Improved Sleep for All (Thank You, Allison!)

     As some of you may know from our earlier posts, Quinlan has been refusing to stay down for longer than 30-40 minutes for his naps the past few weeks. He has also gotten progressively more adamant about not being put down for naps and most recently for bed. He is more interested in the world around him and would prefer to stay up and play, then he gets cranky and tired and cries regardless of whether you let him stay up or try and put him down.
     We had decided to stop swaddling his arms by his sides as he is now rolling and likes to suck on his hands to soothe himself back to sleep (well, at least at night. He had not mastered this talent during daytime hours.) Mom was getting concerned as she was spending 30 minutes to get him down for only a 30 minute nap. Other parents were consulted and finally a call was made to the pediatrician who told her to "relax, and focus more on his night time sleep," as he was still waking up 3 x a night to feed.
     We were originally opposed to letting Quinlan "cry it out," but he appeared to be crying whether we held him or placed him in the crib. The former just seemed to drive his parents crazy. So, when we went to a friend's wedding Saturday afternoon and our friend Allison watched Q, we told her that it was ok to let him cry some. She took this picture so we could see how happy he was after his 3rd 30 min nap of the day, and when she put him down for nap 4, she allowed him to cry 20 minutes until he put himself to sleep.

     While that was longer than mom and dad had intended, it seemed to have worked as he went down easy for bed that night and has put himself to sleep with minimal fuss for each nap since. He has even started napping for 90-110 minutes! We have also moved Quinlan to his own room and he is sleeping for 5-6 hour stretches waking only 2x (around 11-12 and at 530 AM). He seems much more happy and interactive during the day, as our his parents who have increased their ZZZZs as well. :)

Starting Solids

      We started Quinlan on solids a week ago with his first food being sweet potato mashed up with a little bit of breast milk. He seemed to really like it and would even open his mouth wider to get more in. Here he is in his feeding chair that we have now attached to one of the dining room chairs so he can join us at the table.
     We decided to start solids because he was becoming more and more interested in what we were eating and was more hungry at night despite upping his bottles to 5+ oz/per bottle. Oh, and he loves putting objects in his mouth. He loved the sweet potato so much that we moved on to avocado. Unfortunately we overdid it on the avocado and Quinlan was a little constipated, which led to his 3rd food... prunes.
    

     After the prunes and his welcomed relief, Quinlan was back to a more graduated solid food plan. We are feeding him 1 tsp twice a day after his normal breast feeding or bottle. He really enjoys it, so if he continues to digest it well, we will increase by a tsp every 3 days.
    Other first foods on our list: bananas and pears. Pretty sure he will enjoy those just as much as all the other solids. It has not resulted in longer stretches of sleep at night, well, not yet. He is sleeping up to 4.5 hours at a stretch now.

Story Time

     Quinlan can now sit up in the Bumbo seat, which he appears to like, and will enjoy getting stories read to him in it. Daddy reads to him daily, and Quinlan will laugh along while daddy reads "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". Today Grammy Ann is reading to him.

    The Bumbo seat gives him a little extra trunk support so he can sit upright. We are still working on sitting unsupported, but Q prefers to practice standing.

No napping, but look at my head control!

So we haven't updated the blog for a week and a half since the rhythm of E.A.S.Y. (eat/activity/sleep/you-time) we've been enjoying with Quinlan has changed. The changes started when he would only sleep for a maximum of 45minutes, instead of 1.5-2hrs. According to several books, especially The Baby Whisperer, if babies stop napping or only nap for a much shorter time it's time to upgrade them from a 3 hour rhythm to a 4 hour rhythm. This change comes along with a change in feeding--the milk pup is now consuming 5 ounce bottles, which theoretically enable him to go longer between feeding sessions.

The last two weeks have been a somewhat rocky road compared with the relative smooth sailing of the previous month. Quinlan is still a super happy baby, who still doesn't cry that much--he only fusses when you try and put him back down or swaddle him after he wakes up or if you are late with providing a feed. He is still sleeping well during the night--going down easily around 6 or 7pm waking twice to feed at 11ish and 2ish and then waking for the at 6am. He self soothes at night and is able to put himself to sleep most nights. We are intently waiting for Q to apply this talent to his daytime napping--which is a totally separate situation.