Rome Was Built In Two Days

When Levi was about three months old, we started 'sleep training', which means that over time, he learned to put himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime. We could put a sleepy Levi in his crib and walk away; no swinging, swaying, shushing, desperate praying, or jumping through other hoops to get him to sleep. We learned about sleep training from a great book: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Wiessbluth. It has been indespensible to us. If you know of anyone expecting a baby, or someone whose child is struggling with sleep, tell them about this book! It was so helpful to us, and paid off; Levi is and always has been a great sleeper.


Wren has been a different story...until today, she's been rocked (more accurately, bounced) to sleep at almost every naptime and bedtime for the last 3 1/2 months. It's exhausting! I began to realize last week that although I love my newfound muscle tone, I don't love having to whisk Wren off to a quiet room for 10-20 minutes of bouncing - while Levi gets into and climbs onto everything I don't normally allow him to get into or climb.

So...Wren's sleep training commenced yesterday. She cried for 20 minutes when I laid her down for her morning nap. I gave in and bounced her to sleep. Her internal clock went off exactly 40 minutes later. She nursed to sleep for the rest of the day, so she didn't get any more 'practice' falling asleep on her own. "No problem," I told myself. "Rome wasn't built in a day."

I wasn't looking forward to this morning's nap. I gave myself a pep talk that went something like this: "It's only 20 minutes of crying. You can handle it, and she won't remember it later. When she's in therapy later in life, it won't be because of the sleep training." So, I laid her down sleepy, but awake, as the book says to do. I closed the door and went off to iron some clothes to keep my mind occupied. Minutes later, I check the clock. Yep, five minutes later and she's still screaming. I tell myself to tune her out and get back to ironing. Ironing is a favorite chore, and I quickly lose awareness of everything around me. When I finish the next shirt, I listen for Wren and hear only silence. I look at the clock and see that it's been only ten minutes since I laid her down. It can't be that easy! Fearing that something terrible has happened to her, I open the bedroom door and peek in. There she is, sleeping serenely, her little hands up over her head. I'm so excited that I close the door and tell Levi (who doesn't care), and head out the door to find Rob and crow about our success.

Wren has had two naps since, and she cried no more than five minutes before soothing herself to sleep each time. Weissbluth says that children who are able to soothe themselves to sleep generally have longer, more quality sleep episodes. Each of Wren's three naps went significantly longer than her naps leading up today. Seriously, if you know of anyone expecting a baby, skip all the other things on their registry and buy them this book!

I'm excited about reclaiming the time usually spent on bouncing. I'm not excited about my arms returning to their pre-Wren state. I guess I have time for push-ups...

Lynda

Precious Boy

Levi now sleeps through the night! Two weeks ago, we decided it was time to let him 'cry it out' at naptime and bedtime, and it was the best decision we've made in our short parenting lives. Before we made the change, he'd sleep a total of about eight hours a night, with two or three feedings or diaper changes in between. Now he sleeps 11-13 hours a night, and naps better during the daytime. The best part is that we can lay him down fully awake at naptime and bedtime. He may wimper, but he quickly finds his thumb and drifts off to sleep. I've almost forgotten what it was like to get up three or four times a night and be sleep deprived. Almost.

In other news, it's snowing more frequently now. I haven't seen the ground in several days, and I'm enjoying the cold weather much more than I thought I would. It helps a lot that I rarely go outside! It's really the wind that's problematic; I don't want to take Levi out while it's so cold and windy. Here are some pictures of the first real heavy snow that we had a couple of weeks back:

I wish that my niece Sophia could have seen all this snow. We had a lesser amount when she visited with her parents, and even then I think she could have stayed outdoors all day long if they'd let her. In Houston, we buy fake plastic icicles to string up at Christmastime. I saw these and thought they were beautiful:

Rob decided to grow a beard this winter, and he looks so different! I told him that the beard would go well with a turtleneck and a beret, but I doubt I'll see him in that getup. We'll all just have to imagine it.

Levi has started making new sounds with his mouth. I saw him stick out his tongue and make a 'pbbbbb!' sound yesterday. He did it accidentally, but you can see his mind working now as he tries to figure out how he did it. I've been trying to show him how, and he just smiles at me. If I can catch it on tape, I'll be sure to post it.

There's not much else to report, so I'll just post some of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks. Levi fell asleep in his swing one day in the strangest posture. I took this picture because his fat cheeks hide his precious neck most of the time. I think it's one of his sweetest features.

I call this Levi's 'big boy' picture, because in it, he looks so much older than his three months to me.

We were wrapping Levi up in his swaddle blanket one night when I realized that Levi looked a bit like a little angel.

I think I like this hat a lot more than Levi does.

We really like getting Levi dressed in the morning, because that's when he's the smiliest. Yes, smiliest.


This picture is for Auntie LaNell, who gave Levi this great bib. You can see that Levi is wearing the boots that we bought the day we learned we were expecting a boy. We bought them expecting that he'd wear them this summer, but he'll likely outgrow them before then.


We took this picture just before Grandma and Pop left last Sunday. Levi was a little sleepy, but it's still a great picture.

Pop can get Levi to sleep faster and easier than anyone. Levi is just moments from drifting off...
Here's one last shot of Levi in his most common pose. He figured out how to clasp his hands together a few days ago, and now spends most of his time like this.

We especially like this Winnie the Pooh outfit (thanks, Cyndi!).

Levi

Again, I Say, "Hallelujah!"

Even though I said I didn't expect Levi to sleep long and sleep late again so soon, I secretly did. I was disappointed when he didn't the next two nights - he seemed to take a step back and wake every two to three hours. Yesterday was the worst daytime on record. I think he was overtired, and following a day-long trip in the car, he refused to sleep unless he was in motion. We put him in the car seat and took turns swinging him until I remembered that our neighbors had offered to lend us their little girl's swing.

We placed him in the swing and held our breath. He was asleep within five minutes and continued to sleep for abour 40 minutes, which appears to be his maximum nap length right now. I had a different baby on my hands post-nap; sunnier, funnier, and smiley, compared to the crabby baby that went to sleep in the swing.

We weren't looking forward to bedtime, even if we did have the swing to fall back on. We started out late - 9:30 pm, and at 10:30 pm, we realized that he wasn't even going to sleep in the swing! I fed him again, put him down in his crib (crying), and went back to the living room to figure out what to do. We picked up the sleep book and searched for answers. Five minutes in, he was still crying and I had no answers. The pressure! I was worried that I was causing irreparable harm by allowing him to 'cry it out' so young. Eight minutes, and still crying. I found a section of the book advising us to let him cry 5, 10, or 20 minutes before going back in. I kept searching, trying to figure out if this advice was appropriate for his age. I checked the clock - ten minutes in and.....silence.

We didn't hear any more cries before we went to bed at 11:30. I woke up when I heard some small cries and checked the clock - 6:00 am! He slept through without any overnight feedings. He ate this morning at 7:00 and went back to sleep. He slept until 8:30. Here's hoping that today isn't as rough as yesterday.

Levi is returning smiles now, and it's so much fun!

Levi went to the pediatrician on Monday for his two month check-up. He weighed 10.5 pounds and measured 23 inches - he's grown 4.5 inches and 4.5 pounds in two months. Levi is so long that I brought out the three month clothes. This is one of my favorite new outfits:

We noticed when he was born that he had long eyelashes, but now they've darkened, and they seem to grow more every night. I took this picture to try to show just how long they are. By the way, I spend money to create eyelashes as long as his.

I found a plush lamb rug for his room that I thought would be good for what we call 'naked time', or more accurately, 'nothing but a diaper time'. The covering is very soft, and he loves worming around on it (Note to moms and Deedo: I turn the temperature higher so that he's warm enough.).

And one last picture - isn't be beautiful?

Lynda

Hallelujah!

This warrants an immediate blog post: last night, Levi slept from 9:00 pm until 3:30 am, and then went back to sleep until 8:00 am! I woke up on my own and took a shower before he woke up for the first time! I of course did the first-time parent worrying that I've read about but could not resist: I got up a couple of times to check on him to make sure he was okay, hoping not to wake him up in the process. I don't believe in luck, so I don't think I've 'jinxed' anything by crowing about it. I know full well that we may not have a repeat performance tonight, but I have enough hope that we may have more nights like these soon.

We're sitting on the couch now smiling and cooing at each other. My little boy is getting to be a big boy!

Lynda

Sweet, Sweet Internet

The ranch's tech support guy made it out to the ranch today, and I am able to access the 'world wide interweb' (recognize the movie quote?) from the house again! I've been online most of the day taking care of business that's been waiting for weeks. I'm so happy!

I'm also happy because Levi has taken two naps in his crib for the first time today! He'll be four weeks old tomorrow, and I decided to heed the napping advice in the book I'm reading. The book says that infants can't handle more than two hours of wakefulness without becoming overtired, and they should be put down alone in their crib to sleep with no lights and no sounds. I soothed him to sleep, tiptoed to his nursery and put him down, not expecting much. After all, he's refused over the last two days to nap at all unless he was held. I tiptoed back out of the room carrying the monitor, and held my breath. After five minutes of sleep, I heard some whimpering, but he stayed down for 25 minutes! He stayed down for 45 minutes a couple of hours later. We're getting close to another naptime, and I'm hopeful instead of skeptical this time.

We also had a good night last night - at least two hours between most feedings, and not much waking in between. I heard that the Tallowood BC Single Adults were praying for us all to get more sleep - thank you all for praying! Thank you, God, for answering!

Lynda

Happy Family

Rob and I have discovered that it's hard taking care of a baby without grandparents! Both sets of our parents came and helped us for some time after Levi was born, and it was wonderful. There was always a grandparent available to hold Levi so that I could catch a nap, and our moms made sure that all the cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry were done so that I could recover and spend time with Levi. They even made sure that Levi was sufficiently photographed. Thank you, Yia Yia and Pop Howell, and Grandma and Pop Luttrull! We all sat for a family picture while they were here:

My parents were able to stay two weeks after Levi was born. The day they left, Levi cried on and off for several hours, refusing to be put down. I cried on and off, as all of my napping attempts were foiled. That night, he took two hours to soothe to sleep and then spent more time awake than he did asleep. I was reaching a breaking point. I began speed-reading the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, sure that the solution to our lack of sleep would be found in its pages. I learned that there is a biological reason that babies become fussier at the two-week mark. I can't remember that reason (I'm not sleeping enough to retain facts!), but knowing that Levi was behaving like every other baby made me feel better.

We're settling into a new kind of routine now...Levi tends to go from an hour and a half to three hours between night feedings, but sometimes wakes up after 30 minutes because he wants one of us to hold him. I have my hopes set on his sixth week, when the book says that babies' night sleep tends to become organized and lengthier. Three weeks to go!

Levi is a great eater and weighs a little over eight pounds now. His spider-monkey legs and arms are beginning to fatten up, and his face is filling out. I think that we'll have a regular butterball by Christmas. It's usually pretty obvious when Levi needs to eat; he tells us he's hungry by sucking noisily on his hand:

Grandma and Pop Luttrull returned this week to spend Thanksgiving with us. It's been so nice to have them close, and all five of us had a lovely post-lunch nap yesterday. I know that babies aren't supposed to smile socially until six weeks of age, but Levi made eye contact and smiled at Rob twice on Thanksgiving Day. There are no smiles for Mama yet, but I know they're coming. We had a great day with yummy food and a couple of games to watch on TV. Levi and I dressed in our maroon and white and rooted for the Aggies, but evidently, it wasn't enough.

I haven't been terribly consistent with sharing pictures, as our internet access is still down at the house, and it's hard to get away to the office. Here are a few taken over the last few weeks...

This is Levi and his sock monkey, Tex. My mom made a sock monkey for me when I was little, so I wanted Levi to have one, too.

This is one of the best picture we have of Levi with his eyes open. His eyes are slate blue right now, but we'll see what color they settle on in a few months.

This picture is for Dena, our wonderful friend that took great care of Aggie while we were getting settled in Colorado this summer. I am happy to say that Aggie is continuing to warm to Levi.

Lastly, here is a family picture that my parents took the morning they left. We're a pretty happy family!

Lynda