Let 'em cry it out...

I've been trying to find time to get on here and give an update..but Tyce is on the move.
At 7 months he has completely mastered the crawl.  He could probably win the gold in a baby crawl race.  He's also pulling up on EVERYTHING.  The coffee table, the couch, the bar stools, the cabinet pulls, the kid chairs, the shelves....everything.
It's quite cute.  Once he pulls up he looks for the nod of approval then proceeds to bang out a mock drum solo on whatever surface is available.  I suspect that he will be an early walker.

Tyce loves his big brother.  He goes bananas just at the sight of him.  If you happen to be holding him, he gets all slap happy and beats you up during the crack up.   Ryder is assuming the roll and becoming more and more helpful.  He's able to keep an eye on him for a few minutes at a time, so I've actually been able to pee alone.  It's great.

The big, big news to share is that Tyce is sleeping through the night.  Yes, you heard right...sleeping all the way through the night!
About a month ago, he began regressing in the sleep department.  He went from waking every 3-4 hours to waking every 1-2 hours.  It was completely exhausting.  I thought I was going to loose my mind.  I mean, I hadn't really slept a solid night through in a year.  When he was in my belly I had to wake up to pee or just change positions.  At 6 months old, I thought I would at least be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Instead he was waking up more.  Insanity.
I knew the waking was just out of habit and comfort.  There were a few exceptions, but mostly once I went in there and picked him up, he was back asleep with in 5 minutes.  He didn't even always take a bottle.  I was at a loss, I had tried the "cry it out" method with Ryder and couldn't do it.  I couldn't even last 15 minutes.  The screaming killed me and I felt like a horrible mom.  But...Ryder also was progressing to longer and longer stints of sleep on his own, so it wasn't a necessity.
This time something HAD to be done...immediately.
So, one night I just said, to heck with this, I'm gonna let him cry.
And cry he did.
Did I say cry?  I meant scream.  Screams like I've never heard.  Luckily, I have a video monitor so I was able to see that no one was actually in there ripping his arms off like the sounds alluded.  One hour...one hour is how long the first episode lasted.  Utter torture.  About 3 hours later, it started up again.  It literally took every thing in my power not to go in his room and pick him up.  45 minutes was the second episode.  About 2 hours later it started up again....another 40 minutes. By this point you can imagine, I was sitting on the floor clutching my knees and rocking back and forth like a loon.  Finally, it was 7 am and he woke up and I rushed in to get him.  I thought he would start screaming in my face, ya know, because he was mad that I left him in there all night.  Nope. All smiles.  Hmmmm?
Nap times were usually the same routine as night.  I would rock him with a bottle, then when he fell asleep I would put him in the crib.  Sometimes he would wake back up and I would pick him back up and rock him some more.  Since the episode at night, I thought lets just see what happens if I don't pick him up.  So I laid him down.  The crying started and I shut the door and sat on the couch.  8 minutes later he was asleep.  I couldn't believe it.   I did a mini jig.  This could work.
Night #2 was mostly like the first night.  More screaming, more of me feeling like the world's worst mom.  But in the morning, all smiles.
Night #3 only had 2 long crying episodes...
Night #4 he woke up 3 different times and only cried for about 10-15 minutes each time.
That's it, the end.  Now he sleeps all night long.  It's been about 3 weeks and we are still going strong.  A few nights in between, he woke up and whined for a few minutes but that was it.
We are still working on nap time, but making progress.
He takes three hour long naps a day and mostly at the same time give or take a half an hour.  In the beginning of this "training"  he would fall asleep in my arms and as soon as I laid him down, boom, awake. So, like the night, I put him in the crib and shut the door.  He would cry anywhere from 10-30 minutes.  Now, as soon as I see the signs of fatigue,  usually the eye rub, I give him a bottle and lay him down.  Sometimes he goes right down and sometimes he just kind of hangs out for 20 minutes or so then eventually just goes to sleep,  Occasionally he will cry for a while, but I just leave him to it.

It's totally crazy that this worked but it did.  And I can't believe that I made it through, but I did.  I think it was more out of desperation than anything.  I just needed the sleep. 
So, while I write this blog for a variety of different reasons, I really hope this helps at least one mom get some much need sleep.  Know that it totally pays off and your baby will not be mad at you or hold a grudge.  In fact, they may even be happier because of the great night sleep they had.
:)

No sleep till...

So all that talk of having a wonderful happy baby may have given me the jinx.
Oh, he's still wonderful and happy mostly all the time, but he's totally not falling into any long restful sleep pattern.
I've been successful in working some sort of night time routine.
Bath and a Meal with Bed time following around 8 or 9 every night.  Sometimes we are off by a half an hour or so, but that's fine.  The first sleep stint usually last around 3 or 4 hours, then it's every two hours.  Sometimes less and sometimes he doesn't want to go right back down, so I end up sleep-rocking him.  (By that, I mean I usually fall asleep sitting up while rocking him)
What gives?
He's a chunker so while Boo seems to be the nickname that rolls of the tongue the most, we also like to call him 'The Meat'.
Naturally, The Meat needs to keep up appearances so each of these wake periods he eats...a lot.  I haven't caved with bringing him into my bed and I'm not going to. I know this would give me a few more hours, but I also learned from past experiences that once done, this is hard to undo.
How long could this possible last?
We started giving him cereal and it makes absolutely no difference.
I mean, he scarfs it down, but he's still wakes up wanting to eat at the same time.  I believe I may have created a human garbage disposal.  I'm not even sure if the 'cry it out' method would even work in this situation.  I would probably only succeed in waking the rest of the house.
For now, I guess I'll just see where we end up.  He's almost 5 months, so I think we are still with in the average as far as sleep.

Another little treat The Meat has been testing out is the capacity and limits of his lungs and vocals.  He can make such a high pitched sound that it almost silences out for a few seconds in each yell interval.  He loves it.  It cracks him up. He's totally discovered that voice and must know how far he can take it.
Maybe I'll have a rock star.  :)

Just to keep current with brotherly love...
Ryder has been so unbelievable.  I had hoped that they would like each other, but all my expectations have been exceeded.  Ryder talks to the baby all the time and the baby actually pays attention.  He'll say, "Hi, Boo!" and the baby's eyes will light up.  They smile at each other and get each other cracking up.  When big brother walks around the room, Tyce will follow him around with his eyes.
And sometimes Ryder can calm him down when no one else can.  It's fantastic.
I just love watching them interact with each other, it melts my heart.  (and I can manage to squeeze in a few chores)

I'm amazed every day.

I just love those two boys.

Welcome to The Club....

My childhood  next door neighbor/friend and his wife just had their first baby boy.
He is adorably huge and perfectly perfect.   
They are now home and my mom stopped over for a visit.
She said they are great and tired.
I wanted to call them and start spewing all my best advice..but instead I decided to write about it.

Since I'm on baby #2 I feel like a pro.  Of course, this is not the case, but I do feel like it is a bit easier the second time around.
Maybe easier isn't the word....but I'm not as nervous or neurotic.  Still a control freak, but I know I'm not gonna snap off the baby's finger while trying to get the onesie on
and when the binky falls on the floor I know I don't have to run it through an hour long sanitizing cycle.

When you enter the world of parenthood it's like joining a club.  You're automatically inducted into it.  Whether you like it or not, the choice is not yours to make.  Every mother wants to tell the new mother what she did with her baby and how her ideas are  the one and only way of doing things.  Consider this your initiation into The Club.  You can't escape it.

Since I've already been through initiation into The Club, I feel it's perfectly acceptable for me to take my turn doing the 'hazing'.  I want to share my knowledge with my friends.
So here it is....
Or here's what I thought when I got home with my first son and what I've learned so far...
(on the subject of sleep anyway)
(and for the record, I, by no means, know it all.  I'm learning something new all the time, even as I type.)

If you're like me, when you got home, you are kinda freaking out.  I thought,
"Oh man, I can't believe they just sent me home with this baby without any instructions.  What do I do now?!"
All you really want to do is sleep.  But, that's not gonna happen.  Not unless you are one of the small percent whose babies sleep through the night right away.  And if you're not one of those you don't wanna hear about it.  You're too delirious from no sleep, like the rest of us. 

So try and hold your eyes open while you read this.  :)

Baby #1 went to the crib for the first 2 months.  I got up every 2-3 hours to feed and rock him.  Feed and Rock.  Exhausting.  He was a fussy baby and I felt like nothing was right.  At 3 months, I had to go back to work.  I was a manager at a restaurant so there were late nights.  The Hubs was on duty until I got home.  Bless him because he had to get up early for work.   I was used to sleeping in (way in) but the baby was having none of that.   So after a while of fighting it, I caved and brought him into our bed.  This allowed for several more hours of sleep.  Awesome.  Awesome, until he never wanted to sleep in his bed again.
This is a battle that is still going on today.  He goes in phases of sleeping in his own room, but he does  still creep in our bed.  I'm constantly trying to think of cool, persuading ideas for him to stay in his bed.  They will work for a while, but  haven't held for the long term.
Lesson learned.
With the new baby I'm holding strong with the crib.
But..
that's not how we started out.
For the first 2 months of his life, he slept on me, on the couch.  Sometimes next to the couch in the pack n' play, but mostly on me.  For whatever reason, I needed him near me and we both slept longer like that.   I knew I couldn't do that for long, he was getting bigger fast and the comfort level was declining.   This go around, I'm a stay at home mom, so I can be consistent.  I started bringing him into his room at the same time every night.  With only a night light, I would rock and feed him, then put him in the crib.   Sometimes he would go down and sometimes not.  I would try and let him cry for at least 5 minutes, then repeat.  After several nights, he started to catch on.  He's still in the crib and we are making progress with longer stints of sleep.  The most has been 5 hours,  never two 5 hour intervals back to back...that would be glorious.   But I'm thankful for what I can get.   We're still working on when and what is a day nap time.  For now, he just racks out whenever and I go with it.  (like now)

I read lots of books and articles on line and I think one thing always holds true.
You and your baby are originals.  There are no two like you.  Learn what works best for your family and roll with that.
One baby will love the swing, one will hate it.  One baby will occupy himself on a play mat on the floor, one will scream bloody murder when you put him down for a split second.
A good thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of phases that the baby (and toddler and young boy)  will go through, but they don't last forever.  So when your baby is screaming in your face and you have no idea why, try to remember that he's not going to do it forever.  It will be hard, but know that it's true. 
On a happier note...
You've grown a person in your body.  Congratulations! It's a miracle!  There will be no other feeling in the world like the feeling when you and your baby are looking into each others eyes and he smiles at you for the first time.  Truly smiles.  It's incredible.  The best feeling and depending on how tired you are, you may cry from joy.

As things come up, utilize The Club.
Call your mommy/parent friends...
they may not have an answer, but
they will have a story to share that you may be able to relate to,
that will make you feel like you are not alone,
at least for a minute.

That's what I do and it still gives me comfort.

So, other members of The Club, please feel free to leave your comments.
Sharing is caring and we can learn a thing or two from each other.  :)