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Our experience with SleepEasy Solution continued

Day 5 Kai only napped for two 45 minute naps and then one 30 minute nap. I was discouraged and thought maybe the naps would take a lot longer to get down. Happily on day 6 and 7 (today) he took two good hour and 20-30 minute naps! and then one short late nap both days that I woke him up from so he wouldn't be napping too close to bedtime. Today I put him down for his last nap at 4:18, he fell asleep at 4:29 and I woke him up just before 5 so we could put him to bed around 7:30.
I am a little confused if I should try to keep bed time at exactly the same time everyday even if his naps end up running longer.

    So it's going really good. Sometimes Kai doesn't cry at all when we put him down. I am SO glad we are getting to that point. We are still working out the early morning wakings, that may have to do with night weaning. Last night we were down to two feedings- one being only two minutes long. Then he woke up at 4:40 am and was up on and off for an hour. Eventually he went back to sleep (but I didn't!) and slept another hour. I am still nursing him one time around 10 or 11. I think I am going to keep that until he starts eating more solids. Maybe I will even keep an early morning feeding if he keeps waking up so early.

     It is so great having some time to myself again. Even though I haven't really begun recovering my sleep I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Kai seems to be doing great. I don't know if it is because he is sleeping more but he is even more smiley lately and rolling over a lot more.

Here in this picture below you can see his two teeth!

**update I think that Sleep Easy solution helped us in the first step of getting Kai to sleep. I did find the weaning method too much and it just dragged out the crying process for us. I think it is a great book for the baby who is already night weaned or only eating once a night or so. I was hoping for a quick easy solution and for us it took longer and it took a sleep consultant.It also is a process that needs to be done over again after sickness or teething (if teething really bothers your baby) It's not easy. But I still think it is best to instill good sleeping habits between 4-9 months when it is easiest. It may not be the right anwser for all moms and babies but for those whose babies wake a lot it may be the only anwser.

SleepEasy Solution Day 4 and 5

Ok so yesterday was our 4th day doing the sleep learning, using the SleepEasy Solution, the exhausted parents guide to getting your child to sleep.
I wrote about our first experience with Kai sleeping over and hour (an hour and 25 minutes!) in his crib in a previous post. So the second nap went just as well.  He cried a little but went to sleep in less than ten minutes. Then he slept an hour and 25 minutes!Woohoo. I was excited.

The third nap of the day did not go so well at all though. Maybe he just wasn't tired. Either way he was not having it. At first he didn't cry he was just talking but then he started to cry, then he starting to Scra-eeemm. A horrible scream, not even a cry. I couldn't stand it at all and wondered if the neighbors were going to think I was torturing my child. I checked on him and talked to him a couple times. But he was not calming down. I figured I was only going to let him nap for a little anyways because it was close to his bedtime so I ended the nap and went and got him at the time I was going to wake him- a half hour after putting him down. The video of him laughing was just a few minutes after the nap so I guess it didn't bother him that much. (I think it took me longer to recover for sure)

 I was worried me taking him out might interfere with the process but it doesn't seem like it did. Last night the 5th night of our sleep learning he went down easily, fell asleep before we even did any check ins. He stirred a little a few times in the night but never really crying. I was glad because I had dropped one feeding and another one was down to only two minutes. This morning he woke one time about 40 minutes earlier but then went back to sleep until about 10 minutes before wake-up time and was just talking a little.

His first nap today went pretty well, it was short- only 45 minutes because he sneezed and was awake and talking after that.
I just put him down for his second nap, he did cry a little - 5 minutes and has been sleeping for a half hour so far. I will keep updating.

Update: he only slept for 45 minutes again! Boohoo. What about our success yesterday? Argh.

Kai laughing at farting sounds..

This video is from yesterday. Kai was laughing at the farting sounds his mama was making. It is a little long.. I think it was more entertaining for his mama then for him after a few minutes. Haha

SleepEasy Solution - our progress

I am doing the happy dance right now. Kai has been napping for an hour!! Woohoo! I am so excited. Maybe he is getting used to it. Today is day four of the training. Also something different we did this time was to dress him in Pjs before the nap and to put on his turtle that shines stars on the ceiling..(thanks Grandma :) you can find the turtle on amazon)

Also this morning he woke up an hour early but then went back to sleep a few times. When he was awake it was only about 15 minutes before wake up time so I ran in and turned on the turtle. SO he was content and just lying there. He was all smiles and relaxed when I came in to say good morning...

Last night (night 4) however, he woke up at 10:30 before his 11:00 dream feed and was up and crying for a long time, almost 50 minutes. I was doubting whether it would work. There may be some rough nights before we get him weaned at night (or at least down to one short feed). Also I made it worse because I thought I smelled poo so I got him out of the crib and changed his diaper which probably really woke him up. Turned out it was just farts. Oh well.

SO all though it is rough at times I am feeling better especially now that he has been napping over an hour!  I never thought it would happen, Hooray!!

Here is Kai Bodhi after eating some rice cereal. He eats twice a day now, as recommended by the GI doc. He is so interested in food and I know he is dying to try some new food but we want to wait until he is sleeping good, so we know if he is waking from stomach upset from a new food.

A beautiful Baby and a heartbreaking story

This is a necklace I purchased from a kind- hearted etsy seller Cynthia Garrett,to benefit the Cora Paige playground. When I read about Cora Paige on Etsy and then on her mom's blog I bawled my eyes out. You can follow the link, it is heartbreaking, just so you know.
I wanted the necklace to remind me of the beautiful little girl, Cora Paige and to always remind me, no matter how difficult it is being a parent at times, it is a blessing to be able to be in the presence of pure wonderful beings that babies are.

The SleepEasy Solution..will it work for us?

So here is the book we are using to try to get better sleep habits for Kai and for his exhausted mama to finally get more than two hours of sleep in a row.
Yes it is a cry it out book. Of course I was hoping to avoid crying but like I said after much research and trying different things I feel that is unrealistic for us. I even got and tried Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution. I read that before Kai was born and after, it seemed so easy. But it wasn't, not for Kai. God, how I wanted it to work. I did read about a lot of people who it did work for. I also read a couple Sears books (that I praised in an earlier post). I read and re-read his section about sleeping but nothing worked.

    Anyways after 6 months of exhaustion I knew something had to change. I felt that the things we were doing to try to help Kai to sleep were actually hindering him from getting a good nights sleep. I am not saying it is right or wrong to let a baby cry to sleep. I think possibly different things work for different children and for different parents.

    SO all that being said after reading reviews on Amazon I decided on this book. Also I go to Pump Station right here in Santa Monica a lot and this book and the authors approach is supported by the owners. Honestly I wish I wasn't so closed minded to this approach before. I wish in some ways I had done it earlier, but it wasn't really possible anyways until we addressed the reflux.
Also after I read a little about Rie, even though I don't agree with the whole philosophy necessarily, it made me think that crying is just a way of baby expressing himself.

    We started the sleep plan 3 nights ago. This is our fourth night.
In some ways it has been easier than I thought, in other ways perhaps harder.
The first night he cried for 55 minutes. We checked on him and talked to him throughout. I was expecting him to cry for at least that long. The second and third night he fell asleep in less than 10 minutes after putting him down, with just a few minutes of crying. Tonight I think he only cried for a minute and then talked a little and went to sleep. That alone is awesome and amazing...much easier than I thought. In the night he has woken here and there but just cried for like 5 seconds  or less and went back to sleep. Also great and amazing. However I am still doing 4 short dream feeds a night, slowly weaning him. Tomorrow I will drop one of the feeds the next night another. I am anxious to see if he will sleep then or wake up and cry. We will see.

    What has been harder than I thought is the early waking and the very short naps. I know the book mentions this takes longer to iron out. I wish the book had more information about these two issues. I think we are supposed to proceed the same way as if he wakes in the middle of the night- at timed intervals check in. The thing is in the morning he is not having it.. he is PISSED that we are not getting him and he screams. Not a cry, a scream and that I can't stand. Plus it is hard to hear so early in the morning. If I check in and talk to him he gets more pissed. He wakes a half hour to an hour before wake up time. The book also mentions that early morning wakings can take longer to iron out if you are in the same room, which we are.(one bedroom apartment)

     It is the same for naps. He only naps for a half hour and then wakes up and starts to scream. I am confused about what I should do, especially about the naps..will they get longer in time? Should I put him in the carrier once a day for a longer nap? or will that prolong the learning? Should I leave him in the crib longer to try to go back to sleep? The book says that naps can take a a week to 10 days to get down. But it is hard when it is three times a day! So that means he cries at the beginning of the nap and then screams at the end. It is rough. At the same time I know I have to stick with it. There is no going back to what we were doing. Today Wes put him in the carrier for the last nap because he was so cranky the whole day. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have an easy, happy baby during the day if he gets sleep. Him being cranky today from not getting enough sleep was exhausting. So when he was in the carrier he zonked out right away and stayed asleep for an hour and 15 minutes until we woke him up, so he wouldn't be napping too late in the day.
I will keep reporting our progress and picture in my mind a baby who falls asleep easily and takes good naps!

What I have noticed lately that if Kai is in a cranky mood two things sometimes help- 1.) being outside. He loves stroller rides now or just sitting outside. We are so lucky to live somewhere with great weather. 2.) hanging out in the nude. In the book about RIE by Magda Gerber, called Your Self Confident Baby, it suggest letting baby hang out naked for a little every day. I gave it a try one day and Kai loved it. So now almost every day I give him time every day to be Nakie man..

Life with a baby with silent reflux..

is not the easiest thing..Having a baby with reflux is challenging. For every baby and family it means something different. For some families it means the baby cries a lot during the day and is fussy. Others have a hard time getting the baby to eat enough. Some babies eat constantly, perhaps in an effort to soothe the pain. The latter is our situation. Having an infant with reflux has also meant very  little sleep for us. I have still been waking up every hour and a half to two hours with Kai. He is 6 months now. Needless to say I am exhausted. As we traveled through the journey of diagnosing his reflux, trying one medicine and then trying another, I have gone through many emotions.
It has all been very confusing. It took me a while to even realize that he really did have reflux because it was not your typical reflux. Instead he has more of a silent reflux. The acid is bathing is throat more than his chest. So he gets hoarse and often loses his voice.

 We went to a new doctor that is not under our insurance last week, he prescribed prevacid. I hope it is helping Kai. I really want to elaborate and write more. I have wanted to write a lot but my brain is complete mush and am down to doing as little as possible in order to make it through this time. I stopped going to Mommy and Me classes..we stopped cleaning long ago, on most days even I don't even get dressed  for the past few weeks. It has been rough..did I mention that the only way we can get him to take naps is in the carrier? So that means that we have to walk him back and forth in a room and sing a song to him the whole time he naps (well I do, Wes manages to get to the computer after he is asleep without Kai waking) The song that we sing is to the tune of 100 bottles of beer but goes like this
"Kai counts the sheep, he counts the sheep, he counts the sheep and goes to sleep, Kai counts the sheep to sleep. Sasha counts (Wes says eats) the sheep she counts the sheep. Sasha counts the sheep and goes to sleep sasha counts the sheep to sleep..123456.." it goes all the way up to one hundred and then starts again. Wes made up the song. When I sing it I am so tired I jump from 50 to 80 all over the place, I can't even keep track. And for those who don't know-babies are supposed to nap 3 hours a day at his age. That is a lot of time in the carrier. Ouch. Sometimes I manage to nurse him to sleep and pass out myself for 20 minutes..It all is very humorous if I really think about it but of course going through it feels kind of rough at times..

but I hate to write about all that because we love Kai Bodhi so much. I feel so lucky that otherwise he is so healthy and during the day when he is awake he actually is easy. He is a smiley little boy with a great sense of humor. I know we will get through this time.

I feel like I will never sleep again. But I know I will. I hope it will be soon because honestly I feel like my body can't take anymore. I have been amazed how far my body can be stretched, with the extensive sleep deprivation and the elimination diet. I never would think I could have endured that. But you do what you have to and when it is all for your baby- it is possible.

 Anyways now that Kai has been on the new medicine we have decided to do sleep training. I was so against it before but now I feel it is the best for everyone, including Kai. I think it is best for him to learn to sleep now, when it is easiest, so he doesn't go on being sleep deprived which would effect everything. I know I wrote about attachment parenting and I still think it is a great thing- maybe for the first few months, maybe longer if you have an easy baby or a sick baby. Some aspects of attachment parenting we will probably hold on to. I just have to have more of a balance. I have learned so much in these months that I never ever knew about babies. I could go on and on about what I learned, how I was so clueless. How I never new that breastfeeding is not just about feeding, for babies it is SO much more, it is comfort, a huge comfort. It is great to offer that to a baby but is is also can get very tricky. Especially if you always feed on demand, which I thought was the only way to do it..anyways like I said I could go on and on.
But not now. Like I said my brain is mush and this entry probably makes no sense as it is...

Turns out I am not the only one feeling confused and weird, looking for comfort and sleep wherever she can find it..here is Sasha who made herself a bed in the laundry basket..What a wierdo. She only did that once before when she was a puppy (6 years ago) and the basket was empty. Maybe she just did it for comic relief.. dogs have a way of doing that...

Kai's first visit to the beach and he gets his first tooth!

I can't believe it I just felt it today and then saw. Kai's first tooth is coming through!

Last week we took if to see his namesake for the first time.. The ocean!

He was amazed by the waves!!

Just being

We have a visitor..

We were excited to welcome a surprise guest..Flat Stanley arrived on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday he got to enjoy some sun.

After he gets to enjoy some sites and sun were are to send him back to the winter weather and my nephew Liam in New York!