Nursing: This was actually a really easy area this week. It really seems like we've gotten the hang of things and aren't currently having many bumps in the road. Last week, I talked about how Cooper was having 2 formula bottles a day and I was breastfeeding him the rest of the time. This has changed some, but probably not how you think. I've actually cut down on the formula and gone back to almost a strictly breast milk diet for him. The reason for this initial change is that I thought the formula was causing some sleep issues with him (I'll talk about those in a minute). I wanted to nurse him instead of the formula feedings to see if it made a difference. To make a long story short - it didn't make a difference at all and it had nothing to do with his sleep issues. Since troubleshooting that issue, I just haven't given him formula much since then. He has gotten two bottles of breast milk since then (we went to a friend's house Friday night to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, and then again at church on Sunday), and I took formula bottles with us just in case, but I haven't given him any. He did have one bottle of formula on Saturday when my sister was here, but he didn't eat much of it so I just nursed him after he drank an ounce.
I know that I sound SO wishy-washy on this subject, but I guess that's just how it's going in my brain, too. The up side to this is that Cooper hasn't been effected at all - he would prefer me to just breastfeed him, so he doesn't really care that I stopped giving him the formula.
Again, I'm just kind of leaving it open-ended: If I decide I want to start putting formula back in, I will. If I don't feel like it, I won't. I'm literally still just taking it one day at a time. When we DO give him a bottle, he still typically only eats between 2.5 - 3 oz. I offered him 4 oz this week (a few times), but he still never went over 3.
Sleeping: Oh goodness. Has this been an issue this week. This was a source of a LOT of stress for me this week, but I *think* we've got it figured out. Here were our problems:
-He was not sleeping AT ALL for his first nap of the day. Maybe 15 minutes. And not only was he not sleeping, he was crying a TON (which is really not like him).
-He was only sleeping for about 30-45 minutes of his second nap, and then waking up and crying for the remainder of the nap.
What was weird though is that both of these problems literally just popped up on Wednesday. We had no problems on Monday or Tuesday, and then BAM! I was due with Cooper on a Wednesday, so I really wondered (and still do) if this was also a wonder week for him.
Basically, until about 1:00 every day, I was constantly having to deal with a non-sleeping, crying baby. Part of motherhood, right? Yes. But what made it even more super stressful was the fact that I have another (equally important) child! It was SO HARD to try and deal with Cooper's sleep issues and take care of Lorelai at the same time. I will stop here and give her major credit - LL handled all of this BEAUTIFULLY. In fact, she was mostly un-fazed by the whole thing. I was the one who was a nut case.
Initially, I thought the problem with nap #1 was that he was so rested from the night that he didn't want to sleep. I thought the issue with nap #2 was that the formula wasn't staying in his tummy long enough and he was waking up hungry. This is why I decided to nix the formula for a day and just nurse him to see if it made a difference. It didn't.
After hours of texting with Emily, I think she helped me figure out a big part of the problem: his awake times were too long! Even though I was waiting for his sleep cue (yawning), he was spending WAY too much time awake and it was making him too overtired. Then, when I did put him down for a nap, he was going to sleep but couldn't STAY asleep. On Saturday, we started watching the clock for nap time instead of watching Cooper. We started putting him down for nap 45 - 55 minutes from when he woke up. Regardless of if he had yawned or not. And this really really helped. He still would take some time to go to sleep, but once he went out, the was SLEEPING!
Then, Matt and I figured out the other part of the problem: his swaddling. Remember when I said in week 3 that I dissevered that he liked one arm out when we swaddled him? He still does. The problem is that it was startling him awake and getting him riled up. We started swaddling both arms back IN, and it has helped tremendously. While I hate doing that because I know he likes it out, we have to so that he'll rest. So far, I've still left one arm out at night (because we haven't had any night issues - praise God), but I think I'm going to attempt putting it back in at night to see if it helps us there, too.
So between watching how long his awake times are and swaddling his arm in, he *so far* has been doing much better with his sleeping this week!
He also is still SO GOOD about going to sleep. I still always put him down awake, and he is, literally, perfect. He doesn't have a paci or anything, and he'll just wiggle and grunt until he goes to sleep. This didn't change this week and I still think that it is SUCH a blessing.
I love how babies sleep in such funny positions! :)
Schedule: In week 4, I talked about how I had to move Cooper's awake time to 6:00 because he wasn't quite making it to 7 and it was messing up our day. I also talked about how my goal for this week was to get him on a consistent 3 hour schedule. Well, I would like to say: goal complete!! While, obviously, there are occasional exceptions, he VERY consistently goes 3 hours between eating. Another change this week - we moved his start time back to 7:00. I didn't really try to do this, it just kind of happened on Monday and then he made it the rest of the week. So here's our new schedule:
7:00 - up for the day/eat
7:45 - 8:00 - down for nap
10:00 - eat
10:45 - 11:00 - down for nap
1:00 - eat
1:45 - 2:00 - down for nap
4:00 - eat
4:45 - 5:00 - down for nap
6:00 - eat (cluster feed)
6:45 - 7:00 - down for nap
8:00 - bath/massage, eat, straight to bed
10:00 - 10:30 - dream feed
1:30 ish -eat and straight back to bed
4:30 ish - eat and straight back to bed
This schedule has worked great this week!! He is supposed to be moving to the 3 - 3 1/2 hour schedule soon, but I'll probably wait another week or two to make sure that he's sleeping solidly for his naps before I change it up on him.
Development/What's Going On: Here are some things that Cooper has been working on this week:
-His cooing! He started to do it last week, but he is now doing it more and more! It is soooo adorable and I love it!
-Smiling. He's only done this once (and for Daddy - so I didn't see it), but Matt swears he was awake (haha) and really did it. Hopefully we'll start seeing many more of these soon!
-Tummy time. I'm really trying hard to give him at least two sessions of tummy time a day. It was super hard this week with how fussy he was, but we still managed to sneak it in here and there.
-Playing with toys. He doesn't actually "play" with them yet, but LL and I have started a new game with him. We'll lay him down on a blanket and put a toy where he can see it. Then, we'll encourage him to knock it over until his arm finally does. She LOVES to play this with him and I think it's good for him, too. Who knows if he's intentionally knocking it over or not, but I'm sure it's good for his development none the less.
Here's a video of this game!
-We went to a friend's house Friday night for a few hours and Cooper had his first blow out diaper. LL NEVER had one, but we kind of figured that we wouldn't get that lucky again. When we got home and I took him out of his car seat, his back was just covered. It was disgusting.
-For the first time EVER (with LL AND Cooper), I cut one of my kids with the fingernail clippers, so poor Cooper's toe got a boo boo. :(
Here are some random pictures of him this week:
LL was very into holding him and spending time with him this day.
Here's a video of LL reading a book to Cooper!
Ben was in town and came over to visit and love on Cooper!
This is a video of Cooper making a funny face.
Me: Gosh - I was SUPER stressed this week with all of his sleeping drama. This was probably one of the worst weeks since Matt was gone a few weeks ago. Thankfully it is over and I'm optimistic that we've gotten his sleep issues figured out and that this week will be a better week.
We've also been having a LOT of issues with LL being disobedient to us. We've tried to just be patient and know that it's probably a result of both her age and having a new baby, but it REALLY wore me down this week. I also think that it's not helping that she's in the house with me a TON and I just can't keep her occupied like I used to be able to before Cooper came. This also didn't help my stress level this week. She starts school in a couple of weeks and I really think that it's something she needs right now. She CRAVES social interaction with her peers, and I think it will help her to have something that is just "hers".
I did lose another pound this week (probably from being so stressed), so I'm typically sitting 3 - 4 lbs UNDER my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm still pumped about that!
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