Tag: sleep

Leah’s Three Month Update – Our Little Chatterbox

I feel like when I posted Leah’s two month update we were in one of those not-so-fun stages…sleep was hit or miss, I was still trying to regulate my painful oversupply of breastmilk and we were all getting used to our new schedule with Brooke in school.

Now though, it seems that we’ve gotten into a pretty good groove with Miss Leah.

Size: There hasn’t been too much change there as far as clothes go. She’s still in 3-6 months primarily and everything fits just right. At her two month well check, she was 14lbs, 7.5oz and I haven’t gotten on the scale with her lately. I’d like to give measuring her length a shot too. I’ve gone up the next rise on her diapers and they seem much comfier(let’s say that’s a word!) on her.

Eating: I’m so happy to say this is still going well. I was very nervous the first day of daycare because up to that point she had still been refusing bottles. Her teacher worked with her and by the second feeding she was an old pro! I visit the Mother’s Room three times a day to pump milk for her and so far, I seem to be able to get enough for her every day. I’m very hopeful that I’ll be able to keep up with that as time goes on!

Sleeping: Leah’s sleeping habits became much more manageable a few weeks ago. She would take a long nap in the morning or sometimes two short ones. With the activity in the afternoon of picking up Brooke from school and then dinner, she wouldn’t always get a nap in before it was time for bed. She gave up her tendency to take 2-3 hours to settle down to bed which I greatly appreciate!!

Now that she’s in daycare, she doesn’t seem to sleep much during the day and luckily that hasn’t affected her night sleeping. We put her in the swing in the dining room while we eat dinner and often, she’ll fall asleep there and I’ll have to wake her up around 8:30 to go to bed. Then I’ll wake her up around 7am to get ready to go to daycare. We don’t see her awake much which makes Momma sad but its what she needs right now so we’ll keep following her lead.

Personality: Its so funny to think that when she was first born Leah was such a grumpy gus because now she’s so happy and easy-going. It’s not hard to get a smile out of this girl!! Her daycare teachers gush every day about what a sweet, happy baby she is. She can still pack a wallop with that noggin of hers when she gets mad enough but generally she’s content and ready to play!!

Milestones:
Babble, Babble – My, oh my, can this girl talk!! Lately when she wakes up in the morning, she doesn’t cry but will starting chatting away in her crib. Let me tell you, that is a much more pleasant way to wake up than a wailing baby!! Daddy is her favorite conversation buddy and she’ll give him an earful!!

Daycare – Mid September meant me going back to work and Leah starting daycare. She’s adjusted beautifully to the new schedule. Her teachers love her, she’s never once fussed as I leave and I get happy reports every day that she loved certain songs, watching bubbles, looking in the mirror. The smooth transition has made going back to work sooo much easier!!

Sister, Sister – One of my favorite things about going from one kiddo to two is watching the relationship evolve between Leah & Brooke. One of my favorite parts of the day is when Leah & I pick up Brooke from her after school program. Leah gets a huge smile when she sees Brooke and watches her most of the car ride home. One of Leah’s favorite things seems to be when Brooke spells her name to her. Sounds weird but its adorable. Brooke loves on her sister pretty much whenever she can and gets super bummed when Leah’s asleep at her bedtime and she can’t give her a hug and kiss goodnight.

Going from month 2 to 3 seemed full of subtle changes but its still amazing to see Leah grow up before our eyes.

Get caught up on Leah’s monthly updates:
Month 1
Month 2

Sleep, Interrupted

I don’t think I can remember a night in the past couple months that I’ve laid my head down on my pillow for night-night and slept until my alarm goes off.

It started when Keith began having trouble with waking at night and getting back to sleep. Once he’s awake, my admittedly-annoying sleep noises kept him from falling back to sleep. Cue tossing, turning and the eventual descent to the couch which jostles me awake.

Then there are the mornings he gets up to go to the gym at 5:30am. He’s typically pretty good at being quiet but the Rick Flair “WOOOOO” that he uses as his alarm gets me every time.

At least SOMEONE's sleeping

On top of all that, Brooke has started waking at night for various things. Sometimes its “night dreams”, sometimes she thinks she’s had an accident (she wears overnight training pants to bed) and the one I’m most confused by…”Mommy!!! I sleep two ti-imes!!!” I have no clue what that even means. My best guess is she woke up, went back to sleep and so therefore can get up now.

Luckily, she tends to go back down quickly with a little re-tuck, kiss on the check and yet another reminder that we stay quiet until her clock turns green.

So as it always tends to work out for Mommy, everyone else’s sleep issues become her sleep issues.

Even though the organizers at our regional Sales Conference keep us very busy and we don’t get to sleep a whole lot, I’m looking forward to my upcoming trip to Arizona so that I can sleep in a big King bed with no one to wake me!!

A girl can dream, right? If only I could sleep to dream…..

How to sleep in with a toddler

Pretty crazy claim, right? Well this is working for us!!
Brooke has gone through all kinds of stages of sleep in her short 2.25 years on this planet.  She was a great sleeper as a newborn, had some struggles around 8-9 month mark, just about the time things got better from that round, we started again with the multiple wake-ups every night.  Finally, we have found something that works but we still had occasional 5-5:30 wake up calls.  So we were super happy when Santa left this under our tree:
American Innovative Teach Me Time! Talking Alarm Clock and Nightlight* is a night light, teaching clock, alarm clock and just might be the best thing EVER!!! Basically, we set the night light to come at a certain time (for us, 7:30pm). When it does, it shines yellow. We also set a time for it to change to a green light (6:40am on weekdays, 7:00am on weekends). At bedtime, we remind Brooke that its not time to get up until the light is green. It took about two nights for her to really get it but now we are woken up by the sounds of Brooke calling “It’s Geeen, Mommy!! It’s Geeen!!”
Brooke even asked me to use it at naptime and, while its sometimes annoying to program it at both nap & bedtimes, it works so well it would be silly of to not. Its been a great tool to enforce a two hour quiet/nap time every afternoon.
So if you’ve been frustrated by early morning wake-ups or kiddos who have trouble staying down for their naps, I would highly recommend this clock. No one asked me to write about it – I just feel like it would be wrong of me not to share it!!!
*affiliate link