B2C - Night 7 + Wooden Teething Toy

Oh my goodness... can you get enough of that old-man-face cuteness?? I can't either.

We are on B2C NIGHT 7 - the transition from the bassinet to the crib. Last night Asher woke for a bottle around 1am (his eating schedule has been rearranged so I do believe he was legitimately hungry) and then it took him just a few minutes to fall back to sleep and he slept until about 6 when we brought him in with us until 8:30 for some extra Zzzzs.

This afternoon, we put him down for a nap in his crib at about 3:30 and he was asleep around 4:00. He resisted and we attempted to let him cry a little until I offered him a comforting hand to squeeze after about 10 minutes of steady tears and frustration. Within 5 minutes of that, he was asleep. I guess it was like a modified CIO. I just can't do the real thing but I don't think we'll need to. He napped for an hour and a half. Yipee!

It was bedtime at 7:07 and by 7:28 he was sound asleep and has been every since. He didn't cry, just groaned and grunted his way into slumber-land. He did let out one cry and needed my hand to squeeze for just a minute right before he nodded off. Hey - we may be onto something here. We'll just wean the hand and should be golden. Stay tuned.

Our newest excitement is this wooden teething toy from Hennie Rose on Etsy. This is one of the few teething toys that he actually likes chewing on. This shop has the cutest things! I might also get Asher one of the pacifier clips that has the wooden beads on it, as well, considering he is always chewing on the straps of his. So neat! I wanted to share. 

As luck would have it, we have to rise early again tomorrow to get a few things done at our shop while there's still time to get a shipment out. Oh well, maybe we'll hit breakfast after that if we get early enough of a start. Who knows what's on the agenda for the rest of the weekend... maybe the zoo? ;)

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The Big Move - Bassinet to Crib

Well, the gig is up. We are free to have more children now. Our former "angel baby" is now showing a new side. A wakeful, alert side. He still shows off his contagious smile all hours of the day...and night - he's just no longer in favor of sleeping, or more specifically, going to sleep.

We are now on night 5 of the transition from the bassinet in our room to Asher's crib in his nursery. He's 6 months old now, he is moving around a lot more in his sleep, and he is getting really close to outgrowing his bassinet. So we figured it is like a perfect time to make the move.

Night one went extremely well. Too well. Asher fell right asleep in his crib with no resistance to his 7:30pm bedtime. It may have even been 7:15pm. Out like a light. He woke just briefly around midnight for a bottle, then it was back to bed.

Our iBaby monitor allows us to watch and even take pictures of Asher in his crib on our  mobile devices.

He was then up in the morning at about 7:30am. I fed him and he wasn't having his crib anymore at that point, so I brought him into our room into his bassinet and both of us got another 2 hours of sleep (score!). <-- Daddy left early, early to go fishing and I didn't get to bed until super late - hence the excitement for extra sleep.

The following nights brought the tossing and turning and Asher's hesitance to sleep in his crib. We gave in last night, on night 4, letting him back into our room when he absolutely would not go back to sleep around 2am. Into the bassinet - done. Sleeping baby.  Tonight, if I even walked into the nursery with him he'd start to cry. I finally got him in there by rocking him to sleep with a bottle. I know that's one of the worst things to do, so I do not want to make this into a habit!

I must mention that our schedules are also all out of sorts right now. Circumstances have brought me back to our shop every weekday for at least 3-5 hours. Maybe by next week I'll be able to cut it down to 3 days or so. Sometimes, if I am lucky, Asher naps. But it's unfortunately just not a nap friendly environment there. We have loud machinery running, I am using a tape gun to package up orders... I don't blame him for not being able to get quality rest while we're there.

In addition to this new schedule, our pediatrician recommended we feed Asher breakfast and late lunch rather than breakfast and dinner since he has been having more might wakings since starting solids. Working this new feeding schedule into our new work/home schedule is going to be a little tricky. But we will make it work.

Oh - ALSO - we are supposed to have him sleeping on his stomach now to combat his "flat head". He doesn't like that. So this just adds to the difficulty at sleep time.

I'm not a fan of the "cry-it-out" method for us. So I'm going to have to get creative to get Asher into the habit of sleeping in his crib. I'm going to try to let him play in his crib while I am doing things in his room, i.e. folding laundry, organizing, cleaning, etc. I'm already putting him in there for naps (with much resistance) but I'm sure this will improve in time, as well. When he wakes, I am giving him his bottle in his nursery so that he stays sleepy and hopefully won't think about changing rooms. 

Hopefully by next week I'll have some more perspective for anyone going through the transition from bassinet to crib once we have crossed the threshold. Fingers crossed this process won't take much longer than that!

When and how did you make the transition from bassinet to crib/ How did it go? Any advice?

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Hello, Relationships Wonder Week

As I type, I'm listening to the muffled cries coming from our bedroom where Asher lays in his co-sleeper bassinet, refusing to sleep. He's been a finicky with sleep this week; he's more difficult to put down, waking at midnight then again at 4am to eat. I had chalked it up to a growth spurt or maybe the solids he's been eating twice a day. Now it's getting worse and when he wakes, he is happy, very alert, full of energy, and taking in all the sights and sounds around him while trying to touch and rub anything in sight. I think it may be something more.

(FYI: It's not teething, because he is perfectly happy once picked up. No signs of pain, redness, or teeth under the gums yet. Still on "Tooth Watch" not "Tooth Alert".)

According to the wonder weeks, at 23 weeks, Asher has just entered the 'Relationships' leap. One of the signs is sleeping less or worse - this must be be what is going on.

{ Now the cries have turned to squeals and coos. A quick check confirmed - he's smiling, kicking, and pulling his arm out of his pajamas. It's going to be another long night. }

The 'Relationships' leap is the time period in which your baby develops the perception of relationships such as distance and placement of objects and people - on top of, underneath, beside, in-between. Separation anxiety may be soon to follow. They'll also start to understand cause and effect. There are LOTS of skills that they will have developed after this leap. Asher hasn't started to show any of those skills yet, so we are just now in the beginning phase and have - eek! - 26 days left of this "stormy period". Lucky for us so far, Asher is only "stormy" when it's bedtime or nap time. Throughout the rest of the day he is a relatively happy and calm baby. Knock on wood, will ya?

The SIGNS of the fifth leap, the "Relationships" leap, include:

• Cries more often and for longer (check)
• Asks for more attention (check)
• Sleeps less or worse (check)
• Eats less (check - during the day)
• Has mood swings (check)
• Is not pleased with many things (no)

Asher has been initiating games of peek-a-boo, which is a skill that usually coincides with this leap. He does it when he is on his tummy, tucking down his head and then popping it up with a smile. He keeps going if I say, "Peek-a-boo!"

His coos and shrieks of happiness have gotten much louder and more frequent within the past 2-3 days.

He's not demonstrating any protest to diaper or clothing changes yet. He does try to roll over when getting changed.

A few of the new skills he'll have developed AFTER this leap include:

• Lifts things to see if there's anything underneath
• Throws things (Today he threw Suki's toy - she loved it!)
• Puts food in others' mouths
• Blows air
• Makes connections between words and actions
• Protests when mom or dad leaves
• Pulls himself to an upward/standing position

{ Pause for a check - needed a diaper change, made "milk" sign, or so I thought, but when I offered he just wanted to pet Suki. Back to bed. Cue the cries...  }

So we are in for a few more weeks of difficulty with sleep and fussiness. Hopefully it won't get worse, but I have a feeling it will. He started this leap on the early side, so we have a long way to go.

Some of the recommended activities to do with babies during this leap to help them develop and master their new skills are peek-a-boo and putting things inside a box and then tipping it over. I think I need to break down and buy the book to see what other activities are suggested.

{ Went ahead and brought sleepless Asher out here with me. He's sitting in his Rock & Play while I rock it with my foot. He just started tickling my toe with a smile on his face. I melt. }

Dr. Frans, the author of the Wonder Weeks, says his belief is that you should never let your baby "cry it out". He says that you can not spoil a baby with attention in the first year of life. On nights such as this one, I usually give it about 5 minutes and if the cries have not started to taper off, I will go ahead and get Asher. I have 2 sleep books I bought when Asher was only a few weeks old that most likely suggest otherwise. I haven't had much need to read them yet. I spilled water all over them and they're all crinkly.

While I'm not looking forward to losing more sleep over the next month or so, I am excited for all of the changes that are taking place with baby Asher (BIG baby Asher). It's amazing to watch their minds develop, to see them suddenly understand something that they didn't before. It's priceless, one of those parts of parenting that is indescribable. Bring it on, wonder week, bring it on.

In other news, I made - read: MADE - these delicious Panera Bread-esque orange scones yesterday. And they were amazing. Here's the recipe. Yum!

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