We then tried to let her sleep with us, but that wasn’t working well either. She’s sleep for maybe 30 minutes, then be up just bawling. 9pm turned into 11, 11 into 1am and things kept going the same.

Finally around what was probably 2am, our 30 minute stints turned into an hour and we all got a few hours of sleep. However not nearly enough.

We got her into the doctor first thing in the morning only to find out she had a double ear infection. That’s right, double.

Now she’s on medication and it’s been a long day for everyone. Lily looked exhausted all day but continued having sleeping issues. It just hurts too much.

We’re crossing our fingers that she does better tonight. The medication should be helping and we also gave her infant Tynol. All should help keep the pain down so we can all sleep.

Dear ear infections, you suck. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

After a little while, we go in and give her a hug. Then we sit down and read a story. After a few minutes, she calms down and then we can usually put her back to bed. This time for the night.

Not sure what’s going on, but a hug and a good book seem to do the trick.

And to be honest, the cuddle time is nice too.

Sometimes all we need is a hug and a story. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

They don’t care about what they wear, how they look to others or if they seem to be doing everything a little odd.

As long as they are comfortable, they are good to go.

For example, this is Lily taking a nap the other day.

Lily Napping

She was sound asleep, on her back, at the end of the crib, with her feet hanging out one end and her hands the other.

Somehow this is comfortable.

There is no style like comfortable. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We know when they’re going to get up, when they’re going to go to bed and when they’ll eat. However, now I’m looking at changing that.

It won’t be a big change, but since I have a new job, I’d like to leave a half hour earlier to deal with traffic. That means one little girl will need to be up a half hour earlier.

I figure it’s not that big of deal as she’s usually making noises for a good half hour before she gets up most mornings.

I think it’ll be just as hard, if not harder, on me as I like my old schedule and will have to force myself to get things done sooner than later so I can get everyone else on track.

Lets hope all goes well!

Changing Up The Schedule originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We’ve had it for a few weeks now and it’s working out quite nice. Lily can run around in it and doesn’t have to worry about falling flat on her face like with regular SleepSacks. When it’s time for bed, I pull her little feet out of the feet holes and she’s in a SleepSack. Her feet stay nice and warm too, just like they should.

When we bought her SleepSack with feet, we did buy it a little to big. It’ll work for years to come, but right now there are a few issues with length. Nothing Lily can’t overcome though.

If you like the warmth of a SleepSack, yet hate that your little one can’t run around with it on, check out the new versions with feet. They’re a nice addition to the SleepSack family.

Testing out SleepSacks with feet. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The Dark

Last Thursday, Lily slept her first night in the dark. She didn’t mean to though.

You see, we have a night light that we turn on whenever she goes to bed. However, Dad forgot to turn it on. It wasn’t until she was fast asleep, and we were going to bed ourselves, that we noticed. It was too late then and just let her be.

Lily didn’t notice she was sleeping in the dark and didn’t care one bit.

Come to find out, the nightlight is more for us than for her right now. When we peek into her room, we can’t see her if the nightlight is off. Oops.

I haven’t forgotten the night light since then but may have to continue ‘forgetting’ every once in a while so she gets use to sleeping in the dark.

Sleeping in the dark. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Where is Lily?

We were told from day one that blankets couldn’t go in the crib for safety reasons. Of course, if Lily was swaddled in a smaller receiving blanket, than that was ok.

The sad thing is, we got lots of nice blankets for shower gifts and even home-made ones! They’ve been used, but never for sleeping.

So when is it ok to put a blanket in the crib?

Lily is old enough, and smart enough, that a blanket shouldn’t cause any safety issues. At least I don’t think so. If she doesn’t want it, she’d just toss it out of the crib. Of course, then she’d wake us up to come get it so she could do it again.

As it gets colder out, we want to make sure she’s warm and comfortable. We want to start covering her up, but don’t know when is the right time to do that.

When did you start putting a blanket on your baby?

When can we start putting blankets on our baby? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Sleepy Kitten

There is a lot of advice that comes and goes. Some is easy to do while others sounds like the worst thing ever.

Like when we were told to lay Lily down and just let herself cry herself to sleep. If we did this, she’d eventually allow us to put her to bed, while awake, and she’d just lie down and go to sleep.

First off, that’s to good to believe. We’ve spent a year rocking her to sleep and taking anywhere from 30 minuets to 2 hours fighting with her to get to sleep. Now you’re telling me we can just put her down, walk away and all will be good?

It’s true and I’m not sure how we did it to be honest, but it’s working!

We have a bedtime routine that starts with feeding and the goes to holding her until she falls asleep. Then we’d bring her upstairs, lie her down, and she’d usually wake right up. Then I’d rock her until she was out.

One night, we were tired of trying to get her to sleep so we just walked out of the room. We were giving her 5 minutes of crying before we went back in; that is if we could hold out that long. A minute or two later, she stopped crying, accepted it and then went to bed.

Now we’ve been doing this for naps and bedtime over the past week and it’s worked remarkably well. Most times she’ll cry as we leave the room but soon accepts it and lies down.

Sometimes she’ll talk to herself for a while and we’ve caught her laughing a time or two, but each time she eventually puts herself to sleep.

Then tonight, after she ate, she wasn’t in the mood to be held, so I just took her to her room, kissed her goodnight and walked out. She didn’t cry as she knew what time it was. We were amazed.

I never thought that I could lie Lily down and just let her cry herself to sleep, but we did and it worked. I don’t think it’ll work every time, but she’s gotten really good at it and given us some of our evenings back!

Letting them cry themselves to sleep really works?! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

She still wakes with a really full diaper, but it’s not like her pjs are wet. And since we started using them, we’ve only had one night where she woke up 2am and I think that was due to something different.

If you’ve got a baby who’s starting to wake up way too early in the morning, try some overnight diapers and see if they help. They worked wonders for us.

Overnight diapers help stop Lily from waking up at night. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

This leaves Dad taking care of Lily instead of perusing the internet and writing blog posts.

I’m hoping this is just a phase and it’ll soon pass like all others.

We’re thinking she’s waking up early because her diaper is over full and she becomes uncomfortable. Then once she’s up, she likes to stay up.

So tonight we put on some overnight diapers to see if that’ll help.

Here’s hoping.

It’s hard to update the daddy blog when someone gets up at 4:30am. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Storm Clouds 7/27/10

We’ve had a lot of storms this summer and I keep thinking that they will wake up Lily during the night, but they haven’t. She just sleeps right through them.

Tonight, when the storms rolled through, thunder lit up 3 out of 5 bars on the baby monitor and yet Lily didn’t make a sound.

I always thought shed be more sensitive to thunder storms but I guess she likes her sleep more.

Lily is quite the storm trooper. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

You are getting sleepy.

As I was putting Lily down tonight, she was doing her normal routine of eyes wide open, fidgeting, and not really wanting to go to bed. So I tried hypnotizing her… sort of.

Basically I told her she was getting sleepy. Her eyes were heavy and she waned to drift off into dreamland. I kind of added a bit of a song to it too; even though it wasn’t very well thought out.

A few minutes later, her eyes were closed and she was asleep. I swear she went from awake to asleep in two minutes. This I hadn’t experienced before; well not this fast of an awake to sleep change. My wife says she does that every now and then though.

So now I’m working on a sleepy hypnotism song so that, if it did work, I’ll be more prepared next time. I just need to make it rhyme as I like songs that rhyme.

I’ll post my song tomorrow or in a few days so be sure to check back.

Humm, maybe I should turn it into a book and make millions! How does one go about making a children’s book?

Ok, now I’m just rambling.

Can you hypnotize a baby to sleep? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

So tired

So how did we do it?

First, we cut down her nap time. She was sleeping twice a day a daycare and sleeping 1.5 hours each time. We cut that down to 1 hour at a time and it helped quite a bit.

Second, we fed her more. She’s a growing girl and an empty stomach makes her unhappy. A few extra ounces of milk, or spoonfuls of food, for dinner or before bed has helped.

Third, we take her into her room, close the door and rock her. There are less distractions, no other people or pets and it helps her focus on sleeping.

Lily has been doing much better at going to sleep and I’ve put her to bed a few times in the past week. Maybe it’s all a coincidence, but I like to think I figured something out.

Have I found the secret to putting babies to sleep? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

SPÖKA Night Light

Then, months later, we were at Ikea looking around and came across the SPÖKA night light.

I’m not sure what kind of animal, or whatever, it is, but the glow lights up the entire room and it even changes colors!

It’ll cycle through many colors, gently fading in and out. You can even set it so that it only shows one color if you’d like.

It’s small, made out of some sort of soft rubbery material, and has a rechargeable battery inside so that if the power went out it’d keep on shining.

I’m pretty impressed with the SPÖKA night light and I’m really glad we picked it up on a whim.

I’d highly recommend one if you need a nigh light for your baby, or just a cool light for yourself.

Lily has the coolest Ikea SPÖKA night light. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We still have the same routine, but by 8:30 she’s still wide awake. Same goes for 9 and 10. She just has no desire to go to bed.

She also has no desire for Dad. If I try to put her to sleep she just cries and cries. She doesn’t like me at all. Mom on the other hand can hold her no problem. Lily will sit on her shoulder, suck her thumb and just relax. She won’t fall asleep, but she’ll act like she is.

I’m not sure what’s with this new phase but I’m not a fan. I liked our bedtime of 8 and out by 8:30 schedule and I’d like it back.

Whatever phase this is, it can pass.

So, is there a night owl phase? What’s going on here?

Is there a night owl stage in babies? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Sort Of Sad Lily

I know that a lot of magazines, books and other parents will tell me that you need to let your baby cry. But it’s hard and I give in.

Our little girl falls asleep about 8 and sleeps all though the night. That’s why when she woke at 9pm tonight, something seemed off. She was crying so I peeked into the room just a little and she was sitting up in her crib with big tears rolling down her cheeks. I had to go rescue her.

I’m not sure why she was crying, but I usually blame it on teething, however tonight she seems more un-happy than usual.

I got her calmed down, but she woke right up when I put her down in the crib. Now mom’s using her magic touch to get Lily back to sleep.

I do believe that you have to let babies cry sometimes, but I think I  know the difference between real and fake cries and this one was totally real. I just had to give in.

If that makes me a softy, then I’m fine with that.

I’ll admit it, I’m a softie. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily Waking Up

I’m constantly amazed at the stages babies go though and how quickly they pass.

When Lily was born it took work to put her to sleep and she’d be up every two hours or so.

After about two months she was easier to put down and sleeping a few hours at a time.

Then it got to the point where we only got up once at night.

Then she started sleeping all the way though the night, as long as you could get her to go to bed which took a bit of work sometimes.

Now, at almost 9 months, she goes down pretty easy and stays asleep. Just now I fumbled her as I put her in her crib. I didn’t drop her, but I was sure she’d wake right up; but she didn’t. Not even a peep. When her head hit the mattress she just rolled over and went back to sleep. Amazing.

For all new parents that are struggling with the sleepless nights, they’ll go by fast and pretty soon your baby will be sleeping like an angel.

The amazing sleep patterns of babies. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

In Lily’s mind, it was 7, not 8 and she wasn’t ready by any means.

Sure, our day wasn’t out of the ordinary. She didn’t get up late, her feedings weren’t changed due to the time, but yet she knew something was up.

When we tried to put her to bed she cried and cried and cried. What usually takes 10-15 minutes took more like 45-60. She wasn’t happy and wasn’t going.

Eventually she got tired of crying and fell asleep. I really hope this isn’t an issue all week.

I’m thinking that when she has to get up earlier tomorrow, due to getting to daycare and all, it will help set things straight in her mind.

I can hope at least.

I guess daylight savings time does screw up babies. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

After a minute or two I went in to check on her and she was definitely asleep. I touched her head and she jumped a little, but never changed positions or looked up at me.

After that, her scared little cry went away and she slept good the rest of the night. But it was so sad.

Can babies have nightmares? Or is there a logical reason for why it may have seemed like she was having a nightmare?

Can babies have nightmares? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I just spend the last half hour trying to get Lily to sleep. She usually goes down well, but not so much tonight.

She was tired, we could tell. When I held her and bounced her, she’d fall asleep in 5 minutes or so. Then I’d put her down in her crib and as soon as she touched that crib mattress, her eyes would pop open and she’d be wide awake and crying. I’d then pick her up and have her alseep in my arms less than 5 minutes later.

I did this four or five times before she finally decided to stay asleep in the crib. As I write this, I’m hoping she doesn’t wake back up. I’m also hoping she’s down for the entire night.

Now I know that the comfort of mom or dad is unmatched compared to any crib, but she seems so out in my arms that it amazes me how easily she wakes when I try to put her down.

Why is it babies sleep so good in our arms but wake when they touch the crib mattress?

Why do babies sleep so good in our arms but wake when they touch the crib mattress? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com