Auntie x 3

This weekend I became an aunt for the third time. My older sister, Lauren, gave birth to a little boy named William Jeffrey. Oh my gosh, there is just nothing in the world like holding a newborn baby. I have to admit that if Camden was even a halfway decent sleeper at night, I might be tempted to jump on the trying to conceive bandwagon again after holding that tiny bundle in the hospital. Sleep deprivation is an excellent form of birth control though, and so any urges I might've had didn't last long. You know what else is an excellent form of birth control? Memories of needles & probing ultrasounds & follicle checks. Yeah, we're not going there again just yet.

Here is my brother-in-law announcing Will's arrival & showing me his very first picture:



And here's the precious bundle:



My sister & Will:



And Uncle Matt & his newest nephew:



A huge congratulations to Lauren & Jeff who make some pretty darn adorable blonde haired, blue eyed boys.

Oh, and seeing Will all swaddled up in the hospital blanket like that? Well, it got me reminiscing about this little guy's birth:



I swear I don't have baby fever. Really, I don't. Not yet anyway.

Sweet Potato Lashes

Last night as I was giving Camden a bath, I was wondering how on earth he ended up with food in his eyelashes. Then I saw the picture below. Mystery solved.

West Siiiide

This kid is not to be messed with...he's already throwing gang signs at 5 months old.

Babyproofing, here we come!

This morning, I laid Camden on a blanket on the floor in the family room with some toys like usual. He normally practices his rolling or just lays on his belly and hangs out in the morning. I sat on the couch with my cup of coffee & wrote a quick email to Matt. When I looked up, there was just a blanket where Camden used to be. No Camden in sight. Only mildly startled (I mean, how far could he have gone in the time it took me to write a two sentence email to Matt?), I got up and looked around. Know where I found him? Under the coffee table grinning at me. I'm not sure if he used the belly scoot crawl (which he's been practicing a lot lately) or rolled (or both), but either way-- he covered some pretty substantial distance for a 5 month old. And, you know what that means: let the babyproofing begin! Wow- what happened to my little, tiny, non-mobile baby?!

The Day I Almost Gave Camden Away

Camden and I decided to make a little impromptu trip to Target this afternoon. You know those days when you just need to get out of the house? Yeah, today is one of those days. Besides, Camden has become an excellent shopping companion lately. He's becoming quite the people watcher.

So, we pulled into the Target parking lot and I grabbed a cart and loaded Camden's carseat into it. Then I noticed a Target shopping bag at the bottom of the cart and I peaked inside. There was a package of drawstring trash bags in the bag. Not the most exciting contents, and chances are whoever left it wouldn't bother to turn around for such a small purchase, but (being the good samaritan that I am) I decided to take the bag to the Customer Service desk anyway, just in case its owner returned.

We got inside the store and I saw a friendly looking older man wearing a Target shirt standing around, looking bored. Instead of making the trek all the way to the other side of the store to the Customer Service desk (yeah, I'm that lazy) I decided to tell this older gentleman about my parking lot find. This is the conversation that followed:

Target Man: Can I help you?
Me: Yes. I just found this in the parking lot (I gesture absently towards my shopping cart) and I wasn't sure what to do with it. Should I just take it to the Customer Service desk?
Target Man: (Silence...and horrified expression...and more silence). Uhh...
Me: (Suddenly realizing the reason for his horror) Oh, not the baby! The baby is mine! I found that bag with the trash bags inside in the parking lot.
Target Man: (looking so relieved) Oh, my gosh. I didn't know what I was going to do.

I looked down at Camden in my cart, who was chewing on Sophie's head and staring up at the man, wide-eyed. I wonder if he realized that his mom almost turned him into Guest Services at Target?

Camden's Favorite Things, 1st edition

Ernie.


Ernie's Hair. Yum.


Peas. Any food, really.


Being naked.


My mommy.

What? Is this not how you swing?

Swaddle, I'm over you.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I've now decided it's time for the dreaded swaddle wean. Or, actually, Camden decided for me.

This kid has a very passionate love/hate relationship with his Miracle Blanket. He hates the feeling of confinement & can bust out of it (arms AND legs) within a few minutes if he just isn't feeling up to napping (or bedtime, whatever the case may be). But once he's broken free, all hope of sleep is officially gone. You know how I mentioned in my previous post that, when Camden wakes up at night, sometimes he can soothe himself back to sleep but sometimes he needs help? Well, that help normally consists of Mommy reswaddling him, only to have him break free again 3 minutes later. Rinse and repeat, until he finally stops fighting his way out of it and drifts back off to dreamland. This is where the love aspect of his very tempestuous relationship with his Miracle Blanket comes in: Camden can only fall asleep when snuggly wrapped up because that's all he's ever known.

Yeah, I've had enough. I'm sick of fumbling around in the dark every night, attempting to reswaddle tightly enough so that little Houdini can't maneuver his way out. Plus, if I don't stop now when he's just about 5 months old, where do I draw the line? Eighteen years from now, will I need to pack up a custom-made Miracle Blanket to go along with his other dorm life necessities? Will I also need to include instructions for his roommate on how to properly swaddle him? Not to mention that his honeymoon might be extra tricky if he still needs to be swaddled at night.

You get where I'm going with this. It's time. So today, I started with the one-limb-at-a-time weaning process. He's currently taking his early evening catnap swaddled snuggly sans his right arm--which is resting peacefully at his side. Wish us luck. We'll need it until all limbs are finally set free.

Houston, we have a routine.

Somewhere along the line, a realization hit me: Camden's 30 minute naps every hour and a half? Not exactly convenient. The fact that he had begun to fight naps and I had to rock him and shush him to sleep until I felt like I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen? Not good. Sticking a boob or a spoon in his mouth everytime I picked up on what I thought was a hunger cue, which resulted in him eating every 2 hours or so? Well, he's 4 months old, not 4 days old. And a 4 month old baby who eats every 2 hours is a snacker.

Simply put, our days were chaotic. There was no structure. Neither of us really knew what to expect from day to day. Camden's sleep was erratic. I was feeling utterly out of control.

And so, I devoted the past week and a half to implementing a schedule and starting some sleep training. Armed with the Baby Whisperer's techniques (no crying-it-out!) and a lot of help from my mom, I set out on the most exhausting undertaking I've experienced thus far as a mother. And here we are, a week and a half and many sleepless nights and tears (mainly mine) later, with these results:

1. Camden has gone from taking 5-6 catnaps a day to 2 longer naps (1-2 hours; one in the morning & one in the early afternoon) and a late afternoon catnap. Take that, 45 minute nap intruder!
2. Camden's bedtime is now anywhere from 6:45 to 7:30, depending on the length of his naps during the day. Previously, his bedtime was around 9.
3. Camden takes every single nap in his crib.
4. Camden soothes himself to sleep at naptime & bedtime! No more rocking or shushing (or nursing) from Mommy!
5. He eats every 3 1/2-4 hours and is doing remarkably well with solids (his favorite so far is applesauce!)

You might remember my post a while back about Camden nursing every hour at night. Initially, I was sure this was "comfort sucking" and that he was using me as a pacifier to get back to sleep during brief nighttime awakenings. Then I visited his pediatrician for his 4 month check up and she felt that he might actually be hungry during the night-- that my milk supply might've decreased. Thus, the reason for the introduction of solids.

I am happy to say that, while our nights are nowhere near perfect now, Camden is only nursing two times throughout a 12 hour period-- a far cry from where we were just a couple short weeks ago. Whether this is due to the introduction of solids, having a structured routine during the day, sleep training, or some combination of all of the above, I'm not sure. He still wakes at other points during the night, and sometimes can soothe himself back to sleep, and sometimes needs a little bit of assistance (but still no rocking or nursing) from me. A work in progress, to be sure, but we're getting there!

And now our days have order. We both know roughly what to expect. It's easier for me to interpret his cues. I realize that a schedule isn't for everyone (truth be told, I wasn't even sure it was for us at first!). If on-demand feeding and go-with-the-flow parenting works for you-- more power to you! That's what I saw myself doing in my daydreams while pregnant. But it just wasn't working for us and I had to re-evaluate. For me, having a (flexible) routine has been a life (and sanity) saver.