Sleep and Play at 23 Weeks

Dear Hailey, 

Sleep has been stressing me out this week. We've been sleep training you for the longest time. Sleep training for us simply consists of trying to teach you to fall asleep on your own. I'm not even asking you to sleep through the night! 

You've been sleeping on your belly for awhile. But when you started to be able to flip yourself over, sleep just went from bad to worse. Good news is that you are eventually learning to fall asleep on your back. 

Now that you are rolling, we decided to transition you from our bed to your crib. We can't have you rolling off the bed now.

One night you cried for over an hour, so I decided to nurse you to sleep.
The next night, I decided to try the pick up put down method. 3 hours later, you were asleep.
The next night, you whimpered for 15 minutes and fell asleep on your own.
Then next night, you barely fussed for 5 minutes, very quietly, and fell asleep.

So far so good, right?

But then last night, you fussed for about 30 minutes and woke up 30 minutes later.

I'm very frustrated because I know the times you fight sleep are when you are over tired, but the thing is, I try to put you down before you are over tired and you just fight sleep, especially when your big brother and sister are at home.

Today when I would peek in this is what I saw...

Foot gnawing

checking out the infrared light

playing with toes

Finally asleep

Update: I've been reading this blog Precious Little Sleep and the author describes what Hailey is going through to a T. You have officially learned object permanence. To put it sweetly, now you remember who I am and will miss me when you do not see me. For the past few days, I've been rocking you to the point where you are almost asleep and then put you down. You cry for no more than 20 minutes and then fall asleep. Tonight, I changed up the routine a bit and put you down after the lullaby. I expected you to cry and fuss, but you didn't. And 5 minutes later, you were asleep.

Let's see how things go this week. I have a good feeling about this.

Nathan and Hannah,
This perfect weather, combined with no mosquitoes, and no allergies has been the winning combination for long afternoons outside. Usually Hailey is taking a nap inside, you guys are playing outside and I'm doing a little bit of yard work.

You guys really like to play with your scooters, blow bubbles, and draw with chalk.

As I was about to go pull out the non-producing asparagus plants from last year, I discovered a few shoots. We cut them and here was our harvest.

This made for a yummy afternoon snack.

You guys usually aren't thrilled about eating asparagus, but according to you guys, the ones from our garden were pretty awesome! You were picking at them straight out of the pan.

Hailey loves to watch you two play. You both love to make her laugh. 

Hannah had a good idea about putting Hailey's hair in a "ponytail." It definitely gets it out of your eyes.

For the most part, I've figured out how to juggle Hailey's nap times with school pick up. It's much easier because Hailey will now actually fall asleep in the car if you are tired. So one afternoon, we stayed at the gymnastic school's playground for about an hour while you snoozed away in the car.

Hailey, I think the high chair and bouncer is getting old for you. You are no longer content (for too long) sitting in those areas while I prepared dinner. Both Nathan and Hannah liked their jumpy seat, but it was one of those things that we donated a long time ago, so I basically traded some old toys for this new-to-us bouncy seat at a consignment store. As you can see, Hailey enjoys it a lot.

I had to make sure you older kids didn't push her or try to make her bounce too much.

Hannah's getting pretty good at sitting through games. You really enjoy being the letter caller in alphabet bingo. And you are getting pretty good at playing Jaipur, which is rated a 8+ aged game.

Today was the rodeo at school. Nathan decided to dress up as a rodeo clown, so we came up with this silly outfit.

You had a lot of fun at the rodeo and you were so sweet to set up stations when you got home since Hannah was not able to attend. (Hannah has a little cough).

Tonight, we were eating dinner and Nathan picks up a black slice of shitake mushroom, wiggles it around and asks, "What is this thing? Armadillo tail?" We all busted into laughter and upon further analysis, it really sheds light on the variety of foods that we eat. Maybe not armadillo tail, but it maybe opo squash or fish cheeks instead. Being able to expose you guys to different foods is something that I'm proud to be able to do. A few years ago, it was a struggle, but I'm glad and feel very lucky that both of you are becoming more willing to try. Most of the time, if you think you won't like it, Nathan, you squish your face, purse your lips right before you try the food and shake it vigorously the moment it touches your lips. Hannah, you are always so eager to try and eager to say, "Yumm!" but I really have to resort to looking at your face to tell if you really like it or not.

Next week is spring break, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to report on then. Until next week,
Love,
Mommy