Sleep tracking

What the transition from three naps to two naps looks like:



Black is always asleep, white is always awake.

At this point, eight months old, here is an ideal sleep day:
Wake up between 6 and 7 AM
First nap: 8:30 AM (2-3 hours)
Second nap: 2 PM (2 hours)
Bedtime: 8:30 PM

A few days ago Mini-Me had a short afternoon nap so she was tired and cranky by 6 PM - the kind of day where I used to do a three-nap day. Instead, I let her nurse and then catnap sitting on me while I watched some TV. It was very sweet - something I hadn't realized I'd missed. With all this sleep training and the emphasis on routine, I miss out on some of the cuddle time when Mini-Me sleeps in her crib every time.

More travel tips

I oughta start a blog just on traveling with infants! Here's the international version:

* car seats are not required in Mexico, so we left ours home and used the Ergo. The only times we were riding were back and forth to the airport and back and forth to the wedding ceremony we were attending.

* air conditioning was key to Mini-Me's comfort, especially since she still sleeps swaddled. I should have brought more plain onesies for sleeping - she sweated through everything (I mean, the PJs, the swaddling blankets, straight through to the mattress).

* heat rash is a condition that occurs when sweat glands get blocked. It looks unsightly but it's not uncomfortable for baby and it clears up quickly (12 hours after we got home in Mini-Me's case)

* in tropical climates, staying hydrated is extra important but giving the baby a lot of water can lead to electrolyte imbalance, so we gave her a lot of pear juice and breastfed more often

* baby food jars are *heavy* - my suitcase would have been overweight if I hadn't been able to offload some into my husband's luggage

* we got a little hook-on high chair which was indispensable, especially since it was so dusty and there were little mites and critters running all over the ground - nice to have a safe clean place to put the baby when we were at restaurants or hanging out at the hotel.

Mexico

The Mexico trip went very well, much better than we had expected after the difficult trip to Boston a few weeks earlier. When we arrived, we discovered that the hotel room we had reserved for Mini-Me was not air-conditioned, so we got a cheap-o Moses basket at the local Walmart and the baby slept in our room. After two hotel stays, I think the big difference was having a space near the room where we could hang out while she fell asleep. We brought the baby monitor and hung out in the little courtyard outside the room, where there was wireless and a bar. Not a bad set-up.

The most significant thing I will remember about this trip is that my husband and I had a HUGE fight about Mini-Me. It started when we were at a restaurant way past her bedtime and she was melting down. I wanted to go back to the hotel ahead of him so I could put her to bed, and he wanted to push her to stay up later so we could both stay. I got really mad about this - I am so used to working around Mini-Me's sleep schedule, and I didn't think it was fair to take advantage of her adaptability. Papa felt that if we were going to take the trouble to go all the way to Mexico for a wedding, we should participate in everything and let Mini-Me straighten out her sleep schedule when we got back (which is how the airplane flight home from Boston went so horribly awry).

It was ugly. Things were said that should have stayed unspoken. But once we cooled down, I did agree that I needed to loosen up and also that I needed to let Papa be in charge more often. I talked this over with a friend who has three kids and an awesome parenting relationship with his wife, and he likened parenting to loading the dishwasher. I knew exactly what he meant, because my husband and I have gone around on that one too - we each have our own way of loading the dishwasher, but the wine glasses get clean and stay intact both ways, so both ways must be ok.

Partly to give Papa some time with Mini-Me and partly to foster the non-mother side of my personality, I am taking a class this weekend that will go all day Saturday and Sunday. We'll see....

Taking a break

I have needed a hiatus from blogging. I have been feeling a bit one-dimensional lately - it seems all I have to talk about is baby-related and all my time goes toward caring for her or maintaining the house. I went out dancing with a friend a few weeks ago, and he introduced me to some new people who, I'm sure, thought I was the biggest bore ever. Every time I heard myself talking about Mini-Me I was screaming "Shut up! Shut up!" in my head.

To address this, the following changes:
** less TV (thank goodness Dancing with the Stars is over!)
** no blogging here for a while
** more working out to get rid of leftover pregnancy fat
** housework when the baby is awake
** time spent in past pursuits when the baby is asleep - stained glass during naptimes, dancing in the evenings sometimes when she is out for the night
** considering (although probably not) a summer school teaching position

Already after a week I feel better, more like myself. Mini-Me is also getting better at playing by herself - she can sit up now, which means she can access a whole playmat of toys with only occasional logistical problems.

Also, Mini-Me has been sleeping through the night. I mean *really* sleeping through the night, not fussing between 4 and 6 AM while I lay in bed listening to her. I put her down between 8 and 9 PM, I sneak in and feed her without waking her up right before I go to bed (usually around 11), and I don't hear from her again until sometime between 6 and 7 AM. The only exception is when she breaks out of her swaddle - then there's fussing but she eventually gets herself back to sleep. That, more than anything, has helped me to feel more like myself! I actually get to be off-duty for a long stretch of time.

Round Two?

PS - we are officially trying to get pregnant again. I had aspirations of getting back to my prepregnancy weight (and more importantly, prepregnancy shape and size) but alas, it is looking unlikely. Especially when I skip the gym instead of skipping desserts.

More Travel Tips

We just got back from Boston visiting my parents - the first part of the trip it was just Mini-Me and me at my parents house, and it worked out very well - we each had our own room, and Mini-Me slept pretty well although she did have a few cry-it-out sessions around 5 AM.

The second part of the trip was a disaster - we were staying with Papa in a hotel room and Mini-Me slept really poorly, knowing we were in the same room. She woke up more often because of the unfamiliar noises (traffic etc) and didn't get back to sleep easily. Predictably, the plane flight home was terrible. I mean, the flight attendant took Mini-Me for a little walk to the first class cabin because I was rocking in my seat with my hands over my ears. Sleep deprivation is an ugly thing.

More tips, relating to hotel stays:

** If at all possible, get a two-room suite, or two rooms next to each other (we are doing this next week in Mexico). Otherwise put the crib in a closet or the bathroom or something.

** Bring an iPod with audiobooks in case you have to turn out all the lights at 7:30 when the baby goes to bed.

** Bring a tough laundry bag for your car seat so it doesn't get banged up when it is gate checked at the airport. Or least if little plastic parts get snapped off you can find them again (*sigh*).

** Airplane sick bags are great for wrapping up outfits if your little one happens to pee all over the place while being changed. Carrying a naked baby down the aisle back to your seat is slightly embarrassing.

More sleep saga

(see earlier posting for the start of this whole mess)

Stage Seven:
Mini-Me goes back to gradually waking more and more often, until we are back to feeding 2-3 times a night and having a few crying sessions that last 10-60 minutes. We stay at a hotel in Boston and everyone sleeps poorly for three days. Something must be done.

Stage Eight:
Pediatrician insists that Mini-Me is both old enough and big enough to sleep safely through the night without being damaged. Advises me to turn off the baby monitor and don't go in at all between bedtime and 7 AM. Dr. S says the baby will be ravenous for the first few days as her metabolism adjusts so be prepared to feed her more in the first few hours of the day and watch for nap patterns shifting. I consult my therapist about my trepidation and we agree that I have tried everything else and I need to be getting more sleep if I am to be a competent caretaker.

So we tried it last night for the first time. My husband and I woke up at 4:25 this morning to the dulcet tones of her screaming and fussing. She got quiet and presumably fell asleep around 5:10. Will go in to get her at 7:00 as planned. No idea whether she was awake earlier in the night, which was kind of the point. And I got six hours of sleep! All at once!

Swaddling Trick

It seems that most books and products out there assume that babies will only be swaddled for the first few months of life, but Mini-Me is over seven months old and she still benefits from being swaddled during naps and nighttime. This has gotten to be tricky as she has gotten older and bigger and stronger. With the next baby I plan to try the Miracle Blanket, but in the meantime I have learned a trick that is the same concept and has worked like a charm.

In the words of the person who shared this gem with me:

I swaddled my baby for a while much past her houdini stage. I never used fancy blankets. What I did was this: Triangle a blanket and put the long point down, place baby with head just above straight edge. Take one pointed corner and place over baby's arm, but then lift your baby and put the rest of the pointed side under baby's back. Do the same thing with the other side. At this point it will look like your baby has arm wraps and the majority of the blanket is underneath him/her. Then take a second blanket and put it over baby's belly, and wrap it under/around your baby. you can make the arms as loose or tight as you want. Good Luck!

And the very first time I tried it, Mini-Me napped for over three hours! She hasn't gotten out of it yet, though she has kicked the bottom part of the blanket off her feet.