Working on our Finger Foods!!

The Destruction Continues

Sam continues to love his walker and the destruction in his wake is only growing!  From toilet paper to opening cupboards and magazines and books on coffee tables, Sam is finding ways to leave his mark!  I can only imagine the increase in mayhem when he is crawling and walking.

Speaking of crawling, Sam is not making huge strides in this area.  He loves to sit and rotate in circles on his butt, and will reach out for items and be on one knee, but he's not getting the crawling position!  For awhile he was face-planting a fair amount on soft surfaces, but if he EVER is on his tummy or ends up there, he cries and puts his head down, or rolls over.  He has been trying to pull himself up - he actually pulled himself up to standing in his crib, but it feels we are still a ways out from mobility!

Sam and his cousins

Braden and Samuel hanging out

Tough love - night Two

Tough Love... Night two - attempting to get Sam to sleep through the night. 

Well, I think we are seeing success!  Night two we put Sam down at 7:30 after a full bottle and he woke up once - a few cries - found his paci and back to sleep until 5:15am - yes, that's 10 hours!  I made the rule to start that any wake up past 5am, I would get him a small bottle and feed him - after the bottle this am, he went back to sleep and was still sleeping at 7am.

I'm not waving the flag of complete success yet... I know it can all be disrupted by growth spurts and off nights, but to stop consistently getting up two times a night for bottles is way overdue!

Way to go SAM!

Happy boy!! Pictures from Daycare

Time for some Tough Love

Well, we have been all talk up to this point, but mom got the wild hair to stop putting off the night weaning and get it done!  For the last month or so, dad and mom take every other night to wake up and feed Sam when he cries - usually at around 11pm and 3 to 4am - it is getting old, to put it mildly.  Sam is nearing 9 months and is certainly not underweight or starving - I think the problem is mom teaching him that if he wakes up and cries, mom will give him a bottle! 

So, before bed, I read a few blogs and chapters in BabyWise to pump myself up and remind myself that many people train their babies to sleep 11 to 12 hours at 3 to 4 months of age...... !!!  And to remind myself that Sam DOES not need to eat all night! :)  He really doesn't need the two extra meals anyway.....

Sam went to bed at 7:30 and only drank about 3oz but no excuses for later.  He woke up at 11pm and was mad.... screamed and cried for one hour and then went back to sleep (an hour is eternity when a baby is crying :( ).  He then woke up at 3am and cried for 30 minutes before going back to sleep.  Mom actually got up early and had a bottle ready for when he woke up so she could hold and feed him - he finally woke up at 6:30am, happy as a clam, and downed a bottle of milk.  So, on to night two..... I know the books say it can happen in a few nights and I'm hoping it does.  I'm sure my family would appreciate it as well before vacation in California!  It is so hard to listen to the crying (especially when the crib is 3 inches from your bed), but time for everyone in our house to start sleeping better!  I'm sure once he's trained to sleep through the night, we'll wonder why we didn't do it long before and I'm sure the next child will benefit from those learnings!!!

Otherwise, Sam is the happiest baby and so fun to play with.  He still loves Mr. Monks with all his heart and his favorite thing to do is cruise around the condo in his walker/scooter!  He is trying SO HARD to move and climb and we keep thinking scooting or crawling is around the corner.  He still HATES to be on his stomach but will start moving forward on his hands to reach things.