Adventures in Eating and Sleeping

This type of post is two-fold. One, as I have mentioned before, I like that I am documenting the growth and progression of Riley in minute detail. For those that appreciate the ridiculous amount of facts and figures I have put forth thus far in this category, here’s another one for ya. For those that could care less, I am sorry.

Two, there are a few cute pictures and a video for you to see today. Perhaps they will make up for the lengthy, wordy text that accompanies them.

Riley has gotten loads better at eating his rice cereal. Granted, the video Kenny took of Riley’s second-ever attempt at solid food is priceless, and it was made all the funnier by his being an absolute sticky mess throughout much of it. Unfortunately, Riley’s cereal meals aren’t quite as funny anymore. Fortunately, he’s much easier to clean up after he’s done.

He’s also gotten fairly demanding during a cereal feeding: he opens his mouth almost immediately after I give him a bite, so I have to be pretty quick with reloading the spoon! And we used to feed him in his bouncy seat on top of the island in the kitchen (top picture), but we just moved him into his highchair (bottom picture). He looks like such a big boy sitting in it.

Riley has also been trying more and more to hold his own bottle, a lot of times with pretty good success. Kenny has reported that he has held it completely on his own for two or three recent early morning feedings. He’s held it himself with me a bit, but never for a whole feed. But he’s making good progress! Not that I mind assisting him at all, but it will be a nice change when he can feed himself.

And now on to the more pressing issue: sleeping. On our errand day last week, Riley and I popped into Barnes and Noble so I could pick up a book that a friend of mine recommended. Called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, it has actually given us some good ideas. After reading a decent bit of it the first day I got it, Kenny and I decided to try implementing some of the methods advocated by the author, with the hopes that Riley would stop waking up in the middle of the night.

First, we moved his bedtime up lots earlier, to around 7pm. So many sources say this is key, so we decided to really give it a try. Even though he did okay with late bedtimes when we were in New Orleans for the holidays, we knew that wouldn’t last.

Second, we also established a bedtime routine. He gets his second and last feeding of rice cereal around 5:45pm. Then he gets a leisurely bath (where he actually squirms and splashes – mostly while smiling – a lot, getting some of his excess energy out before bed), followed by putting on pj’s and reading a couple of books. After that comes his last bottle of the day and then he’s in his crib around 6:45pm.

I know I said in my infamous sleeping post that I thought he was too young for a routine. But this is working. So I take back my original statement. Emphatically.

We really didn’t know what to expect the first night we tried this new bedtime ritual, but he did great with it. And he’s still doing great with it. He doesn’t always fall asleep during his last bottle, but he’s gone down in his crib with little or no fuss for over a week now. Kenny and I have agreed to let him cry for 5-10 minutes after we put him down to give him a chance to settle himself, but he hasn’t put up much of a fight at all.

However, the first few nights after we started the bedtime routine, he was going down easy, but he was still waking up in the middle of the night once or more. And then he had a really bad night. So, we decided to start sleep training the night of January 7.

We’re using a graduated method, meaning we let him cry for 5 minutes until one of us goes in to check. We talk soothingly to him for a minute or less, and then leave the room, no matter what. We wait 5 more minutes, then go in again if he’s still crying and soothe the same way. After that, the length of time between soothing increases to 10 minutes and then to 15. If he still hasn’t settled after the first 15 minutes, we keep going in every 15 minutes until he’s back asleep.

The first night we tried this method, he was back asleep a little less than an hour after he first woke up. The second night required even less time. And the next three nights? He slept for 11, 10, and 11 hours straight. It was magical. I hope it continues.

I’m also trying to get him on somewhat of a schedule for his naps, too. This is what I’m trying to avoid:

   

True, it is very sweet, and I really do love holding him while he sleeps. But it was time to start being consistent and getting him to sleep in his crib during the day as well as at night. The book says to aim for a morning nap around 9-10am and a longer afternoon nap between noon and 2pm, with a possible short third nap in the late afternoon. Most kids naturally fall into this pattern. However, Riley seems to like taking two morning naps and one afternoon nap, as opposed to one morning and two afternoon. We’ll see if this continues or if he slides into the other times. For now, I’m taking my cues from him instead of the clock.

The key with Riley’s daytime sleeping is to watch him for signs that he’s getting tired and to not push him too far. Once I start to see sleepy signs (which should occur one to two hours after his last sleep period), I put him in his favorite position (on his side cradled in my arms against my chest), head into his room, sway from side to side and gently shush him for a couple of minutes, and then put him down.

Since I’ve started doing this, he’s done pretty well. Of course, sometimes I’ve waited just a little too long and he fights it more. And other times I’ve thought he was just about out in my arms but then is wide awake waving his arms and kicking his legs as soon as I attempt to put him down. So the process starts over again. But ultimately, it’s working pretty well.

Also, since he has learned to roll over, we have found him on his tummy a number of times in his crib. This newfound skill prevented him from sleeping in the beginning, and we weren’t sure what to do about it. Leave him and let him cry and hope he eventually rolls back or falls asleep? Go in and roll him back ourselves? I think Kenny has actually rolled him back once, but it turned out we didn’t need to debate about a course of action too much. This is what happened over the weekend during one of his naps:

 

He started fussing shortly after Kenny put him down and rolled himself over. Of course. But he eventually calmed himself down and fell asleep on his tummy for over two hours. This tummy sleeping has occurred a number of times now during naps……perhaps he’s destined to prefer sleeping on his stomach like his momma!

The bottom line, though, is that this is all just one big game of trial and error, and it’s certainly keeping me on my toes. He’s nowhere close to napping at the exact same times every day, but at least we’ve got a consistent bedtime. It’s a start. And the good part about the book we’re using is that it contains information on how to get kids to sleep better all the way up to age sixteen.

I’m confident our methods are working, so we’re going to keep at it. Hopefully he’ll be on a true schedule and sleeping the way he’s supposed to be, day and night, very soon!