Two Kids: Day 3

It's now the third day of having 2 kids instead of 1.  Mr A has been spending lots of time with Ikaika and taking him everywhere so I've had time to bond with Koa and get feeding/sleeping/diapering established. 

Breastfeeding is absolutely no easier this time around.  In fact, I would say its been more difficult.  I already have scabs and Koa isn't as ambitious about a bottle so pumping hasn't exactly been my saving grace. 

Sleeping has been alright.  He's a 5lb midget, so he's been sleeping a ton.  I've decided that it is more important for me to sleep than it is to make sure he sleeps in a bassinet.  Therefore, he's been sleeping in bed with us at night.  I have to admit: I like the snuggling.

He fits premie diapers like a glove so I guess I have to stop making fun of my mom for buying them.  Diapering little babies like this is frustrating because they get dirty so often but they aren't "that" dirty.  It's such a little mess!  I've been able to catch a couple poops in the sink - yay EC!  He finally got rid of his sticky black newborn poo today so it's been more manageable.   

When is Baby "Ready" for a Big Bed?

Ikaika seems to be the kind of kid that, if given the freedom to do so, will let us know loud and clear when he's ready for something new.  This has been the case with eating, weaning, using the potty, and moving out of the nursery at MOPS.

Previously, I said that we were still a month or so away from trying the twin bed at night.  Last week, after going through the bedtime routine of jammies, teeth brushing and diaper change, I said to my son, "OK, time for bed".  This usually means marching into his bedroom and waiting next to the playpen.  This time however, he jumped up from the floor, trotted into his room and climbed into the twin bed.  Mr A and I stared at him, dumbfounded, as he snuggled into his pillow and waited patiently for one of us to come say prayers. 

I was honestly stunned.  For a minute I didn't know what to do.  Should I put him back in the playpen?  He's not "ready" for this, right?  Shouldn't I be the one who always knows what's best for him? It's always a little jarring when Ikaika's development is out of sync with my schedule. But, it's hard to argue with the logic involved here.  If he's getting into the bed without complaint that must mean that on some level he is ready to move on from the playpen.  At this point, arguing with him or forcing him to regress (when my goal is for him to get into the big bed eventually) would be counterproductive. 

So he's sleeping in his twin bed now.  Yesterday I packed up the playpen and stashed in under the sewing table where it waits for the new baby.

Moving Into a Big Bed

We moved to Hawaii without a crib and, despite the fact that we are having another baby, I still can't work up the justification for investing in one.  I soften the bottom of the playpen with blankets and Ikaika seems fine with it so why mess with a good thing?

But, now that the new baby's arrival is imminent, it's time for Ikaika to get the hell out of Dodge.  I need that playpen for the baby!  So, I have officially started the process of transitioning my big boy into a Big Boy Bed.

I decided to start with naps.  For the last week I have been putting him down in the bed and then using Supernanny's separation technique to encourage him to stay in it.  I sit next to him in the darkness and gradually move away.  After 5-10 minutes he is asleep (hopefully).  The real trick is not looking at, talking to, or engaging him.  That, and keeping the room sufficiently dark.  Today I left the room before he fell asleep completely and he still stayed in bed and took a good nap.  We are about a month away from attempting to go all night in the twin bed, but I consider this good progress.
 

I crept into the room towards the end of his nap and tried to capture him in all his sleeping glory, but the beeping of the camera's shutter woke him up.

He seems groggy.

And now he's up!  Yay Big Boy Bed!!!

Blackout Curtains to Help the Baby Sleep Through the Night

Although the baby has been sleeping through the night more regularly, recently he began waking up around 4am and fussing loudly before falling back asleep. I appreciated the 6 plus hours of continuous sleep (it had been months since I had enjoyed such a luxury) but was annoyed at the interruptions, especially since I read somewhere that babies are supposed to sleep upwards of 12 hours a night!

Wheres that baby and how do I get one?!

I suspected that the problem was light. Ickeys window faces the east and every morning as the sunlight crept over the top of Mauna Kea, my son would wake up to greet it. He took naps during the day without much hassle irregardless of the light situation, but I still suspected that curtains would do some good.

Im not exactly in a position to invest in the untested blackout curtain theory right now (they are about 30 bucks a panel) but I did rig up the next best thing, I hung a quilt in front of his window. It does let in some cracks of light through the top and sides, but its a whole lot darker.

Hallelujah, its 8am and the boy is still asleep! Not only has he been sleeping in longer in the morning since the quilt went up, he also has been going to bed much earlier. Long gone are the nights where we all went to bed at the same time. Now Ickey is out at 830 so Mr A and I have time to watch a movie, play cards, or do whatever before we go to sleep around 10! Its like a whole new lease on life around here.

I believe the blackout panels are a worthwhile investment (they would eliminate the light seeping in around the window and, unlike the quilt nailed to the wall, they could be opened during the day). I know that I had read this information somewhere before even giving birth so why didnt I think of this sooner? A pitch dark, quiet room is what a baby needs to get the proper amount of sleep.

I need some sleep!

Ikaikas sleep schedule sucks.

In fact, it doesnt even really exist, which is probably what sucks about it.

He consistently wakes up at least once during the night. This is usually around 330 and he doesnt even go down for good until around 11 or 12 so thats only 3-4 hours of straight sleeping! Ive tried feeding him full bottles and solid foods to "fill him up" right before bed, but that doesnt seem to make any difference. He naps great during the day. He takes a nap every two hours or so and stays down for a decent amount of time. He will even put himself down (we just plop him in the playpen and cover it with a blanket and he babbles to himself quietly and then drifts off to sleep...unlike the night where we have to pat his back and be silent for him to even consider sleeping)

His inability to sleep through the night never really bothered me until the other day I started noticing that he was sleeping through the early morning hours and (more importantly) not interested in eating during the late morning/early afternoon. So my thoughts are something along the lines of hey dude, if you are going to cut out a meal why not make it the one at 330 in the morning and save your mother some grief!

Which leads to my new plan. I still feed him around 11pm if he wakes up, mostly because Im awake anyway and its no biggie for me. Then I put him down and thats it. No food until at the VERY earliest 6am, preferably 7. Weve been trying this out for the past few nights (teething is not the ideal time for this kind of an experiment but whatever) and its gone okay. The first night he kept waking up and screaming crying and would not go back to bed and ugg...horrible. Last night he still woke up several times but it was easier to get him back to sleep. I caved at 6 and fed him just a little so he went back to sleep, woke up at 9 and was STARVING (which is what I was hoping for).

So Im optimistic that with just a little tweaking here and there, this plan will lead to a child that finally sleeps through the night (or at least a child that only eats during the day).

Pee and Sleep

A lot of people have been asking me about Ikaikas sleeping so Im going to state it for the record here.

He will usually go to sleep between 9 and 11pm. Meaning, he goes down when we go down. Now, is he going down because we are or vice versa, I do not know. I just know thats about when he knocks out. Then he will wake up anywhere around 4 to 6am and want to eat. We feed him, change him and put him back to sleep. Rare is the night when he wont go directly back to sleep once he is fed and changed. Then he stays down until between 8 and 10am.

Its not a terrible schedule. If he takes long naps during the day then he will usually be easier to put to bed at night (Granny said it best "the longer they sleep, the better they sleep"). If he doesnt nap well then things can get wild at night.

Before he was born I was pretty confident about having him on a certain schedule, convinced by the book that it was the only thing that could possibly be good for him. So am I traumatizing him now by leaving it up to chance? Will he develop major sleep issues later and will I regret not being more strict? Will I, godforbid, wonder if I should have put my own selfish needs and schedule aside for his wellbeing during his infancy?

I doubt it. And if I do end up saying later that I regret not scheduling his sleep the way the book told me to, you can just remind me that there is no possible way I could do it given my current living situation (impossible to make this place dark and I dont have a crib anyhow).

EC is becoming trickier for a multitude of reasons but mostly because Ive been lazier about it. Also, he is getting too heavy to hold over the sink for great lengths of time. He will sit on his potty seat but Ive only caught a handful (NOT literally) of doodoos or pees in the toilet since we moved here. Ive been meaning to spend an entire day diaper-free and see how it goes. Maybe tomorrow.
However, yesterday was exciting because he went swimming (screaming) at Mauna Lani and so he was naked in his carseat with a diaper under him for the ride home (he fell asleep on the way to the car and I didnt want to wake him up by putting a diaper on him). When we stopped at a gas station he woke up and was fussing so I checked him and THE DIAPER WAS DRY so I took him out and ECed him right there and he peed outside the car. It was rad.