Our little angel is 4 months now. parker is such a wonderful, precious little human being whom i grow more in love with each day. recently, in the past 2 weeks or so at around 3.5 months, he's been sleeping through the night, yay! he'd fall asleep around 9pm and wake up at 6am to nurse, and then he'd fall back asleep. or when he wakes up a little later at 6:30am, he'll tend to stay awake afterwards. we start his bedtime routine at round 7pm.
on the day he turned 4 months old, i started sleep training him. i was originally going to wait until he's 6 months old, but goodness, as much as i love holding him and watching him sleep, i need my nights back to do more than just shower, pump, and go to sleep. i couldn't keep on going to bed at 11:30pm and waking up at 6am. i was mostly motivated by a book i am listening to, "bringing up bebe," yes listening because i can't possibly stay awake long enough to read it on the metro if i wanted to. anyways, how i wish i remembered this book when i was pregnant and read it then, maybe sleep training would've been a lot easier. apparently, the key is to delay picking up your baby from the start by about 5 min or so, so they'd learn patience and learn how to fall back to sleep on their own. 5 min is not that long and they said a good point to do this would be from birth to 3 months. well by the time i started listening to the book, parker was almost 4 months old, so sleep training would have to involve one of the more harsher methods of crying it out. i did apply delaying picking him up when he cries right away, and that seem to be helping him a lot in terms of learning how to fall back asleep. however, him falling asleep during the initial bedtime is still rough, it's been 3 nights. the first time, i couldn't take his crying anymore, 2nd night, jack was home and he gave in while i was in the shower, and today, we kinda did it painlessly. he cried for a few min and fell asleep, but only to wake up around 8:30pm because i think he didn't eat enough earlier during our bedtime routine. so i nursed him, and he fell asleep while nursing..so that was kind of cheating. so let's wait a few more nights before we can declare sleep training success.
well in other developments, parker will laugh at funny sounds, i no longer have to tickle him to get a laugh anymore, yay! his laugh is just so beautiful. soon after discovering his hands at 2 months, parker has taken tremendous liking to sucking his fists. it's so sweet. he is also starting to get distracted when we are nursing in new environments or when his big brother is around. he'll stop whatever he's doing to watch preston. it's so sweet to see him literarily looking up to his big brother, he is fascinated and often times bewildered by his brothers animated and rambunctious behavior. i can't wait till they can play together. preston is certainly very loving to him, giving him hugs and kisses every day. parker is a curious little guy. at dinner, he only has so much patience sitting in his bouncer, he really wants to see what we're eating most of the time. he's very content and happy to sit on my lap during dinner and watch us eat. look at that big beautiful smell, this is going to melt my heart for the rest of my life!
on the day he turned 4 months old, i started sleep training him. i was originally going to wait until he's 6 months old, but goodness, as much as i love holding him and watching him sleep, i need my nights back to do more than just shower, pump, and go to sleep. i couldn't keep on going to bed at 11:30pm and waking up at 6am. i was mostly motivated by a book i am listening to, "bringing up bebe," yes listening because i can't possibly stay awake long enough to read it on the metro if i wanted to. anyways, how i wish i remembered this book when i was pregnant and read it then, maybe sleep training would've been a lot easier. apparently, the key is to delay picking up your baby from the start by about 5 min or so, so they'd learn patience and learn how to fall back to sleep on their own. 5 min is not that long and they said a good point to do this would be from birth to 3 months. well by the time i started listening to the book, parker was almost 4 months old, so sleep training would have to involve one of the more harsher methods of crying it out. i did apply delaying picking him up when he cries right away, and that seem to be helping him a lot in terms of learning how to fall back asleep. however, him falling asleep during the initial bedtime is still rough, it's been 3 nights. the first time, i couldn't take his crying anymore, 2nd night, jack was home and he gave in while i was in the shower, and today, we kinda did it painlessly. he cried for a few min and fell asleep, but only to wake up around 8:30pm because i think he didn't eat enough earlier during our bedtime routine. so i nursed him, and he fell asleep while nursing..so that was kind of cheating. so let's wait a few more nights before we can declare sleep training success.
well in other developments, parker will laugh at funny sounds, i no longer have to tickle him to get a laugh anymore, yay! his laugh is just so beautiful. soon after discovering his hands at 2 months, parker has taken tremendous liking to sucking his fists. it's so sweet. he is also starting to get distracted when we are nursing in new environments or when his big brother is around. he'll stop whatever he's doing to watch preston. it's so sweet to see him literarily looking up to his big brother, he is fascinated and often times bewildered by his brothers animated and rambunctious behavior. i can't wait till they can play together. preston is certainly very loving to him, giving him hugs and kisses every day. parker is a curious little guy. at dinner, he only has so much patience sitting in his bouncer, he really wants to see what we're eating most of the time. he's very content and happy to sit on my lap during dinner and watch us eat. look at that big beautiful smell, this is going to melt my heart for the rest of my life!
