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OK, so I started researching online again to see what might be the best way to help William learn to fall asleep on his own. I read that there is a window from 6 months to 9 months to help them learn to fall asleep and they also start to form habits… like if you rock them all the time, they will become dependent on that to fall asleep in the future. So I just don’t want to miss that window. But, I also don’t want him to cry alone… I just feel like if that were me, and I was alone in my room crying - I would want someone to come in and comfort me, you know?

So, Greg and I headed down to LA again this last weekend and I knew that when traveling, it’s just not the best time to start sleep training. We got in at close to 1am into LA on Friday night and he slept most of the car ride. He was doing pretty well in the car, just playing with his toys while he was awake. As soon as he started getting tired, he would get a bit fussy in his carseat, and I would sing him a few songs and he would calm down immediately. About 5-10 minutes of singing, and he would get drowsy and fall asleep. He might be entranced by my beautiful singing voice. Kidding! Anyway, so that would calm him down and he would fall asleep for a few hours on the drive. He did great on the drive with less than a minute fussing total! So, when we got to LA, he got lots of holding, activity, and love from my parents. Then we went to visit our friends Nat and Andrew at La Quinta (near Palm Springs) the following day and he was a pretty bad sleeper that night. He fell asleep around 830pm and he woke up several times within the first hour, and I went to him as soon as I heard him fussing on the baby monitor, and took me about a minute to hold him and he fell asleep and I would lay him back down. But I had to do that about 3x within the first hour and he finally settled. Then, we went to bed and he woke up at 230am and I was half asleep and thought it was 6am and I fed him… while feeding him, I realized it was only 230a… oops. Oh well. Then he woke up at 4am and I held him a little and he fell back asleep and I lay him down again. This was very unusual for him as he typically sleeps through the night and I started to worry it would become a habit. But I also knew he was overtired and that disrupts sleep. At 630am he was up for good, happy but wanting to play. I was TIRED!!! But, I woke up too and played with him. Then we left La Quinta for LA and had lunch with my parents, then drove back to Sac. Tiring wknd for William (that’s why  he woke up so much at night) but he fell asleep in the car and did great, but did wake up once during the 6 hour drive and seemed like he was about to get cranky because he was strapped down in his carseat. I started singing to him again (the butterfly song, rugged cross hymn, twinkle twinkle little star, the wheels on the bus go round and round)… and he calmed down and even got a smile when I did the 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed rhyme. We played with toys for a bit, and when he started getting tired, I gave him his blankey and started singing to him again, and he relaxed and fell asleep.

So, what’s the point of this long story? So, a few nights ago we did our bedtime routine, and I put him in bed awake. He stared at me and started to complain - and I thought I might try singing to him the way I sang to him in the car when he got fussy. Guess what? It WORKED!!! He just watched me the same way when I sing to him in the car, and he rubbed his face in his blanket the same way… and 5 minutes of me singing, and he fell asleep with no holding :D. I did the same thing for his nap the next day and it worked. So a few successful things with this. 1) He didn’t mind his crib anymore. 2) He fell asleep with no holding, fully awake in his crib. 3) No crying!!!

So, is this a successful happy ending to it all? Actually, no. So last night we put him to bed at 9pm which is fairly late for him, and he ended up waking up at 1am. I was so sleepy at first, but started singing to him so that he could fall asleep in hopefully 10 minutes or so. Well, I sang for an hour. Yes, ONE WHOLE HOUR and he was struggling to fall asleep, but for some reason he seemed wide awake. Maybe he was overtired, I don’t know. So, at 2am after a FULL HOUR OF SINGING, he started to cry and I picked him up as I usually do. I sat in the glider and put him on my shoulder and he rubbed his face on my shoulder for a bit, seeming like he was having a hard time falling asleep. His breathing slowed and he fell asleep on my shoulder. I took him to his crib, and of course as soon as I lay him down, he started crying. So, I picked him up again and held him for a little bit, and then put him back in his crib and he started crying again. I sang to him and he would calm down for a bit, but then he would raise up his hands wanting to be picked up. How could I say no??? Well, after about 5x of picking him up and putting him down only for him to cry - I did say no. I looked at the clock and it was 2:45am and I realized - you know what? I am the parent here, and I need to make sure that my baby learns how to fall asleep. He was obviously sleepy because he would fall asleep on me, but he just did not want to sleep in his bed. After an hour and 45 minutes of trying singing and pick up put down method, I realized what I was doing was not working. So, I decided to let him cry a little bit to see if he could find a way to settle himself (It was about 2:46am at that point). I put him in his crib, and he immediately started crying and I told him “you need to sleep now. It’s time for you to sleep”… and I went outside and closed the door as he started crying. It wasn’t hysterical crying but more of a tired cry, so I let him cry for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, I went back inside and told him “I’m here, but you need to go to sleep. It’s time for you to sleep”… and stayed in for 1 minute as he continued crying and did not pick him up. After the minute, I left the room and sat outside with my baby monitor on silent and just watched him try to suck on his blanket and also cry. I wasn’t sure how long I could hang… so I went back in again after 5 minutes and once again said “it’s time for you to sleep. I’m here. But you need to go to sleep” and it seemed he got more upset when I would come into the room. I left a minute later and he cried and sucked on his blanket. I didn’t know how much more crying I could endure and continued to watch the kind of crying it was (tired instead of hysterical)… but I set a timer for myself to go back in 5 minutes (you’re supposed to increase it to 7 minutes or so, but I figured I would do 5)… about 4 minutes more of crying, he sucked on his blankie and kind of put it on his cheek and he was asleep! So, he fell back asleep at 3am and woke up at 645am which is around when he normally wakes up. Under 15 total minutes of crying the first time we’ve done this. Not bad at all.

So, since I already let him cry last night for a bit, I read that I should be consistent so he doesn’t get mixed messages. That would mean more crying later and a confused baby. So, we did his bedtime routine tonight, and I put him back in his crib. I sang to him at first, and he smiled at me (melts my heart) and I sang him about 4 songs. Then he started to get a little fussy, and raised his arms to be picked up. I pat his chest and told him “it’s time to sleep now” and both Greg and I sat in his room as he cried… for about 5-10 minutes I think it was. It was repeat of last night and I knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep while we were in there, as we were amping him up. So, I told him “it’s time to sleep now. I’m here, but you need to go to sleep. I’m leaving now” and we left the room and closed the door. Of course he started crying, and I watched the baby monitor on silent as he cried for 3 agonizing minutes for me. So, I went back in at 3 minutes and pat his chest and again said “You need to go to sleep. It’s time for you to sleep…” pat his chest lightly a few times as he cried and said “ok, I’m leaving now”… and closed the door behind me. I was watching on the monitor debating whether I should go back in 3 minutes or 5 minutes… at the 3 minute mark, he actually fell asleep! So 6 minutes of crying tonight. So, I don’t know. Who’s to say he won’t wake up in the middle of the night crying tonight? I have no idea. Can I handle crying in the middle of the night? Ahhh! We shall see. Btw, I only did this when I knew he was super sleepy. I wouldn’t try the CIO method if he were not sleepy. So, I think that’s the other reason it worked faster, and he’s 6 and half months now and hopefully capable in learning how to self soothe, which I keep reading is a very important skill for a baby to learn.

Off topic - I got William these crackers called Mum Mums - and here’s a video of him eating it for the 2nd time in his life while his Bachan (grandma) and Auntie Les watched him while Greg and I went to go watch Inception in the theaters (great movie). Wow, feeding babies are so much fun!!

Anyway, I hope I can teach William how to fall asleep and he won’t cry too much. I can’t handle it. So, I’ll keep you posted on how things go… Trial and error… And, I will continue to hold him since I love cuddling with him. Just that when it is time for bedtime (and eventually nap time) when he is super sleepy, I’m trying to teach him how to fall asleep in bed. Perhaps other new mommies can learn from my mistakes and successes… as always, will keep you posted on how things go.

Just a few pics:)

Hey William, you ready to take some pics?

I’ll take this as a yes!

You wanna play with some toys?

toy keys!

Your mommy sure is having fun taking pics of you:)

That’s it for now:)

Just a few pics from William’s first haircut (thanks to his Bachan aka grandmother for getting him his very first haircut!). They had these cool car looking seats for the kids and Will got the firetruck!

Yes, his sideburns were super long and out of control!:[ hehehe

He was pretty good at first

Then a little suspicious (”what are you doing to my hair, lady??”)

uh oh not liking it now

“uggggh”

He wasn’t diggin’ the buzzer

Faux Hawk time!

final outcome

I wasn’t so sure about it at first, but in pics it definitely looks cleaner! 2 days later (iphone pics)

Day 3 post haircut - today at the doctor’s office, I took a picture of William while he was waiting to get weighed and his next round of vaccinations (he did great). He looked a little worried… lol

btw, he’s cutting his first tooth! The bottom right is coming in, and the left one is following. Also, his top gums are swollen so that will be coming in soon!

At 6 months he is:

Weight: 22 pounds and 7 ounces (he’s slowing down!) - 95%+

Height: 28 3/4 inches - 95% +

Head circumference: 18 inches - 93%

He’s still proportional, so it’s all good.

I tried doing somewhat of sleep training last week. I let him fuss 5 minutes before he fell asleep which was great because it wasn’t a real cry. Well, he woke up an hour later, screaming. And then he woke up at 4am screaming (our poor neighbors) and we decided to let him cry for a bit. Well, he screamed for a good 7 minutes, and I couldn’t take it anymore (was so stressful for me). That was a very long 7 minutes for me. When I went into his room, he got even more hysterical and I had to pick him up and he stopped immediately and he clung onto me. Well,  the next 2 days he started acting super NEEDY! He started exhibiting separation anxiety and didn’t want to be put down and got really whiny. He’s not normally that whiny, and did NOT want to sleep in his crib. The next night, every time I put him down slightly awake but drowsy, he immediately started crying and freaking out. I kept trying to soothe him in his crib, and he just wasn’t having it. I ended up picking him up and held him and I decided… you know what? I’m just going to stop listening to everyone about sleep training and stuff, because it really isn’t a one size fits all thing, you know? I think I’m just going to have to find a way to approach things differently, because with William I don’t think the cry it out approach will work. He gets worked up and has a fit, and then he gets really clingy and whiny. That night he woke up again in an hour screaming, and then again at 4am screaming again. This is from the same boy that was sleeping without waking (unless overtired) many nights before. And, he tends to go to anyone and isn’t super clingy - but man after that brief crying episode he was a different baby for a few days. He’s getting back to normal now, so last night, I held him for 5 minutes and he was out. I put him down at 730p last night and he did wake up at 10pm crying, and I went in and picked him up and he fell asleep literally in a few minutes, and I put him back down and he was awake at 6am and I let him play in his crib for 20 minutes (he was babbling to himself saying “dah dah dah dah”) until I decided he might be getting bored so I went in to get him for his first morning feed. I figure once he starts liking his crib again, I can go back to putting him in his crib drowsy but awake to fall asleep again. I’ll figure out an alternative way to help him figure out how to put himself to sleep - but for now, I’m taking a little break from crying it out:)

I haven’t had time to post yet, but here’s a quick pic of William’s first haircut at 6 months old (iphone). I miss his full hair already! I don’t think he liked his cut too much… hehehehe

William is 6 months today! So, the time has come for me to start thinking about sleep training. I researched a lot on sleep training, and there are a huge spectrum of opinions from Cry it Out (CIO) to No-Cry Sleep solutions, etc. There are also widely differing views on when to start sleep training. It’s so hard to really know what’s right for your baby and the right way to go about things. I think in the end, you just choose what’s best for you and what’s best for your baby and how you want to approach it. Here are the options we are presented with, and I didn’t want to start any hardcore sleep training until after 6 months, so now that the time is here, I’m looking into it. He’s a great night sleeper, but a short napper. He sleeps about 45 minutes at a time, every 2 hours. He gets the total amount of sleep, but won’t sleep longer than that unless he’s exhausted. He randomly has longer naps when he’s super tired from a late bedtime, but normally his naps are fairly short.

So, my ultimate goal is to be able to put William down every time in his crib, and have him put himself to sleep without me holding him. That is my end goal. He is a cuddler, and I have to say I love holding him and having him fall asleep on me, but I know in the end, we can’t do this forever, so it’s better that we try to find a way for him to get used to falling asleep on his own.

I’ve researched so many different ways to put a baby to sleep on the internet, and a few things did work for me. For a while there, I was able to put William to sleep for both naps and bedtimes fully awake and happy, and he would actually fall asleep while I softly hummed and pat him 50% of the time for naps and bedtime. But then, he started teething and it all went downhill from there. He hasn’t gone to sleep on his own since almost 2 weeks ago. He doesn’t cry anymore in pain, but I think he might be getting used to being held to sleep. So, ideally I wanted to gently break him of this, but I’m not sure if some crying will have to be involved. He doesn’t normally wake up in the middle of the night, just doesn’t want to be put into bed awake and sleep on his own right now, so that’s what I’m trying to teach him how to do. So, here are some sleep training solutions I found on the net:

Ferber method (one of the more popular methods) - Do the bedtime routine, and put the baby in bed awake. Let them cry for a specified period of time. For example, the first day let them cry for 3 minutes and go in and pat comfort them for 1-2 minutes without picking them up, and leave and let them cry for 5 minutes and go in and pat and comfort for 1-2 minutes and leave again, and let them cry for 7 minutes and go back to comfort, then 10 minutes, then go back in and pat and comfort for 1-2 minutes, and repeat 10 minute intervals as needed. The next day add 2 minutes extra to each interval and should work within a week. I heard it worked for a friend of mine in a few days, so I thought about maybe going with this approach. I read in some places not to start until 4 months and other places not to start until 6 months, so I decided if I do go with this approach that I would start at 6 months. More detailed here - http://www.ehow.com/how_4717280_ferber-method-getting-baby-sleep.html

Weissbluth Extinction method (just bought his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child to read) - his sleep training is more strict. Read the baby cues and for naps let them cry for up to an hour without checking on them. For night time sleep, let them cry indefinitely so they learn you will not come in and get them. But, honestly I don’t think I can do this method even though I’m going to read his book - I just don’t think I’ll be able to stick with it. More tips on this site - http://www.ehow.com/how_2107237_use-weissbluth-sleep-training-method.html

No Cry Sleep Solution (Pantley) - The method is to soothe your child when needed until he learns to sleep on his own.  The idea is to soothe him less and less as time goes on. So at first soothe him by picking up, eventually soothe by touching/shushing later and not picking up, then soothe by just being in the room… until eventually the baby learns to sleep on his own. It’s a gentle approach that I kind of tried and semi-worked up until a couple weeks ago. I was able to put him in his crib and he would fall asleep on his own half the time… but it stopped working when he started teething, so I’m trying to figure out how to approach things right now.

Baby Whisperer (Tracy Hogg) - shush/pat and pick up/put down method. I actually did this around 4 months and worked for me as well. As soon as he cries a lot, pick him up and once he settles, put him back down right away, and if he cries, pick him up and once he settles put him back down right away… it could take many times of this in one session, but there should be results in a week, and it’s a bit more gentle. I remember at 4 months I started seeing results after a few days. I think I’ll go with this approach first, and then maybe try Ferber if this doesn’t work.

Disclaimer - I’m totally paraphrasing and some of the methods are more involved than what I described. I might be wrong in the last 2 in describing it accurately, but that’s what I gained from my research and the parts I guess I liked within their methods.

It’s pretty confusing though because there is so much contradicting research out there. All of it is in the extreme. For example, some sites say that extensive crying changes the brain chemistry of children and releases stress hormones that can create nervous/insecure adults later. But, I’m thinking they are talking about hours of crying. And other research says that if you let your baby cry for a few hours, it’s not going to do anything at all. Both different sides of the spectrum, and I figure I’ll take the middle ground and just do what I’m comfortable with. So, my comfort level right now is trying the baby whisperer technique, of pick up and put down.

I did it tonight. William fell asleep while I nursed him at 7p which is a early bedtime for him. He woke up 45 minutes later and I let him cry for about 4-5 minutes of tired crying and then he started screaming. So, I went in there and I picked him up and he stopped immediately and snuggled his head on my shoulder (so hard not to keep him there because it feels so sweet!), but I put him down right away before he fell asleep. He cried almost immediately, and I sang softly and he fell asleep after 15 minutes of looking around trying to decide whether to cry or try to sleep - and he fell asleep while I pat him. I won’t lie, it can be time consuming, but I don’t mind it at all. Afterwards, I left his room so happy he fell asleep without being held, but he woke up 5 minutes later crying. I picked him up and he calmed immediately, and I once again put him back down right away before he could fall asleep. I did that about 5x, and the last time I did it, he cried a little and fell asleep. I left the room, and he woke up a couple times within 10 minutes and cried for less than a minute and fell back asleep on his own while I watched on the monitor. I think he was a little overtired today, but he did great. I’m going to try this method for a week and see if it will work. Problem is that we aren’t always home, so hard to do when he’s overtired. But, I’ll keep you posted on how this is going.

I think I’m like how I am with politics as I am with sleep training. In politics, I listen to both sides for republicans and democrats - I really do see the point of both sides, and both sides can have extremes. I choose to just pick and choose what I think I like from each, and I am in the middle (an independent)… and that just works for me. Both sides have their arguments on why they are right… I get it. But, I’m still in the middle on it… so that’s how I am with sleep training. I’ll pick and choose what I like after researching, and go with what I think works best for me.Will keep you posted on how this all goes!

Here’s just iphone pics of me and Greg today with William (6 month birthday - holla!!) - this photo makes me look skinny, but I’m really not skinny right now. sigh

Greg and William

And here’s a short video of William doing “Bollywood” in honor of Alex Wong getting injured and on SYTYCD and getting eliminated tonight. LOL! I mention in the video I think he’ll be a dancer, but I don’t mean like So You Think You Can Dance style, more like a kid that loves to dance. Gonna be fun when he can walk!:)

I apologize for the quality of the video and the photos. All via iPhone. We go with what works at the moment!:)

yum yum

Greg took this today… just a quick pic for now since I’m slammed at work!

We gave William super watered down rice cereal for the first time at about 5 and half months, and he didn’t like it so much

woohoo!

Look at me! I’ll be sitting up by myself soon!

So, his hair is Out-Of-Control long - it’s just looking messy now, so I think I’m going to take him in for his first hair cut at 6 months. Need to find a place that will do him right… so we shall see!

Sigh… of course after I blogged that William doesn’t cry much, all of a sudden starting yesterday he cries LOUD! I’m not quite sure what’s going on. Our nanny Lorena is also confused because she said she has never seen him like this either. He sounds like he’s in pain, and normally when he’s picked up he stops immediately, but he cries even while being held. It sounds like he’s in pain. I hope it’s not an ear infection or anything. I don’t even know what the signs are for an ear infection. Right now, I’m suspecting he’s teething. He’s drooling even more the past few days than he had before… he’s literally spitting out drool now. And he gnaws on anything he can get his hands on.

So, the last couple of nights he’s been sleeping great, but wakes up 1x in the night to cry. On Sunday night, he woke up at 1am, and immediately starting crying like he was in pain. I went in the room and held him but he still wouldn’t stop. So, I just held him, sang to him, and rocked him until eventually he fell back asleep and woke up at 7:45am. But that took about 10 minutes and he cried for at least 5 minutes of it. Then last night he woke up at 4am crying, and I tried to pat him back to sleep in his crib, and I could tell he was trying to sleep, but something was definitely bothering him. Finally, I just picked him up again and pat his back to sleep and tried to say comforting things that he didn’t understand but he could understand my comforting tone - and he fell asleep until 7:20am this morning, and I saw on the monitor he was awake this morning, but let him just play by himself in the crib until about 7:45am when I fed him his first meal. So, good news is - he’s able to sleep 12 hours now without a feed. Bad news is, he’s crying a lot recently during the day - but at night only wakes up 1x in a 12 hour period, so I guess I shouldn’t complain, but he is crying more than usual during the day though and sounds like he is in pain…  I suspect it’s teething because he does this funny thing with his mouth where he bites his tongue repeatedly. But, we don’t see any signs of swelling on his gums yet, so maybe it’s just starting to come up. I hope it’s the bottom teeth! I love that! I’m keeping an eye on it, and will write more when I know for sure!

William is almost 5 and half months now. On Saturday, we compared William to another 12 month kid, and he was the same height although half the age! Not only big, but he’s tall. It took him a really long time to roll over, because apparently big babies take a longer time because of the extra weight. He’s finally rolling from tummy to back pretty consistently. Some babies start doing this at about 3 months, took our baby longer because he’s so big just like his daddy was (Greg slimmed down when he started walking). Will is 22 pounds now (almost the weight of a one year old), so I’m not too worried about hitting milestones because I know he’ll hit them eventually. Our boy is going to be a tall kid, and super active I’m sure when he’s walking. So, I’m just enjoying our baby boy, and everything will happen in its own time:). Sleep wise he naturally set his own bed time, and ideally he’s in bed at 8pm at the latest. He wakes up 9 and half hours later at 530am right when it starts to get light outside, and I feed him, and he falls right back to sleep until about 8am, and his nanny Lorena comes at that time and they start their day together. So, he gets a good 12 hour stretch. I think if we got blackout curtains, he might sleep straight through without that 530am wakeup time, so I think we’re going to get some curtains and see if that might work.

Here are a few things I’ve been incorporating in the past month, in case other moms want to know what I do with William and learn from my mistakes as well as my successes. I learned SO much from other moms, and pretty much made my own style of mothering from what I’ve learned from them. So, here’s what I do in case anyone just wanted to hear from another mother’s experience. Pretty much to sum up my philosophy on how I go about things -I rather try not to “break him” of any kind of habit, but rather gradually have him adapt to the kind of schedule and sleep schedule that will work for all of us. So, I kind of went with the flow as well as had him adapt gradually the way I wanted things to be with the least amount of crying (as stated before Greg and I don’t do well with crying) and fighting of wills as possible with the following:

•  William was in his room from day 1, and I would put the baby monitor on max volume and would go to him when he started making some noise and his eyes were open, when he was a newborn. I just tried to give him a “secure” feeling as much as possible figuring that’s what newborns need. After about 3 months, I would go to him based on if he really needed me or not, so that now he’ll wake up in the morning and play by himself for a bit, and then I’ll go to him and he’ll give me a big smile:).
• Sleep - For the first 2 months I held and rocked him to sleep almost all the time. Around 9 weeks old, I would put him in his crib awake to see if he would fall asleep on his own. About 99% of the time in the day, he would cry, and I would pick him up and rock him to sleep. At night though, I nursed him and put him in his crib with his eyes open, he would fall asleep on his own in the crib most nights. Right now it’s about half the time if he’s sleepy and not overtired, he can fall asleep on his own during the day with no holding - which is awesome because it was achieved with no crying. If he’s overtired though, I need to hold him to sleep. Around the 7 month mark, I’ll incorporate sleep training methods so he puts himself to sleep on his own every time. At that time, there may be some crying, but I’m hoping since he’s already come this far, it won’t be too tough.
• Thumb sucking - I just didn’t want to deal with him being addicted to his thumb or pacifier and me being worried about when he would kick the habit. So, I tried to not let him have his thumb, and eventually he found a different way to soothe himself - and he likes to suck on his blanket. He never really took to a pacifier either. Now, he loves teething rings, and toys he loves to suck and teeth on. He doesn’t have one thing in particular he needs to suck or chew on, so it’ll be nice to not have to wean him off of anything. It was just a personal preference of mine in not wanting him to be too attached to his thumb or paci. He does suck on his fingers sometimes, but it’s like one or two times a week, so I’m not too concerned about it. He doesn’t have that one reliable self soothing technique though, but for now it is working out OK for us. There’s nothing wrong with being attached to the thumb or paci (some even encourage it for self-soothing), it was more of a personal preference.
• Crying - I try not to let him cry too much. I just don’t want him to get used to that being the way to express what he needs. I realize that’s the language most babies use, but most of the time I can tell the signs before he gets there. He rubs his eyes when he’s tired, and I’ll put him to bed. I change his diaper every 3 hours unless he poops which I’ll do sooner. I feed him every 3 and half hours (sometimes 3) and his body adapted to the schedule. There’s really no reason for him to cry now. The one reason he does cry is when he is overtired and he didn’t sleep enough, and if he’s left laying down and he’s not sleepy or sleeping, he’ll cry… which I try not to let happen too much. Otherwise, we often hear people tell us that William hardly cries - that’s because I figure if he’s fed, dry, and well rested - there’s no other reason for him to cry. And luckily, he agrees…

Mmm… that’s all I can think of for now. This is what I’ve done, and works for me. My style won’t work for everyone, just like other moms styles may not work for me. And everyone’s babies come out fine, it’s just your own parenting style and your tolerance levels - so to each their own :). Also, it depends on the baby’s temperament, and William has been easy on us. So, what kind of baby is William so far? He’s actually a pretty good baby. He’s really chill and doesn’t really cry that much, and when he does start to cry he can be soothed very easily. He’s curious and loves to look around and observe things, and once in a while he’ll smile at someone. Depends on his mood. Sleeps really well at night, and seems to be a secure baby overall. My goal in the end was for him to be a secure baby… it’ll just help with separation anxiety later too I hear. So, hopefully when that stage hits, it won’t be too bad, and I’ll report how that all went.

Here’s a video of him getting stronger and sitting up more taken yesterday. This is the first I saw him do the semi-pushups, and caught it on video!

Here’s a vid of William in all his chunky glory (also taken yesterday), playing a simple game but it’s funny how babies can play it over and over again and love it:)

I’ll post up pictures later. That’s it for now. Hope everyone is doing well!:)

Greg watched William while I worked late yesterday. He took Will for a walk, and took a pic with his iphone. I haven’t had time to take pics recently, so here is this one for now!

I heard or read that it’s never too early to start reading to a baby. So, we started reading to William at about 2 weeks old I think, even though he had no idea what we were doing, and didn’t look at the book at all. Eventually though, he started looking at the pages of Good Night Moon because it alternates from color to black and white with every page turn, and that would catch his attention and he would stare at the book as it magically turned color as we turned the pages. Eventually, he started to hit the book as we read to him, and one day it turned into him touching the pages open handed. He is learning to turn the pages, and he loves reading now:)

We read Good Night Moon every night before bedtime as part of his routine. We give him a bath, read Good Night Moon, and I nurse him and he normally falls right to sleep around 9pm. He still has been waking up at around 4am for a night feed (falls asleep immediately after eating), and at 7-730am he is up for good in the morning and starts his routine. Pretty much up for 2 hours, sleep for an hour or hour and half, and eat every 3 and half hours during the day. No more sleeping in for me anymore. That’s one thing that has changed, but it’s all good.

Here’s a video of William turning pages of his book tonight (4 months 4 weeks - almost 5 months!). It’s amazing how much he’s developing and growing up right before our eyes! It’s crazy. I remember when his fists were clenched so tight it would get all grimy with stuff, but now his hands are open and he is more aware of  how to manipulate his hands. Pretty amazing stuff!

Sorry for the delay on updates. I’ve been so slammed with work, that by the time the day is over I’m pretty exhausted. Plus, we’ve been pretty busy after work. Haven’t had time to really blog much!

This past week, I flew in for work, and it was William’s first airplane ride! I was flying solo with William, so I just put baby boy in the baby carrier, and went to the airport!

Greg helped me check in my bags

Once at the airport, William and I hung out just waiting for our plane to arrive

An hour later, our plane arrived and we boarded. William was pretty tired by then, so he passed out while the plane was boarding.

I wasn’t sure if I should wake him up to have him suck on the pacifier. He normally doesn’t take the paci, but he did suck on it for a bit while we took off, but it’s like a 10 minute journey upwards I think and he fell asleep again after a minute of sucking on the pacifier. I wasn’t sure if I should let him sleep, and I was afraid he would build too much pressure in his ears. I kept putting the paci in his mouth, and he would kind of suck but then sleep… he was just totally passed out!

Sweet dreams William!

Sun starting to set as we headed to LA

My parents were waiting at the airport at the baggage claim area, and they were soooo happy to see William! William was all smiles when he saw them!

He later hung out with his great-grandma. What are you doing with your eye, William??

and my brother (sidenote: if you know any super sweet/cute girls, hook it up!! He’s 28 and successful and a sweetheart with a fantastic fam;) haha!)

I was a little worried about how William would be while I was at work since he wasn’t taking a bottle at all. My mom was able to have him take 5oz twice while I was at work! He did come in 1x in the afternoon so I could show him to my coworkers. I quickly nursed him, and brought him up. Everyone crowded around him and he loved every minute of it!:)

The next night I went out for Deanna’s surprise 30th bday party! Love LA! I always have so much fun! William wouldn’t take a bottle that night with my mom, but it worked out somehow.

The next day, William met my cousin Gloria’s youngest daughter (9 months old) after church service. Hi Lia! It was her nap time so she was sleepy:)

After church we came home and packed and headed back to Sac! William already is a pro!

Back at home, William was happy to see daddy:)

That’s it for now with the LA trip!