On Sunday night Oliver went down at an unusual time (around 7pm). At first I thought it was a really late third nap. I expected him to wake up within the hour and figured I'd feed him again and he'd go down "for real" sometime later than 9pm. When he was still asleep at 8:30pm, I decided maybe it already was "for real" and went to bed myself. I woke up at 3:25am and couldn't believe that I'd been asleep for 7 hours straight. That hasn't happened in 5 months. It felt GREAT. The reason I woke up was I was full of milk - to the point that I was uncomfortable and couldn't sleep. I checked on Oliver (why is it we worry our baby isn't breathing if he is sleeping longer than usual?), and then lay awake in bed until he woke up at 3:45am. He slept almost 10 hours straight! Wow! He went from 5-6 hours to 10 hours straight in one night! Maybe just maybe Oliver will never have to cry it out. Oh how awesome that would be. Time will tell. The downside was that when he got up he thought it was time to start his day, and 4:45 is a bit early for that! It took me a little more than 2 hours to get him down, but eventually he went back to sleep for another 90 minutes. He slept almost 11.5 hours altogether that night between the hours of 7pm and 8:30am. Amazing!!! Usually he gets at the most 9 hours of sleep during that time span.
He took 2 naps on Monday. The first was fairly typical (2 hours), but the second was shorter than usual (25 minutes). I gave the kids baths Monday night around 7pm. It was the first time Oliver didn't cry during a bath. I give him a bath an average of 1-2 times a week (I mention that because I know some moms bathe their babies every day). Shortly after his nap he fell asleep. Because I didn't want 7pm to become his normal bed time (particularly if he's going to get up at 5am every morning) and also because the Steelers were on last night, I woke him up and kept him up until 8:40pm. Maybe that was a mistake. I only stayed up until 9:20pm (because I value sleep more than watching football), but Oliver was up again a little after midnight. I was expecting at least a 6 hour stretch and hoping it might be closer to 10 hours; so I really wasn't happy about getting less than 3 hours of sleep that first stretch. One time within the last week his second stretch was the 5-6 hour one (usually it's the first), but that didn't happen either last night. He was up for 1.75 hours (ugh!) and then slept for 3.25 hours. Since one feeding per night has been the norm lately, it was hard to go back to two feedings last night, particularly when the first feeding lasted almost 2 hours. For several weeks I've been getting an average of 7 hours of sleep a night. Last night I only got a little over 5 hours total. Sigh.
November 12th was also a momentous occasion for Paul because he wrote five cover letters in one day in addition to finalizing the date and time of his January defense. He has submitted a total of ten applications thus far - three that start in January and seven that start next fall. He plans to submit three more applications this week (all for the fall). Of those thirteen, three are to schools in PA, three in WV, one in VA, one in MD, one in RI, one in NJ, one in MA, and two in NY. I'll keep checking HigherEdJobs.com for him every day for any additional jobs that could be posted in the next few months. We're praying for interviews and then job offers!
Although I've been keeping track of how much Oliver sleeps, I haven't been keep track of how much he consumes by bottle. I think the main reason I haven't kept track of that (even during the time he was getting EBM in his bottles) is because I have no idea how much he consumes through nursing. The past two days I did keep track of how much he consumed by bottle, and the total was 8 ounces a day. I went back to work when Nadia and Ian were 8 weeks old. Nadia had one bottle feeding a day because of my going back to work and on the days I didn't work that meant Paul could do one of her feedings during the night. I looked back and read that she was getting 4 ounces per feeding. So Oliver is only getting what would have been two bottles a day for Nadia. In her case it wasn't to supplement. She gained weight very nicely without the bottles. Just in case boosting my supply would help, I ordered some Fenugreek from Amazon, and it should arrive today. I figure it can't hurt. Maple syrup smell here I come!
On Sunday night Oliver went down at an unusual time (around 7pm). At first I thought it was a really late third nap. I expected him to wake up within the hour and figured I'd feed him again and he'd go down "for real" sometime later than 9pm. When he was still asleep at 8:30pm, I decided maybe it already was "for real" and went to bed myself. I woke up at 3:25am and couldn't believe that I'd been asleep for 7 hours straight. That hasn't happened in 5 months. It felt GREAT. The reason I woke up was I was full of milk - to the point that I was uncomfortable and couldn't sleep. I checked on Oliver (why is it we worry our baby isn't breathing if he is sleeping longer than usual?), and then lay awake in bed until he woke up at 3:45am. He slept almost 10 hours straight! Wow! He went from 5-6 hours to 10 hours straight in one night! Maybe just maybe Oliver will never have to cry it out. Oh how awesome that would be. Time will tell. The downside was that when he got up he thought it was time to start his day, and 4:45 is a bit early for that! It took me a little more than 2 hours to get him down, but eventually he went back to sleep for another 90 minutes. He slept almost 11.5 hours altogether that night between the hours of 7pm and 8:30am. Amazing!!! Usually he gets at the most 9 hours of sleep during that time span. 
He took 2 naps on Monday. The first was fairly typical (2 hours), but the second was shorter than usual (25 minutes). I gave the kids baths Monday night around 7pm. It was the first time Oliver didn't cry during a bath. I give him a bath an average of 1-2 times a week (I mention that because I know some moms bathe their babies every day). Shortly after his nap he fell asleep. Because I didn't want 7pm to become his normal bed time (particularly if he's going to get up at 5am every morning) and also because the Steelers were on last night, I woke him up and kept him up until 8:40pm. Maybe that was a mistake. I only stayed up until 9:20pm (because I value sleep more than watching football), but Oliver was up again a little after midnight. I was expecting at least a 6 hour stretch and hoping it might be closer to 10 hours; so I really wasn't happy about getting less than 3 hours of sleep that first stretch. One time within the last week his second stretch was the 5-6 hour one (usually it's the first), but that didn't happen either last night. He was up for 1.75 hours (ugh!) and then slept for 3.25 hours. Since one feeding per night has been the norm lately, it was hard to go back to two feedings last night, particularly when the first feeding lasted almost 2 hours. For several weeks I've been getting an average of 7 hours of sleep a night. Last night I only got a little over 5 hours total. Sigh.
November 12th was also a momentous occasion for Paul because he wrote five cover letters in one day in addition to finalizing the date and time of his January defense. He has submitted a total of ten applications thus far - three that start in January and seven that start next fall. He plans to submit three more applications this week (all for the fall). Of those thirteen, three are to schools in PA, three in WV, one in VA, one in MD, one in RI, one in NJ, one in MA, and two in NY. I'll keep checking HigherEdJobs.com for him every day for any additional jobs that could be posted in the next few months. We're praying for interviews and then job offers! 
Although I've been keeping track of how much Oliver sleeps, I haven't been keep track of how much he consumes by bottle. I think the main reason I haven't kept track of that (even during the time he was getting EBM in his bottles) is because I have no idea how much he consumes through nursing. The past two days I did keep track of how much he consumed by bottle, and the total was 8 ounces a day. I went back to work when Nadia and Ian were 8 weeks old. Nadia had one bottle feeding a day because of my going back to work and on the days I didn't work that meant Paul could do one of her feedings during the night. I looked back and read that she was getting 4 ounces per feeding. So Oliver is only getting what would have been two bottles a day for Nadia. In her case it wasn't to supplement. She gained weight very nicely without the bottles. Just in case boosting my supply would help, I ordered some Fenugreek from Amazon, and it should arrive today. I figure it can't hurt. Maple syrup smell here I come!
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