actually miss getting to cuddle my little one in the middle of the night??

Interestingly, just as we started really letting him fuss it out in the night, he has begun rolling himself onto his tummy during his fussing and now prefers to sleep that way. I have always known he sleeps best on his tummy, but would only put him down that way for naps when I could watch him, for all the obvious reasons. There is a very good chance that if we had slept him on his tummy at night, he would have slept through the night much sooner. But that is not what AAP wants you to do, and we were not comfortable doing so at night. Now that he puts himself on his tummy no matter how you put him down, I don't worry any more and he sleeps more soundly. Hooray!

Our other new update is that Luke is pretty much sitting up all by himself now. He was very close last week, he now can do it. You still have to watch him because he does timber over if he leans too far in one direction sideways or backwards. He can lean forward to pick up a toy and then sit back up by himself, though. Such a big boy!

Even though sleeping has been an issue for this child from day 1, we feel so blessed to have a completely healthy child in all other respects: no reflux, gaining weight appropriately, HAPPY and super smiley. Praise God for that!

HALF A YEAR OLD!

We can hardly believe our little guy is already half a year old! He is growing so fast and becoming such a fun, sociable baby. You can even see from these pictures how much he has changed over the last month or so. His hair is the most obvious indicator. It has almost all fallen out and is coming back pretty blonde.

Here are the 6 month updates:

• Weighs 18 lbs, 6.5 oz (75th percentile); 27 inches long (55th percentile); head circumference 43 1/2 (50th percentile)
• Wears 6 month or 6-9 month sizes
• Still in size 2-3 diapers
• Roly Poly! He rolls from side to side with legs drawn up and toys in his mouth. Also rolls from tummy to back and back to tummy, but prefers to play on his back. When I go in to check on him after he is asleep I often find him sideways or 180 degrees from the way I put him down! Thank goodness his crib is a safe place since he is such a wiggle worm!
• VERY close to sitting up totally on his own. Loves to sit inside the Boppy and practice on his own.
• Reaches to grab toys near him that catch his eye.
• Seems to know when 2 hands are needed to pick up heavier toys vs one hand.
• Still loves his jumperoo and now brings legs up and down when sitting in it. Still not quite jumping, but definitely moving around much more.
• Leans towards those he wants to hold him when being held by someone else.
• He does this cute thing where he "shakes" with excitement when lying on his back if he sees someone he knows or is very happy. He straightens his legs and arms and does this little shake. It's very funny.
• Still drooling all the time and our pediatrician could tell his gums were swollen, but no teeth yet.
• Cereal: take 2. I had stopped the cereal for a while because his little system was just not handling it well. I switched to single grain oatmeal which is much less binding than the whole grain, brown rice I had first tried. He had been watching us eat with such interest that I knew at about 6 months, it was time to try it again. He is doing SO well! He opens his mouth when I say, "bite?", and enjoys most of what we have tired so far: sweet potatoes, prunes to cleanse the system, pears, and bananas. Will be adding carrots, winter squash, and apples very soon.
• Puts himself to sleep at naptime and bedtime, but must have his blankie to do so. He is so funny with his blankie. He wants to snuggle with it and likes to sleep with it covering his entire face. Once I got over the initial horror of this and pulled it away from his mouth and nose regularly, I realized I continued to find it back where it was, across his entire face. So I still check on him, but let him sleep the way he wants. Also, he often talks himself to sleep or will wake up talking to himself. It is so cute to hear him through the monitor! Unfortunately he's still waking up couple times a night because he has trained himself to eat at night and hardly eat at all during the day. We got a good pep talk from the pediatrician about how to go about changing this behavior and so will be working on weaning the night eating. Hopefully it goes well and we will have a "success" post for you to view soon!

Here are some of our favorite pics from the last month:

Notice the hair in this picture...now watch it disappear....

This is one of my all time favorite pictures. How cute are my 2 boys?!

Practicing his sitting up skills!

This one gives you an idea of how big he is.

Reading already?

In his new high chair.

Cereal: take 2.

Messy, but not bad!

Now that our live-in help is gone (Grammie), we needed a solution to keep Luke occupied while we get around in the morning. Enter the doorway jumper. This was Allen's brilliant idea since he is too fidgety to just be left on the bed. We put it in the doorway between our bedroom and bathroom and it does the job!

He started out under the playgym and you can see where he ended up.

The next formal check-up is not until 9 months. So while we will continue to post our monthly updates, we will have to do our own measurements. Can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Really? That long?!

Yes, really. It has been 10 years since Allen and I met. What is so crazy is that, if you know our story, God gave me a little glimpse into the future the very first time we met. We were at Faith Development Camp where Allen came to sing with Won By One and I was a counselor attending with my church. Apparently he saw me but I did not notice him. I was late arriving for the evening session and the only spot to sit was next to him. Soon after I arrived, Chris asked us to get in groups of 3 to pray and Allen asked me if I wanted to join their group. It was dark and I couldn't even really see him. However, we held hands to pray with our group and all of a sudden this crazy feeling overwhelmed me and this thought entered my mind: "I don't even know this guy, but I could marry him." It was one of those scary weird moments, especially because I had a boyfriend at the time. I love this memory and cherish the little glimpse God gave me. Anyway, it was 10 years ago this summer that God shared that with me. Isn't that cool?

This past weekend we headed up to Nor Cal for the wedding of one of my best friends from high school. I absolutely loved high school and the chance to get together with old friends is always fun, especially because a couple of them did not make it to our reunion last year.

Cassy and Ethan were married at the Rotunda at the top of Neiman Marcus in the City. Fancy. We were so glad to get to be a part of their big day! Cass was beautiful and chatting and dancing with old friends was so much fun!

Alison, Cass and I stopping for a quick pic on the day before the wedding.

Alison, Smo, Me

Allen was such a good sport about our high school reminiscing! He took this pic from our table.

The view of Union Square from our table. Beautiful!

Kind of hard to see much because they dimmed the lights, but the Rotunda is a large, round room at the top of Neiman Marcus with an open space in the middle that is open all the way to the store 4 floors below.

The evening would not be complete without our classic high school pose.

Cassy and Ethan, we love you!