Thursday, February 23, 2012

Need Support (And Sleep)

I mentioned in my last post that Wyatt had been having some sleep issues. Well, unfortunately things have only gotten wose in the last month. We are currently stuck in a vicious cycle of super early bedtime (5:30pm), nightwakings, early wakeups (often before 6am), and crummy naps. He definitely is not getting the amount of sleep each day that he should, and has gradually racked up quite a bit of sleep debt.

So I'm asking all mommies out there for help. If you've ever gone through this with your baby (whether all of the above or just a few issues), I would love to get your advice! It's causing me a lot of stress and anxiety, and I fear that I am just making things worse for Wyatt by trying so many different approaches.

If anyone has any insight to offer as to how to pick up the pieces with this, PLEASE email me or post a comment! I would greatly appreciate it!

Love,
Ashley

Monday, February 6, 2012

5 Months!

Wow, I've really been slacking on the blogging! I can't believe it's been exactly a month since my last post, and Wyatt is 5 months old already. It seems like January went by so quickly. We've been lucky to have a very mild winter this year, and I'm hoping that will be the case for the rest of the season. Wyatt still has yet to see his first real snowfall. And to be honest, I wouldn't be heartbroken if he didn't see one until next year!

So what's new with our Wy Guy? He's currently working on mastering rolling over from back to tummy. He practices this in his crib, bouncer seat, and on the floor. Keith witnessed his first actual roll (well, sort of) the other morning. Wyatt was on his back playing while Keith was making breakfast. When he turned around again Wyatt was on his arms. He hasn't done this since, but he often gets soooo close. Just needs some more practice I suppose!

This past month we've encountered some sleep issues with Wyatt. Prior to that he's slept very well at night, sleeping from about 9pm-5:30am, up for a feeding, then back to sleep until 8 or 8:30am. During the day he would take 4 or so catnaps of 30-45 minutes at a time. I never thought twice about it until it started to affect his nighttime sleep. Suddenly he started waking every 30 minutes or so after being put to bed, and would do this for the first two hours or so. Then he would randomly wake throughout the night. And his naps continued to be quite short. As a result, we've had a baby who progressively gets fussier as the day wears on. So we've done some tweaking to his schedule and have tried to help him to fall asleep and stay asleep on his own. We've been putting him to bed very early (5:30pm) in an attempt to get him caught up on sleep. He's been getting much better at falling asleep with little to no fussing, and staying asleep throughout the night. We're hoping his naps will get better as his nighttime sleep improves.

We've also begun introducing Wyatt to formula. I've been starting to wean on the pumping, and am hoping to be done with it soon. We've been doing it slowly, adding an ounce at a time to his bottles. So far he seems to be taking it well, though he has been spitting up a bit more than he used to (not sure if it's the formula or bigger bottles he's been getting). We plan on introducing rice cereal in the next few weeks as well. I can't believe we're already to that point. Our baby is growing up!

Here are some recent pics of our 5 month old:









Love,
Ashley