A sigh of relief...for now.

Ahh. I can finally breathe a little. The oak pollen that I am super allergic to is starting to drop and my teething baby has also started to settle down. For the past 2-3 weeks night time sleep has been so erratic. When I lay my head down at night, I really didn't know if Nathan was going to wake up immediately, or 7 hours later. The past few nights have been nice. I started the dream feed again, and after the 10:30 feed, Nathan doesn't get up until around 4:00.

Nathan is back to sleeping on his tummy/side. 

Getting him to bed is still not as easy as it was a month ago. Earlier on in the week I was getting super frustrated because I would put him down after he started to rub his eyes, and he would not fall asleep. It seemed like I was doing everything the sleep experts say to do, and I wasn't doing the things they said not to do. Like a good mommy, I was following directions, and it still wasn't going right.

He loves bath time!

1. We have a good bedtime routine that consists of bath, boob, book/short play, lullaby, kiss, put down.
2. Usually during his book/play time, he shows the signs of being tired. At that point, I start the lullaby.
3. I would never rock him to sleep. I always lay him down awake. No sleep props.

All this worked wonderfully for a few months and this month, there was a major blow out. A few minutes after I put him down, he would start to fuss, and then, it would escalate into a cry. I go in, pat him a bit and then leave. He eventually falls asleep on his own and then 10 minutes later, would wake up.

I have finally concluded that Nathan has started to develop separation anxiety. So, to let him cry it out would be fuel to the fire. I know how much it sucks to have separation anxiety, for I have it even now as an adult, so I decided to give the pick up put down method a try.

The first night, I had to pick-up and put down about 25 times before Nathan finally fell asleep. The next night, 4, because he never really escalated to crying, so patting and shushing were sufficient. I feel like I need to make going to bed pleasant for him again. Hopefully then, he will fall asleep like he did before.

I've also moved his bed time to 7:30. I have to calm him down once after he falls asleep the first time, but he's usually down for the night by 8:30. Hopefully, we can move that time closer to 7:30.

As far as milestones go, no major developments this week. He's just perfecting the ones that he already has. I have noticed, that he is babbling more consonant sounds. He's also becoming a better jumper. I feel like he has finally figured out the rhythm to create a fun, continuous bounce on his jumpy seat. He really likes it when I push him back and forth in his jumpy seat like a swing. We may make a trip to the playground soon.

Nathan got a bunch of new toys this. I had just ordered a few things for Nathan on line, but most of them were hand me downs from our nieces' neighbors. So I had ordered 2 indestructible books from amazon and so far, they have lived up to their expectations. Nathan really liked chomping on paper, particularly glossy ads with questionable ink, but now I can rest assured knowing that the paper that he's chewing on is both educational, and non-toxic.

An interesting thing happened today. I was eating my home made saag paneer with lamb while Nathan was playing in front of me. He suddenly looked at me and then intently stared at the food like a dog watching a treat. Since I made the saag with yogurt, I decided to let him try a bit of the spinach. He ate it, and wanted more. I was a bit surprised, so I gave him a bit more. I gave him a few more mini bites and decided to stop after I had given him about half a teaspoon. Apparently, spinach has high levels of vitamin A that may be dangerous to a 6 month old. Plus, there was a bit of salt in the spinach and I didn't want to expose him to too much salt. (Not sure what the limit is right now, but better be safe than sorry). So, my baby likes Indian food. Yay!