Disclaimer: For those who are sick of hearing my Jason updates, please feel free to ignore this post! It's mostly for me, anyway. Lots of "I know I won't remember this for long..." kinds of information, mostly about Jason's routine and nighttime feedings.
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My baby boy is already 6 weeks old today! His eyes are turning a beautiful shade of blue and he flashed his first grin on Thanksgiving. I finally got a few shots of him smiling to share. (yes, these pictures are him smiling...)
...and one of him confusing himself...
He's come to be extremely flexible (no - I'm not talking about his eyes), taking many of his morning naps in his car seat while I take Kaylin to school or run errands. Instead of the initial 7, 10, 1, 4 schedule I put him on, I bumped it up by 30 minutes to better suit our daily routine. By feeding him at 6:30, I have more time to get dressed and get Ryan off to school before the bus comes at 7:35. His next feeding is at 9:30, which is just after I get home from taking Kaylin to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and gives me enough time to feed Jason before Mike's mom comes over to play with the kids on Wednesdays. The 12:30 feeding means that his 2:30 nap comes at 2:00, giving me an hour to myself with Kaylin and Jason napping before Ryan comes home from school at 3:00. The 3:30 feeding can be done while I help Ryan with his homework, giving me time to make dinner before Mike comes home from work. Then the next 6:30 feeding happens while Mike gets the older kids in bed and the 9:30 feeding gets me in bed a little earlier. (I warned you that most of this post wouldn't interest you!)
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But I made a huge mistake last night. Instead of waking Jason up to feed him at 9:30 before I went to bed, I wanted to see how long he'd sleep. He slept until midnight, which was fine, except that he still woke up at 3:30am. So instead of having to only waking myself up once in the middle of the night, I had to get up twice AND I had a hard time falling back to sleep at 4am after he was done eating. That won't be happening again - at least not on purpose! I laid in bed so long that I thought about all of the details I wanted to include in this post. Of course, I forget everything the morning after having great midnight ideas, so I'm sure this isn't nearly as interesting as it was in my head.
.
Although I still dread getting up at night, I think I have a pretty predictable nighttime routine down. Jason only pees at night, so I can avoid changing his diaper and fully waking him. He eats while drowsy, burps quickly, I re-swaddle him and he goes back into his bassinet easily with his pacifier. Sometimes it falls out and I get up (only once) to put it back in for him. A couple of nights this week, he spit out the pacifier again and again. I couldn't handle hearing him cry because I was so desperate for some sleep, so I got up and put it back in his mouth every half hour or so. It was exhausting! Come to find out that he was spitting it out because his nose was stuffy and he couldn't breathe. And here I am shoving it back in his mouth - talk about mommy guilt! Once I figured that out, I started putting saline drops in his nose before putting him back in bed and that really helped. I don't bother bulbing his nose until the morning, again - so I don't make him mad and totally wake him up in the wee hours.
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I currently live for the weekends. Mike has agreed to take over the middle of the night feeding Friday and Saturday nights. I rarely get to sleep from 10-6:30 straight through because I'm the one with the super-sonic ears that hears Jason start to fuss. What Mike used to do is get up, go to the bathroom and mix the bottle before picking Jason up. By that time, Jason was hysterical and totally awake, as was I. I got by using some earplugs that a friend bought me as a gag gift at my shower, but the crying continued after Mike put Jason back to bed after eating because he was WIDE awake. I fixed that by reminding Mike that he should try using the pacifier to keep Jason calm and quiet while he mixes the bottle. So far so good with that suggestion! Now if I could just get Mike to stop asking me questions while he's feeding the baby, maybe I could actually get a full night's sleep out of the deal!
.
I almost wish we had Jason in another room. Right now, he's in a borrowed bassinet in Mike's walk-in closet and I wonder if he would sleep longer if I didn't scoop him up before he started to really cry. I think I'm overly conscious of trying not to wake Mike up on work nights. Being a little more removed in the closet helps me ignore his squeaky breathing or fussing between sleep cycles, but if his pacifier falls out, I'm so tempted to let him work it out on his own. But it's late. And I'm tired. And I don't want everyone in the house to wake up. It was so bad a few weeks ago that I'd bring him to bed with me just so I could pop the pacifier back into his mouth every 5 minutes. But that meant I didn't get much sleep because I was scared of him getting crushed or smothered, so that was short-lived.
.
I'm already giddy about Jason sleeping from 10-7 at night. I just can't function when I'm tired. Well, I guess I CAN, I'm just not nearly as nice! And you know what they say: When Mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!
My baby boy is already 6 weeks old today! His eyes are turning a beautiful shade of blue and he flashed his first grin on Thanksgiving. I finally got a few shots of him smiling to share. (yes, these pictures are him smiling...)
...and one of him confusing himself...
He's come to be extremely flexible (no - I'm not talking about his eyes), taking many of his morning naps in his car seat while I take Kaylin to school or run errands. Instead of the initial 7, 10, 1, 4 schedule I put him on, I bumped it up by 30 minutes to better suit our daily routine. By feeding him at 6:30, I have more time to get dressed and get Ryan off to school before the bus comes at 7:35. His next feeding is at 9:30, which is just after I get home from taking Kaylin to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and gives me enough time to feed Jason before Mike's mom comes over to play with the kids on Wednesdays. The 12:30 feeding means that his 2:30 nap comes at 2:00, giving me an hour to myself with Kaylin and Jason napping before Ryan comes home from school at 3:00. The 3:30 feeding can be done while I help Ryan with his homework, giving me time to make dinner before Mike comes home from work. Then the next 6:30 feeding happens while Mike gets the older kids in bed and the 9:30 feeding gets me in bed a little earlier. (I warned you that most of this post wouldn't interest you!)
.
But I made a huge mistake last night. Instead of waking Jason up to feed him at 9:30 before I went to bed, I wanted to see how long he'd sleep. He slept until midnight, which was fine, except that he still woke up at 3:30am. So instead of having to only waking myself up once in the middle of the night, I had to get up twice AND I had a hard time falling back to sleep at 4am after he was done eating. That won't be happening again - at least not on purpose! I laid in bed so long that I thought about all of the details I wanted to include in this post. Of course, I forget everything the morning after having great midnight ideas, so I'm sure this isn't nearly as interesting as it was in my head.
.
Although I still dread getting up at night, I think I have a pretty predictable nighttime routine down. Jason only pees at night, so I can avoid changing his diaper and fully waking him. He eats while drowsy, burps quickly, I re-swaddle him and he goes back into his bassinet easily with his pacifier. Sometimes it falls out and I get up (only once) to put it back in for him. A couple of nights this week, he spit out the pacifier again and again. I couldn't handle hearing him cry because I was so desperate for some sleep, so I got up and put it back in his mouth every half hour or so. It was exhausting! Come to find out that he was spitting it out because his nose was stuffy and he couldn't breathe. And here I am shoving it back in his mouth - talk about mommy guilt! Once I figured that out, I started putting saline drops in his nose before putting him back in bed and that really helped. I don't bother bulbing his nose until the morning, again - so I don't make him mad and totally wake him up in the wee hours.
.
I currently live for the weekends. Mike has agreed to take over the middle of the night feeding Friday and Saturday nights. I rarely get to sleep from 10-6:30 straight through because I'm the one with the super-sonic ears that hears Jason start to fuss. What Mike used to do is get up, go to the bathroom and mix the bottle before picking Jason up. By that time, Jason was hysterical and totally awake, as was I. I got by using some earplugs that a friend bought me as a gag gift at my shower, but the crying continued after Mike put Jason back to bed after eating because he was WIDE awake. I fixed that by reminding Mike that he should try using the pacifier to keep Jason calm and quiet while he mixes the bottle. So far so good with that suggestion! Now if I could just get Mike to stop asking me questions while he's feeding the baby, maybe I could actually get a full night's sleep out of the deal!
.
I almost wish we had Jason in another room. Right now, he's in a borrowed bassinet in Mike's walk-in closet and I wonder if he would sleep longer if I didn't scoop him up before he started to really cry. I think I'm overly conscious of trying not to wake Mike up on work nights. Being a little more removed in the closet helps me ignore his squeaky breathing or fussing between sleep cycles, but if his pacifier falls out, I'm so tempted to let him work it out on his own. But it's late. And I'm tired. And I don't want everyone in the house to wake up. It was so bad a few weeks ago that I'd bring him to bed with me just so I could pop the pacifier back into his mouth every 5 minutes. But that meant I didn't get much sleep because I was scared of him getting crushed or smothered, so that was short-lived.
.
I'm already giddy about Jason sleeping from 10-7 at night. I just can't function when I'm tired. Well, I guess I CAN, I'm just not nearly as nice! And you know what they say: When Mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!
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5 comments:
Paci-Plushies work wonders for helping babies find their pacifier at night! We use Milo The Monkey and couldn't be happier!! I think they are $13 www.PaciPlushies.com
Just a thought: Try putting the bassinet right next to you and have Mike wear earplugs. You just have to mentally prepare yourself to ignore the grunts and groans though. Babies are noisy. By having him close, you can easily put the pacifier back in Jason's mouth without getting up and fully waking. Also, if you don't actually have to get up for feedings, then you'll feel less tired and fall back asleep easier. Learned that one the hard way with the first and changed to making my life easier with subsequent babies.
Oooh, the reminders of what is soon to come for me!! I LOVE the cross-eyed picture...I totally laughed out loud!! He is adorable.
I actually like reading how your routine is going and what works and what doesn't. It is giving me some good ideas. My kids are also 5,3, and I am due in March. I am trying to prepare myself for some serious changes@@@
I remember the exact day that I got five solid hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time. That was at seven weeks. And I was kicking myself because I puttered around for an hour after feeding LC that night, so I woke up knowing I could have had SIX hours of sleep.
How sad it is to be able to remember the exact day of getting an exact amount of sleep.
Here's to Jason giving you long lengths of peaceful slumber soon!
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