5 Months Old's Sleep Patterns

Canon continues to grow every day. All week I've been thinking that he just looks so big to me... especially his head. I think he gets more and more adorable...which is a good thing because in some ways, he's more and more difficult to tend. I need to be more careful about what I do with him because I can tell that he's learning more about his surroundings... and he doesn't really like to be alone very much. If I don't watch it, he'll be mobile before I really baby-proof this place.

With growing older, sleeping patterns change, and it's always a challenge to keep track of how he should be sleeping. That being said, I think I might have been doing something wrong this whole time in regards to Canon's nighttime sleep. Often people ask if he "sleeps through the night" as they would about any baby. For a long time I figured that since he was younger than 6 months, he was still too little for me to allow him to "cry it out." However, as I reviewed a handout from my pediatrician, I read that babies his age shouldn't be waking up more than once per night to feed. Well, there have only been a handful of times when he woke up only once. Most of the time he's up twice between midnight and 6AM, but it's not abnormal for him to still want to eat every 2 hours some mornings. For a while I would brush it off thinking that it was due to growth spurts. Then, when I mentioned that to Mark he said that meant that Canon was going through growth spurts every other week.

I've come to the realization that's it probably just all my fault. Canon does sleep through the night for about 11-12 hours at a time, but he wakes up 3-4 times throughout that span. When he wakes up, I go in and give him the pacifier. If he doesn't fall right to sleep, I pick him up to feed him, and he sleepily nurses until he's dead asleep within 10 minutes. Only recently have I considered that he might just need to be held for a brief moment before falling back to sleep. I always figured if I coddled him like that, he'd never learn to self-soothe. I have a hard time letting him just cry for 5 minutes (like my pediatrician suggested) because if it's such a quick fix to give him the binky, why would I let him cry and cry and wake himself up more? I know he needs to learn how to soothe himself back to sleep, but I really want my sleep too, and the binky works so well. Therefore, recently I've been waiting to go to him when he wakes during his daytime naps. That way I'm not so bothered because I miss sleep, but it also helps him to learn that it's okay if I don't come right away. I hope that this will actually help when it comes to night wakings, that he won't get as upset if I'm not there within 1 minute, like usual up to this point. *crosses fingers*

Well, now that I've started him on rice cereal, he's been getting more full at night (generally), and last night was the best night he's ever had. The first time he awoke was after 4:30AM. S-W-E-E-T!!! I think I did attempt to allow him to cry longer before going in to get him, and it turned out that I didn't even need to go in at all. I can say that this better sleep is associated with eating rice cereal, but I believe it's actually more related to the fact that he's transitioning to only 2 naps per day. As he refuses to sleep when I expect him to be sleepy, he stays awake until he's practically cranky, then he crashes for a nap. On these days he seems to sleep better at night. Although, this hasn't been going on for very long, so I think I need about another week to determine how true that statement is. I'm trying to find time to read more of the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth because I've found it very helpful so far. Are there any tricks or bits of information that you've found particularly helpful when it comes to helping your child sleep better through the night? (I am really looking forward to sleeping through the night again because these months of sleep deprivation have finally caught up to me. The first couple of months I was able to make it through because of a rare nap and because I simply just had to do it. Now, I feel tired more often...now that the novelty of having a baby to tend has worn off.)

Here are some fun shots of the growing cutie-pie!

This started as just a fun time playing with baby, but ended with something a little unexpected!

Just some fun shots of Canon

I thought you might enjoy these!!

I wanted to get a video of how Canon's whines before being put down for a nap. You can tell he's tired, but just still wants to play or something. This video doesn't really do it justice because he notices the camera. Usually he goes on and on with his eyelids drooping, but you can get the picture from the beginning of this video. It probably would've been better if I had someone else take the video.

When were picking up Canon from the sitter's, they told Mark that they really had him laughing when he tossed his daughter up in the air. So I thought I'd experiment to see if I could get him to laugh by tossing up the monkey. It worked, but once I got the camera out, it wasn't as good as before...still cute though!

Who doesn't love to tickle a baby to see them laugh. He was MUCH cuter before Mark got there with the camera, but I was still able to catch a glimpse of his ticklishness.

The Little Sick-ling

Canon has been sick for the first time this past week. I'm so glad that he went over 4 months before getting ill, and at least it's not really sick. He's been feeling a bit warm (not scary fever-ish), and he's been fairly congested. He's learned that he doesn't really like the nasal aspirator, but we have to use it. Too bad there have been several times where we can't really get anything out, but we can still hear that he's congested. He had a hard time sleeping for a couple nights last week, but he's doing better now! The congestion hinders his nursing a little bit, but he gets over it. He's still pretty happy, and when it's really bad at night the baby Tylenol is a huge help. He calms right down. I'm so glad he's a little trooper!

Anybody know any good tricks for infant congestion? I want to use something like Vick's Vapor Rub to clear his sinuses. Is there something like that for babies?

4 Months Old

Canon is now 4 months old!! I can hardly believe it. These 4 months have gone by so fast. He has always been such a good baby, and I simply love being his mommy. I always found it strange when people would say things like, "I can't remember what it was like before we had our baby..." or "I can't imagine life without him..." when their babies are so young, but I'm starting to see what they mean. I can imagine life without Canon, remember how it was before him, but I wouldn't ever want to trade him in to have that back. I absolutely adore my little boy. Seeing him smile simply melts my heart. I can't believe I'm not tired of that yet. Oh, and do not get me started on what happens to me when I hear him laugh. I couldn't have asked for a better baby. He's the cutest little guy in the whole world!

Canon, I love you soooo much!!

Here are some of the updates on this little cutie-pie:

• His 4-month check-up was yesterday, and he is now 12 lbs 3.7 oz and 25 inches long. He received some more vaccinations, and he was such a trooper. He barely even cried at all at the doctor's office. He came home and crashed for about 4 hours and then let it all out, wailing at the top of his lungs. However, that wasn't something that a little Tylenol couldn't handle. I think the shots made him a bit ornery, but he was still mostly good through the night.
• He cries much less when it's tummy-time. He's holding his head up so well now. He even rolls over occasionally...albeit, not terribly often. He's getting better at playing with things in his grasp too.
• He really likes other babies...really, anyone who's smiling at him. He gets a kick out of his own reflection too. I call it his friend in the mirror.
• He started being more vocal these days, except now he likes to scream and screech, not really out of dislike for things...just because he likes to be loud. I wonder how long this phase will last! :) Along with being more vocal, he's started blowing bubbles in a very drool-y sort of way! Kinda gross, but kinda cute too!

Enjoy the photos and videos!!

Growing Older!!

"All this growing and maturing can sure be stressful!! Look, I'm losing my hair!!"

As a matter of fact, Canon really is getting bigger and stronger every day. Today he rolled over from his belly to his back for the first time. He was holding his head up pretty high during his tummy time and lost his balance and fell over...rolled himself right over his right shoulder. Then later this afternoon he was having more tummy time and started over his left shoulder. However, this time he didn't move his legs, so he looked like he was stuck in a half turn. His head was past his left shoulder, and he let his weight down, so he couldn't go back onto his tummy, but he didn't want to shift the weight of his legs... so we was laying there for a little while, looking somewhat confused. Then he finally just moved his right leg up and over, and he completed the roll. Needless to say, I am excited for the milestone to be reached, but this means that I will have to keep an extra eye on him now because he will become mobile in no time. I can't expect him to stay where I put him for much longer! (But I guess that's still a good thing!)

More Videos

Here are a couple more videos that I took of the little guy.

Check out Canon's smokin' dance moves!! This would've been a better video if I had someone else holding the camera so that I could use both hands. He usually sways more than this when I do it, but it's still adorable in this video. :)

This one just shows how well he's growing... Canon was really NOT a fan of tummy-time, and I have a hard time making him do it, but I know it's good for him. This video is from a time when I noticed he was holding his head up for a while. After he lifted his head, I decided to go get the camera to film it. He held his head up for much longer than I was expecting him to, and I am quite excited about it.

This one is more or less for my mother. When I told her that Canon plays pretty well by himself, she asked me what he does. Well, since it's kind of hard to explain what he really does other than just kicks, swats, and smiling at his reflection, I decided to film it for her. I won't be offended if you don't really want to watch the whole thing. It's less interesting than other videos.

And Then EVERYTHING Changes

I felt like I was starting to get the hang of this motherhood gig. Canon would wake up around the same time in the morning, and then he'd need a nap at predictable hours. He was basically awake for a little over an hour and then slept for about and hour, then awake for just over and hour and then sleep for about an hour...on and on through most of the day. Sometimes he'd go shorter or longer, but it was easy to tell which he needed when. Well...then he hit the 3 month mark, and everything changed.

I wasn't sure what was going on... is he teething? is he just transitioning from several naps to only a couple naps per day? is he becoming too reliant on us to put him to sleep that he can't soothe himself back to sleep on his own? The questions could probably keep going, but either way, Canon is growing older and his sleeping patterns are changing. He now stays up for at least 2 hours at a time, and his first morning nap seems to be just a catnap. Then again, maybe I'm just not timing things right. There are so many things I still have to figure out about this being a mom thing. Today he slept for about 40 minutes before he woke up again after being up for 2 hours. I knew that wasn't enough of a nap, but I realized that he hadn't eaten since for a long time. So he nursed for a while and then fell right back asleep. Phew! His nap turned out to be about 2 hours by the time he was really ready to get up. YAY! He does still sleep, so that's the good news.

The bad news is that I was expecting that by now I'd be getting more sleep at night. He used to wake up about twice for feedings in the early morning hours. Now he seems to be waking up every 2 hours again, and I'm not sure why he doesn't just sleep as long as he used to. The first few times that he woke up several times in one night I figured it was because he was cold. His room has 2 windows in it that are not very good at keeping out the cold of winter, so we have a space heater aimed into his crib. On really cold nights I turn up the heater. The more recent times that he gives us a bad night I notice that he seems quite warm, not hot enough for me to actually undress him so that I can take his temperature under his arm, but warm enough to think he might have a slight fever. Turns out, he's been showing several signs of teething. I've been giving him doses of baby Tylenol when I feel that he's warm and really fussy and I can't figure out what else it might be. Usually within 2 minutes he's no longer fussy or irritable.

I don't really know if he's teething or not because I can't find any places on his gums where a tooth may be cutting, and he doesn't act irritable everyday. I figured that if his gums were hurting on one day, they'd be hurting every day until the tooth cuts through. Maybe he just gets random fevers or I dress him too warmly for sleep. Either way, I feel bad when he's upset and there's nothing that I can do to help him. Thankfully it doesn't happen all the time or even every day. So far he seems to be a very happy boy, and that makes me glad.

It used to be so easy to get Canon to fall asleep at bedtime. I would watch him for cues of tiredness, and then start the routine of bedtime feeding while I read a story (or two or three), prayer, and then put him down. If he didn't look tired enough, I'd read longer, but he usually comes really close tyo falling asleep as I read to him. Now I feel like he takes a lot more coaxing. A few recent nights I spent over 2 hours trying to get him to go down. I now realized that he's probably just going to have a later bedtime. When I try to put him to bed at the usual bedtime, he treats it like a nap and wakes up after an hour or so to play. He just doesn't want to go down before he's ready, and that can get frustrating for both of us. I feel so horrible keeping Canon awake if I think he ought to go to sleep, but I realize that he'll only go to bed when he's ready. It takes me longer than I might like, but I think I'm getting used to this new nighttime ritual. I think he's going to be an 8:00pm bedtimer! We'll see though.

Here are a few more recent pictures of our little guy!

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