Growing up

Ryan is now strong enough to play in his exer-saucer! Yesterday was his first experience in it and he was truly enthralled. What a big boy!

Right now I am watching him on the video monitor sleeping like an angel...with both arms free! This is huge for him- no more swaddle! It took a while to get him down for this nap. He fussed and tossed for 45 minutes but has now been down for 2+ hours and counting. For naps we are putting him down awake so he can learn to fall asleep on his own. It is not always easy for him because he isn't always sure what to do with his busy arms!! But we are making progress each day. Of course as I write this, he awakens! He is saving you from having to read any more about his adventures in sleep. Lucky you!

The Artist

I had to post some photos of Ryan's "artwork". At school they are always keeping the little ones busy and love to make keepsakes for mommy and daddy using the baby's hand and footprints. Check out the Valentine's bouquet and penquin that Ry "made"! I melted the first time I saw these; they will be saved forever. They are currently working on "look how I've grown". They take the baby's footprints, post them in the infant room, and 2 months later, take them again so we can see how much Ry has grown in 2 months time!

Spoiled

Some photos from the weekend...Ry with Aunt Terese, Madeline, Grandma and Grandpa. My title "Spoiled" was referring to Keith and I as you will read about in this entry, but I guess the same word describes Ryan when you look at these photos of him with the people that love him so much!

As with many things in life, you don't know how good you have it until that good thing is gone. I knew that we had a good sleeper on our hands and several times I did acknowlege how lucky we were. We still are. But our good sleeper has been a little off over the last few weeks and we are trying to adapt as quickly as we can to keep the good streak going.

Usually we can just put Ryan to bed between 6 and 7 after the bedtime routine, shut the door and not hear from him until well after we go to bed. He would go right down no problems, and be down for many hours before we heard a peep. A few weeks ago, we put him down and 10 minutes later he was awake and crying. A fluke, I thought. We soothed him and he went back down fairly quickly; he was clearly very tired. Then again, maybe 30 minutes later, he was awake and crying. We decided to give him a few minutes but it only became worse. Up until this point we never had to grapple with the decision of whether or not we would let him cry until he fell back asleep or go into his room to soothe him. After about 2 minutes we both agreed to go in and soothe him! It is the hardest thing to hear your baby cry and ignore it. And he wasn't just fussing; I have let him do that for a while in the past, he was crying pretty hard...and that I just can't bear. So he went back down, and this continued a few more times. He would wake up crying and we would intervene. We hoped it would be isolated. That evening we had friends over, and although he had gone to bed on time, we thought he was a little wound up or just wanted to be up with us socializing. But no! It happened again and again for the next few nights. It stopped for a few days but then started up again. Add in daylight savings and things were getting a little off kilter. My friend Sarah, who has 3 children who are now all great sleepers, suggested that we change his bedtime to 30 minutes earlier, perhaps he was overtired, thus causing the frequent night wakings. We did that, and it definitely seems to be helping. Now he goes to bed between 6 and 6:30! A definite reminder that babies are constantly growing and changing, and we are all constantly adapting.

Last night he went down just fine but woke at 4am. He started fussing and chattering to himself which is normal up to a point, maybe 30 minutes max. But after 30 minutes he kept going, and then 60 minutes, an hour and a half....during this time i had gone in and reswaddled, soothed, picked him up and rocked back to sleep, you name it. As soon as I would put him down or leave the room, he would fuss again. I finally picked him up at 6:15 and held him while he slept until 7:15. That is never really a problem because I just hold him and stare at him while he sleeps, thinking about how he will be too big to do that before I know it. I actually really treasure that time, but I must admit, I am exhausted tonight from being awake since 4:00! I realize now how spoiled I am because many parents feel this tired every night! Even with our sleep "woes", we still get a pretty good nights sleep. I give those exhausted parents a lot of credit for being able to function day to day. I would be a mess. Who knows what tonight might bring!

On another note, Ryan is making great progress with swaddling, or should I say lack of. We still swaddle him every night, but he has his hand to his mouth in no time flat. He is now sleeping most of the night with one entire arm out of his swaddle which is huge for him. There is nothing that can keep him contained now, which is fine because all he really wants is that little hand to suck on.

He did roll over last week but has not done it since. I find that so interesting because I expected him to be rolling all over the room by now. I guess he will do it again when he is ready! He also tried his first veggie the other day, sweet potatoes, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Next stop: carrots!

Uncle Jer

Uncle Jer fed Ry last night. What a natural! As you can see Ryan was pretty taken with Jer and his enthusiasm. He loves his godfather!

The weather was actually nice last week and we had a couple of days of sun and short sleeves! I couldn't resist putting this hat on Ryan. It is embroidered with kites and fit him like a glove! (A tight one!) We went for an awesome walk~ Keith with the two dogs and me with the stroller. It was such a simple thing, but the most fun I have had in a long time!! Ry was asleep within minutes of leaving the driveway.

And more on the front of becoming a big boy....Ryan rolled over! He went from tummy to back, and has done it a few times so far. It takes a while for him to do it beginning to end, but he does it nonetheless. I am now looking at Ryan's growth as a runaway train...it seems like from here on out things are going to start happening so fast. He is almost 5 months old, eating cereal and is now rolling over!!! I can hardly believe it. I have to remember to cherish each day, we will never get this magical age back!

Joy

Ryan is pure joy. That's all there is to it. This morning I had the distinct pleasure of going in to get him after a great night of sleep. He was all smiles of course, and we had a great morning of reading, singing and play. He seemed so happy for the couple hours he was awake~ engaged, giggly and so interested in the world around him. He is starting to get really into books, looking at the pictures and reaching out for the pages. I want time to stand still! He is such a great age now and I swear he is changing daily. He is slowly turning into a little boy. I know that it will only continue to get better, at least that is what I hear. I love my role as a mother and once again feel so lucky that I have been given this gift.

As a follow up to the swaddling story, we changed his swaddle because he grew out of the sleep sack. He is now in a stretchy cotton swaddle. I thought we were doomed since he can so easily work himself out of it, but I actually think it might be better. He works his hands up to his mouth (loves sucking on those fingers!) and his arms are bent but still pretty secure in the swaddle. I wish I would have thought of doing that a long time ago, this way his has his hands which is what he really wants but his arms aren't flailing. Lesson learned, another one for my new mom page! He slept great last night with only one intervention around midnight. The rest of the night he had his little hand close to his face but slept like an angel. He is such a dream come true!

Still Swaddled

It's official. Ryan cannot sleep without being swaddled. He has been "sleeping through the night" for quite some time now...unless you factor in the number of times we go into his room to re-swaddle him. Sometimes it's once, sometimes it's three times. It's not a big deal, it only takes a second. But I keep wondering when he will grow out of it. He has a habit of incessantly scratching his head and rubbing his eyes when he is tired; that is the main cue that he is ready to sleep. But even though we trim his nails every other day, he inevitably ends up scratching his head and leaving marks. I wish he wouldn't do this and wonder when he will grow out of it; I hate to see all of those little scratches on his head! Anyway, when he breaks out of his swaddle during the night, he goes for the head scratching and usually can't put himself back down unless we reswaddle him. When we do, he is right back to sleep. No crying or shenanigans. I know that we are very fortunate to be getting as much sleep as we do with a 4 month old baby. I cannot complain about that. He is a dream sleeper as long as he is "contained"!! Great naps and 12-13 hours each night. But when will he be able to sleep without a swaddle??(he is outgrowing his favorite one!) It is a sleep sack with a removable velcro band that goes around his arms. We've tried the swaddle blankets, but they don't keep him swaddled for more than a couple of hours. We've tried sleepers with the built in mitts that go over his hands, but he still flails about and keeps himself awake doing so. The easiest thing is just keeping him swaddled as tightly as we can. I know that his nervous system is still developing which is causing him to have little control over his arms. I guess we will periodically try to wean him from it as he seems ready. A friend suggested trying to keep one arm in and one arm out one night for a gradual transition, but he just fussed when I was soothing him to sleep which is very unusual. Once I put both arms in the swaddle he was asleep in seconds! My big question is, will he just grow out of this or will he have to "learn" how to soothe himself with his arms free? So many parents that I talk to said their babies just transitioned without any issues; like they could take it or leave it. But we rely on it! If anyone has any good advice or info, please share!