I might forget

I remember my mom telling me that she couldn't remember how much Kyli and I weighed when we were born and thinking that I would NEVER forget those details because it felt like they were imprinted on my brain. Well, here we are almost a year later and I find myself forgetting things and questioning myself about stuff that happened less than 2 months ago. So, I am going to blog about it so that I always have something in writing. Sorry, this post is for me, not for anyone else. Hopefully you still get some entertainment value out of it, but probably not :)

Ryan and I used Babywise to help us through the first few months of parenthood. It introduced the concept of a schedule for Cael as opposed to feeding (and everything else) on demand. It doesn't really matter to me what other people think or feel, the schedule seemed to work for us and that is really all that concerns me.

Feeding:

Cael started off eating every 2.5 to 3 hours on a fairly loose schedule as I was off for 8 weeks on maternity leave. He ate every three hours until he basically dropped the 9:00 pm feeding and we worked towards a 7-7:30 bottle followed by bedtime. However, once I went back to work, he was fed (by Ryan) at 6:00-6:30 in the morning and then 9:00-9:30, 12:00-12:30, 3:00-3:30 (no later than 4:00) and 6:30-7:00. We learned through Babywise that often times the earlier you put babies to sleep, the longer (and better) they sleep and it was soooo true with Cael. He was (and is) a great sleeper. Must take after his mom, he loves his sleep!!! My mom was in town for two weeks over Ryan's 30th birthday (Cael was 6 months) and I remember thinking to myself that at 6 months, he was still on the same schedule as when he was a newborn. Given my mom was here (in case he needed a bottle at 7, she could feed him and Ryan and I could still get to work on time), I decided to switch him to a 4 hour schedule and to drop the 6 am bottle. He was on that schedule until recently when we decided to start weaning him off the bottle and onto the sippy cup (around 10 months or so).

Sippy cup:

This one was harder for me. At first we decided to drop the 4:00 bottle and just give him a sippy cup, keeping everything else the same (bottles at 8, 12, sippy at 4 and another bottle at 8). However, daycare suggested we spread the bottles out and give him a bottle at 8 with breakfast shortly after, sippy cup of water at 11 or lunchtime, bottle at 2 (or after his nap - we recently moved this up to 1:30), sippy cup and snack at 3:30, dinner at 6:30 and bottle between 7:30-8:00. He was also switched to one nap a day (per daycare) that started right after lunch and went for as long as he slept. For the most part, he seems to do better on this schedule, but I have to admit it has been harder to adjust to than anything we have done previously (or at least it seems that way).

Pacifier:

I struggled with (and still do) the use of the pacifier. However, I have finally decided that weaning Cael when he is older (and we can bribe him with toys and appeal to his 'big boy' nature with the 'pacifier fairy' and a big shiny toy if he gives up his pacifiers to the wonderful lady who will give them to other little babies in need) will be easier than trying to do it now when the whole concept is still so foreign to him. Who knows?? Not sure it will work, but I feel more comfortable in that scenario than I do trying to take it away from Cael at this age. The pacifier has been a huge comfort to me (and to Cael I am sure) and has allowed me many nights of 'crying free' sleep. I guess I am at a point where I would trade that for just about anything in the world (pacifier wise)! 

This is definitely been a hard road for me at times, but I guess that is why I am trying to get everything down in writing. Not to say, I will use it with the next baby or that it will work, but at least I will have something with which to gauge.