Maxsmom » Sleep Patterns

Sam is a big girl and her crib and feeding herself

Rachel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:31:28 +0000

My little girl is officially sleeping in her crib. I am amazed that my little girl made the transition so well. I had kept her sleeping in her swing for the entire summer that we were away because I just did not feel she was ready. She would cry and cry in her crib but when we returned home to her beautiful room with her big white crib, she cried just a little and then fell asleep. I am also amazed because she is teething and still she was able to get to sleep. She woke up twice during the first night but went back to sleep and last night I did give her a bottle because I knew her teeth must have been hurting her-you know that cry that just sounds like something is wrong. I am giving her tylenol right now and Belladonna, a homeopathic remedy for teething.

So she is growing up so fast. She is crawling everywhere and she is damn fast too.

The other day I realized that maybe Sam would prefer eating food by feeding herself. First I bought a food that Max loves, plum and banana and brown rice. So I tried giving her the food-she refused then I gave her the spoon in her hand and she opened her mouth and ate all the food. WOW! Then she ate more and more. Then today she ate more and some yogurt mixed in with the food. WOW. My little girl is growing up.

As for Max, he is still sleeping with one of us. My mom made some comment about how it may be a good idea to get him in his own bed but there is a huge part of me that feels that Max needs the security of sleeping with one of us. At first I felt she was right but then after talking with some friends and my husband, I feel different. One of the things I have always done is listened to my children and well I am listening. Max needs to sleep with one of us or both of us. I am confident he will still grow up to be an independent boy/man.

Loving the NO NAP

Rachel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:16:15 +0000

One of my biggest anxieties with having two kids was timing the damn nap. Max was never a great sleeper so nap meant laying down with him until he went to sleep or driving in the car and letting him sleep in our driveway in his car seat. So when Sam arrived he got better but it still meant lying down with him. Some days it would work and others it would not. I know I am not alone because tons of my friends had the same situation. I just never felt comfortable letting Sam cry in a swing while I was laying down with Max.

But now Max is rarely napping and I love it. It takes all of 2 minutes for him to fall asleep at night and so by 7 pm the night is mine. Sam sleeps for about 40 mins in the am and about 1.5 to 2.5 hours in the afternoon but typically 2 hours. I just feel so much less stress around this issue.

Sometimes Max is so tired and I let him nap for about 40 minutes but that means he goes to sleep by 7 30pm so the NO NAP actually gives him a better night sleep and he is more rested then when he naps and sleeps at night. I also noticed that it gives me time with my husband. Since my kids get up early, I was always tired by the time my husband got him down but now we hang out and chat and then I either watch my own shows or go to bed.

It feels so good just to have it figured out for today but of course of motherhood has taught me anything-this too will change!! hahahahaha

A sleep question..

Rachel — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:40:00 +0000

So Samantha is sleeping through the night except for an the occasional waking because of teething or tummy. She wakes up early in the am and either sleeps in the running stroller or around 8:30 am and then she goes back for a nap around 1:30 pm. She is ready to go down by 6:30 or 7 pm, which is great because then I or my husband can get Max down easily and have a night to ourselves to unwind.

BUT she sometimes wakes anywhere between 5 am and 6 am. I can deal with 5:30 even but 5 am is tough for me. I guess I wanted to know if you let your baby stay in their room even if they are crying. I feel at this point she has had a good night sleep. Should I delay bed but the that means letting her an afternoon nap and then bed time is later? Am I trying to have it both ways meaning early bed and late wake up? Should I just keep my mouth shut? LOL

I don’t mind getting up early but 5 am is a little too early for me. I just hate the thought of her crying in her room after sleeping good through the night but I am still curious on what people have done in this situation. When do you put your children to sleep and when do they wake up and what is your nap schedule like?

Just some updates

Rachel — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:40:39 +0000

I feel like the kids are growing daily. It amazes me that we came to the beach with a small little baby and now she looks like a plump little girl. She pulled herself up the other day and I am anxiously awaiting for it to happen again. She wants to crawl so bad. I guess I should cherish the moments before crawling because once that happens all the gates need to be closed and she needs to be watched constantly.

I am enjoying the beach a lot but I do miss my friends and our routine at home. I know it sound crazy. I LOVE the beach and I am having such a great time as a family but some days I just miss the known.

The hubby and I really needed this or I really needed this. I needed to remember why I fell in love with him. We have been laughing and hanging out and smooching-all things that had not happened a lot in the past 7 months. I just did not have any energy at night after the kids went to sleep and basically I just wanted to be alone. So it has been great. We have date night every Tuesday night.

Max’s allergies are better. I am finally realizing what works and what does not. Basically he eats a very plain whole food diet which consists of beef, veal, lamb, rice, fruits, veggies and well that is about it. I have been experimenting making ice cream for him. It is tough but it is tougher when he has rashes on his face and genital, tantrums, and stops talking. I always know when he has a slight reaction because his mood changes instantly. Today I am making vanilla ice cream, I will let you know how it goes. I made banana but he did not like the texture so I am sticking with basic vanilla.

Sam is doing great. She is back to sleeping through the night. She sleeps 6:45 pm to 6 or 6:30 am. Not bad. She still refuses to eat and I am trusting her body. I am convinced that if I would have delayed Max’s food then maybe he wold have less allergies. her body just can’t tolerate food. Everything I give her, she has a reaction so for now, just formula.

Max’s speech is so good. he is adding words daily and it is so funny to hear what is on his mind. We are so proud of him. I know the food is directly related to his speech. Thank goodness we realized this.

We had family and then friends for an entire week and i think it was a lot for me. We had a great time with my folks, then my MIL, then friends from Europe but at the end I felt like I was empty. I think it was just having everyone back to back. I was kind of bitchy the last few days and I think I just need a really good run or some quiet time for myself. We have friends coming again this weekend but it is our acupuncturist, also godmother to our kids and her family, and she is bringing needles. YEAH I am going to have acupuncture. I am so damn excited. So next time I will not plan everyone back to back and do a better job taking care of myself.

We made it! We are at the beach!

Rachel — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:52:27 +0000

So we arrived Monday. It was a little crazy getting here but we arrived. The house is so beautiful. I love it. The kitchen is white and the house is an open layout and we are just a walk to the bay or the beach.

Just in the past 2 days Sam has rolled over from her back to front and I swear is eating pizza late at night cause she looks huge. Max has a crew cut for the summer and not because I chose that. Max had his hair cut the other day and my sitter took him and he cried endlessly and so the cut was not so good so I thought the hubby should shave it since ALL boys know how to cut hair.WRONG!! not my hubby so he shaved a test run from front to back-GO FIGURE. I cursed, he yelled, I cursed, he cursed and I cried. I took Max, who was screaming bloody murder to the kid barber for an emergency shave. I had to hold him down in a wrestling move but he actually looks adorable. Yeah he is that kid that screams with snot coming out of his nose and mouth.

Regardless we made it but I did not lock the front door. yes you heard me. It was not locked because my mom had come over and I guess she just closed the door and I never checked it so our alarm went off last night because it just opened with the rains and the wind. I was amazed that the hubby was so sweet and understanding. He is generally very calm with that stuff but come on the front door. he just said that we all make mistakes and it was a crazy day. What a sweetie.

So Sam is not sleeping. I know she is teething really bad and will only sleep after a small dose of tylenol. She also will only sleep in her swing. UGH! She also does not like food at all. Could this all be teeth? I knew over the past 3 weeks that she was getting bad since she was sleeping half the night in her swing and if not, she screamed and screamed bloody murder. Daphne Goldberg, her doctor and I felt that it was more important to have her sleep that to force her to sleep in her crib but do they make swings that can hold a baby past 20 pounds. I know she is in pain and so I just dont have the heart to let her scream. I know she knows how to sleep and I know she is in discomfort. I tried giving her some homeopathy, Chamomilla 30c, and it seemed to work for a little but did not hold. I will probably call the homeopath today. Teething sucks.

But the beach is awesome and as soon as I get the camera charged I will upload some pics. We will be here for 10 weeks and already I feel relaxed.I found a local moms group that is letting me join for the summer. I am so psyched.

The Poor Second child rarely gets a good nap

Rachel — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:42:48 +0000

I am not sure how other moms have figured out how to get both kids on the same nap schedule because I an still lost. Samantha gets a good nap on days that either I have her alone or my sitter has her alone, which is 3, but the other days she is screwed. She naps for like 30 minutes in the car going somewhere and then 30 minutes in the car coming home and then she is so over tired that she does not want to go back down. She is always woken up by the toddler screaming because he is running like a mad man around the house. And I still have not mastered getting Max down for a nap when I am alone. Although, lately there have been days where I have just skipped his nap altogether and put him to sleep at 7 pm, like last night.

Let me also say that yesterday was not the day to skip a nap for either. Sam was not in a god mood and Max needed a nap so bad and I needed a break too from toddler play. We met another mom and her kids in the am and Max ran and played and he had so much fun. But he was fighting the nap and so I said, ” fine don’t take one!”. Bad mommy move. We went to get something to eat and he screamed on the floor, acted like a dog and whined the whole 10 minutes until I said, “Ok lets go!”

So Sam is sleepy, Max is sleepy and I have no patience. We had an ok rest of the day but I was so tired and so cranky myself. I yelled a lot last night and Max cried and Sam cried if she was not held. It was one of those days. But Max slept the whole night in his own room. BUT, I dont think a good night sleep is worth a day of whining with the toddler! But I also know that he is fighting the nap but he still needs one. He is almost 2 1/2 and I dont want the naps to go but since we took away the binky, he just does not settle down like he did before.

Any suggestions for my sleepy baby? Any experiences with your toddler fighting the nap? All suggestions are apprectiated.

Luckily, I passed out at 9:30 pm!

Gentle Sleep Training and BINKY BE GONE!

Rachel — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:53:35 +0000

Sam is now sleeping through the night. It took two nights of crying and then she has slept for the past 3 nights. Last night she did wake up at 4 am but I felt that anything after 4 pm is pretty much sleeping through the night. The other two nights were 7 pm to 6 am. Wow! Amazing. I barely slept those two nights because I stood by her crib rubbing her forehead and patting her swaddled tummy and sending her loving vibes. I did however let her cry 5 mins, then 10 mins and then 15 mins alone in her room. I watched the monitor like a momma bear watches her cave. I actually felt ok. I felt ok because her cries were whining cries and not blood curdling cries. I slept her half of the night in the crib then the other half in the swing. I wanted to be gentle with her and myself. Then the next night I slept her half the night in her crib and the other half in her bassinet that rocks back and forth for ten minutes before automatically shutting off. I figured what the hell..I am doing this in a gentle way. Don’t get me wrong it still sucked and I barely slept and my nerves were shot but she is now sleeping.

Since I felt so pumped about helping my little girl and of course helping myself we decided to take the binky away from Max. Well actually max had his 3 month speech and language evaluation and they said the binky had to go. Thank goodness I had just toughened up from my experience with the blood test and the sleeping stuff with Sam because I only had a mini melt down. Just the week before my friend said she took her little guy to the dentist who said her son’s teeth were shifting due to the binky etc and so she took it away but guess what I said…HELL NO I WOULD RATHER PAY FOR BRACES FOR TEN YEARS THAN TAKE IT AWAY but his speech is another thing and if it helps him then we have to do it. Apparently, the tongue must be at rest in the mouth for speech development and when a kid is sucking on the binky, well the tongue is not at rest. So we took it away yesterday am. Max was only sleeping with it but I was so scared it would screw up sleep, which has never been easy with Max. But he did nap yesterday with ease and slept last night fine and had a rough time this nap today but he finally passed out. Wow! I actually think I am growing up as a mom. We told him we lost the binky’s and we could not get anymore.

I will keep you posted on both situations. Hopefully all goes well.

Aren’t they adorable? I am so happy it is warm outside so we can play.

I can handle the tears..finally..

Rachel — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:25:09 +0000

So I can finally handle the tears. I have out off a blood test for Max for 1 1/2 years and finally we did it. We got a blood test today that will show us what foods he is allergic to. The test is amazing and they test so many different foods, not just the basic ones. Most allergy tests just test whether you are allergic but they do not test sensitivities and this one does. Scott held down Max’s chest and arm and I held down the legs and we were able to draw almost 2 viles. I shed a few tears myself in the hall and then I pulled myself together and stood strong for my son. Max was great. He screamed and fought but in the end we got it done.

As for Miss Samantha, we have decided to do a gentle method for helping her to get back to sleep. At this point it is just habit because she was waking the past month due to being uncomfortable but now it is just habit. So last night I did not give her a bottle during the night when she woke up and she was not happy. She did not want to be held or have her binky-she just wanted her bottle but I did not give it to her. She cried on and off for about 1 1/2 hours and finally went to sleep and did not wake again. She used to sleep great and I know she can do it. Max was a different kid and still is. Max, even in the hospital, wanted to sleep with me but not Sam..she wanted her own space.

This morning as I saw her look up at me with her big beautiful blue eyes and loving me so much..I knew that she was ok. I really struggled with doing this because I felt that a parent should be there at any time of the day for their child but I see now that it is good to help your child self soothe. No matter what, Max had such bad ear infections that this was never possible anyway and we did actually have him sleeping in his crib almost through the night when he was 10 months old but then the ears got really bad.

So with all that said, I am so tired. I barely slept. Max had a really bad night and woke me up at 5 am after I had only slept a few hours but in the long run this will be good. I guess we are doing a very gentle method-one that involves Sam knowing that I am there but also knowing that she needs to put herself to sleep. We will see..

The little girl and her crib

Rachel — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:27:01 +0000

Well as much as my kids look alike they are so different. Samantha never wanted to sleep in the same bed with me but we do co share a room. I feel like it has given us a strong bond without the actual sleeping next to each other. Also my little girl knows how to self soothe and out herself to sleep. She also sleeps through the night. She is a different baby. She has been sleeping in a bassinet in a room with me and I just yesterday started napping her crib. She loves it! She gets swaddled and I push her up against the crib bumper and she is asleep instantly. Her nap times have been 8:30/9 she goes down and then again at 12 pm and then again around 3 pm. It amazes me to actually have a routine for sleep that works.

I think I may put her in her own room in another month. I do enjoy hearing her move around and make little noises and I do enjoy not being a slave to the monitor but I also know that she needs to learn to sleep there. However, this little one really will sleep anywhere. When we are away she has slept in her stroller bassinet and slept the same schedule.

I guess I paid my dues with Max and his sleeping. Although we just started putting calcium/magnesium in his bottle and 5HTP to relax him at night. Our nutritionist recommended these supplements for his sleep. So we will see. It would amaze me to actually be in bed with my husband again. hahahahaha But for now, this works for us and every family is different. I love that we found what works.

Samantha is a sleeper!

Rachel — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:10:43 +0000

Samantha is such a good sleeper that I am not even scared to JINX myself. Samantha has been sleeping off and on through the night since she was 5 weeks old and even then only woke up once to feed and then back down right away. If you hate me for this well please read about my struggles with my son, Max, who still sleeps in a bed with my husband. Max was a wake every two hours kind of baby and sometimes he would wake for a party in the middler of the night. He also struggles with food allergies and ear aches which caused him so much pain that he slept with us until he was 16 months and then I moved him to his room where I eventually slept with him (survival). Luckily Max always went down in his own bed but then we went through a horrible period where he would go down and wake up right away. It was bad. Luckily he was such an adorable kid and luckily it was my first because I knew no different. I guess you just deal.

Back to Samantha. She is amazing. She feeds, burps and then I put on one of those swaddle blanket type of things and then swaddle her again with a blanket and she is ready for sleep. I put gripe water in her mouth and a drop of KIDS RESCUE REMEDY and she is off in dream land. Typically I put her down with her eyes wide open hoping that she will learn how to self sooth (something Max never learned). But she also is a different kid. I tried bed sharing but she wanted to sleep on her own. So now we co-sleep and share the same room. She sleeps in a bassinet and I sleep in a bed. It wrks because it makes me feel like she knows I am there. I am no sure when I will move her to her crib-probably soon-in the next month or so.

But for now, My Samantha loves her sleep and so does her Momma!