Sleep Training: Step 2

Step 1: done! The past 3 days Jack went 4 hours between feedings, so I decided to move on to step 2 of the sleep training.

Step 2: Night time feedings - slowly give baby less at each night time feeding. You're supposed to decrease the amount you give the baby at night 1/2 an ounce ever 3 nights (unless they take less on their own). First time I gave Jack a bottle at night, he took 8 oz. Last night he only too 6.

Last night Jack slept 8 hours straight! Coincidence??? I hope not!!

12 hours of sleep??

My friend lent me a book called, "Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano. Obviously, Jack is past the 12 week mark, but I'm starting this with him now in hopes that he will be sleeping through the night soon!! It's a mix between the "cry it out" method and the "no cry" method. Suzy says in her book that she's been a baby sleep coach for 10 years and has never had a baby fail.

Right now we're on step 1: Getting baby to eat every 4 hours during the day. So far so good :) We should be there soon! Jack was already on a 3-4 hour schedule.

I'll keep our blog updated as we progress through this sleep training so you'll know how it's going.

Parents can have fun, too :)

A couple of weeks ago we had some friends over. Kevin decided it was a good idea to play couples truth or dare. Luke and I chose to take a dare. Here's what we ended up doing:

If you can't tell, that's grape soda in the bottles. I prepared the bottles and gave Luke a size 1 nipple and me a size 3 nipple. He figured it out before we started chuggin, though :)

A Boy and His Dog

Aunt Jen, her dog Tilly, and Levi. Jack LOVES puppies!!

Typically we don't let Levi play on our bed. But if it makes Jack laugh, we let him get away with a lot of stuff!!

Back to Square One...

We've had to cut out giving Jack oatmeal before bed because it's plugged him up pretty good. Poor guy keeps trying to poop, but nothing's coming out! "What does that mean for sleeping at night?" you ask...I'll tell you what it means. It means he's back to sleeping 6 hours for the first stretch and waking up 2 times a night again :( I think I've finally come to the realization that my baby is not a great night time sleeper. He showed promise early on, but he hasn't really moved forward at all. I guess he's just a hungry lil fella!

Fun with Sophie :o)

I had the wonderful privledge of watching my adorable niece a couple of days ago while her mom got pampered for Mother's Day. My friend Jen came to help...which I'm really glad she did. Once, Sohpie was eating and Jack needed to go down for his nap. Another time they both wanted to eat at the same time.

Cousins playing together:

Sophie playing with Jack's links:
All that playing wore her out

Cloth Diapers - FAIL!!

So....tried the cloth diaper thing for the first time today. First diaper change: not so bad. It was only wet. Second diaper change: disgusting! Poop everywhere! I gave it a try and I'm done!

Oatmeal...

These first 3 pictures are from Jack's first experience with baby oatmeal. He didn't quite know what to do with it at first, but by the end of it he was pulling the spoon into his mouth.

Here's a couple of videos of the first experience. First, we tried to put him in the Bumbo to eat. We quickly realized that that wasn't going to work!

These next pictures were taken after Jack had eaten oatmeal several times. He can now sit in his Bumbo and eat. :o)

Cloth Diapers

After much convincing from my friend, I've decided to give cloth diapers a try. I didn't want to invest a ton of money into it in case I decide not to do it. My friend, Cassy, told me she would buy the items from me if I decided not to do it.

I got one Thirsty diaper cover. This kind has snaps to make the diaper bigger or smaller, so it grows with your baby. It is for 18-40 pounds. I figured that would be the cheapest way to go because I won't have to keep buying new diapers as Jack grows. The cover was $12.75

I already have some prefolds that I've been using as burp cloths. But because cloth diapers have to be washed in special laundry detergent, I had to wash them in Dawn dish detergent to strip them clean before using them as cloth diapers. Have no fear, if I decide not to continue using cloth diapers, I will NOT reuse these as burp cloths!!

This last thing is what really conviced me to give this whole cloth diaper thing a try. I do not want to deal with cleaning up poop. These flushable diaper liners catch the poop and you can just toss the liner in the toilet instead of trying to rinse the poop off. It was $8 for 100 of the flushable liners.

If I decide to go continue with cloth diapering, I will probably buy some better liners instead of using the prefolds. But for this trial period, they're pretty cheap. The only reasing I've even considering this is because it will save us a plethora of money in the long run. Obviously I'll need to buy more covers if I'm gonna keep doing this. But just to try it out has cost me about $20 (because I already had the prefolds). I'll write a post later on how all this turns out!!