Sleep training

Right around when Colson turned 9 months, I decided it was time to start sleep training. Wait, let me back-up ... Colson had been sleeping 6-8 hour stretches at about 5 months, then around 6 months we regressed and he started waking again. By November he was waking up 3 or times a night. Needless to say, I was a zombie. I was tired all the time and stressed out at home and and work. So, there needed to be a change.

When Colson was about 7 months old, I tried the cry-it-out (CIO) method, but could only bear to listen for about 5 minutes. This time, I think I was mentally more prepared and knew that it we needed to work through this.
So the first night, we had 20 minutes of continuous crying, followed by 20 minutes of alternating crying and laying his head down. After that, he woke up once, and cried for about 10 minutes, then went back to sleep. Second night we were down to about 15 minutes of crying, and on the third night it was less than 5 minutes! I had read so many articles about CIO, and sleep training and Ferber-type methods that all said that by the third to fifth night, every baby should be able to put themselves to sleep, but I had no idea that it would work so quickly.

Well, just a few days after our sleep training began, we went to visit my parents. So whenever we are down there, Colson and I always share the same bed, so he started waking again. Once we got home, we kind of had to re-train him.

But now, its been a couple solid weeks of good sleep. He will sleep about a ten hour stretch, then wake to nurse and sleep two more hours. Happy baby and happy mom!!

9 month update

Colson was nine months on December 10 ... let's see ... what do we have to report for nine months? Not much :( He was still not crawling or even pushing himself up to a sitting position. He was able to stand up and hang on to the crib rail if I put him in teh crib standing, but not able to pull up to stand.

Pretty much not too much has changed since 6 months ... his two top chompers have come in all the way - not too fun for nursing - I'll just leave it at that. Still not too into solid foods either, but we just keep at it everyday.

His nine month checkup was a little late, but he weighed in at almost 22 lbs, and is almost 30" tall :) I guess now he's only in the 50th percentile for weight (used to be 90th) and 80th for height (used to be 90th). He sure has been burning some calories for a baby that's not too mobile!

I guess it's mostly doing this: (Cambodian commentary courtesy of my mom - hahaha)

Christmas Photos

I think it's pretty much mandatory to have a photo Christmas card these days. So ... we decided to take our photo in front of the tree again this year ... I attached my trusty sony cybershot to a tripod and set the timer. Here's some that didn't make the card:


And here are the two that made it :)

oh christmas tree, oh christmas treeee

So ever since Nick and I have been living together (hmmm ... that would be since 2003! in our first house in Oak Park), we have always gotten a live Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. We used to get a $20 douglas fir at Home Depot, but we've stepped up our game to the $40 noble fir from Mike's Christmas tree lot, right down the street from where we live now :) Good ole Mike's tree lot -- any tree for $42 out the door! So we always try to find the biggest nicest looking tree to get our money's worth. This year, I think it was almost 10 feet tall!
It was great to take Colson on his first Christmas tree outing :)

catching up (again) ...

I know, I know, part of blogging is that you post routinely -- but have you noticed that I like to post in big chunks, lol :) I don't post something for like a month, then I have a whole bunch to update.

So since our last post, there's been Thanksgiving, Christmas, a trip to southern CA, and the beginning of a new year!

[rolling up my sleeves] Let's see how much I can get done before Colson wakes up! It's 6:40 am.

Thanksgiving - wow that seems like SO long ago now. We spent Thanksgiving with Nick's dad's side of the family. Dinner at Terry and Lori's was yummy - with all the fixings! Colson just woke up (6:45 am) - so more later ...

... ok back to my post (10pm). Where was I? Right, Thanksgiving. It was a little quiet because we were missing some, but it was great to get together with everyone :)

new layout

... so i managed to choose a new look for our blog but am just too tired to make any entries. New updates and pictures to come soon!

8 months yesterday!

Can you believe it? This little boy is getting bigger by the minute (we're nearing 22 pounds)... but not so mobile. Actually he is pretty lazy about trying to push himself up to sit or to attempt crawling. I can stand him up in his crib and he will hang on the the railing, but if he falls down, there is no interest in trying to get back up ... so I guess nothing new to report for eight months on the motor skills. He is major teething right now ... the two top chompers have been showing through his upper gum now for several days, but have yet to break through. In the meantime, lots of cool teething rings, ice and tylenol :(