So what's new with Liam? He is mobile now. He does not crawl yet but he is mobile. Through a series of movements he manages to get from point A to point B. He does a butt scoot, rolls over and sits up, changes directions, scoots, leans, whatever it takes to get the toy or the thing he wants. He will get himself on all 4's and rocks but hasn't figured out how to move the legs to crawl yet. I need to unpack the "jail"-- the big octagon gate-- pretty soon. He just won't stay on his 4X4 foam mat anymore. He's hit the floor hard a couple of times so we wonder if that has traumatized him a little on the crawling front. He'll get it soon.
He doesn't have any new sounds. He continues to say pa-pa and da-da,, no ma-ma yet (ungrateful, I say). Although he does make a ta-ta sound which I can't help to think of my mom when he says this because she said his first word would be "teta" ("tit" in Spanish) since he is breastfed! Nick laughs hysterically because Liam does seem to use the T sound only after breastfeeding. :)
His favorite thing in the world is to bang on things. He will pick up anything and just start banging it on the floor or whatever surface he can to make noise. He finally is starting to enjoy bath time. Up until very recently, he would cry at the sound of the water coming out of the tub and he would hang on to me for dear life. He is still apprehensive but once he is in the water, he does like splashing around. We've done a couple of baths together with Gavin and they both like it.
He is eating well. I wasn't giving him too many solids but we've started to give him as much as he will eat now. He definitely has a preference for fruits but will eat veggies. I found a brand (Happy Tots pouches) that blends veggies with fruits (e.g. broccoli and apples) so those are a hit.
We started "Ferberizing" (sleep training) Liam on Sunday. For those who don't know Dr. Ferber is a pediatrician that came up with the method which basically trains your baby to soothe himself to sleep and sleep through the night. It's "controversial" among certain groups because it does involve letting your baby cry. Basically the idea is that babies need to learn to self-soothe. By having the same bedtime routine and putting them in the crib awake, they learn that it is bedtime and can soothe themselves to sleep. Sometimes babies wake up in the middle of the night crying but they're not hungry- they're "trained night feeders" so we can train them to not do that by having them learn to self-soothe back to sleep. At first, they will cry. But once you put them down you can't pick them up or they will learn that if they cry mom/dad will pick them up. So, you can only go into the room, comfort them by patting them on the back, saying good-night, I love you and wait for the next interval (5 min at first and then slowly increase the time intervals until they get that they're not getting picked up and should go to sleep). I did this with Gavin and clearly we had success and he's an awesome sleeper (awesome everything!). I know Liam is WAY overdue for this so we hoped he would catch on quickly. And he has. So, basically up until this weekend, Liam was still waking up every 2-3hours.....that's exhausting after 8 months! The ped had already told us at 6 months that he doesn't need to feed that often and should have been able to go 6 hours without food. So, on Sunday we started Ferberizing.
The first night he went down at 7pm, awake, cried for about 4 minutes and then fell asleep. So I didn't even have to go check on him or comfort him in any way. Success #1. He woke up at midnight. At that point, I thought it had been long enough so I did feed him in hopes he would sleep until morning. He fed- on both sides- but then woke up an HOUR later. That's when I truly became committed to Ferber. I KNEW he didn't need food or a diaper change. He cried for 30 minutes. I checked on him at 5 min, 8 min, and 10 minutes intervals just like Ferber suggests. After 30 minutes or so, quiet. He was asleep. He slept until 5:30am and then I fed him again and went down again until 8:30am....when I freaked out because I hadn't heard from him and he never sleeps in. I walked into his room only to find Liam sitting up in the crib, pacifier in mouth, smiling back at me. He was just waiting for me to go pick him up. Even though I had an hour break in sleep, I felt rested because I got more than 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Last night, he went down at 7:45pm or so and did not get up until 3AM!!! I SO wish I would've gone to bed sooner and/or that he would've picked a more convenient time to wake up but I am happy that he slept that long. So, I did feed him b/c again I thought it had been long enough. I fed him and he went down and didn't get up until 7:30am when Gavin yelled across the house for me to get him...so that's a very successful night. Except that for some reason I can never go right back to sleep after the 3 or 4 am feedings so I couldn't go back to sleep until 4:45 so I still missed out on sleep but still feel much rested than ever before. We're making progress and Liam's not even having to cry that much to get there. We should have a baby that sleeps through the night AND happier parents very, very soon! I'm happier already. :)
1 comment:
Gotta love Ferber :)
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