My sweet mom. By the way, my mother is from Bolivia, South America so Lauren is 1/4 Bolivian. My mom has a sweet nick name for Lauren... Laurenita (sounds like Lorenita).
Lauren's 2 month doctors appointment. At this visit, Lauren was 9 weeks old and weighed in at 13 pounds, 8 ounces and 23 inches long. This put her in the 90% for weight and 90% for height for her age. The pediatrician said it is normal for breastfed babies to be chubby until they hit around 9 months of age. At 9 months they are supposed to lean out more.
Our pediatrician had a cold so she wore a mask during the visit. Lauren did great during the exam.
After the 'diaper area' exam, I got her diapered back up.
A bath in the sink before we finally bought a baby bath tub. The baby bath tub makes baths so much easier!! Lauren loves her bath tub (picture of that coming soon).
On a walk around the neighborhood across the street from my condo. California Street.
Um, chubby cheeks. Well, the car seat accentuates her chubby cheeks.
My mom was here to witness Lauren's first successful attempt at sucking her thumb. She usually sucks on her hand but this time she got her thumb and sucked it in.
Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Briasco's... well, actually it is Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Briasco's to Lauren.
Cousin Danielle, my mom and Great Grandma with Lauren.
The Grandma's: L to R: Grandma Bonnie, Grandma Checha, Great Grandma and Lauren.
After keeping a log of Lauren's daily naps, awake time, poops, pees, feeding and walks with me, I see a pattern developing. I also started reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weissbluth and I learned what to be more aware of Lauren's sleepy signals so that she does not become overtired. I've seen Lauren in an overtired-wired state and I don't want her to get to that point anymore. Sleep-topics of interest to me:
naps
sleepy signals (yawns, staring off into space)
duration of naps
timing of naps
bed-times
how long baby should sleep at night
feeding at night
soothing techniques
more to come... baby woke up...
OK, I'm back.
I really like the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book. For young babies, the author does not recommend crying it out, but offers many 'soothing' techniques. My hubby is good at night soothing so he usually gets this job with Lauren. Lauren seems to hate her crib at night (not during day time naps). Unless she is in a deep sleep before we put her in there at night, she gets so upset. I think when she is an older baby (which I think is around 4 or 5 months of age) we can start doing more sleep training where we let her cry a little.
Personally, my favorite way to lull Lauren to sleep is to nurse her until she is really sleeping. I get to look at her face, stroke her hair, hold her little body close to me (I use my brestfriend breastfeeding pillow and I hold her close). Sometimes she can stay on for 45 minutes... she keeps sucking in a 'pacifying' state at the end (not much milk towards the end). This really relaxes me too. Then I try to put her in her crib and if this doesn't work, I can pass her on to my hubby. He usually holds her in the football hold or on his chest and walks her around the condo... and if that doesn't work, we put her in her swing till she falls asleep and then he transfers her carefully to her crib! I know eventually we won't be able to use the swing, but for now, it works great to sooth her and calm her if she gets upset because we tried to put her down in her crib.
What is her schedule now? It varies, but on average it is this:
Bedtime sleep at around 9:30 or 10pm (much later on a bad day where she fights it)
Night feeding 3am
Wake time at around 8am
Morning nap at around 2 hours after wake time, lasting for about 1 hour
Afternoon nap varies a lot, but I'm trying for 2-4pm
I would like to get her into bed earlier, between 7-8pm for her own sake. She stays up more hours in a row after her afternoon nap and gets to the point of being overtired if she doesn't go to bed by 9pm or earlier.
Dr. Weissbluth lays out the following example schedule (I like this one, although I know lots of people do not like set schedules... I feel like I can use it flexibly):
*Wake 7am
*Morning nap 9-10am
*Afternoon nap 12-2pm
*3rd nap - optional and depends on bed time. He recommends an earlier bedtime versus a 3rd nap for older babies
*Bed between 6-8pm
*1st night feeding
*2nd night feeding
Great pics!
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