Big One Year Old!

So my little man turned ONE last Sunday, and let me say that his party was a huge success!  

Malakai sure is blessed!  

He got all sorts of clothes, toys and books, amazing hand-crafted gifts and even some cold hard cash that will be put away in his very own bank account!  So many dear friends were able to come celebrate with us, and the park was the perfect venue!  The weather couldn't have been better!  We had healthful treats of fruits and veggies, rice crackers, corn chips, hummus and home made spinach dip.  

I made Kai one-year-old friendly cupcakes that were DELICIOUS if I do say so myself!  Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana...YUM!  Grain-Free, Dairy-Free and the only sugar to be found was in the dark chocolate!

My amazing boss from The Alpine Grind donated some amazing Oso Negro coffee and everyone loved it!  It was so awesome to see all the babies, toddlers and kids crawling, running, and tumbling around the park.  Thanks so much to everyone who came to help celebrate his big day!

Boobless

Well, Kai has officially weaned at night. I was sort of hoping for a grand finale of sleeping through the night, even though I knew that was pretty unrealistic. Even though Malakai went the whole night without breast feeding last night he was still up a few times. Hopefully he will learn over the next few days that it is a lot easier to just sleep...

This concludes my 7 days of sleep posts. Stay tuned for updates on how he's doing. Next post will be a birthday post for my big one year old boy! I can't help but remember how I was feeling at this very moment last year!

Tonight's The Night!

Yesterday, after being so confused as to why Kai had been up from 3-5 that morning, I was feeding him, stick my finger in my mouth, and discovered another tooth! That was a shock, because usually his teeth take super long to come in, and there is no surprise when they do! I feel bad now, that I didn't console him as much as a could have (trying to stick with the sleep learning). Kai seems to have recovered though!

He had a wonderful two and a half hour nap in the morning, an another 45minutes that afternoon (I had to wake him from this one because it was so close to bedtime).

Last night Malakai brilliantly slept through his old 8:45 feeding, and I fed him for a very short 2 minutes when I went to bed at 10:30. He stirred a bit at some point, and then woke at 3:26am signing for more milk. He quickly settled on his own and fell back to sleep. I fed him again for that ridiculous 2 minutes, but he seemed satisfied, and went right back to sleep for another two hours!

I think that tonight will go well, even if he wakes up once or twice. Can't believe how quickly he has changed!

Bump In The Road

Last night bedtime went perfectly along with the first 2 feeds. He woke up at midnight (scheduled feed at 12:35), but fell back to sleep without tears at 12:30 and I woke him around 12:50 to feed for 2 minutes. It was the first night that I had eliminated the 2:30 feed, and of course he woke up at 3am and whined and jumped around for an hour. Then he proceeded to cry for another hour before he went to sleep. He was supposed to feed at 4am, but he wailed right through that, and didn't fall asleep until 5:10. I woke him 15 minutes later and fed him for 4 minutes. Thankful he slept until 7:40 so that I'm not a complete grouch!

I'm always so surprised at how quickly babies forgive and forget. He woke up all smiles! I hope that last night doesn't set the bar for tonight. I'm supposed to be going from 4 feeds to only 2. Crossing my fingers that we both get some well deserved sleep tonight!

Progress...

For those interested, here you can see our exact progress! Listed are our [goals] as well as how we actually did!

First night: Saturday Sept 8
[7:30 Bedtime]
Layed him in bed at 7:17pm, moved around a lot,climbed on me, whined a bit, at 7:40 he started to cry and by 7:47 he was asleep, and not on top of me!
[8:45pm feed 10 min]
[10:15 feed 12 min]
Woke at 9:53 an cried bloody murder until 11:27. Nursed at 11:43 for 10 min.
[12:35feed 14 min]
1:06 8 min
[2:30 feed 8 min]
Cried briefly being put back to sleep. (less than a minute)
[4:00 feed 12 min]
[6:30 Wake time]
Woke at 6:15

Night 2: Sunday Sept 9
[7:30 Bedtime]
In bed at 7:45, asleep by 7:46, though sprawled on top of me!
[8:45 feed 8 min]
Alarm didn't sound :( Kai woke at 9:12, went back about 9:20, fed at 9:32 for 8 minutes.
[10:15 feed 10 min]
Alarm is dumb! (11:00) fed 10
[12:35 feed 8 min]
Alarm is dumb! 1:00 fed 8min
[2:30 feed 6 min]
2:42 fed 6 min
[4:00 feed 10 min]
[6:30 Wake time]
6:00 wake time, out of bed 6:20

Night 3: Monday Sept 10
[7:30 Bedtime]
[8:45 feed 6 min]
[10:30 feed 8 min]
[12:35 feed 6 min]
[2:30 feed 4 min]
[4:00 feed 8 min]
[6:30Wake time] 6:00 wake time

Night 4: Tuesday Sept 11
[7:30 Bedtime]
[8:45 feed 4 min]
[10:15 feed 6 min]
[12:35 feed 4 min]
[2:30 feed 2 min]
[4:00 feed 6 min]
[6:30 Wake time]
5:15 wake time...stayed in bed until 6am.

Waking up Early

Well, nights are definitely progressing as they should! Tonight will be the first 4 feed night (down from 5)!

I mentioned yesterday thatj Kai has been waking up earlier, and I must have jinxed myself, because he woke up at 5:15 and wouldn't go back to sleep. I made him tough it out until 6, but man I needed that extra hour of sleep! Hopefully things change here as far as his wake time, otherwise I may need to consider moving bedtime a little later. It's said that on average babies his age sleep around 11 hours at night but my little man seems to like more like 10 or 10 1/2. He did wake up with a runny nose, so he may just be fighting a cold :(

Another day of work for me today...I sure miss my little guy in work days!

How Fast Babies Learn

I am in complete shock that little Malakai, the baby who used to only sleep 30 minutes at a time for a nap, only with me laying next to him, now takes between an hour and fifteen minutes to two hours for his nap without me by his side!  I can't believe he has changed so much in less than 4 days!  

Yesterday while I was at work Kai had an awesome day with Grammie and Pop Pop.  He had an hour and a half nap in the morning, and an hour and fifteen minute nap in the afternoon.  Let me just say here how much I LOVE when Kai first sees me after one of my work days.  It is nothing but PURE JOY!

Last night, we followed the same routine, and my sweetie went right to sleep with no problems.  My alarm worked perfectly (finally), and Kai only woke unscheduled twice.  He had a nightmare around 10pm, and I felt so bad!  But I just came in and put my hand on his tummy and he fell right back to sleep.

I have noticed that he has been getting up 30 minutes to an hour earlier than he had been but I'm sure that will change over the next couple weeks.  I'm not too worried about it.

Technical Difficulties

I have nothing but positive things to say so far about the weaning techniques I've learned from The Sleep Easy Solution. After Kai had a luxurious 2 hour morning nap, I put him down for his afternoon nap and he acted like what I always thought of a "normal" child going for a nap: He brought me a book to read, nursed and pulled off when he was finished, then I put him down in bed and snuggled in next to him. He babbled to himself, climbed over top of me, bounced around a little, and then went to sleep! No crying at all. He then managed to sleep an hour and fifteen minutes, which was wonderful! I've never had such a productive day!

Last night we were a few minutes late getting ready for bed, but it went as smoothly as ever. He was asleep within about 2 minutes of hitting the pillow, although he did whimper a little and turn himself so he had his head on my shoulder.

The rest of the night went really well, except for the fact that apparently I don't know how to work my alarm. Thankfully my inner alarm went off within a half out of whenever we were supposed to get up to feed. Malakai only woke up once on his own, and it was only because of my stupid alarm that didn't go off. This time instead of an hour and a half of screaming, he cried and whined for about 8 minutes and then fell right back I sleep.

HOORAY!

Today I'm at work for both his naps, but Grammie already had him falling asleep without a bottle, so no worries there!

Praying that he continues to progress and by the weekend will no longer be waking up at night!

Day 2 Sleep Learning

So after my post last night most of his feeds went super smoothly. Key word: MOST.

He woke up before his scheduled second feed, so I had to
try and get him to fall back asleep without the boob. NOT FUN. Kai screamed bloody murder for an hour and a half. That's one way to make mama cry! On top of the crying he was angrily signing "more milk" over and over again. It was the longest hour an a half of my life. I cried right along side him and thought many times about just giving up. But I was determined.

Finally my little man fell back to sleep sprawled on top of me, and 15 minutes later I got him up, fed him and put him down. The rest of the night worked beautifully, but man am I tired!

For his morning nap I followed the same routine as bedtime, and after putting him in bed he cried for about 10 seconds and fell asleep. On his own! I left the room, and he has now been sleeping for 2 hours! I'm in awe!

Looking forward to tonight.

7 Days of Sleep Posts...

Sorry if this isn't your thing, but right now it is a huge learning curve for both me and Kai.

As most of you know I have been pulled in many different directions not knowing which way to go to work towards better sleep habits for me and my little man. I have co-slept since the beginning, and have been reluctant to give that up. I have read countless books on sleep training, and am almost always feeling torn by the time I finish them. There are so many different techniques, and honestly I really wish I lived in the day and age where there weren't so many books, suggestions etc. Then I could just go about my business and figure things out day by day, asking friends and family for their personal experiences.

In today's North American culture, it is pretty rare that a mother can afford to sleep when baby sleeps, even though countless books tell us this is one of the best things to do. I think that a lot of us assume that the "sleep when baby sleeps" rule ends after the first 2-3 months. It's around this time that our schedules start to fill up again, your feel like we need to keep a clean house, and get countless other things done.

In most tribal societies when a woman has a baby she is expected to take care of the baby and herself. She nurses baby when she needs it and doesn't think to worry about the number of times baby is up at night, because she's going to be napping right along side her. Nowadays, most of us are working moms, or just plain used to being busy moms! We can't afford to be tired and waking up 5-7 times a night!

So while I struggle with the idea that I am NOT a tribal mother, I have decided that it is about time I get some sleep. I still really enjoy sharing a bed with my son, so unless nothing else works, we're going to continue to co-sleep even through "sleep learning" (a term I much prefer to "sleep training").

The latest book that was recommended to me by an old friend called The Sleep Easy Solution, seemed to be the right fit for us. Basically I've decided to begin to wean Malakai at night in hopes that this will solve his 4-5 average night wakings.

Over the past few nights I tracked Kai's night time feeds and was surprised I the amount he was actually nursing. So I came up with a weaning schedule where I physically get him up to nurse about an hour before he would normally wake to feed. I repeat this throughout the night with each feed a set amount of time. Every night I will reduce each feed by 2 min, and hopefully within a week he will no longer need to feed through the night.

Kai's weaning schedule:

First night: Saturday Sept 8
7:30 Bedtime
8:45pm feed 10 min
10:15 feed 12 min
12:35 feed 14 min
2:30 feed 8 min
4:00 feed 12 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 2: Sunday Sept 9
7:30 Bedtime
8:45 feed 8 min
10:15 feed 10 min
12:35 feed 12 min
2:30 feed 6 min
4:00 feed 10 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 3: Monday Sept 10
7:30 Bedtime
8:45 feed 6 min
10:15 feed 8 min
12:35 feed 10 min
2:30 feed 4 min
4:00 feed 8 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 4: Tuesday Sept 11
7:30 Bedtime
8:45 feed 4 min
10:15 feed 6 min
12:35 feed 8 min
2:30 feed 2 min
4:00 feed 6 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 5: Wednesday Sept 12
7:30 Bedtime
8:45 feed 2 min
10:15 feed 4 min
12:35 feed 6 min
4:00 feed 4 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 6: Thursday Sept 13
7:30 Bedtime
10:15 feed 2 min
12:35 feed 4 min
4:00 feed 2 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 7: Friday Sept 14
7:30 bedtime
12:35 feed 2 min
6:30 Wake time

Night 8: Saturday Sept 15
7:30 bedtime
No Feeds!
6:30 Wake time

Tonight was day one...and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! Instead of reading stories in bed and nursing him to sleep, I brought a comfy chair into my room, and we read stories and had song time and nursies there. When I could see that he was almost ready to fall asleep I put him down in our bed with his stuffed animal and lay down next to him. He whined a bit and for about 20 minutes or so climbed over me and rocked himself. When he was really tired he started to cry and within 7 minutes he was out like a light! And he wasn't even sprawled out in top of me!!! 40 minutes to fall asleep is spectacular for a first night of sleep learning. An hour is said to be average!

Here's hoping the rest I the night goes as smoothly!