4 months of Braxton!

Now that I sleep, I smile a whole lot more!

I haven’t had much energy to write about Braxton and his milestones, which we’ll probably come to regret.  That said, there aren’t a whole lot of fun memories to write about from his first few months.  Whether it’s his personality or from the trauma of the first few weeks, Braxton cried a lot those first three months.  He’d SCREAM every time his diaper was changed, anytime he went into the car, if he wasn’t fed every couple hours, and for just about any and all reasons.  Looking back, I think the majority of the tears were because he was overtired.  At night he would sleep fairly well – he’d go down for a couple 3 to 4-hour stretches.  During the day, however, he literally wouldn’t sleep.  At about 2 months we realized that a lot of his crankiness was due to lack of sleep but it still took us a while to help him figure out how to get to dreamland. No amount of swaddling, shushing, patting, rocking, holding, swinging, or walking seemed to help. 

She did not solve all our problems.

 

The only technique that worked was to press him to my chest, forcing a dummy (pacifier) into his mouth while he screamed for a few minutes until realizing the pacifier was there. He’d suck on it for a while and then fall asleep enough for me to put him in his crib.  This was better than letting him try to fall asleep on his own, which for the couple days I tried he took zero naps.  I wish the car was the magic ticket back then, but instead of falling asleep like I thought most babies did, he would scream from the second his car seat clicked into the base until the second I un-clicked it at the destination.  It was a stressful couple months, let me tell you!  Almost four months into his life I reached a snapping point.  Although it was getting easier to get him down for naps (although they were consistently 45 to 48 minutes in length, no more), the nights regressed to the point we were getting up every hour or two to try to get him back to sleep.  Nursing always worked, but I was exasperated to be the only one who could make him sleep.  I snapped one Saturday and told Chris to go buy some formula, because there was no way I was going to nurse him that often.  I agree with the ‘sleep deprivation is torture’ idea.  I could feel the darkness of depression starting to creep in… or was it just overwhelming exhaustion?  In any case, I wasn’t enjoying Braxton like I should’ve, Chris and my relationship was starting to suffer, and poor Braxton wasn’t getting any restful sleep!  We’re extremely lucky to call a great primary care physician (Randy) and an equally great pediatrician (Chris M) friends, so we enlisted their expertise.  They both said the same thing, which is controversial these days…  let him cry it out.  Chris M said to go in and check on him every 5 to 10 minutes, and reassured us we weren’t going to permanently scar him.   Randy agreed.  This, coming from two docs (who between them have six amazingly well-adjusted, friendly, respectful, self-confident kids) made me feel confident in our decision to let Braxton cry a bit that night.  And he did cry, for 19 minutes before falling asleep.  Then, at 11:00 (his normal first wake-up time to eat) he cried for another 30 minutes.  After that, he slept until 1:00 (I fed him) and then slept until 5:00 the next morning.  The second night?  Two minutes of grumbling, then down for 6 hours, when I fed him and he went down for a couple more hours.  Third night?  Not a peep.  Slept for 8 hours, ate, then slept again for a couple.  I am a different (read: better) person, and Braxton is so much happier through the course of the day.  I honestly feel that he’s empowered to not need us to sleep.  Since that day two weeks ago, our little monkey has literally put himself to sleep every night since and slept as much as 9 hours at a stretch.  Naps work the same way… we put him down when he looks sleepy or yawns and usually he turns to his left side, palms himself on the forehead and then slides his hand down until his thumb finds his mouth.  The thumb is his magic soothing tool, and as much as Chris should be against it (being a dentist and whatnot) and I should be wary (I sucked my thumb until I was seven), we’re both so happy he found that thing!  We were never against using a pacifier, but Braxton just didn’t keep one.  I’m writing this and about three other blog posts after a night of 8 hours of sleep… not a coincidence that I now have the energy to do these kinds of things!  I don’t care to have the cry-it-out debate because as much as I would’ve loved to not need it, for us it was the very best option and I don’t regret it for one second.  Hopefully the docs are right and he won’t turn into an axe-murderer!   

Thumby thumb thumb thumb (7 hours straight sleep)

Dad walked out of the room and this is what he came back to.

Mom took a shower and found me like this on the bed!

I mean, c'mon.  He now sleeps anywhere.  (Don't be distracted by the gorgeous stick furniture.)

Yesterday he fell asleep on a towel under a shade umbrella at a noisy public pool and another mom said to me “wow, my kids wouldn’t have ever been able to go to sleep like that.”  Go Braxton!  Now if only we can get those naps longer than 45 minutes…

At four months, in addition to finding his thumb and starting to sleep, little man decided that having his hands in his mouth was THE best thing in the world.  He manages to fit his entire fist in his mouth and uses the other hand to push it in further.  Everyone’s telling us he’s teething.  He also likes to be standing more than anything and really just needs our hands to balance him.  About two weeks later he all of a sudden started trying to grab at things to put in his mouth and also figured out how to extend his arms to do a baby pushup.  Two days ago he suddenly started making a noise that sounded like a fake cough for a few hours, then by the end of the day it had turned into a true “ha ha ha”.  He is grinning and laughing so much now!  When he’s being read to he’ll either listen intently, try to eat the book, or (most often) ‘talk’ over you the entire time.  He’s such a social monkey! Today, at 4.5 months, Braxton rolled for the first time from his back to his tummy and not two hours later rolled for the first time from his tummy to his back.  It was fun to have witnessed both of those events!  His absolute favorite thing in the entire world, though, is trees.  If you walk him under a tree, even in the grumpiest of moods, he’ll gasp, his eyes go wide, and all four of his limbs start to flail.  It’s hilarious.  This parenthood thing is really starting to get fun.