Friday, June 29, 2012

Sleep regression

So last week, when we tried and failed at sleep training I thought Touma's waking up more was because I screwed with the schedule. Nope! It turns out that it wasn't my fault afterall. It's the 4 month sleep regression. To be fair, it's not been so bad. He wakes up 2-3 times now, when it was one (or sometimes none!). It's only horrible because I haven't been making myself go to sleep early enough.

Touma will fall asleep around 8:30 or 9 and I relish the freedom... so I stay up until 11:30 or 12 just fiddling around. I do a little reading and a little searching on the internet. Just silly stuff. I also usually do the dishes if Shimon worked late.

To get us out of this sleep regression, I've been reading lots of books and think I have a plan of attack. A) Start our bedtime routine earlier (we have been doing bathtime at 8pm). B) Get to bed myself as soon as Touma is nicely settled. I can read or whatever, maybe do some yoga, but my ultimate goal is more sleep. So this is the new plan. We'll see if it works!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Sleep Training Fail

Last week, after having read a number of articles and book sections about it, I tried a tiny bit of "sleep training" or at least scheduling. Yeah, that SO didn't work!

My idea wasn't all that strict. It wasn't like I wanted Touma to sleep right at 10:30am or that I wanted him in bed right after bath time at 8:30pm. Nope, I thought that getting him down between 10:30am and 11:00am or so would be fine. For his second nap, sometime between 3pm and 4pm would be fine. And then bed time whenever he fell asleep after his bath. Pretty flexible sounding, right?

I think that the moment I decided to try scheduling, Touma knew it and foiled my attempts. Last week he woke up more than he had in weeks! Going from sleeping through the night on occasion to waking two or even three times a night. Not good for mommy's sleep that's for sure.

So, I gave up. Sleep scheduling or training isn't right for us now. Will it be sometime?? Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that I need a certain amount of sleep to function and I did not get it last week.

Parenting is all about trial and error, right?

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sleep schedule, day 1

So, I've read a lot about trying to schedule sleep for little ones. Until recently we've had a great sleep pattern... Mostly sleeping through the night or one night feeding. Well, last week we went back to waking twice a night. Now I realize this doesn't sound like much to those moms who have difficult sleepers, but it's taking it's toll on me.

Last night I decided that I'd try to have Touma nap on a schedule. My loose idea was to have him go down between 10:30 and 11 and let him sleep for up to two hours. Then have him nap from 3:30 or 4 for bout the same amount of time. Funny how, the moment I decide to try a schedule, things get in the way.

Touma was just about down for a nap when my family called on Skype. I would have ignored it  except the volume was loud and I thought that it might wake him up. As I go up to get it, Touma woke up so I took him with me. I thought that we'd talk a bit and then Touma would go down again semi-easily. Ha!!!

He was awake for the next hour and I gave up and decided to run errands. And that was when he decided to fall asleep.

We got  home after errands (he finally fell back asleep again on the walk home!) and I gently laid him down to try to have him get more sleep. No go! He woke up and didn't go back down again until 5:40 or so  (we got home around 3). He then slept until about 7:30 or so.

Now we're at 9pm and so far our post-bath routine has gone like normal (bath, play, nurse...), but all my plans for the day went completely awry! Here's to hoping tomorrow goes better!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Teething has begun!

10 Signs that Touma is Teething:

1) His mouth has become a drool faucet.
2) He chews on his hands relentlessly.
3) He grabs any finger within reach, pulls it to his mouth and chews on it with a vengeance.
4) He doesn't suck his thumb, he chews it.
5) Likes his new teething ring, even when it's just out of the freezer.
6) He chews and pulls when nursing. (OUCH!!)
7) He's unusually fussy and sometimes even nursing doesn't help.
8) He has tried chewing on his snail toy (not a chewable toy at all!).
9) His napping has become more irregular than usual.
10)  Soon he will be chewing his newly discovered toes!

Now that Touma is 4 months, I figure that in a month or a little more he should be getting some teeth. My mom tells me that I got my first tooth around 5 months. Not sure if Touma will follow suit, but I won't be surprised if he gets his first tooth around the same time frame.

Lately we've been on a less normal sleeping schedule than we were at 3 months. We've had more nights with 2 wakings in the last week than we had during most of his third month. *Sigh* Momma's tired. So, I think that starting tomorrow I will be trying to keep track of nap times and not let them get too long and also tried to wear him out when he is awake. Also, I will be sure to nurse him good before I put him down for the night. We'll see how that plan works for the upcoming week. :-)

Friday, June 08, 2012

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Magic on the Train

Japan is a country with lots of trains. Japanese people are often known to be very polite. However, these two facts do not always coincide. Often the rudest moments of a Japanese person's day occur on the train. I have witnessed this fact many times, especially while I was pregnant.

This little story is not about rudeness though, it is about the kindness of a stranger and how gaijin (foreigner) look after each other. After having lunch and visiting with a friend and her little girl yesterday, I began the trek home from Tokyo. I changed trains at Shibuya at about the time when lots of school kids were heading home. I quickly scanned the train for seats and made eye contact with another foreign guy, nodded in acknowledgment (this is a typical "greeting" between foreigners in Japan), and found my place to stand as there were no seats. Touma was being a superstar so it wasn't so bad to stand.

At one of the stops soon after, a seat opened up and I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the foreign guy, who had blocked off the seat so that Touma and I could sit. An older Japanese gentleman noticed the seat and made a move toward it and this guy blocked the seat from the gentleman saying "there's a baby" and we were able to sit down.

After having so many experiences of people ignoring the pregnant lady, pretending to sleep, "reading" the newspaper, etc. in hopes of avoiding giving up their seat while I was pregnant, I was touched that someone I'd never met would help us out like that. I know there will be many times when people won't give up a seat in the future, but yesterday it really touched me that a total stranger would help us out. 


Monday, June 04, 2012

Touma 4 months

My goodness does time fly! I can hardly believe how fast the past four months have gone. Touma has gone from a tiny little newborn to an active infant over night. He's just such a joy to watch grow. He's full of smiles and giggles and lots of drool! I wish I were better at updating my blog. I'm trying, but I realize that I forget to take pictures of a lot of the activities we do each week.

Last week we had two play dates and a mom and baby lunch! Busy week.

What I am amazed by is how much he can do now. He can scoot around on his belly (not in a controlled way, but still...), he loves to screech and talk, he can hold onto toys now (major accomplishment!), and he's getting good at entertaining himself on occasion. At four months, he also already loves to try to stand up while mom holds him and he definitely likes sitting. It's both exciting and sad how fast babies grow.

Without further adieu, here are some recent pictures.

With the other babies at the mom/baby lunch. From the right: Mana, 3 weeks; Luca, 6 weeks; Aria, 2 months; and Touma, 4 months. The size difference is amazing!


Side shot, same babies!

Being four months old sure is tiring!