Ferber Baby

I got pretty frustrated recently with people insisting that babies should definitely sleep for 12 hours by 3 months (NO, they do not!) and that I should love rocking my baby to sleep 20 times, at all hours of the night, or morning rather. Of course, I treasure rocking him while he's sleeping and cuddly. It's the best thing ever. But I do not treasure it after the tenth time or at 4:00am.

Then Noah just lost his coping skills this week. Or something. After 2 nights of him crying for 2 hours, rocking, crying inconsolably, until he finally wore himself out and stayed asleep, it was clear that he needed us to do something else. (Not to mention that he slept a fabulous 8 hours after all this crying.)

My new books finally arrived this week. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. I especially like the Weissbluth book. (Thanks, Kerry!) It explains everything without telling you which of the various methods are right for you. Every pregnant woman needs to study this! I only read through a borrowed copy briefly before Noah was born, but at least I had some forethought of what might go on. Sleep is a terribly complicated thing it seems and most infants need help learning how to do it properly. Otherwise, you just endure months or years of sleep problems.

Anyway, we started with the Ferber method last night and Noah cried for an hour and a half before finally wearing himself out. We checked on him at 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and then every 10 minutes. It only took 45 minutes for his morning nap today. It is the hardest thing ever though. I picked him up a few times last night (even though you aren't supposed to) just to calm him a bit. Sigh. We got through it. Of course, last night I dreamed that 2 people made CPS reports on me because they said Noah had injuries resulting from abuse.

Last weekend, Noah had some firsts! He went to the church nursery for the first time and went to a restaurant for the first time. We went out to Blue Goose with my family to celebrate our upcoming birthdays. He did great with both!

I am very excited that Jeremy and I are celebrating our birthday this weekend! We're going to dinner at Cuba Libre and spending the night at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas. Jeremy's parents are staying the night with Noah, which I am feeling guilty about since we just started the sleep training stuff. But it should be fun and I can't even imagine what a whole uninterrupted night of sleep will be like! I am packing the Benadryl just in case. :) Oh, and Saturday morning, Noah and his cousins are having their pictures made together to celebrate Mamaw's birthday that day.

Lots to blog about! We visited the pediatrician yesterday for a little diarrhea check (he is fine) and now weighs right at 14 pounds. Latest pics:

The product of a good night's sleep ;)

Tour de Paris

Last weekend, the Barclay bunch journeyed to good old Paris, Texas. Jeremy and I had plans to ride in the Tour de Paris bicycle rally on Saturday morning, but this was also an experiment. We needed to see how Noah would do with another attempt at a road trip.

The answer...not too badly! He cried off and on for about an hour before finally giving up and crashing on the way there. We arrived just in time for dinner and then putting a fussy baby to bed! My mom had plans for Noah to sleep in the antique baby cradle that generations of our family has slept in. (In case you haven't noticed, the woman is obsessed with old stuff. Just don't ask her about genealogy.) I was more than a little skeptical, concerned about safety and certain that he would not stay asleep in it. I put him down in it asleep and waited. And waited. The kid did not make a peep. He slept from about 7:30pm to 5:00am on the nose! I could not believe it. I'm pretty sure that was his best stretch yet. And of course, I could not sleep. One, because Jeremy and I were squished in a full-size bed when we are used to a king, and two, I kept listening for Noah to wake up and had to go check on him to make sure he was alright! Of course, since returning home, he added back an extra feeding, pushing it back to 2:40am this morning. You can just hear my mom saying, "It was that cradle, Amy! He really likes it."

Saturday morning Jeremy and I took the old bikes out to the Civic Center and rode in the 15K race. I don't know why but 10 miles on a bike sounds pretty simple to me. I was so worn out and my bum is still recovering! (My super athlete husband was totally bored by this.) But we were blessed with a beautiful, pleasant morning and I can say that I finished the race! I wanted to go buy some more Paris Vineyards wine but was too tired. :)

Sorry, we didn't take many pictures to commemorate the event. I was super tired by the time we got home Saturday evening. Noah cried slightly less on the way home. Good car seat training! Unfortunately, he wakes up as soon as you get off the highway and get caught by a stoplight or sign. Luckily, the trip is just long enough that we can feed him, put him in the car, and arrive just in time for the next feeding. We concluded that we probably need to travel more often to get get Noah used to it.

Thanks for all the prayers and advice, my sweet friends! I don't even mind it these days. I will have to start the sleep training soon to get Noah ready for his new babysitter! Praise the Lord, we found someone who comes highly recommended that we can actually afford. She plans to come to our house, at least at first, and will bring her own 14 month old with her.

Have a great week!

Nanny 911

I think we need an intervention. If anyone knows a sleep expert, please advise. I'd even take the Super Nanny at this point. Jo, where are you?? Here is my synopsis of last night:

Last night we probably put him down about 10 times between 7:00 and 9:00 pm, but I lost count. Then he woke up at 10:30, 11:30, ate at 1:00am, up at 4:00, ate again at 5:45. Then back to bed from about 6:30 to 8:00. Jeremy thought maybe he was cold. Not sure since he's never been that bad before, not even when he was eating every 3 hours. It has been getting worse slowly over the past couple of weeks, since he quit going 8 hours sleeping straight through.

I have done lots of reading and everything seems to recommend waiting until 5 or 6 months to let them cry it out. I tried it at naptime one day and he screamed for 30 minutes until he choked himself and I gave up. I was trying the Ferber stuff where you go back in and pat every few minutes, gradually extending the time. Do we just keep suffering through, hoping he'll get over his need for us in the night and go back to sleeping 8 hours? Unless he's hungry, he falls asleep almost as soon as you pick him up.

We are supposed to journey to Paris tomorrow and Jeremy and I have been planning to ride in the Tour de Paris but we'll have to see how things go tonight. This boy is lucky he's so stinkin' cute!

On a positive note, I started emailing around our church's home groups and the school I work for and I have gotten a lot of very nice responses so we may have something firmed up soon that is better for all of us!

I Had a Mommy Moment

I toured the daycare near Jeremy's work today. All I can say is that it had that daycare smell (you know, sweaty kids, poop, pee, and puke all mixed together or something like that) and the baby room had stackable cribs that looked like cages you see on TV at animal shelters. The people seemed nice enough and the place was actually pretty nice, but it was all I could do to get myself out the front door before I burst into tears. Then I cried all the way through the line at Chick-Fil-A and all the way home. Help!

Also, please keep the Nutt's in your prayers. They had a miscarriage over the weekend and are starting up some fertility treatments. Pray for God's will, healing, and a healthy baby (or two) at the end of their long road.

Three Months Old!

Wow! We made it out of the "fourth trimester" and we're on our way to happy baby days and nights of ease! Right? I sure thought so last week! But something happened over this past week leading up to the three month. After a week of great naps and sleeping at least 8 hours straight at night, Noah reverted to sleeping only around 5 hours this week and refusing to nap. He won't fall asleep in the swing anymore and eventually I just have to wrestle the crying, exhausted child to sleep and insist that he stay in bed for a while. Putting him down is never easy (we just laid him down for the 6th time to go to bed tonight) but we are fortunate that once he finally settles in, he actually does stay asleep until he needs to eat again. I read somewhere that if a baby is completely thrown off by minor disruptions to his routine, it means they aren't getting enough sleep.

I am worried because Noah starts child care (somewhere) in a little more than a month and I am certain it will be a shock to him when they refuse to cater to his every whim. Maybe we need to start letting him cry so he can fall asleep on his own and not have a double culture shock when the time comes? I still have not established where he is going to stay while I work. It looks like our only option may be the day care at the hospital where Jeremy works. Sometimes when I rock him to sleep, I think about leaving him there and get all teary-eyed. I always said I would never put my baby in a day care but you do what you have to.

We don't have any stats for this month since there was no doctor's appointment (lucky for him!). When he's rested and happy, Noah is becoming more fun all the time. The boy smiles with his whole body when he is excited. He is getting more and more interested in his toys and is able to hold onto a rattle for a few minutes at a time occasionally. He loves to play and interact with us and prefers to be the center of the show. He is eating up to 6.5 ounces at a time now, which I have heard is a lot for such a little guy! And he's pretty darn cute!

Cute shots with Dad:


This is us trying out his new baby pool and swim trunks that Mimi bought him when she visited this week. As you can see, it was not a hit at first.

But then it got a bit better....

And finally, this strange, cool bath was a little more fun than he originally thought! we will probably wait until he can sit up by himself before we try again!

Fourth of July

Well, for Noah's first Independence Day, I completely skipped out on taking pictures! Not sure why, so I'll upload some recent video instead.



We had a great weekend. Jeremy left work early on Friday and his parents came in and ended up staying the whole weekend, working on the infamous backyard project and trading Dominick and Sophia back and forth with their parents. We had Pei Wei for dinner and I finally drank my Paris Vineyards wine! I have to say it was very sweet (how I like it) and awesome! My mom bought that wine for me a year ago and I discovered that I was pregnant before I ever got to pop the cork!



Saturday, Jeremy's mom and I headed to downtown Lewisville to the Farmers Market with Noah and got loads of fruit and veggies. For lunch, we grilled turkey burgers and turkey dogs, so we had a pretty healthy cookout. I was excited because I can never get Jeremy to agree to mess with the little charcoal grill we have. He assures me he will cook out when we buy a gas grill someday. :) Mandi, Wes, Dom, and Sophia joined us for lunch too! On Sunday, the "cold front" came in and we actually got some rain and highs only in the 80s.



Noah had a great time with everybody. I did learn something I must have in our next home. Besides the granite counter tops, a few hundred more square feet, and the pool I am craving in this summer heat. The baby's room needs to be far away from the kitchen, living room, and all other activity really. Otherwise, its hard to get a good nap in. :)



Best of all, we got some AMAZING news on Friday night that totally made our weekend. Our friends, Brian & Stacie, who have been trying to conceive for the past year-and-a-half, are PREGNANT. We have been waiting on that phone call! Stacie sent a picture of her Clear Blue Digital test to my phone. It's pretty ironic, that she only took that test because of a cheap, fluky test she took that morning that had one faint little line out of place and that she kept looking for the word "not" on the digital test. (See blog about how we found about Noah.) After all this waiting, and a tubal pregnancy, they are beside themselves with hope and excitement. And so are we. They even conceived almost the same time we did last year. Jeremy's dad told them on the day Noah was born not to worry because we'd all be there for them in another year when their baby came. I get goose bumps thinking about the ways God has worked in this. Praise you Lord. Pray for the Nutt family. May it be a perfect, healthy, uncomplicated journey for Baby Nutt.

Here is part of Noah's conversation with his Salty Frog the other day. It was pretty funny but then he started getting a little tired of tummy time...

We shot this little video for Dom & Sophia because they think it is hilarious to watch Noah on the computer.

Celebrate!

After a rather rough day on Monday, and a counseling session by phone with my friend, Jessica, we have had two fabulous days and a great night! He is making improvements in his napping and I discovered that if I let him take his mid-day nap (rather than pushing the nap training so hard) in the swing, he gets at least a two hour stretch and isn't quite so bearish in the evening. Last night, he made it from 7:30pm to 4:30am between feedings and even fell asleep by himself lying in the crib! It is getting easier to get him down for naps as well.

My mom is helping out again today so that I could go to some appointments and run errands. Sorry to document such boring details and not even have a new picture to include but I must document all the ups and downs and not forget anything. I read in a magazine the other day a great quote that basically said nostalgia is just memories without the pain!

Noah is doing well with rolling over but forgets how occasionally. He is becoming even more fun, learning to sit in his Bumbo and taking notice of his toys. He actually held onto a little telephone rattle for about five minutes without dropping it! It was pretty cute because he kind of looked like he was talking on it a bit!

Thanks for all the prayers and love, guys!