Working on a Happy Sleep Schedule

Up to this point Angela has made a very natural and relatively easy transition into an acceptable sequence of night feedings/sleeping. We've gone from struggling to get her to bed before midnight and being up for periods of 30 minutes up to 2 hours during the middle of the night as a newborn, to a 10:30pm-8:30am routine and then 8:30/9:00pm-7:30am. However the past two days (seems like since she's really grasped the sense that she can sit up on her own now and that this is so much more fun than lying back) she woke up at 3am once and didn't go back to sleep till 5am and then this morning woke up at 6am with no desire to go back to bed.

I do not own any baby books, or specifically any baby-sleep books, but it seems that the idea is - sleep promotes more sleep and to not delay putting down a baby at the earliest signs of sleepiness.

So tonight I noticed Angela was getting a little cranky before 7 and decided to start winding her down & get her ready for bed (changed her diaper, put her nightgown on, brought her downstairs - read some books, nursed her & then brought her into the bathroom because she likes the sound of the shower and held her with her head on my shoulder and sang "The Ants Go Marching"). By 7:30 I had her in bed and was doing my exercises downstairs. She's fussed a few times but now at 9:45 is still asleep. We'll see how things pan out tomorrow morning.

Naps are another issue all together - many days I know that she's tired and needs a nap but I have a much harder time getting her to lie down and when she finally does many times the nap only lasts 20-40 minutes and she's up and raring to go! I'm thinking of applying a nap routine just like her bedtime routine to see how things go.

The Diaper Debate

After dealing with a lot of "up the back" diaper blowouts in the past weeks I decided not only to go up to the next size in diapers but also to switch brands. At first I was in love with Pampers Swaddlers- they were so nice and soft and anything else just seemed too rough & papery. However, the Pampers were lacking elasticity in the back and the poop just kept shooting out.

So, we tried Costco size 3 diapers this past weekend, not that much bigger than size 2, but definitely more snug and still pretty soft - and best of all - no diaper blowout as of yet! I read reviews that Luvs, which are also rather inexpensive are also quite good and that the other diaper brands - Pampers/Huggies spend more money on marketing which is why they charge more. I'm thinking of giving them a try. I should market a diaper sampler pack so that people can find out what works best for them without having to commit to a whole package of diapers and risk not using them.

In other news, Angela is on the verge of sitting up on her own. Sometimes she's pretty good but will sway side to side and fall over, but her core muscles are definitely getting stronger these days and she's even getting better at pulling herself up into a seated position when she's reclined.

Hello size 6-9 month clothes

We are moving up in the world of baby clothes this week. I am going to miss some of the 3-6 month outfits and will see if we can make them last another week or two, but am excited to delve into our new batch of clothes.

We purchased a video baby monitor and a stroller this weekend. I am glad that I waited till after Angela was born to do a lot of my baby shopping so that I could gain a sense of what I needed/wanted.

Right now Angela is a very social baby. If we go out into the public and a stranger comes up to her and smiles/talks to her, she eats it up like a fat guy at an all-you-can-eat buffet. People are shocked at how friendly she is... but we'll see how that goes once she understands the concept of a stranger. She is also becoming a lot more comfortable in a sitting position and at times can hold herself up for a few seconds here and there.

Finally She Decides To Roll Over!

Over a month ago Angela rolled over in her crib, just that one time and it seemed she had no idea or desire to roll over onto her back when we'd do tummy time. Despite a week plus of sleeping 5-7 hours the past week she'd been only doing 2 hours at a time, which was a bit tiring and frustrating because I couldn't quite understand why she had reverted back to such an intense night feeding schedule... who knows maybe she was gearing up to complete the task of rolling over! This afternoon we went from a struggle to roll over to all of a sudden rolling over almost instantaneously when I'd put her down! Congrat's Angela!

Cereal & Bottle Feeding Attempts

So tonight after grocery shopping and picking up some baby rice cereal, I realized I was totally engorged on one side and figured we should give the rice cereal a go and revisit bottle feeding which I have not attempted in a couple months. The cereal is verrrrry liquidy at this point of just introducing it to Angela, but she did pretty good - didn't seem to hate it and was definitely eager to get that spoon in her mouth. It was also rather humerous to watch John attempt to give her a spoonful - he would bring the spoon to her mouth so slowly that she'd see it coming and those little nugget hands would be swooping in to grab the spoon and he'd be fighting to keep her hands away so he could get it at her mouth.

She didn't exactly latch on to the nipple on the bottle but didn't reject it as much as before - even attempting to put the bottle in her mouth on her own (with minimal success). I am also working on getting her to bed at a more reasonable hour - it seems like everyone I talk to has a baby that falls asleep by 6:30/7:30 - where mine is up till 9:00/10:00. Whenever I've tried to put her down at an earlier hour (say 8:00) she always wakes up within 20 minutes, as if it were a nap, and has no desire to go back to sleep right away. I was very proud of her tonight though when I laid her down in her crib (at the more typical 9:00) before she was asleep and within 10 minutes and some minimal fussing she was out like a light. I'm glad that she's not totally dependent on my nursing her or us rocking her to fall asleep.

Jumperoos are for jumping!

It's almost as if she knows I'm expecting her to jump so I can record it...