Being Sara

A few weeks ago Xander had his 6 month checkup. He did great - hated the shots, as all kid do, but his doctor was happy with his development, etc. The only criticism the doctor had was that Xander is not sleeping through the night. He suggested essentially letting Xander cry-it-out for a few nights, and then we would all sleep better. Zach decided that we should get right on the sleep training, so that night we started. We put Xander to bed in his crib - which he hasn’t really slept in (he’s been in a bassinet in our room), and we didn’t give him a bottle in the middle of the night, and we didn’t bring him into bed with us when he woke up. Needless to say, it was a pretty miserable night for everyone.

We didn’t do the full cry-it-out method - we did go in and comfort Xander at regular intervals. We did this Thursday night too, and then Friday and Saturday night Xander was visiting his grandparents. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night we continued in our efforts to get Xander to sleep through the night. We were all exhausted, and Xander wasn’t any closer to sleeping through the night, though he was starting to get a little nervous about bedtime. Finally, we gave up this cry-it-out method. Xander has been sleeping in our bed for the past week, and life has been much easier. Xander stirrs some in the night, and sometimes needs some help finding his pacifier, but for the most part, he sleeps pretty well, and we don’t usually give him a bottle. Some nights he has refused to eat dinner, and then he wakes up crying for food usually early in the morning.

I think in the next week or so we may try to transition Xander to his crib again, but I haven’t come up with any good solutions for what to do with him when he wakes up in the night if he’s in his crib. Since Zach and I both work, and we don’t have much vacation time to sacrifice at the moment, we’ve been doing whatever gets everyone the maximum amount of sleep. So as we continue to try various sleep methods, I’ll keep everyone posted, and if anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, sleep, sleep training, cry it out, no tears, sleep sharing, co-sleeping

After 4 months of heavy drool, Xander is finally starting to get a tooth! I’m starting to see that my child likes to do things in his own way - he’s happy to sit, but don’t ask him to roll over. A tooth decides to poke through, but not on the bottom where most babies start. Instead, Xander has decided to start working on the top row first - which is fine, just a little unexpected. I think his tooth started to bother him on Saturday afternoon when he started crying uncontrollably in the car. The rest of the afternoon and into the next day he was abnormally fussy. We had resisted using Ora gel up until now, but Xander seemed so miserable, that we finally gave in and bought some. We had tried cold washcloths, vibrating teethers, frozen teethers, plastic teethers, massaging his gums, but nothing seemed to help for very long. I think some better rest and the ora gel significantly improved his overall demeanor. The instructions say that we can only use the ora gel for 7 days in a row, so I’m not sure what we’ll do next week if Xander’s teeth are still hurting. It is exciting that he is finally getting a tooth, I just wish it wouldn’t hurt him so much…

baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, teething, baby tooth, baby’s first tooth, teeth, tooth, baby development, baby milestones

Xander keeps growing, and no matter how much we tell him to stay small, he continues to grow, and outgrow various things around the house. I’ve been cleaning out his clothes about every month - taking out the ones that don’t fit anymore. Recently, it has become much more challenging to give Xander a bath in the infant tub that we have - he’s just getting too big for it. Now that he can sit fairly well, we decided to start using just the sink for baths. Xander seems to enjoy the playtime more now. I don’t mind bathing him in the sink, though the tub did make things quite a bit easier. I haven’t yet figured out how to wash his hair without getting at least water, if not soap into his eyes. It’s a bit difficult to get Xander to tip back to wash his hair, since he’s only interesting in playing with the water around his feet. We’ve only been doing this for about a week, so I’m sure we’ll develop a better system, - I just hope that happens sooner rather than later!

<tags>baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, bathing, bathing baby, baby bathtub, sink baths</tags>

So, I know I’m a little biased, but I just wanted to point out that I think we have an incredibly cute, adorable, cuddly, precious, endearing, handsome, engaging child. I know that almost all babies are cute, and no one can seriously and empirically say that their child is above the average cute, but I still think mine is
baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, cute, cute baby

Well, Xander continues to show absolutely no interest in rolling over, but he has mastered sitting up on his own. It’s as though we just skipped over that rolling over phase. When we left for Las Vegas, Xander could sit pretty well when propped against something, or if he bent forward and balanced with his hands. When we got back, he didn’t need his hands to balance anymore - he had figured out how to sit up all on his own! We still put pillows around for those times when he forgets that he’s balancing himself, and topples foward or uses his whole body to look behind himself. But at this point, Xander can sit on the floor (on a blanket and surrounded by pillows) with toys for 20-30 minutes at a stretch! I know it’s a little tough to see in the picture, but there isn’t anything supporting Xander - he’s just hanging out, playing with his keys. It’s amazing how fast they grow!

baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parents, parenting, development, developmental milestones, sitting up, sit up, growing up