The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Day 1

Last night marked Day 1 of introducing Ike to sleeping on his own. We will be taking this journey with as few tears (from both of us!) as possible! I have gotten a lot of advice recently that we HAVE to let him cry it out, that he'll never learn to sleep on his own if we don't. This advice goes against every mothering instinct I have. The road to a full night's sleep may be longer than for those who choose to CIO, but I feel that I have the patience. And the rocking chair! I have attempted to move him out of our bed in the past, with little success. However, I don't believe that this has anything to do with Ike, but with me. In the middle of the night, I am far too exhausted to do the baby dance or in-bed nursing crunches for 20+ minutes. The other day, the solution hit me! At church, he will go to sleep almost instantaneously when I take him into the mother's lounge and rock him. My wonderful mother-in-law offered to buy me a rocking chair for my birthday, and I took her up on it!

 Ta-da!

I will be keeping a record of this journey here (assuming I remember to update -- you all know how good I am about that!) I have created my own routine (that I'm sure will be modified to fit the night) with the help of Elizabeth Pantley's "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". There are many wonderful ideas in there to help get your baby to sleep through the night.

Here is how last night looked:

6:30 PM - Begin Bedtime Routine

• Scriptures
• Bath
• Diaper
• Pajamas
• Brush Teeth
• "The Tooth Book" by Dr. Seuss

6:55 PM - Nurse and use Fisher Price Sea Horse 3 times (5 minutes per cycle)

7:10 PM - Asleep in crib.

7:32 PM - Wakes up. Nurse/Use Sea Horse 4 times, then suspect sea horse is keeping him awake. Asleep within 10-15 min of stopping sea horse.

8:17 PM - Asleep in crib.

10:17 PM - Wakes up. Nurse back to sleep.

10:35 PM- Asleep in crib.

11:54 PM - Wakes up. At this point, I had not been able to fall asleep for more than 20-30 minutes even though he had given me a couple of decent 2-hour stretches  -- more than I expected at this stage. I managed to get sick on the day I planned to start this new routine, so at this point I brought him to bed with me. My new goal that I created just now (lol!) will be to watch the bring-him-to-bed time get pushed further and further out until it turns into wake-up-mom-it's-morning time!

I will be tracking times like this about once every week to 10 days. Elizabeth Pantley suggests in her book that you do not track every night, because due to the variability of babies learning to sleep, this will likely just lead to frustration. Last night he might have given me these two hour stretches, but tonight he might wake up every 5 minutes. This does not mean the techniques are not working, it just means that he needs more time to adjust to the change.

Bed, Bath, and Beyond!

Finally asleep after a day of no naps!

Climbed into the tub all on his own!

I'm feeling rather Shakespearean in anatomy lab!

Skully?

My first gift from Isaac. He found this little leaf on the floor and brought it to me.

Playing with cousin Laina!

Pictures From This Week

"Why do homework when you can pet me?"

Studying the integumentary system.

Playing with Cloud!

Passed out in mommy's lap.

Aisha decided I'm old enough to know better than to pull her tail now. We'll see about that.

(Don't worry, he wasn't beaten unconscious by the kitty. He was just asleep when I took the picture.)

Figured out how to get off the bed all by myself!

Preston Goes to the MTC

Tyler, Ike, and I picked up Preston from the SLC airport on Tuesday to take him to the MTC. He is going to the Arcadia, CA mission! Ike enjoyed being held by his uncle (or maybe he enjoyed the flavor of the backpack?)

We decided to spoil Preston since we won't be seeing him for the next 2 years. We started with an IHOP breakfast.

And a Denny's lunch!

At the MTC, the elders who are there to show Preston around aren't allowed to take pictures for us so we had to make our own attempt!

A kind gentleman offered to take our picture after watching our silly attempt above. (I still think I like ours better!)

Isaac Curtis was born on October 25th, 2011 at 8:02 p.m. mountain time. He weighs 7 lbs 1 oz and is 20.28 inches long. I woke up at 5 a.m. with back contractions. By 1:30 they were strong enough that I needed counterpressure from Tyler to get through them, so we went to the hospital. When they checked me at about 2:45, I was 95% effaced and 2cm dialted. They told me to go walk for 2 hours and come back. I stayed in the room -- I couldn't get through the contractions without strong counterpressure from both Tyler and my doula. At 5pm, they checked me again and I was completely effaced and at 4cm. At 6pm I was able to get into the labor tub. For about 30 min, Tyler was able to get me through the contractions, then I think that's when transition hit. I'm pretty sure I panicked. I don't really remember hyperventilating, but I said my face and hands tingled, and at that same time, a bag landed on my face and my doula, mom, and midwife were all suddenly in there helping Tyler with counterpressure and trying to get me to calm down. After about an hour, I started pushing. I wanted to be on my hands and knees, but because the water had gotten BM in it, they didn't want him to accidentally inhale any of it so they stuck a birthing stool in the tub with me. I tried to sit on it, but every time the urge to push came, I automatically stood up. After 30 minutes of pushing, he came out into the world! I had a lot of bleeding, but only a 1st degree tear. It was so worth it! He's a natural at breastfeeding -- latches on right almost every single time!

Photo uploader isn't working, so here is my Facebook album!

38 Weeks 6 Days!

My belly is falling out of my shirt! As of six days ago, Ike weighed 5lbs 12oz (+/- 14oz)!

33 Weeks 5 Days

Holy cow, I knew I was getting big but didn't realize HOW big until I saw this picture!