This is likely not earth-shattering news for other moms but this was a pretty cool revelation for me....if I want Eloise to sleep for any extended period of time, I must feed her from the bottle vs. the boob. I'm sure other babies adequately feed from the boob and do so in relatively short order but not Eloise. She'll gladly hang out and take her good ole time. And apparently eat only what lasts her 3 hours. Not an issue during the day but I'd like her to sleep longer between feedings at night.
So I first began the new bottle routine for her 7pm bedtime feeding. This started about 3 weeks ago. What has happened over the last 3 weeks? She's sleeping much longer between feedings, has ditched all night time feedings except one and is now only getting up once per night. Seriously amazing results.
Her nighttime routine is now a bottle at 7pm, to sleep before 8pm, up at 3am or 4am for another bottle, then back asleep again until 7am. And this went from getting up 3 times at night to just 1 - all because of the bottle.
She's been very consistent with this pattern so I feel comfortable saying, Eloise is now "sleeping through the night." By all accounts I've read, "sleeping through the night" is defined as a baby that sleeps longer than 6 hours between feedings. Perfect. We're there! We'll ditch that last nighttime feeding when she's ready. For now, one feeding per night is excellent.
Also, my mom and I have both been successful in getting the Monkey to sleep in her crib during the day. How?? With a bottle. Yeah, it takes me awhile to figure these things out. I'll bring her upstairs after she starts yawning. I'll then give her the bottle (she'll drink just a couple of oz since this is post regular boob feeding) while rocking her and it works like a charm. After about 15-20 minutes of rocking and eating, she falls asleep. Full, happy Monkey = a good crib nap.
I will say though, I can get her to sleep faster in the Sleepy Wrap (and save myself 1-2 oz of breast milk) but sleeping in the crib is obviously the goal here. And clearly she needs the extra food otherwise she'd turn away from the bottle. So rocking and the extra food it is. Game on.
My next goal is to get a daytime nap schedule down where she has a morning nap and an afternoon nap at set times every day. But let's not get too crazy here. Rome wasn't built in a day, right?? We'll take just one step at a time. For now, sleeping in the crib during the day is a fantastic milestone for the Monkey and me. And I didn't even drill holes in the wall and hang those 'blackout curtains.' Perfect!
In other monkey milestone news, she's consistently passing toys from one hand to the other. I'm not thinking this is a well thoughtout process yet but she does it often enough that there may be something to it. Also, she's quite the chatterbox, per the video post from the other day. She's quite good at conversations- says something, waits for me to say something, then she talks, then waits until I talk, repeat. It's really cute. And I'm starting to teach her at a young age not to talk over someone like her mommy does. She's well on her way to having great manners.
We busted out the Bob stroller this weekend to see if she was big enough for it and that was a bust. She's still way too small for the jogger. Maybe another 2-4 weeks on that one. I was bummed but it's OK. Apparently there are infant car seat adapters for the Bob but I'm thinking I'll just continue to run solo until she's bigger.
Mike's back from his fantasy football draft weekend with great news - he has Matt Ryan as QB and the Philadelphia Fliers, I mean Eagles defense. Um, what?? Yeah, this all means nothing to me. After I asked lots of questions, my only connection was Michael Vick (which really is not a connection here but it was all I contributed to the conversation) and then we moved on to updates on the Monkey's weekend. Good thing fantasy football is for Mike and his boys. I'd be lost. And I actually do watch football. Am I just watching the half time show?? Whatever.
Ok, last comment for my weekend wrap up - the Monkey loves Links and could really care less about toys. I dumped out an entire box of these Links for her and she now has one in each hand nearly every waking hour. She sucks on them, studies them and passes them from hand to hand. She takes them to the bath, to the changing table, holds one while feeding, brings them along when mommy waters the flowers, and has even fallen asleep with them in her hands. And of course, they are with her when she hangs out on the ottoman, swing and bouncy chair. It's official. The Monkey does not need toys. Just Links. I'm guessing this means our future will be filled with Tupperware, pots and pans and mommy's shoes.
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