Saturday, November 27, 2010

Tyler: Week 20

November 3-November 9, 2010 (19w-19w6d old)

Baby Wise:

Well folks, we are definitely out of the 4th trimester!  The books I've read were right on, baby is now capable of being spoiled and will cry/scream to get their way.  Time for a new game plan, it's time to hit the books.  I'm going to give the Baby Wise method a try and see if it works for us.  I'll journal my way through it in hopes that it may help someone else or that I might receive some helpful tips along the way.

I picked this method because it seems to meet in the middle of the 2 extremes.  On one end you have methods that are strictly schedule, everything goes by the clock and you let baby cry it out.  On the other end you have methods that focus on nurturing, meeting every single need regardless of time/schedule and you never let baby cry it out.  This is the one I had been following and while it was great for the 1st 3 months, I see a pattern starting to develop where our lives revolve around baby's every whim and screaming whenever that whim is not met.  Looking to the future, I see a toddler throwing a temper tantrum every time he's told no.  I will continue to meet every need, but not necessarily every want.

The Baby Wise method has you do eat-activity-sleep cycles and goes by a schedule that has flexibility when needed.  If you have a 3 hr cycle and baby gets hungry at 2.5 hrs, then feed him.  If you have errands to run, then run them and get back on schedule when you get back.  Sounds good to me, a goal of a schedule but flexibility when needed.

The book starts out on the importance of family and marriage.  Mom and Dad are baby's universe and if they don't have a good relationship, baby tends to not be as happy or stable and can feel as though his world is crumbling down.  A good, happy, secure marriage makes baby happy and secure.  Whew, I passed the first step.  We'll see how well I do in the next step in my next post.

Tyler Update:
  • His 3 hr naps are history.  Naps are now 30-45 mins and only twice a day.
  • His new trend is happy all day, fussy all evening.  I'm thinking he's not getting enough sleep.
  • If you put your hands on his feet while he's on his back, he'll push himself across the floor.
  • He now gets distracted while BFing.  He suckles, smiles at me, looks around to make sure he's not missing anything and repeats.  Sometimes he's so distracted that I have to nurse in a dark room or face him towards a blank wall so he'll keep nursing.
  • All his babysitters and me have to hold him facing out or he thinks it's boob time.  Once he gets boob on the brain, there's no turning back.  Like father, like son!
  • He can turn pages of a book.  Here he is with his sissy reading to him:

  • While he is a thumb sucker, many times the thumb alone is just not enough.  He believes in equal opportunity for all fingers.

Show and Tell:

Toby and Tyler having a play date.



Tyler chillin' while his sitter Mandy washed his bottles.


Tyler flying high on Daddy's feet.



Tyler in his favorite toy, the exersaucer.  Look at those cheeks!




Tyler sleeping.



Video:  Daddy making Tyler laugh.  We finally captured his dolphin noise (done at 9 seconds).

Mama Update:
  • Work is going well.  We filled our Friday babysitting opening, so we now have full coverage.  We have my mom, Kerry's mom, Ty's sissy and our friend Mandy watching him M-F while I work.  I couldn't be more pleased.  Everyone is incredible with Ty and so helpful around the house.  I'm a very lucky mama in that I get to see him during the day and am able to continue BFing.
  • Due to losing so much hair and not seeing an end in sight, I had to cut it all off.  It was a shock initially and I cried over it, but I'm content with it now.  Sadly, it didn't seem to slow down the falling out.  I really need to go get my thyroid checked.

10 comments:

  1. Our sons are very close in age. Jack was born June 26. We follow the baby wise method and love it!! Jack was born 6 weeks early so while in the NICU they had him on a tight schedule so it was easy for us to transition at home.. We are flexible with it some, but definitely follow the eat, play, sleep routine.. Unless we let Jack get tooo tired we can just lay him in his crib and he will just fall asleep. He usually sleeps about 10-11 hours a night and has been for about 6 weeks. His naps during the day are not super long, but he does great with it and everyone is always telling us what a happy content baby we have! You can do it and you will love it!

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  2. Sad to say, but the non-stop hair loss happened here too. It has finally slowed, but was extreme.
    Glad he's doing so well!

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  3. OMG, you cut your hair and didn't post a pic?? C'mon now!

    Tyler is so big! I am amazed how fast he is changing. I better prepare for that. Not an infant forever.

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  4. So sorry about your hair. I hope it finally stops. And yes, get that thyroid checked!! Wow, Tyler is so advanced! I can't believe he can turn book pages. Not to mention that he's been rolling over since forever. We're nowhere near either of those, as far as I can tell. She has started getting distracted while feeding, though, too. It cracks me up! By the way, my SIL reports that my nephew used to get distracted easily, but his sister was all business despite my brother's attempts to distract her. Now that they're 8 and 5 (they're the ones in my latest video), their personalities are exactly the same as their nursing styles. So watch out for Mr. Distractable!

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  5. The pics of Ty are adorable! My boys love to fly high on the bottoms our feet too, just like Ty is with Kerry.

    We also used Baby Wise with all of our boys so if you have any questions along the way, post them here or send me an email.

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  6. Awesome update and I can't believe how many things Tyler is doing! My girls are still not pushing themselves across the floor when we put our hands on their feet (although once they start crawling I'm sure I will be wishing they weren't so mobile when one goes in one direction and the other one in the other direction). I think I'm sort of doing what you're doing (haven't heard of Baby Wise) in that I do have a schedule but it is a little flexible although I tend to stick to it pretty closely so I don't get stressed out with two screaming children on my hands. I think you put it very eloquently - you'll meet all of his needs but not all of his wants. I will post about starting solids in response to your comment on my blog - promise!

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  7. P.S. It does sound like Tyler needs more sleep if he is so fussy at night. Try putting him to bed earlier for a week and over time, you will likely see his naps lengthen. Caitlyn slept terribly during the day until I started putting her to bed at 5pm every night for a few weeks and slowly, her naps have lengthened. There are still days where she sleeps an hour in the morning and only 40 minutes in the afternoon, but she wakes up happy from her naps and she has even taken hour long naps both morning and afternoon with the occasional 2 hour nap thrown in! This whole sleeping thing is a constant tweaking process that changes constantly - good luck trying to sort Tyler out! You can do it!

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  8. What a great update. Ty is growing and so stinkin' cute! Love the laughing video-- the dolphin noise is hilarious!!
    Good to read what to expect in the coming weeks... I can't believe how fast the time goes-- how is Ty already 5 mos? How is Colton almost 3 mos? I swear, this is a time warp...
    Hope you get your hair issue figured out soon! I want to see the new do!!
    Love ya,
    The Other Jill

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  9. I had my baby June 3rd and I cannot stop shedding hair. In fact, I think it looks like it is receding in the front :(. Tyler is so cute and I love this blog!
    Tiff

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  10. O.k. missy......WHERE is the hair pic?? I bet it looks adorable! I remember it short when we lived in IA together and it looked cute then. Cutting it off won't make it shed less, but obviously it's less of a mess when it falls out since the strands are shorter.....I'm still shedding bad 14 months later and my thyroid is perfect. I was sooooo glad I cut mine all off because it has majorly lessened the mess and frustration!

    I was going to say what "kayjay" said...he's definitely NOT getting enough sleep if he's consistently cranky in the evenings. If he's up several times a night eating and then only napping that little of a time....he's tired mama! At his age he should be averaging about 15 hours of sleep in a 24 hr. period with about 12 hrs. at night and 3 hrs. of combined naps during the day.

    Love all the new pics....you're showing me up here with keeping up with your blog.....I'm sooooooo behind!

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Thank you for your comment! Hugs, Kerry and Jill