Ahhh - So Behind!

SO, so much has happened in the last few months, that I haven't blogged about! As usual, I just feel overwhelmed and like I can never be as thorough as I want to be, so I just don't write! Well, let me try to sum up a little!

He's almost 8 months now. I feel so guilty because I haven't written very much in his baby book either. Ahhhh! Really, his 'baby book' is facebook, where I wrote dozens of status updates regarding him, his progress, his day-to-day doings. So look there for insight into how Georgie has progressed the last few months! There's tons of pics there too!

4 1/2 mo Pic, Personality, Cry it Out, Sleep,

It's so fun to see Georgie's little personality coming out! He's gotten so much more of it in the last couple months. I've been reading 'Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, and it talks about temperament. It's interesting to note that I already know, even at thus young age, what a lot if his temperament is, and the characteristics that define him.

On a different note, we were going to try the modified let cry (Ferber) method about three weeks ago since he was almost 4 months. I put that on Facebook asking for advice and insight starting this at naptime (versus bedtime - there wasn't a lot of info about doing it for naps, and he doesn't have much of an issue at bedtime). I got LOTS of responses about the cry it out method, not particularly about naps though. One girl said that according to that book (above), He advises to start and establish it with bedtime first, then move to morning nap, then others. Anyway, long story short, we decided that it would be mean to do this method cold turkey when all he's ever known is being ticked to sleep. We'd never even TRIED giving him the opportunity to self soothe. So we decided to try another 'method' that us read about where you rock them to the point of drowsiness, then lay them down awake and walk away (so they see you), and see if they will soothe themselves completely to sleep. Well, I tried it, not thinking it would work, and it DID!!! Several times in a row! A couple times I had to go back in and rock him a little more, but then it would work the second tune. I was overjoyed! That still disnt solve the nap duration issue, BUT he was starting to sleep a little longer for one of his afternoon naps (like 35-50 minutes instead of 30). So that was exciting. I guess I just started thinking that he'll start sleeping longer when ge needs it!

Then, another long story short, he got his four month shots about a week later, and then he just has been fussy for the last two and a half weeks again. PRETTY fussy. I don't think it's necessarily linked to that, and maybe that week that he self soothed was a fluke. BUT, the last fews days I've been reading even more from that book (fascinating!), and paying VERY close attention to his drowsy signs, and trying to decipher HIS little biological rhythms. And keeping a nap log. I'm trying to get a good feel for when his natural naps are. And I'm still just thinking the lengths will lengthen when he needs it. He has been taking longer naps here and there, usually in the afternoon or early evening. Occasionally if he wakes up crying and I can tell he's real tired still, I'll try rocking him back to sleep, with occasional success.

In reading, I've determined that he's bit colicky, but he's not an 'easy' baby. He's on the fussy side, but he's also just really intense, so when he's angry he's ANGRY, but when he's happy he's HAPPY - and there's nothing better than the sound of his adorable boisterous laughs that hrs been doing the last few weeks! We call him our little 'drama king', and I'm definitely noticing his increasing ability to 'read' us (and potentially manipulate us!).

We've been discussing when to move him to his crib for bedtime (currently he does all his naps there, with a routine leading up to it of a diaper change, story, then mountain stream white noise looped while I rock him to the point if drowsiness). We probably will still do 'let cry' to some extent, but we need to move him to his crib for bedtime (I think it's cruel to do the 'cry it out' when he's in the bassinet right next to our bed). I've heard from everyone that the sooner you do this method the better (the younger). But I'm dragging my heels on moving him to the crib because I just so love having him next to me. It will be hard to let go of that! But we will do it soon, as we're also going to introduce solid foods soon, and I don't want to do too much change at once. Anyway, there's some updates!

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George Leaving

It used to scare me when George would leave for work in the mornings. I knew it was just me alone with Georgie all day, and that is a daunting thought. Sometimes it's just so encouraging to have that second person around 'just in case', even if they're not doing anything. Their very presence beings relief. It's gotten a lot better now, but it's funny because I sense that same fear in George when I leave him with Georgie!


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Milestone!

Last week Georgie started looking at and knowingly grabbing and hitting things on his bouncy seat and kick and crawl. He used to do it accidentally (didn't know those were his own hands!), but now it's intentional and it's SO cute! He'll look kindof cross-eyed when he looks at it, then hits the ball or grabs the keys. And he's grasping well now - holds on to the keys and chews them and holds onto and chews the duck on his car seat too! So exciting!
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Napping

So he has been pretty consistent for the last couple weeks about doing 4 half hour naps a day, sometimes even 5! It's still only a total of 2-2.5 hours of day sleep a day, but it seems to work for him. It's so funny - it's like his sleep cycle us 30 minutes. Occasionally it'll be 25 min or 35 min, but usually 30. And the last couple days he's had one 45-50 min nap! Continuing where I left off (it's been a couple days since I started this post) - he took a 2 1/2 hour nap yesterday and a 45 min nap today! I think MAYBE we're turning a corner?! I have noticed that once about every one to two weeks he'll take a long nap (like two hours). It's like he just needs that every so often to just catch up, then he's good. Sweet little little stubborn baby - he knows exactly what he needs and doesn't need! Looooove him in all his little stubbornness!


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Clothes

I think it's funny how now that I have a baby who spits up and drools all the time, I pretty much can only wear my clothes once before they have to go in the wash!


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Blogging

I've decided that it's officially too difficult to keep a blog as thorough as I'd like. I wish that I had always put everything that I put on Facebook regarding pregnancy/baby G, on my blog. But I didn't and so it's not nearly as comprehensive as I would've liked. This hope of being super thorough and documenting everything is really hard for me to let go of, but I'm gonna try. Its so hard to blog, AND Facebook, AND do his baby book (which I haven't even started yet!), AND I'm still surging to finish my thank you's/birth announcements. And all this on top of trying to help my mom with get wedding. It's overwhelming! I'm going to see if there's a way I can save (and maybe print?) all my Facebook posts/pics during this whole tine if my life. Maybe I should contact Facebook about starting a website it company that does just that, for people in my same situation! I could make millions! Anyway, just thought I'd vent that. I'm letting go now.


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