Big eater

Micah has not been sleeping well lately. During the past week, he's been waking up every 3 hours or so at night wanting to eat. I feed him and he goes back to sleep, but if I lay him down in his crib, he immediately wakes up. I usually end up just bringing him in the bed with us because it's much more convenient to feed him and we both end up getting more sleep. I called his pediatrician's office a few days ago and asked if I could start feeding him rice cereal during the day because I think he's hungry, and they said yes! So we started feeding him rice cereal 3 days ago. His sleeping has gotten a little better. He's still waking up a good bit, but not wanting to eat and I can rock him back to sleep.


I'm facing a tough decision at this point. I've read several different theories and talked to many people about getting a baby to sleep. I've always nursed Micah to sleep or rocked him to sleep, then layed him down. This is one of my favorite things to do as a mom. I feel like this is such a bonding time for us and I know that he won't always let me rock him to sleep. I may sound cheesy and sentimental, but I want to cherish this time with my baby because he's already growing so fast! I've heard that you should lay a baby down while he's awake so he'll be able to soothe himself back to sleep if he wakes up. This means that I would have to let Micah cry himself to sleep, and I don't know if I can handle that. Will is all for trying that, in hopes that he will start to sleep through the night, but I want to wait until he's six months old to try it (I'm actually hoping he'll start to sleep better before we have to so this). I talked to a friend yesterday whose baby is 13 months old, and she told me that she always nursed her baby to sleep and rocked her to sleep when she would let her. She even let her sleep in the bed with her sometimes, and her baby now sleeps 12 hours at night, goes to sleep on her own, and she never let her cry herself to sleep. I know that every baby is different, and I feel like my job as a mom is to meet Micah's needs. I think that's what I'll continue to do. I'm learning every day about being a parent, and most of it has been through trial and error. I'm gonna keep rocking Micah to sleep and hopefully that rice cereal will kick in soon...

Sick with a baby

This weekend has been an interesting one. It started off Friday night when my husband Will surprised me with a night at the Westin, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (my fav), and a chick flick. I knew that he had a special date planned, but I have to admit that when I found out it was going to be overnight, I panicked a little. We have only left Micah overnight once and it was a couple of weeks ago. He did fine that night, but we had tried it when he was two months old, and it ended when my mom called me at midnight in tears because he wouldn't take a bottle from her. That little stinker. I trust my parents more than anyone with Micah, but an overnight trip for Micah is a lot of preparation...he owns a lot of stuff! Anyway, I was able to pack us up easily, thanks wo Will's help on his snow day, and we were off. We had a great dinner, the movie was cute, the hotel was beautiful, and just as we were going to bed at midnight I got a text from my mom saying that Micah had spit up all of the formula she gave him and she was down to 2 oz of breastmilk, and he was still awake. I called her and told her what I thought (weird that I can now tell my mom how to take care of a kid) and at the end of the conversation said hesitantly, "well, do you want me to come get him??" She said no (praise the Lord) and we were able to get a good night's sleep. Micah ended up sleeping from 1am-6am, so all was not lost. I, however, woke up with a stomach virus at 7am Saturday and we had to head home early. I'm sure my parents were fine with that. Poor Will has had to deal with Micah (besides feeding him) for the past 36 hours due to this virus I had. It sucks to be sick, but it sucks even more when you have to take care of a baby. Luckily, I think the virus was only a 24-hour deal and I think I'm in the clear.