I got rid of all pacifiers when he was 16 weeks old. It never took long and by the time he was two and a half months old, he was putting himself to sleep within a few minutes of being in the crib – no crying at all. I would keep doing that until he fell asleep. I would let him cry for 4-5 minutes before going in and putting a reassuring hand on his belly to let him know I was still here. I wanted him to get the idea that crib = sleep. Yep, I left the room and closed the door behind me. From the time we crib trained at 7 weeks, I always just set him in the crib at nap time and bed time and left the room.
I never have rocked him to sleep, shooshed him to sleep or done anything like that, even as a newborn. – we always, always, always put Grayson in his crib to sleep in an awake state. Some sleep tips that really worked with our family (again, might not be for everyone!)**: I just lift him out of the crib, nurse him on one side and put him back down. So, I started putting him down in the crib at 7:15 and getting him the next morning at 7am, except for a quick 10pm “dream feed” where he doesn’t wake up at all. He just woke up, sucked his thumb for about 15 minutes then fell back asleep. I fully expected him to cry the first night I didn’t go in there at 3am but he never did. He had also doubled his birth weight at this time. I talked to our pediatrician about this and she agreed. First of all, I knew he was ready to drop that feeding and sleep through the night because at 3am he would only drink a few ounces then fall right back to sleep - his waking seemed to be mainly habit. Now, I know that might not be for everyone but I knew it was in all of our best interests to do this.
When I say “sleep through the night” I mean I stopped feeding him at 3am. We do the Moms on Call method and Grayson started sleeping through the night at around 15 weeks. Sleep has been going really well, actually! I finally feel like a person again.
#Heather irvine sleep expert update
I’ve started another post on a cloth diapering update so that should be up shortly. I think he fit in his bumbo seat for, like, a week before he got stuck in it and I had to pry him out with my foot. He’s currently wearing size 6-12 month clothes and weighs a whopping 20 lbs! It’s those thighs, man, they are s-t-u-r-d-y. Oh, and yes, he is currently losing all of his hair!! He has all this platinum blond peach fuzz where the old man hair used to be on one side. It’s pretty much the cutest noise I’ve ever heard. Grayson is SUCH a little chatterbox these days and we love it. We joined MOPS this month and also started going to a Waldorf class for babies in San Francisco, which has been really fun! I am starting a bible study with a few other new moms one night a week and it feels great to get back in the world a little bit. The Wonder Weeks says that when they are really fussy it’s because they are trying to master new skills…and wouldn’t you know that after he resurfaced from those few fussy days he immediately started to grab his toes and do happy baby pose whenever possible? So cute.
That only lasted a few days though and now he’s back to normal. But then when I would pick him back up he would smile and laugh. He wanted to be held all day long and the instant I put him down, he would start to cry. For the first few days after his four month birthday, Grayson was sooooo fussy.
#Heather irvine sleep expert download
If you don’t have the iphone app, you should download it! Well, it said to be prepared for a big leap around week 17 and yep, they were right. We follow the Wonder Weeks pretty closely and so far, they have been SPOT ON for us. He has started to become super curious about everything and wants to grab every little thing near him (including my hair…all the time. In short, he became less like a baby and more like a little boy! I can already tell he is going to be pretty stubborn like me and nonstop on the go like Adam. Grayson gained a lot of head control and we started seeing more of his personality shine through. Last month was our best month yet, I think. He still has a fussy hour in the evenings, but overall he is such a happy baby and I can’t even believe how much I love him. Instead of waking up crying, he wakes up chatting and laughing until I go into the nursery and get him. Now, it seems like time is going by too quickly! Literally, sometimes he wakes up in the morning and seems like a totally different kid. I was completely exhausted and running on fumes. I can’t believe Grayson is four months old already! For awhile, when he was a newborn, it seemed like time was going by soooooooo slow.