Ah, summer is here at last. Even though I despise the heat & humidity that Atlanta has to offer, I do love the extra time to spend with my little girl. It's like having 2 extra months tacked onto my maternity leave...and since I only had to work for 2 weeks before break, it really IS an extension! Having a baby in February was perfect timing. Of course Andrew's off, too, so we have all been spending lots of quality time together. This summer is all about sleep training, setting schedules/routines, and figuring this parent thing out. However, being teachers means we'll have endless summers to spend with our little family and make memories. I love it.
Clare is now 4 1/2 months old! She is now quite proficient at turning over...she started rolling from her belly to her back at 5 weeks old but has now fully mastered rolling from her back to her belly, often times with her hands clasped in front of her! So this meant that we immediately had to abandon the swaddler...which was fine since she wasn't sleeping that well anyway. Then we had to worry about putting her down flat on her back (still has a bad startle reflex) or sleeping on her belly. So, the compromise was sleep training...more on that to come....
At the beginning of June, Clare had her second trip to the beach to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. We went to Edisto Island with my parents, sister Libby and her boyfriend, Kyle and brother Ned. Traveling with a baby is hard. Like REALLY hard. We had settled into a routine at home of 3 naps per day and then book, bath, feeding, and bed in the evenings. Being on vacation threw that whole schedule out of whack...and Clare totally took advantage of it. She stayed in the same room as Andrew and I and in order to keep the peace I ended up bringing her into bed each night so she became VERY accustomed to the company of her mom & dad! That ended up being a very hard habit to break once we got home. But we had a great time, ate some delicious seafood and got to dip our little girl's feet in the ocean for the first time. Sweet memories. We're hoping to go back again next summer and are looking forward to building sandcastles, running from the waves and collecting shells. I'm sure, though, that vacationing with a 1-year-old will also have its share of challenges. :)
So anyway after the beach, rolling over + wanting to sleep in our bed + waking up CONSTANTLY without her swaddler = big time sleep training. I was really wanting to wait to sleep train her until she was a little older, but the desperate need for longer than an hour of sleep at a time forced us into action. We took her to the doctor to double check for any lurking ear infections or other reasons why she wasn't sleeping, but she received a clean bill of health from the Doc and it was recommended for us to start letting her cry it out some at night. So, we picked a method to use and a night to start and dove head first into the world of sleep training. We decided to use a 'check and console' method to teach her how to sleep on her own...statistically speaking it's not as effective as a full extinction 'cry it out' method but it made us feel better. Since I was worried I would get emotional while she was crying it was decided that Andrew should be the parent to check on her throughout the night while I stayed in the other room. Basically we put her down on her belly semi-awake and let her cry herself to sleep. Andrew checks on her in 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15, etc. until she's asleep. The first night I was prepared for hours of crying...I couldn't see how she could possibly manage without me (Ha!). She cried for 15 minutes and then slept for 5 consecutive hours, which was more than she'd slept in about 2 weeks. Hallelujah! The second night she only cried for 7 minutes and only 2 minutes on the third night. This stuff really does work! She still has issues early in the morning, usually between 3:30-5:30, because that was typically a time when I would bring her into our bed since I was so tired. That's proving to be a hard habit to break. But luckily we're both committed and even though we're tired, we're trying to be consistent for her sake. She still feeds 2-3 times between 7:00 pm - 7:00 am, but the feedings are a little more structured and then it's right back to bed. My goal is to have a more structured sleep environment by the time we go back to work in August. I'll be posting updates as we go along. :)
In addition to rolling over, Clare is also starting to babble a whole lot. She's discovering that she can change the tone and pitch of her little voice and it's so darn funny to watch her. She enjoys standing in her bouncy seat and exploring the parts with her hands. Absolutely EVERYTHING is now going into her mouth and we've started to rely on frozen teething rings for her to chew on. I even saw her lean down to put her toes in her mouth the other day...hilarious. She smiles and coos each time Marley walks into the room and she gets very excited (kicking her feet, opening her mouth and breathing quickly) when you put her favorite things in front of her, like her little stuffed giraffe or a bottle. Even though parenting has been quite challenging at times, especially when going on very little sleep, things are getting so much better as she gets older and we settle more into our roles. There are still times that I have no idea what I'm doing and am so thankful for wonderful friends and family to be there to listen to my tear-filled concerns and offer countless streams of good advice. But as she gets older the happy times are starting to outweigh the challenging times and we're all figuring each other out. Long live summer break!
