New Addition to William's Crib: A Pillow

We decided to test out a pillow for William in his crib. He has been sleeping just fine without a pillow and we weren't/aren't completely sure at what age a pillow is usually introduced. So we just went for it! He seems to love it. Whenever I go to get him up in the morning, his head is laying on the pillow and he seems so comfy!

William: One Year Old!

Note: pics taken before first haircut, mullet alert!

12 Month Stats

Weight: ___ (dr appt Wed)

Length: ___ (dr appt Wed)

Eating: Schedule 7/11/3/7:30 milk/formula with 8:15/12:15/6 meal times

Will is eating what we eat full time now! He has had food with many spices and flavors. We do try to limit the amount of salt/sodium & sugar he eats, just with him being a little guy still. Most meals start with some puffs or veggie bites while we get his food ready. We dice up whatever our meal in and he feeds himself (usually in the messiest way possible!). He doesn't like us trying to help him, but sometimes it's necessary. We try to get in at least one fruit or veggie in each meal. We also give Will squeezy pouches of fruited & veggies. He's gotten good at squeezing them himself and/or sucking the puree out of the pouch. For dessert, yogurt drops!

I have moved Will to no bottles! He drinks his milk/formula from a 360 sippy cup and he's doing great. I hold him in the lap after his nap and give him his cup. I try to get him to drink about half while I am holding him so I'm sure he gets some nutrients down. But then, I let him take the cup with him and carry it around as he plays. He will stop & take a sip every little bit. Since he's transitioning to getting more nutrients from actual food instead of milk, I am okay with him not finishing every cup I give him. I also off him a sippy of water throughout the day so he becomes used to drinking from different types of cups.

Bedtime: still going down about 7:30-7:45 each night

Naps: At home, Will takes two naps (9:30-11 and 1:30-3:15). At daycare, he's far to busy for his morning nap, so he takes just his afternoon one. Many times, he falls asleep at daycare closer to 1pm and sleeps until 3/3:30. Hmmmmm, maybe because he's so exhausted?!?

Diapers: size 3

Clothes: 12mo clothing, but still wearing some 9mo pants (welcome to the world of being a short kid!)

Favorites: Being with mom! He likes me to be in the room with him & does not like when I leave, even if there are other adults in the room with him. He dives toward me when I walk by him, whether he's on the floor or in the arms of someone else. I love knowing he loves me so much. It makes up for the times he cries when I have to change his diaper or clean out his nose.

Food! He is excited for meals & lets you know if you are late in feeding him ;)

Dislikes: Being helped to do something he thinks he can do by himself. I think we've got an independent little man on our hands!

Development: Will is WALKING! He has gotten very good at walking and now prefers it to crawling. He can carry things as he walks and can stop, pick something up, and stand back up to continue walking. He is pretty big stuff! His walk looks a little like a cowboy getting off his horse after a few days' ride, but he love it. He smiles as he walks around, so proud of himself! It's as if he's always thinking/saying, "Look! Look at me! I'm doing this walking thing!"

William is getting better at playing on his own. Don't get me wrong here, he wants to have an adult in the room with him still! But he's getting better at entertaining himself and moving around to find something to play with on his own. And if we are in one room and he decides to leave us behind, no tears. I guess he likes to be the one making the decision on when he wants to be alone.

Looking Forward To: 

-Winter break for me to have time with William for two weeks! My goal is to conclude breastfeeding over winter break. I'm sure Will will be just fine with it, but the emotional toll it will take on me is another story.

-Christmas! I know it's technically William's second Christmas, but he pretty much slept through the whole thing last year as a newborn. He's much more aware of everything this year!

meals are messy!

William: 7 Months

7 Month Stats

Weight: 17lbs

Length: 27.5in

Eating: Five nursings four hours apart a day (7/11/3/7:30/DF) with a formula bottle at 6pm and solids at lunch and dinner (noon & 6pm); We are doing chunky purees for his solids. I would like to give him some whole food as well (as per baby-led weaning), but we shall see how he takes to that.

Foods Will has tasted so far:
Fruits--> apple, avocado, banana, pea, mango (loves!) peach, plums, prunes, & blueberry
Veggies--> sweet potato, acorn squash (loves!), green beans (dislike), carrots, peas (loves!), yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, & tomatos
Grains--> baby oatmeal mixed in with bananas/blueberries/yellow squash
Protein--> chicken (not a fan of the texture)

Bedtime: Bedtime starts about 7:30pm and Will is usually asleep by 8:15pm. I nurse him right before he goes to sleep, so he's nice and drowsy when I put him in his crib. Almost everytime he is put down to sleep (put down on his back), he rolls to his left side and cuddles up in his blanket. I dreamfeed him and he goes right back down for the night. I would like to wean him off the dreamfeed so he sleeps all the way through the night with no wake-ups. I have started to pull back the dreamfeed a few minutes at a time. I go in about 10:10pm to do the dreamfeed (was doing it at 10:40pm). I'm hoping that by doing this it will stretch out his sleeping and I can eventually drop it altogether.

Naps: Still rockin' two naps a day for about 1.5 to 2 hours. Depending of the length of the day's nap & activities of the day, he may take a catnap sometime between 5 & 6pm. He goes down for his naps awake and falls asleep well on his own (within about 10 minutes). When we put him down, we give him is pacifier & cover him up with his blanket. By the time his nap is over, the blanket is nowhere near being on him anymore. Sometimes he's on top of the blanket or it's balled up next to him.

Diapers: size 2

Clothes: Will is working his way out of his 3-6mo clothes and fully in his 6mo clothes. The solid foods have helped him chunk up and get him into the size clothes of his age :)

Favorites: Always moving! He knows how to get himself from Point A to Point B pretty quickly. There is a mix of army crawl/leg drag & rolling over and over to get him where he wants to be. He is working SO HARD on trying to crawl and he's so close to getting there. He gets frustrated when he's up on his hands & knees rocking but nothing happens. Sometimes he crosses his ankles when up and then he trips himself.

Even though he doesn't like to be stuck in one place, he loves to be held. As long as whoever is holding him is moving around or bouncing him, he loves to be in someone's arms. He likes to touch the face of whoever is holding him as well. And, if you have longer hair, he will see how hard he can pull on it before you stop him (wonderful game, right??).

William seems to enjoy eating solids! He knows what his highchair is for and what happens after he is put in it. He's pretty demanding and will bang on the tray if he's not fed fast enough (such a joy!). As soon as he sees his spoon full, he little mouth opens like a baby bird for a worm.

Dislikes: Green beans!

Development: As we said above, William is working on crawling. I think each day he gets a little bit closer to crawling by himself. He gets up and is so proud of himself, but then loses it and falls back onto his belly or to his side. Sitting is going much better. He can hold himself pretty well once he is put into the sitting position by someone else. He can't pulled himself up to sit yet (that dang head is so heavy!).

Will is working on making a variety of sounds. It's easier to know what his sounds mean now as he uses them consistently in similar contexts. The sound heard the most is a "waa waa" sound that he makes when he is playing with his toys. Bret tries to convince me that he is saying "mama", but it's definitely a "w" not a "m". He turns his head toward whoever is talking near him, even if that means squirming around in the arms who whoever is holding him.

We just had his last of the six swim lessons on Thursday. He really enjoyed being in the water and we will probably put him in the class again to continue his familiarity with being in a swimming pool.

Looking Forward To:
-the last couple weeks of my summer break with Will

(not looking forward to having to go back to work instead of being with Will all day)

Sleeping Through The Night, Maybe?

We have a breakthrough in sleeping! Well, an inconsistent breakthrough at least! William was waking up at the same time each night to eat (somewhere between 2:30-3:30am). I experimented with just rocking him back to sleep to see if it was habit or hunger that was waking him up. Each time, he was going back to sleep and waking again in the 6am hour. Also, William is 3.5 months and weighs over 12 pounds (research supports that he can make it through the night without eating). With this information, I implemented Operation Sleep Through The Night with our angel. He was not such a fan at first, I'll let you know.

I tried it on a night that Bret wasn't home (he's a big softie and gives into the night cries easier than I do). I fed Will at his normal time and put him down to sleep by 8:15pm. I also added in a dreamfeed at 10:40pm to refill his belly and help him last the whole night. The idea behind the dreamfeed is to not wake them, but let them eat while they are still sleeping (the suckling reflex helps this process). His first stretch of sleep had typically been to that 2:30/3:00am time. But, that night, instead of going into his room and nursing, I let him cry. And oh man, did that little guy cry! But he went back to sleep and made it until the morning. I was a wreck and checking the monitor to be sure he was actually sleeping, but Will got his rest! It took a few nights for this to become his new habit and I'm not completely sure he's bought into the fact that he doesn't need to wake up throughout the night, but we are working on it!

His naps are getting better as well. The first nap of the day is always the best, which doesn't make sense to me. He just woke up from a long sleep overnight, so you wouldn't think the first nap would be the best of the day, but who am I to mess with what works?? I would like for him to have three (at least) 1.5hour naps a day. He loves to wake after 45minutes (when his sleep cycle ends and the next is hard to connect), but that is getting better as well. Even as I write, he has been sleeping for almost an hour and 45 minutes. He did wake and cry out once, but went right back to sleep. 

Our little guy is growing up!!

These are all of the little guy sleeping on us, but I'm not messing with is overnight sleep enough to take a picture of him then! ;)

Better Sleep is Upon Us!

William has been stretching out his night sleep in the past few weeks. He started out going for 5 to 6 hours (til about 1 or 2am), then going another 3 hours between wanting to eat. But this week, he's been stretching for 6 to 8 hours. We start his bedtime routine about 7:15pm an he's usually down for the night about 8pm. So with these long sleep stretches, he isn't waking to eat until about 4am! That is a welcome gift for this mama! I still wake and worry, but I'm getting better :)

We attempted to transition Will from his rock n play to his crib for nighttime sleep, but that did not work so well. The first night, he woke every 3 hours. The second night, he barely lasted 30 minutes. I had a frantic texting conversation with my sister, who assured me that he won't sleep in the RNP forever (eventually he will be too long!). So that night, we wiped the slate clean and started the night over. He went back the the RNP and slept great. Guess he just needs to get a little older before night sleeps in the crib. 

Will still struggles with his naps. No matter how many yawns or tired eyes I see, once he is swaddled, he's wide awake to fight the nap. I am still swaddling, then holding him calmly for about 5 minutes before laying him down. More often than not, he cries when I lay him down. He struggles, but does go to sleep. He still has short naps, but will continue his nap on me after he wakes. He is getting enough sleep (especially with his extended night sleep) so I'm not too worried about that. 

Those little hands!!