baby Archives - Page 5 of 14 - Sunshine and Holly

Graham is (was) 11 months!

By sunshineandholly on October 10, 2013

Dear Graham,

You’re actually 13 months! Where has the time gone?! Here is your 11 month post.

You’ve been on the move. Crawling, pulling up and cruising all over the place. You love to walk back and forth holding onto the couch. And we take laps around the house with you holding my hands. If I try to let go with one hand, you stop and squat. You’re not brave enough yet to try it one-handed.

You are absolutely in love with Lacey and Jack. They, however, are not so enamored with you. They try to escape you by jumping on the couch, but you just pull up and reach over to get them. You love touching Lacey’s feet and letting her lick you in the face. (Gross.) You actually lean over her with your mouth open until she licks you. I try to stop it, but I know she gets you when I’m not looking. Jack is still afraid of you and never lets you get close to him.

As far as sleeping goes, this month has been a roller coaster. But I can say now that we’re back on track and you are consistently sleeping through the night once again.

You’re rocking your 12 month clothes and are in size 4 diapers. We’re doing 3-4 bottles a day of formula. And you’ve been eating any food you can get your hands on.

I gave you some mac and cheese and the first time you had it you loved it. Ever since then you haven’t liked it. I think we need a maternity test. Not sure you’re my son….

You ate an entire slice of pizza at Mellow Mushroom. Where are you’re putting all of that food?!

The sweet director of our local Mother’s Morning Out program let you start a month early. You go two mornings a week and you LOVE it! You never cry when I drop you off and couldn’t care less when I arrive to pick you up. All the other babies that cry must love their mommies more… Seriously though, I do wish you cared just a little bit when I left you. But it would break my heart if you cried, so I guess it’s a good thing you’re Mister Independent.

Love you so much big guy!

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babies | baby | family

Our Experience with the Cry-It-Out Method

By sunshineandholly on September 23, 2013

I think breastfeeding and sleep are two of the most debated and controversial topics out there for moms. I want to support all moms in all of their choices. What we do in our family is what’s best for us, and I don’t judge others for choosing different routes.

Graham has always been an awesome sleeper and I think it’s because he came so early. We would usually have to wake him up to feed him when he was an infant. He was sleeping almost 6 hours during the night by one month. And by 2 months, I think we were up to 8-10 hours a night. 3 months and on was 11-12 hours a night. God bless that little baby!

Our Experience with Cry it Out | sunshineandholly.com

But…all good things must come to an end. And around 9 or 10 months, we really started to have some sleep problems.

I blame breastfeeding. Well, not really breastfeeding, but the end of our breastfeeding relationship. Around 5 months when Graham decided he liked the bottle better (click here to read about my entire breastfeeding experience) I was so upset. I missed all of our snuggle time. So I started to rock him to sleep at night. (Before this we could just lay him down in the crib and he would put himself to sleep.) In fact, I turned into that “creepy mom” that would go into his room after he’d been asleep for a while and pick him up, rock him, snuggle him and kiss him. (I’ll admit, I was an emotional, hormonal mess.) I know now that we really screwed up a good thing by rocking him to sleep.

Rocking worked for us for a while. But around 9 months (when Graham started to get really active) he started fighting sleep. It would take almost an hour to rock. And even then, once you stood up to lay him down he would wake up. It got to be a pretty miserable cycle. AND he started waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes even 4 or 5 times. Then it was super hard to get him back to sleep.

We tried a lot of things, like having a routine and a consistent bedtime, but nothing helped. I even tried letting him sleep in our bed…but between him kicking me, sitting up, rolling over, talking and smacking me – I knew that co-sleeping wasn’t for us.

I never wanted to let my kids cry-it-out, but nothing else was working for us. We tried modified cry-it-out first. (Where you stay in the room with them, but don’t pick them up.) We gave that about a month before we realized it wasn’t going to work.

So I started doing tons of research on cry-it-out. And man, some of the stuff that’s out there will make you feel like a terrible mom for even considering letting them cry. There was one article in particular I read when we were in the trenches of the first week of cry-it-out. The article was so bad that I cried for hours that night – worrying that we were doing the wrong thing and permanently damaging our poor son.

The website that I found most helpful was troublesometots.com. Lots of great information and stories from moms.

So we decided to try it for a week. The first night was absolutely awful. One of the worst nights of my life. Graham cried for 45 minutes. I cried for FOUR HOURS. I think cry-it-out should actually refer to what the moms have to do – not the babies. And sleep training refers to training parents to be able to listen to their babies cry and learn to accept it and not run to their rescue. But the next night was better. Only 30 minutes of crying. The next night was just 10 minutes, and the next was just 5.

I remember thinking, “Damn it – it works…and I HATE that it works!” It goes against everything I feel and everything I wanted to be as a mom. But…it worked for us.

Now when we put Graham to bed, he fusses anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes. But he does go to sleep. And I’m not cruel – if he’s sick or we’ve had a rough day, I’ll still rock my baby.

AND he’s sleeping fully through the night again. No more waking up multiple times. 🙂

We’re all more rested and happier!

Have you had sleep issues with your baby? What methods worked for you?

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Happy birthday to my baby boy

By sunshineandholly on September 18, 2013

To my big one-year-old:

On September 2nd, you turned a year old. Happy birthday to you! How can you already be one? I feel like it was just yesterday we were heading to the hospital-I was worrying about how they were going to laugh and send us home because there’s no way it was already time for you to come…

Your birthday was bittersweet for me. I love this age. You are so much fun right now. We play and sing and laugh and read and color and dance – I love seeing things through your new eyes. But I miss you as a cuddly, snugly baby. The rare moments when you fall asleep in my arms now, I kiss your sweet lips over and over and over – risking waking you up. But you’re too busy these days for kisses and snuggles.

I had no idea how much I would love you. How breathing in your baby smell when I sniff the top of your head would make my heart swell up and tears come to my eyes. How kissing your pudgy cheeks just makes me want to kiss you again and again and again until you get annoyed with me.

And when you do get into a snugly mood – oh how I cherish it. Those wet, slobbery kisses. Your soft little hands holding mine.

No one told me how hard your first birthday would hit me. I want you to grow and learn and become a goofy kid and eventually a mature, responsible adult. But I wish you could stay my baby forever. I didn’t know it would be this hard to watch you grow up.

I love you so much Graham. I hope you always remember how much I love you.

Creative Ways to Entertain Baby (and keep mom from going crazy)

By sunshineandholly on August 26, 2013

Summer days are LONG. I swear, everyday I get exhausted from chasing Graham around and I look at the clock and it’s only 8:55am! I think, “What the hell are we going to do all day?!” Here’s a few ways I keep Graham (and Mama) entertained.

Go to Bass Pro to look at the fish.

Visit Daddy for lunch and play with his calculator.

“Cook.” (Especially helpful for when you are visiting friends who don’t have kids. Instant toys.)

Take selfies with your phone.

Fill an empty tissue box with washcloths and go to town pulling them all out.

A tablespoon or two of flour. This gave me enough time to cook dinner AND whip up a dessert.

Walk around the house…for hours…stooped over like this. No wonder my back is killing me…

Walk at the park. One of my fav things to do!

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babies | baby | family | fun | Uncategorized

Graham is 10 months!

By sunshineandholly on August 24, 2013

Graham – I can’t keep up with these posts! We’re busy planning for your first birthday party, which is a week away!

Here’s what’s new in your 10th month:

Crawling!!!!! Yes – you are mobile. And such a busy little guy! You’re getting into everything now. Keeping me on my toes.

You’ve started rolling around at night and now you love to sleep on your stomach.

We’ve cut back on the paci – you only use it at night.

You celebrated your first 4th of July.

You played with a play kitchen for the first time at your buddy Carter’s house. I know what you’re getting for Christmas. 🙂

You also had your first ride in the Ergo on my back. You liked being able to see better than when I wear you on the front.

You are trying your best to repeat words. At 10 months old you learned how to say teeth. We started brushing your teeth every night. You’ve got 8 of them now!

We’ve been saying colors and shapes to you and you’ve said “yellow” a couple of times. Your little voice is so cute.

You got your first pair of real shoes. You love your new kicks and have been trying to say “shoe.”

Getting you to go to sleep at night is becoming an issue. You can fight sleep like there’s no tomorrow! We’re trying some no-cry solutions, but they haven’t been very successful…

You love to eat and you love to feed us bites of your food. It cracks you up. You’re pretty much done with purees unless they’re in a pouch. I make a lot of finger foods for you (organic veggies, meat, cheese and fruit) and you’re also trying more and more of what we’re eating.

Still loving bath time, but now that you’ve learned to pull up, you’ve been trying to stand up in the tub. Slippery baby!

You’ve also been barking a lot – Lacey and Jack have taught you well. 🙂

Love you, my Busy Boo. My little Mister Mister!