Sometimes you just gotta pick your battles

If there's one thing I've learned about parenting at this point it's that there's always something to work on. Whether it be moving on from the nipple shield, getting on a schedule, sleeping through the night, eating solids or sleeping flat, all of these challenges come with change. I don't know about your baby, but my baby HATES change. She likes what she knows and what she's used to so if I'm going to change it up, you can bet your butt she's gonna have a fuss over it.

So how do I deal with these changes and transitions? One at a time. Yes, in an ideal world I wouldn't promote one negative behavior when trying to fix another but this is not an ideal world and sometimes, I just need to pick my battles. Is it more important to get my baby sleeping safely in her crib or getting her to self-sooth herself to sleep? Obviously, safety is most important so that is the first battle I will face first. If I have to get up and rock her back to sleep ten times a night just to get her to sleep flat in her crib, then that's what I'm going to do. Once we master sleeping safely, we will move on to self soothing herself back to sleep but she can't sooth herself back to sleep if she doesn't know how to sleep in the position I put her in. 

I need to remember that she is a baby and her little brain can only take in so much information and change at once. Baby steps and patience are the keys for change in our home.

Operation Get Baby to Sleep Flat

"Back is Best." This is the one item from my list of "nevers" that I managed to stick to my guns on. Despite temptation, I have never put my baby to sleep on her tummy.

Do you have any Halo products? We have several of their swaddlers (they are my favorite swaddler out there!) and they are known for their slogan "Back is Best" which is embroidered into or printed right onto all of their products. In the past, babies were often put to sleep on their tummies. Recent research indicates that the safest way for a baby to sleep is on their back. Babies should never be placed on their tummies as it can contribute to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

So what if your baby won't sleep on their back? We tried having Joanna sleep on her back on and off for the first month or so and it was a no-go. She wouldn't even lay on her back to play, let alone to sleep. At the time we thought she may have acid reflex so we had her sleep in her bouncer seat so she was upright. It was not the most ideal and safest option but it did the trick.

Now, we are 4 1/2 months down the road and Little Miss Mobile was playing in her bouncer seat while I was cleaning up around her nursery and after a few minutes I look over and see her bent forward about to somersault out of the seat. And that was the end of sleeping in the bouncer.
I knew we needed to start working towards sleeping flat in the near future but I was hoping to ease into it with naps first. This put a damper on my plan. Mommyality hits again. We were going to have to 86 the bouncer (all she had ever known) immediately that night and just do it like a bandaid. Thus began Operation Get Baby to Sleep Flat.

I started off the night with no ideas in my mind of how this was going to work. I put her to sleep like I normally do with our regular bed time routine and then I just set her down in the crib and she immediately woke up screaming her lungs out. I sat there in her rocker listening to her painful wails for about a half hour when I finally decided to go back to the basics. We had just retired the swaddler for sleeping about a week ago but it was time to bring it back. Joanna needs to feel secure when she sleeps and with no support on either side, she panicked. So I grabbed a swaddler, wrapped her up nice and tight and l rocked her back to sleep.

I knew the swaddle would help but it wasn't going to be enough. If I just put her down like that I knew she would wake up screaming again, and this soft mama can't handle the heartbreaking screams. With no ideas on how to make this an easier transition for her, I sat there in her chair holding her so tight, desperately searching my brain to come up with an idea. Then I spotted my boppy in the corner of the room (actually we use the Mambo but for some reason I always refer to it as a boppy). I grabbed the boppy and put it down in the crib then carefully set Joanna right down in the center of it. I held my hands down on her with deep pressure as she squirmed for about 15 seconds and then she settled and was out cold!

Now I got her to sleep but this didn't solve the safety issue. She could easily squirm her way into a position where the pillow could suffocate her. It is recommended that nothing be in the crib with baby during sleep and that includes the boppy. So I waited about 10 minutes until I knew she was in a deep sleep and I lifted her head slightly, pulled out the boppy and put her head down in the crib. She didn't move an inch! I left her room thinking, "5 minutes, this is only going to last 5 minutes."

....6 hours later, Joanna started getting restless and it was time for a feeding! I changed her diaper, fed her and did the same thing as before and she went right back to sleep for another 5 hours! What started out looking like a long night of crying ahead ended up the best night of sleep she ever had!

Operation Get Baby to Sleep Flat was a success!

Never Too Young for an Art Project!

This year was my husband's first Father's Day and I wanted to make sure that he got a homemade gift from his daughter. I know that there's not much a 4 month old can make in terms of a gift but I knew if I got creative, I could come up with something that he could keep to remember his first Father's Day.

So we got out the paper and paint and got to work! I painted her hands and feet and after numerous attempts, I was able to get some prints that looked like real body parts! It was a great sensory activity for her as well. She loved the way the paint felt and was very curious about how different her hands looked purple! I cut out the successful prints and taped them in the card. Then I gave Joanna a pen and let her scribble on the front and to sign her name. Personally, I think this is way better than a store bought card! Here's the final product:

Pretty good homemade gift for a 4 month old!