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| Reading a story with her Daddy |
This is a summary for Brinley's 19th week--she was 18 weeks old.
NURSING
Nursing was all the same. Nothing new to report.
SOLIDS
This week we added pears to Brinley's menu. She wasn't so sure about them at first, but she quickly liked them okay. She doesn't have the love she has for bananas, but she likes them.
NIGHT SLEEP
There were three nights toward the end of this week that Brinley woke up early. The first one, naturally, came the morning after I had stayed up late for the first time since she was born. We had friends over and I was up until about 12:30 AM. It was a Friday night and I figured I could sleep in a bit the next day. Then she was up at about 6:50. Oh babies! She just talked until we got her at about 7:10. It was so funny because it has been months since she woke earlier than 7:10--most mornings are right around 7:30.
The next morning was even earlier--right around 6:30-6:40 if I remember right. The next night was 6:50.
So of course when you have a baby start waking early, you start to analyze why. I had four theories.
Theory one was that the dreamfeed was disrupting her sleep. She had started to wake for the dreamfeed and talk to me, so I knew it was disrupting her more than was ideal. Because of that, we started leaving her swaddled for the dreamfeed.
Which leads me to theory two. Theory two is that she liked to be unswaddled for the dreamfeed so she could stretch out a bit. Maybe she wanted to be unswaddled again for the dreamfeed.
Theory three was that the heater was waking her up somehow. It had suddenly gotten much colder right when she started waking early so the heater was coming on earlier in the morning.
Theory four was that it was just some random thing. Babies are people and can randomly have some insomnia. This was my initial go-to theory until she woke early the second day. I didn't think she would have a random off day two days in a row.
Then you of course have other endless possibilities. Is she getting sick? Does she need to drop the swaddle? Is i ta wonder week issue?
Which theory was right? I believe it was theory three--the heater.
DREAMFEED
So Brinley woke early night one and we did nothing different. We decided if it was a fluke, we didn't want to do anything that might further the waking.
After the second night of Brinley waking early, we decided to go with the dreamfeed. We just dropped it cold turkey and went to bed early :) It was so sad for me. I love the little sleepy baby feedings. But if it was disrupting her sleep I obviously didn't want to keep it around just to suit my own desires.
As you might recall, the next night she woke early again, but back up to 6:50 so it was better than the night before. At the very least it told me she likely didn't need the dreamfeed anymore. We stuck with it and she continued being fine without the dreamfeed. So it is officially gone.
HEATER WAKING
We moved on to the theory that it was the heater waking her up. I had noticed this months before--she seemed to wake up in the morning shortly after the heater came on in the morning. So we set the temperature to come up at 7:30--her desired waketime.
With the colder nights, however, the heater was kicking on and she was waking shortly after. It must have just been close enough to her wake time that it disrupted her because I know it comes on a few times through the night.
I started making sure the heater did not come on and she did not wake up. I honestly have no idea what about it would wake her. It isn't blowing on her--we bought a deflector and have it blowing away from her so that isn't it. It also isn't noisy. I don't have the mystery solved.
PLAYTIME
Brinley started to love to stand this week. I decided to get out the old Jumperoo. She loved it! She couldn't stay in it for long periods becuase her muscles weren't strong enough to keep her there, but she is slowly getting stronger and able to play in it a bit longer.
I am also amazed at the strides she is making with her hand abilities. She is improving on those fine motor pincer practice. They learn so fast!
SWADDLE
I decided to try a nap with one arm unswaddled again. It took her about 20 minutes to fall asleep, compared to the 5-10 that is her norm at that time of day, but she did it! It was her first nap to fall asleep with partially unswaddled. I did it for the fourth nap of the day because it is short anyway and the least important nap in my mind. I stuck with that each day. Once she gets better at falling asleep for that nap, I will move it to the third nap as well.
CHECK UP AND VACCINATIONS
She had her four month check up this week. Everything was great. She is continuing to move higher on the growth curve. She is still small, but getting higher and higher on the curve at each visit.
She did not like her vaccinations. At all. It took her a few minutes to get her to stop crying. I did this visit later in the day. I typically like to do it after the first nap of the day so they have all day to react to vaccinations if they are going to. This time slot was all they had and I figured it would work out well so I could take older kids with me and get the flu mist for them.
Brinley did not like the initial injections, but she had no issues with the aftermath--no swelling, no fever, no disruptions to sleep. I have found if my children had a rough time with the two month shots, they don't for four months. If they didn't for two months, they do for four months.
SCHEDULE
Our schedule typically looks like this:
7:30--feed
8:35--nap
11:30--feed
12:45--nap
2:30 or 3:00--feed
3:45--nap (75 minutes later)
5:00 or 5:30--feed
6:30--nap (80 minutes after waking)
7:30--feed, then bedtime
9:45--dreamfeed--until it was dropped
RELATED POSTS/BLOG LABELS:
(affiliate link) by Tracy Hogg. A dreamfeed is simply a late feeding that starts typically between 10-11 PM. The baby is already in bed, but you go in and feed baby one last time before heading off to bed yourself. The idea here is that baby gets a feeding in just before you go to sleep. When baby starts sleeping 7-8 hours straight without eating, these 7-8 hours then fall between 10-6, giving you a good night stretch to sleep yourself.
