My good little sleeper

Henry has been in his crib now for about a week. And since he's so close to rolling over, we had to stop using the Miracle Blanket. He's now in a sleep sack. And he's been sleeping really well! Basically, he passes out around 9-10-11 p.m. and sleeps until the morning! One night he went from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. That's TEN HOURS! Amazing. Love big babies!

My sleeping angel...

It's fun to watch Alexa sleeping... She moves around, and sometimes she sleeps on her back. She's so cute! It's all I can do to keep from running in and picking her up!

More pacifier fun... And Happy Birthday Jason!

After my last post regarding Alexa's sleep habits, I heard a funny story from Grandma E about Alexa's cousin Jason and his pacifier obsession as a baby. Apparently, cousin Jason loved ONLY his BLUE pacifiers! And, he used to sleep with them one in each hand and a third in his mouth. Look familiar? Now we know where Alexa's pacifier habit comes from!

And speaking of Alexa's cousin Jason... Guess who's birthday it is today? Alexa has a special message for her cousin Jason! Also, it looks like she wants cousin Jason to play ball with her!

My sleeping baby...

As you can see, Alexa sometimes sleeps on her back! Usually, she sleeps on her stomach, but she moves around quite a lot at night. I'll put her down facing one direction only to find her curled up at the other end of her crib a few minutes later! She'll even sit up in the middle of the night, then nose dive back asleep. Often, she'll look for one of four pacifiers we keep in her crib, pop it back in (or toss it out of the crib) and fall back asleep. Check out the lower right photo... She has a pacifier in her mouth and one in each hand! We are very fortunate though, once we put her down around 7:30-8 p.m., she sleeps straight until we wake up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for work. Yay for our good little sleeper!

Click to enlarge!

OUT with the Miracle Blanket & IN with the sleep sack!

When Alexa rolled over on New Year's Day, the way we put her down to sleep in her crib changed immediately. We could no longer swaddle her in the Miracle Blanket (photo below) because if she rolled over and had no use of her arms, she could get stuck!

While we could have gradually weaned her from the Miracle Blanket by swaddling her with one arm out, then both arms out, we decided instead to drop the Miracle Blanket cold turkey. We switched instead to Halo sleep sacks, like this one and this one!

I got two sleep sacks from Buy Buy Baby using 20% off coupons and two from Greater Goods, where they were marked at 50% off! We'll need to have a couple extras in case her diaper leaks and one to send to day care for naps.

So far, so good! It took about a week for Alexa to get used to sleeping without the swaddle. At first, she startled herself with her arms. Now, she simply rolls over onto her tummy and gets comfortable. She's out in two seconds!

Alexa likes sleeping on her TUMMY!

Today, for the first time, Alexa slept on her TUMMY! It was during a nap. She was in her crib in a sleep sack when she decided to roll herself over. In the past, when she's rolled over in the crib, she wakes up and cries. This time, she curled up and went to sleep.

I would have taken a picture of her... But I didn't want to wake her up with the flash! Of course I had to creep into her room to check on her. She was OK -- breathing and sleeping peacefully.

As you might know, letting babies sleep on their tummy is a big no-no. All the books and doctors say to put your baby down to sleep on their back to avoid SIDS. But, once they can roll over on their own, they are allowed to sleep on their side or tummy.

However, once babies can roll over, you must stop swaddling them. We had been using the Miracle Blanket to put her to sleep and were sad to see it go. The last two nights have been, um, rough. Tonight will be our 3rd night without the Miracle Blanket and so far so good. Alexa went down at 9 p.m. and is happily sleeping on her SIDE!

Update: She slept soundly, all night long! Down at 9 p.m. Dream feed at 1 a.m. Quick feed at 6 a.m., then down again. I might survive this post-Miracle Blanket life after all!

My good little sleeper!

Alexa is doing so well with her naps and night sleeping. I am so proud! Here is what my happy baby looks like in her crib when I walk in each morning...

I make sure she gives me a BIG SMILE before I pick her up. I want her to learn that the crib is a happy place and that if she wakes up, she can play on her own and hang out before I come in to get her. I think it's working!

We have been doing the same bedtime routine each night: Bath, put on sleep clothes, book, last feed, then I put on her sound machine of ocean waves (my beach baby!) and put her in her Miracle Blanket in her crib.

If she has fallen asleep at the breast, then she wakes up during the swaddle, so I either pat her while she is laying in her crib in the swaddle until she closes her eyes or walk out and turn the light off and she falls asleep on her own!

Generally, she has been sleeping about 5-6 hours a night. So if we put her down at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., she'll sleep until 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. I'll nurse her and put her down again and she'll sleep for about 2-3 hours on the second put down. If I can get her to sleep that whole time without that 4-5 a.m. feeding, I'd be golden! Then I could gradually move her bedtime earlier...

During the day, we are still doing the E.A.S.Y. (Eat, Awake time, Sleep) routine and it's been wonderful. She'll take a couple naps of 30 minutes to an hour long, then one long nap mid-day or late afternoon that ranges from 2-3 hours. I have been better at predicting that long nap, like I did on Thanksgiving, so that has been great.

Anyway, sleep training is a work in progress but at least I feel like we are on the right track!

In other news, we just found out today that we have a daycare spot as of Jan. 11th... Which is good and bad since I'll be off longer with no pay! Oh well, it's still a spot.

ALEXA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

This is HUGE!!! We put her down in her crib and turned out the light at 11:30 p.m. Then we went to bed. And slept. And slept. And slept!

At 6:30 a.m., when Daddy gets up for work, I peacefully woke up - on my own! We then turned to each other and wondered... Alexa????

Daddy asked: "Did you get up last night? Because I didn't hear you..." I was amazed because... No, I hadn't gotten up. Immediately, Daddy rushed to Alexa's room to check on her. She was fine. She was sleeping! So I brushed my teeth, got ready and then when I heard her waking up, I went into her room and told her good morning. She was all smiles! What a good girl!

Another good sleep night!

On Alexa's second night in her crib, she slept FIVE hours! Way to go! So I felt really great and got ready early for my mom's group.

I also tried out the E.A.S.Y. theory and fed Alexa at 8 a.m., followed by an hour or so of awake time as I got ready to leave. As expected, she then fell asleep in the car ride to the 10 a.m. group . I let her sleep and then woke her at 11 a.m. to nurse. We played a little bit and then she fell asleep by the time we went to lunch around Noon.

So far, so good!

We went for a walk in the afternoon and met up with Daddy and Grandma E for some coffee! Then after feeding Alexa and letting her have some awake time, we headed to dinner at Mia's and she slept the whole time! Yay!

Alexa slept her first night in her crib!

Yup, that's right. We did it. We put her in her crib and she slept soundly! Actually, she slept really well in her bassinet on Saturday night -- ALMOST FIVE HOURS! But when we put her in her crib last night, she slept FIVE AND A HALF HOURS!

This is big stuff, folks!

We are using the Miracle Blanket and once she nods off, I wrap her up, turn on the ocean waves sound machine and tip toe out of her room. We leave her door open and our door open so we can hear her. She's doing so well! Our big baby girl!

Also on Monday, Daddy didn't have to work so we went out for a nice lunch and sat outside. Then we went to Barnes & Noble and got "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer," which has an interesting theory on babies and putting them on a schedule.

Essentially, the books says that you can use the E.A.S.Y. schedule where every 3 hours, your baby EATS, followed by a period of AWAKE time and ACTIVITY. After that, they SLEEP for little bit and during that nap, you have a bit of YOU time to get stuff done.

I'll let you know if it works!

Another rainy day!

Rain, rain go away! Luckily, I had lunch plans so we still were able to get out of the house. I met my college friend Julia and her adorable daughter Michaela for lunch. We had a nice meal during which Alexa slept the whole time. Yay!

We then headed over to Barnes & Noble where I checked out books on baby sleep training. Here are the ones I am looking at... If anyone has recommendations, I'm all ears! Please leave a comment or e-mail me. Thanks!

Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child

The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (By Richard Ferber)

Sleeping Through the Night

The Sleepeasy Solution

Oh, by the way, if you are looking for photos... My camera battery died yesterday at Kristin's place! And I left my charger in New Jerey... So... We have some coming up, courtesy of Daddy's iPhone. But hang tight, it'll be a few days until I get my camera back up and running!

At the turning point

Week 16, which I am approaching, is called the "turning point" because that's when you are supposed to turn over in bed (or during yoga) and lay on your side.

Lying flat on your back puts extra pressure on the aorta and vena cava. Not really sure what those are, but putting pressure on them can result in reduced blood flow to your baby, which is a bad thing!

Since I usually sleep on my side, I didn't think this would be a problem. However, lately, the only position I've wanted to sleep in is on my back! Obviously I wouldn't do that on purpose, but who knows what happens when you are sleeping.

So I was woken up one night by Papa Bean shaking me and saying urgently: Turn over! Turn over! You're on our back!

Since then, I have taken to sleeping with a pillow between my knees. I use the "cushie" pillow that is made for air travel. However, there are a vast array of maternity pillows out there, from the ever popular Boppy to full body pillows and smaller wedges.

Since it turns out that Amazon carries Boppy pillows, we might have to order one - or two. Because I'm sure if I start using one, Papa Bean will want one too!

Update: I just learned in prenatal yoga class that it's not just sleeping on any side. You're supposed to sleep on the LEFT side because the aorta and vena cava are on the right side. Well, that makes it difficult! I always sleep on my RIGHT side! Doh!

Another Update: I asked my doctor about this at our March 25 appointment and she said not to worry, sleeping on either side is fine. Also, she said that if I want to sleep on my back I can just stick a pillow under one side of my back so that I'm uneven. But she said it's not a huge concern until I'm farther along, like 23 weeks or so. Whew!