A light at the end of the tunnel

Last week before we started sleep training, Jackson had fallen into a really nice day schedule.  Jackson would fall back asleep during my feeding between 5am and 5:30am and I could put him in his swing, where he would sleep until between 7:30am and 8:15am.  He then stayed up for 2 hours, took a nap that was between an hour and 1 hour 20 minutes, up for another 2 hours, then took another nap that was anywhere between 40 min and 1 hour 40 min, up for another 2 hours, and then one more nap for 30-40 min.  Then he was up until bedtime, usually 2-3 hours. 

As nice as that was, bedtime was awful!  So we started sleep training to see if we could have better nights too.  In the process, Jackson was getting up between 6:15 and 6:30, which was late enough that he was awake and up for the morning, but early enough that he was still tired.  Consequently, naps were pushed earlier, so he had to stay up later between them so as to not give him an extra nap, then wasn't sleeping well during the naps, and we had a tired, cranky baby a good portion of the day. 

I was starting to get worried that things wouldn't get better.  I gave in during the day yesterday and let him cuddle with me in our bed after he woke up early again from his second nap.  He fell asleep nursing, and I let him stay for about an hour.  I was worried it would backfire, but also worried that he wasn't getting enough sleep and was miserable all day.  By 7:45 last night, Jackson was exhausted and really fussy.  So at 8pm we decided to give in and put him to bed earlier than we had the last two nights.  We went through our bedtime routine and put Jackson in his crib at 8:30pm.  Surprisingly, it took him a few minutes to start crying, and then stopped crying by 8:45pm!!!  He then slept all the way until 4:15am!  He cried (not too hard) for about 15 minutes, and was quiet until 4:50am.  He started fussing again, and a little after 5am I decided to go in and feed him.  Well, like he did last week, he fell asleep eating, I put him in his swing a little before 5:40am, and he slept until 8:10am!  Jackson woke up a happy, smiley baby and went down for a nap 2 hours later.  Perfect schedule for us!  Now if we can get him to stay asleep all the way until his 5am feeding, I will be one happy mommy!

... And bless Jackson, that he will sleep on his nose

The title of our blog comes from our exhaustion last night.  We were saying prayers with Jackson before bed and Shawn was trying to pray while Jackson was screaming.  Shawn meant to say, "And bless Jackson, that he will sleep on his own."  Instead, he said "And bless Jackson, that he will sleep on his nose."  Needless to say, we both burst out laughing in the middle of our prayer ;)

So, night two didn't go as well as we had hoped.  Jackson actually fell asleep about half an hour after we put him in his crib (around 9:40pm), much better than his hour and a half the night before.  He woke up 40 minutes later and whimpered for a couple of minutes, then fell back asleep on his own.  So we were hopeful that the rest of the night would go as smoothly.

But, it didn't.  Jackson woke up around 3am and it took about an hour and half for him to finally fall back asleep!  Shawn and I watched an episode of Burn Notice while we were waiting for Jackson and in between checks on him.  Unfortunately, he tends to start crying even harder every time Shawn goes in to check on him, so once he starts letting up a little, we have decided it is better to leave him instead of get him riled up again by going in.  We finally got back to sleep around 4:45am.

Jackson woke up for the morning at 6:30am.  Like our book says, he has been a lot more clingy during the day, and tends to have a harder time letting himself fall asleep for naps because he is afraid we are going to leave him, which we are :(  His naps haven't been as good during the day, and he is not getting as much sleep at night.  Let's cross our fingers that things start looking up tonight!

Sleep Training: Night One

Shawn and I decided that it is time to start sleep training little Mr. Jackson.  Ever since we got back from our trip to CT, he has been waking up crying at least 4 times each night, and is not very easy for him to get back to sleep.  This has been really tiring and both of us.  So we bought Richard Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems and decided to use his progressive-waiting approach.  We've been reading and researching and felt like this was the best approach for us with Jackson. 

Well, last night was the big night!  We waited until a Friday to start so Shawn wouldn't need to get up early for work the next day and prepared ourselves for the worst night of sleep ever.  Dr. Ferber suggests waiting to put your baby down until when he usually falls asleep, not necessarily when you usually put him to bed, so we kept Jackson up a little later than usual and put him in his crib just before 9:30 pm after our usual bedtime routine.  And the crying began!  We put on some episodes of Leverage, grabbed our timer, and turned on the baby monitor.  Shawn was the strong one of the two of us and went in to check on and reassure Jackson each time (I went in the last time before he fell asleep and it was WAY harder than I thought it would be to watch him scream).  Around 10:30 pm the crying started to get a little bit softer, and by 10:45 pm Jackson was quiet and asleep!  All on his own without his pacifier or being rocked to sleep! 

We laid down as soon as he was quiet, figuring we would be up again in a couple of hours to do it all over again.  But no, Jackson didn't wake up until 6:15am!!!  Way better than we had planned! He skipped his night feeding with Shawn entirely and pushed his early morning feeding with me until later in the morning!  It was wonderful! Hopefully night two will go even better!

On the move!

Wednesday night after his bath, Jackson surprised us by doing this!

Watch out world!  Jackson is coming!!

4 months!

Our little Jackson turned 4 months old last Thursday!  We had his check up yesterday and got his stats.  Jackson is 25.75 inches tall (73rd percentile), 13lbs 10 oz (20th percentile), and his head circumference is 41 cm (43rd percentile).  Our little guy is still tall and skinny!

Jackson loves smile and giggle at mommy and daddy!  He has also started screeching when he gets really excited, which is awesome to listen to :)  He is still our little wiggle worm!

 
Jackson loves to roll on his side and look at his toes, especially when we are trying to change his diaper.

Jackson is learning to play on mommy's computer!  Every morning after eating breakfast, Jackson and I get on the computer and chat with daddy at work.  Jackson is getting better and better at "typing" messages to daddy on the computer, and daddy loves getting them!  He has even started hitting the enter button on his own sometimes!

At the beginning of this month, Jackson started grabbing his binky out of his mouth often but wasn't very good at getting it back in his mouth.  Just a couple of weeks ago, he started getting his binky back in his mouth!  Sometimes he turns it around though and starts sucking on it backward.

 
Jackson has started teething and is a VERY drooly baby!  He also loves to chomp on his hands, our hands, and anything else he can get his mouth on.  No teeth coming through yet, thank goodness!  Otherwise we wouldn't be so quick to let him chew on our hands!

Jackson got to meet his aunts, uncle, and cousins on my side of the family!  He and I spent a week in Connecticut over Memorial Day weekend.  Jackson just loved being played with all the time, and getting to play with new toys!!  Unfortunately, most of the pictures are on my mom's camera, so we'll post about that later.

Yesterday after Jackson's doctor's appointment we got the go ahead to start rice cereal!  Last night was our first experience, and it was really fun!  Here is a video of the first few bites, and then some pictures from after that.

Trying to pull his bib off before we even started!

 

All done!

Jackson is turning into such a fun baby, and we love interacting with him.  His smiles always brighten our day, even when he wakes up early from his naps and gives us big smiles as we try to get him back to sleep.  Here are some fun 4 month pictures!