Twinkling stars and incy spiders

There have been a lot of "Twinkle twinkle little star" and "Incy wincy spider" these past few weeks - all through the night! It really is exhausting. I am slowly (or maybe not so slowly) loosing my mind.
I've stopped giving him solids for a few days now because he has been super gassy (boy does he do some stinkers), and some of his night wakings appear as though he is uncomfortable. we've given him paracetamol and that has helped somewhat. But in general he is still waking a number of times during the night; at least 3 times for his feeds, and then some other random number of times.

We've booked in to see a pediatrician next week. Hopefully she has some answers. We need some reprieve!

Things that make you go yum...

What a fun week it has been with starting Kien on eating solids...if you call a bit of rice cereal and some mashed banana solid food. He seems to really enjoying it though, and I count it as playtime rather than eating time. Other things he likes to munch on are his hands, feet, the dangling cow, duvet edge, and the ears/paws of his lovey. I'm looking forward to giving him some stewed apple today.

Here is a video of Kien having his first meal. He has gummed some banana a few days prior but this is the first time I mixed up some rice cereal and actually fed it to him as an event.

The "magic" number at the moment is 2 hours 17 minutes. If I get my timing right and from eyes open to eyes closed hits exactly 2h17 Kien will give me a long nap. Amazingly enough I've managed to get it on the dot 6 times in the last 3 days - now that's a record!

But just to make sure we are kept on our toes he has decided 4:30am is the new wakeup time. Yesterday after he screamed the place down for what seemed like an eternity Jef got him up, and we all watched the final space shuttle Atlantis launch.

We've also been experiencing a number of night wakings; last night it was 4 times, plus 3 times for feeds. It is a bit rough when he is waking so often. I have read that around this age there is a major growth spurt, and also the beginning of the teething process, so things are moving under the gums and making it uncomfortable.

The IR camera broke last night :-0 so I am flying blind today. I am so reliant on technology it's ridiculous!

My first Mothers' day

I've slept maybe 7 hours (give and take a few awakenings from hearing Kien cry) and feel pretty good. I've been very productive, and my son has managed a 1h23 nap all by himself - this makes me very happy! I am so grateful that Jef looked after Kien last night to give me some sleep. Kien had his second lot of vaccinations on Friday, and he has been grizzly. He woke up a few times during the night and needed help to resettle.

Today Kien is back to being the happy smiling little boy. He must have known it was Mothers day :-) His dad is now at the Viaduct for the NZ rally celebrations.

Mum and Rod came over on Friday, and we all went up the road to Ponsonby for lunch - a little Japanese place called Zipangu. It was very nice to have them over and for all of us to go out somewhere. This will definitely be a more regular occurrence.

Kien can now roll back and forth from his back onto his tummy very well. We also discovered that he doesn't like looking at himself in the mirror when he is grumpy.

Baby whispering vacation

Just when I think I've cracked it we regress. Its been a week of short naps, night wakings and refusal of milk. I've read that at 4 months there is quite a bit of developmental changes, and short naps are notorious. Wow, I had a luxurious 2 weeks where I only needed to give him 3 naps (most of the time), and now I'm back to 5 nap days. Not that I was great at fixing his wonky nap days before, but now it seems impossible - and he is cranky only half way through his awake time.

I sought advice from the Baby Whisperer forum, and they suggested I take a baby whispering vacation for a couple of days; to recharge my batteries and to hopefully hit the reset button for Kien. He is probably in an over tired cycle, so he needs to have some decent naps to catch up. They said to do whatever it takes to give him those long naps. Unfortunately the only way he will have a long sleep is if I hold him in my arms and rock him - even then it doesn't always work. So this weekend I have been doing just that, and now my arms are aching already. He is only 5.48kg (weighed on Monday when we went to the solids talk at Plunket family room).

Last night we went to Linda's birthday dinner. It was great fun! Michelle came over to watch him. Michelle, I thought these parts of your notes pretty much sums up what he is like; "...Attempted to re-wrap him and rock him to sleep, he screamed and thrashed and arched his back. We watched tv in the dark while he giggled and blew bubbles. He started to rub his eyes and grizzle and yawn. Put him in bed, he smiled(!!!) then quietly and promptly drifted off".

Kien loves his daddy so much, as evidenced in the pics I post on this blog.

Sweet 16 & been kissed lots

This is Kien's 17th week in the world. As each week passes we notice new things he can do. Since last week he started shifting his weight back and forth when held on his feet. Last week he also went 6 1/2 hours between his dreamfeed and the next feed (the very first time ever). He did however wake up in between that time, but he did self settle back to sleep.

Managing naps are still interesting. His awake time tolerance is stretching out; I am transitioning him from 90 minutes to 105 minutes. It really is a juggling act to make sure he wakes, feeds, burps, has a clean nappy, plays, winds down, and falls asleep all within the allotted timeframe. If I get the timing just right I will get a longer nap from him, but it does mean watching the clock like a hawk and hoping he will fall asleep within the budgeted 15 minute window from the time I put him into his cot. Yes it sounds ridiculous, but it is the only method I know when dealing with a short napper.

We went to visit my parents today. Kien was tired (since he only had 2x 30 minute naps in the morning), but he still managed to give them lots of smiles.

When we got home he went straight to bed, and proceeded to wail; after he had 165 mls he looked like he wanted more, and he was also half asleep. As soon as I put the next bottle into his mouth he was wide awake, and only sucked down another 15 mls. Then he kept smiling at me so I left him in his cot for 30 minutes babbling and laughing to himself. We then got him up and played for 20 minutes before trying for another nap. I finally had to rock him to sleep; after > 3 hrs of being awake all sleep training methodology goes out the window and I do whatever it takes to get him to sleep. So I'm still here sitting next to his cot over 2 hours later, transitioning him through every 20-30 minute jolt (when babies are over tired they wake up at these jolts and can't get back to sleep). At least it gives me time to write my blog :-)

This is a cute little clip. Notice how right at the end he just stops - that is why I have to clock watch, because when he switches off like that he should be in bed. For most babies this is one of their sleepy cues and there is a 5-10 minute window to get them into bed, but for Kien it means the window is closed. I put him straight to bed, and he napped for 30 minutes.

What a difference

I can't believe it - last night Kien went to bed without a squeak. He had his bath, massage and bottle as usual, and then I wrapped him up and placed him in his cot. At this point he would be crying, but last night he just burrowed his face into his lovey, and I gave him a kiss and left the room. That was it! He stirred at 11:30pm and I gave him his dreamfeed, and again at 2:51am for another feed. He slept through until 6am, and I thought he might go back to sleep again so left him in his cot until 6:30am babbling and laughing to himself. Wow is all I can say. What a difference from a week ago.

His daytime naps are still brief, but I have read that between 0-3 months is for establishing nighttime sleep and between 3-6 months they sort out their day sleeps. I do really hope he gets better at naps because right now I have to give him 4-5 naps per day to make up the cumulative hours. Most babies at his age are having two 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps and a catnap (30 mins) in the late afternoon. Kien is still only sleeping 30-45 minutes at a time, and I can't seem to transition him anymore. But he always wakes up from a nap and smiles at me. He is just a short napper baby :-)

Transformed

What a difference now that the pacifier is gone! The pick up/put down technique really works. Last night Kien had his dreamfeed at 22:00, and he slept through until his need feed 4 hours later. He woke himself up at 5am because his arm came out of the swaddle, so I gave him his feed after I re-wrapped him. He went back to sleep until 6:30 (his arm came out again), so I tucked it back in and he slept for another 30 minutes.

This morning he went down for his nap so well. I didn't even have to pick him up at all. I left him in his cot protesting (load moan without any tears, stops, starts again, and peters out after a few minutes). He is now fast asleep. Yesterday he actually transitioned himself into the next sleep cycle; for his last nap he did one and a half hours...he has only done that a few times since sleep training. I am so chuffed.

I've also transitioned him to a 4 hour feed cycle. Staying on the 3 hour cycle did not make much sense since he wasn't hungry enough to do a full feed, and would really struggle and fight. So now he is having between 120 - 160 mls of milk at each feed - a huge improvement.

So all round Kien has blossomed, and my life his been transformed!