Experiments

Not only has Ian not been sleeping well at night, if his naps have been in his crib, they have been rather short (10-30 minutes long). If they are in the carseat, Snugli, or someone's arms, the naps are often at least 45 minutes long. Yesterday after two naps that were only 10 minutes long, I was getting frustrated. I was trying to find a way to soothe him without taking him out of the crib because I found that as soon as I put him on my shoulder he'd be fast asleep, but then he'd wake up a few minutes after I laid him down in the crib. I thought well sleeping on his belly would be more similar to what it's like to sleep on my chest. Also, I can pat his back to help him fall asleep. I tried this for the third  and fourth naps yesterday, and it worked! He's had two naps thus far today on his belly. I'd say that the average length of the four naps that he's been on his tummy instead of his back has been about 40 minutes. Much better!

I decided to try having him sleep on his belly last night. Nadia was a little shy of 6 months old when she started rolling over and sleeping on her belly even though I'd put her down on her back, and when I called the pediatrician out of concern about SIDS, she said not to worry about it at this stage. We have the breathable bumper in his crib and a sheet - no blankets or stuffed animals. I hoped that last night would be an amazing night. That didn't happen, but I'm still going to put him down on his belly for at least one more night. Last night was better than most nights recently, but not as good as Monday night. His first stretch last night was good - 5.5 hours. The problem was that his next stretch was less than 2 hours and the third was super short (less than 45 minutes). Since Paul waited for me to come home, Ian went to bed an hour later than he had been going to bed lately which meant that since he started his day before 5:15am, he got less than 8 hours of sleep altogether. Thankfully Nadia didn't get up until 6:30 this morning. I think it will feel like we hit the lottery (no, we don't actually play the lottery) if both children are asleep at 6:00am. Even though last night wasn't an amazing night, at least the last two nights the first stretch has been at least 5 hours long. That's a definite improvement over what he was doing in Florida and when we first got back.

Yesterday I started teaching Nadia to drink from a cup. At first I went cold turkey (had one cup for water and another for milk), but then today I decided maybe the better approach would be to let her keep using sippy cups, but just for water. I am hoping that this will increase how much water she drinks in a day since she likes her sippy cups. Plus if we happen to temporarily misplace a sippy cup somwhere downstairs (they never have been allowed upstairs), it won't be so bad since it will just be water. She obviously hasn't mastered drinking from a cup yet, so it also minimizes the mess if the experiences drinking with a cup are limited to mealtimes. She had to change outfits once yesterday after getting doused with water while trying to drink from a cup. She has definitely shed a few tears today over having to drink water instead of milk in between meals, but she needs to drink less milk and more water. I plan on doing things differently with Ian when it comes time for him to use a sippy cup. The oldest child helps us learn how to do things better the second time around.

Today we're also resuming potty training. This morning she said "pee pee potty" but unfortunately I was in the middle of putting Ian in his swing and by the time I got to her she was standing outside the bathroom door with a puddle on the floor. That was 100% my fault. I need to respond SUPER quickly whenever she says something like that even though many times they are false alarms. This was the only accident she had in the house over a 5 hour time span, but she also didn't have any successes. She told me that she peed in the grass once when we were outside, and at that point she only had a dress on (no underwear) so I have no idea if she really did or not. I put her down for her nap with underwear on with a pull-up over the underwear. I am hoping that by the end of the day she'll have at least one success.