Crib Report 2nd Edition

Samara has been sleeping in her crib for a week now. There have been bad times (oh...have they been bad!) and a couple of good nights and times we wanted to give up and go back to the old sleeping situation but we're pushing through. Last night was a doozy though.
8:15pm - last feed of the night
8:50pm - put in crib sleepy and falls asleep on her own
9:20pm - soother
9:30pm - soother
9:43pm - soother
11:45pm - soother
2:45am - feed (a record 6.5 hours from the last feed!)
3:15am - back in crib sleeping
3:20am - soother
3:30am - diaper change
3:43am - I refuse to go in there again knowing she has been fed, changed and given a soother 3 times and she still spits it out...and she soothes herself to sleep
4:45am - soother
5:10am - soother
5:30am - soother
6:00am - soother
6:30am - soother
7:00am - feed

That's a record. I am fairly certain she didn't even get up that often when she was a newborn and feeding every hour. So tonight we try something new...and let her try to soothe herself before we go in and we give her the soother once (maybe twice) and if she keeps spitting it out, then she has to try and go to sleep without it. When we went to the pediatrician earlier this week, she said that Samara is at an age where if she wants the soother, she knows how to keep it in her mouth...which is saying that maybe Sam knows what she is doing by spitting it out and getting us to keep coming back in there! So we'll see how it goes. But looking on the positive side, she only fed once in the night...if we can get her to sleep until she is hungry, she would only be getting up once a night!

Just when you think you have things figured out...

a growth spurt happens. The last 2 days, Samara has been having a growth spurt. Symptoms include increased fussiness, interrupted sleep and increased feeding. We have definitely experienced all of these. It can last anywhere between 2 and 5 days and we are hoping the worst is over. She was up MANY times last night and was pretty cranky today as a result. So was I!

12 weeks

Sam is now 12 weeks old. I know I keep saying it but I can't believe how fast time is going. She changes so much each day. Mom, who has been staying with us during the week but going home on weekends, even notices a huge difference when she comes back. Sam is making huge progress with sleeping...last night she actually fell asleep on her own! This won't happen every time but a month ago I never would've guessed it was possible.

Sam in her new hat:

Gardening gear, including new ugg boots from Nana and Grandpa Bill:

Looking oh so pretty for a shopping trip to the mall with Mommy and Nana:

Daddy and Sammy:

Sammy in the bjorn, she loves it way more than the stroller but only if she gets to face forward:

Sometimes she has too much fun and falls asleep!

Crib Report, 1st Edition

Last night I nursed Samara from 8:20 until 8:50. It took from 9 until 9:50 to get her to sleep in the crib. This isn't any different from her sleeping on the bed...so far, so good. She was then up at 10:40 for her soother. Then up at 1:15 to eat. She went straight back to sleep after that with no problem. Next waking was 3:30 for her soother. Then again at 3:40 for her soother again. We have often wondered if there is a safe way to strap a soother onto Sammy's face?! She got up to eat at 4 and then straight back to sleep and slept until 7 when she got up to eat again. So a total of 6 wakeups...3 to eat, 3 for her soother. This is a pretty regular night so the crib so far doesn't seem to have had any negative impact. Although getting up to go to her is definitely not as easy as rolling over and putting a soother in her mouth when I sleep with her! But we have our bed back. I didn't sleep very well because I wanted to make sure I could hear her if she woke up but I think as the nights go on I will sleep much better in a different room than her. I had no idea babies were such noisy sleepers and kicked around so much!

Tonight's the night...

Tonight's the night we reclaim our bed. We will put Samara in her crib to sleep for the night. Enough is enough! I'm going to set up foamies on the floor of her room just in case things get ugly though. Fingers, toes, eyes crossed that things go well!

!

Samara successfully took her first nap in her crib today and not Mommy and Daddy's bed!

11 weeks

Sammy is about 13 pounds now and growing steadily. She is getting lovelier every day!Over the past 2.5 months, we have finally settled on an interesting sleeping arrangement. Sam will not sleep alone so she sleeps in our bed. But having both Shawn and I in there along with Sam is too crowded, especially when we have to be so careful that no covers go on her face, nobody rolls over on her, etc. So during the week, I sleep in our bed with her and Shawn sleeps in the spare bed downstairs. This way he gets a full night sleep so that he can function at work. Come the weekend, it's his turn to sleep with Sammy upstairs and I get to sleep downstairs. Those nights he feeds her bottles so I can sleep uninterrupted. It's not the best arrangement but it's working well for us...after trying many different scenarios, this one gets all 3 of us the most sleep possible. There will come a time when we have to reclaim our bed and we fully understand it's not going to be pretty! We thought we would wait until Sammy is sleeping well and her getting up in the middle of the night is on a fairly regular schedule. Then we'll start the process of transitioning her to her crib in her room. Also, Samara slept from 9 until 1 last night, drank 4 oz from the bottle from Shawn, then slept until 5, had another 4 oz and then got up at 8 for the day. PROGRESS! Also, I switched diapers and I've had no blowouts. More progress! In 2 days, I had 5 blowouts that required complete outfit changes so I figured it had more to do with the diapers than her!

Parenting Blahs

I met the ladies of my prenatal group for a walk in Confederation Park. To make a lovely walk even better, Samara had one of those disaster blowouts. I had her in the baby bjorn and poop went all over that, pretty much from head to toe on her, over her dress, little shorts, everywhere. A complete disaster. And to clean her off, I had to undress her completely, get poop all over the change pad...it was such a mess. She was screaming bloody murder the entire time because she absolutely hates to be naked. After cleaning up the mess and changing her into a spare outfit (thank goodness I had the foresight to make an extra!), she still wouldn't calm down and was almost making herself sick from crying so hard. So I decided to call it a day and we drove home, her screaming the entire way. Depressing morning! And people wonder why we don't travel long distances...this is what happens for a 1 hour walk in the park that is a 15 minute drive away!

10 weeks

Sam is smiling all the time now and laughing with (at?) us. She loves when we make faces and stick our tongues out at her and she even tries to copy us. She is getting so much stronger, she can hold her head up really well and is about 50% on the way to turning over.

Sammy in the cute hoodie that Grandpa Bill bought:

I had some kind of stomach bug a few days this week but luckily Mom is here for the month of July helping us out. She is working from the Calgary Telus office. We are so grateful to have people in our lives that make things easier for us. Thanks also to Bill for lending her to us!

I have been going a little stir crazy lately from being cooped up in the house. Saturday morning, Shawn and I were saying how much we missed being in the mountains. So, a spur of the moment decision was made and we planned a little day trip. I fed Samara while Shawn packed snacks, diaper bag, hiking boots, etc. We were unsure how Sam would do but we thought if nothing else, we would get a nice drive. We drove to the Grassi Lakes trailhead which is just outside of Canmore. Sam ended up sleeping most of the way. I fed her as we headed out. It was a short hike, 1.5 hours return, but a really good one for the first of the season...and not too hard since I already had a 12 pound baby strapped to my chest! Sam did great. She only fussed when we stopped for a break...she keeps Mommy in shape! After a quick diaper change we were on our way home and she dozed off and on. This is not normal Sammy behavior but we will take it!

9 weeks

Samara is 9 weeks old...she has lost that newborn look and now is looking like a baby girl! We just can't believe how quickly she changes. We are still struggling with sleep issues. She does not like to sleep...whether at night or naps during the day. It is exhausting and very frustrating. Putting her down to sleep involves much screaming and tears every time and makes a person dread naptime! Once she finally tires herself out, she only sleeps 30 minutes or so at a time. We are all worn out and our doctor has run out of suggestions. She has referred us to a pediatrician because by this point Sam should be sleeping better and is not waking to eat which is the most common problem. We see the pediatrician at the end of the month so hopefully we can all last until then!

Sammy is smiling often now and we even got our first laugh this week!