Two steps forward...

Yesterday morning Logan and I went for a nice walk. While it was abit cool (hats and mitts for Logan), summer must almost be here as there is a lot of dandelions now!

When we got home Logan surprised me with a 'new face'...

And in sleep news, Logan had a less than stellar night but still made progress. He needs his soother to fall asleep by himself. This is not a good thing when I have to put it back in his mouth all night....although there are nights that I don't. Last night I did though. Repeatedly. However last night was also the first night that he went without a nighttime feeding. When he woke after 4am, I changed his diaper and held him for a bit but he was falling back asleep before I gave him his bottle so back in his bed he went. He didn't seem bothered by missing his nighttime snack or overly hungry this morning so hopefully this is a step towards sleeping through the night...

Well rested and blessed!

Ahhhhh...it's amazing how much more enjoyable mommyhood is when you are well rested! Logan's overnight sleeping patterns are pretty good now -to bed around 8pm, up for a snack at 4am and then morning routine around 7:30.

The soother issue is getting better. Logan is in 'soothie rehab' to help him with his addiction. Instead of taking it away I'm just limiting it's use -putting him to bed without one when possible, not giving it to him in the car or stroller...basically helping him see he can self-sooth without it. From what I've read there is a real need in babies to suck before 6 months -it makes sense evolutionary as it wasn't long ago that we didn't have bottles and formula and survival-of-the-fittest depended on this sucking reflex to get enough nourishment.

Okay, some book reviews....

The Sleep Solution is a good starter book as it reviews pretty much all the 'schools of thought' on how to teach your baby to sleep. However at this stage I didn't really find anything new but it is a good overview. On the loosing the pacifier in the night issue, the author just says if the baby is old enough put a bunch in the crib so they can put it back in their mouth...but nothing about what to do if your baby isn't old enough!

I found the Secret of Problem-Free Nights to be a nice fast read and helpful. The author talks about your baby's Core Night -the block of time your baby sleeps through each night. For Logan it use to be between 8 pm to 1 am, it's now stretched out to around 8pm to 4am. One piece of advice is not to feed your baby during this time as the baby has shown he can mange for these hours without food; if he wakes up just settle him back to sleep while keeping him in his crib. This works for us but I can image it's easier said than done for other babies. Anyways, there are tons of tips and a lot of information is given in quick bullet form - worth the read.

In Search of Sleep wasn't too helpful at all for me. Written by the editor of Today's Parent, it's a good read if you're feeling bad that your baby isn't sleeping through the night -she stressed that you are not alone, you're not a bad parent, etc. etc. but her 'grab-bag of tips and tricks' aren't really anything special and is repetitive of every other baby sleep book without any of the detail. Anyways, I'd advice a new parent to skip this one and take a nap instead.

Photoshoot for Auntie V and Uncle Kyle

Hi Auntie and Uncle! Mommy says you've been keeping up-to-date on my adventures through the blog so we should take some special pictures for you...
Wait! These flowers are pink! Yuck!
You promise only a few more pictures, mommy?
Just wake me up when this is over...

The Quest for Sleep

Apparently Logan has slept through the night. According to the Baby Guru, Dr. Sears, sleeping through the night is a five-hour stretch. Unfortunately I continue to a have more extensive definition. I think most people do.

Here is a quick look at Logan's sleep pattens from our Trixie Tracking.

What a difference a month can make! He's gone from sleeping in three to four stretches and now has one long stretch of sleep and then tries to make it to 7:30am. Three things have contributed to this:

1. Eating more volume in the day every four hours (8,12,4,8) with some flexibility if needed

2. Bedtime is after his 8pm bottle: draw blinds, turn on white noise, bottle, pjs, 'Good Night Moon', cuddle, into bed sleepy but awake

3. Morning routine does not start until around 7:30, crib music can be turned on after 7 if needed but no more starting the day at 5am!

Here is how his bottles are working out...

You can see how when the feeding were sporadic in the day so were the feedings at night. After getting him use to the 'every four hours' thing, I slowly lowered the volume and frequency of the night feedings. He now has one small 'snack' around 3am which is being reduced so soon that will be out too.

However more tweaking is needed! Logan is put to bed when sleepy and knows how to fall asleep on his own. This is an amazing skill we have taught Logan as I have read of people having to drive their baby around in the car, having to rock them to sleep for an hour or babies who only want to sleep in their bouncy chair or swing. However he really relies on his soother to help him do this -especially now that he isn't being feed as much at night. The problem is now he needs us to pop his pacifier into his mouth when ever he wakes up and finds it is not there. He makes a fussy noise and if you pop it in he goes off to sleep in an instant; like he never really fully woke up. However if you let him be and hope he'll drift back to sleep the fussing escalates to a full cry and he's wide awake. Replacing the pacifier takes twenty seconds and the light doesn't even need to be turned on -however when it happens six or seven times every twenty to forty minutes I really don't get any sleep. Even if he falls asleep at his bedtime without a pacifier he'll wake up later and want it.

Hence this is the real problem -Logan is sleeping very well for a two month old but his mommy is not. I'm no fun when I'm tired -I'm grumpy and sometimes I take it out on my hubby. I'd rather take a nap then take us out to a playgroup. I'd rather drink coffee and watch daytime tv then go out for a walk. So I think the next struggle will be to phase out the pacifier. How do I do this? I have no idea. Dr. Sears says "If you have a baby who really needs a pacifier, then use it, don't abuse it, and quickly try to loose it' but don't go further on the loosing it. I'm not a fan of 'crying it out' so I don't think we'll do 'cold turkey'. I dunno. I could use some advice....

Trip Downtown

Logan went for his first subway ride yesterday.

We went all the way downtown to for lunch with my friends at CCO...

More Friends!

Two Month Check-Up

Logan had his two month check-up yesterday and got his first set of shots. He cried for like thirty seconds after each needle and then was fine -very brave baby! Besides a touch of 'baby acne' things are going pretty good.

Length: 57.5 cm

Weight: 11 lb, 15 oz
Head: 39.6 cm

As a special treat, Logan got to wear his friendship bracelet that Amani made for him.

Logan Loves Music

Saturdays are Wonderful...

What wonderful weather we are finally having! This morning we took Logan for a walk around Too Good Pond. He wasn't too sure what to make of the breeze across his face at first but he soon got use to it and enjoyed it. We gave him a bottle outside so I guess technically it could be his first picnic. :)

And then we headed over to the cousins for another fight night and brought girly muffins that I made.

It's all good, baby, baby!

Today I actually feel awake! I think it's the first morning in two months were I felt that I didn't need a nap as soon as I woke up. Ahhh! It feels amazing!

I picked up The Lull-a-bye Sleep Plan from the library yesterday and put it work right away last night. Even though the author calls out the No Cry Sleep Plan and The Baby Sleep Solution books, I'm going to use a combo approach. I was not looking forward to 'sleep training' since even the 'no cry sleep plan' actually has a bit of crying. I just don't feel comfortable with that. However the Lull-a-bye plan has no crying and it actually seems to work for Logan.

So this is the plan going forward: Before giving a bottle to Logan at night when he wakes up, I offer a pacifier first and talk softly to him AKA the lulling to sleep -without taking him out of his crib (unless he's going ballistic and then only until he calms down). Basically I go from head to toe and say good night to him softly ("good night Logan's eyes, good night Logan's cheeks, good night Logan's ears..") with the occasional coaching ("Mommy is here, it's bedtime, it's time to learn to go to sleep.."). The idea is that they are soothed by your voice and learn how to relax and fall back asleep...soon without your help.

In addition to this we're moving on a modified Step 2 of the The Sleep Solution, which is slowly decreasing the volume amount of the second feeding and increasing the volume of daytime feedings which are every four hours.

I never really thought you had to teach a baby how to fall asleep. I guess I though they just gradually did it themselves; slowly sleeping longer each day. I never really thought about the need of teaching good sleep habits.

Logan taking a proper afternoon nap in his portable crib after I 'lulled him to sleep' -he's been asleep over an hour so far! A load of laundry is in washer, bottles are cleaned, I've eaten and now might even get a cat nap in myself!

I'm 2 Months Old Today!!

Na'eema

Logan and his friend Na'eema

So I'm trying to do the Baby Sleep Solution with Logan. Step one is having him eat every four hours in the day, be most awake between 4 and 8pm and put him down to bed after his 8pm feeding. so far it's gone okay. It's nice that I know now when he is going to eat in the day(8,12,4,8) as I know what to pack when we go out. For example, when we went to the baby show I knew at 11:45 we should start to look for a calm place to sit because it was almost time to eat. Better than having him freak out at random times because he's hungry. However it's not the most flexible. Logan met Na'eema last night but it resulted in his 8pm bottle in the car and a little bit later bedtime. This disruption in our routine may have had a role in last nights drama.

I went to bed around 10pm last night and maybe got 4 or 5 hours of sleep. After I finished washing and getting the next bottle ready at 4am this morning I actually walked into a wall on my way to bed. Today I'm just going to follow what my brother-in-law does and do a 'Jedi mind trick' on myself and just pretend I got eight relaxing hours of sleep. Anyways, this Friday it's time to work on Step 2 and I'm afraid because I know it isn't going to be easy...

Visiting with Tita Sarah

We had a really good Sunday -it was pretty much 'family pj day' until late afternoon. Then we met Tita Sarah for dessert so I could get caught up with all the CCO 'gossip'.



Logan slept for the majority of the time but when he woke up he surprised us with a couple of new faces.... I know every parent must say that their kid is cute but come on, I don't think it's a matter of opinion; Logan is adorable! :)

I love my cousins!

We had another fight night on the weekend so I made dinosaur muffins for the kids. I think the next batch I make might be a little bit more girly for my niece.
Hanging out

Baby Show

Allan and I took Logan to the Toronto Baby Show on Saturday. He seemed to enjoy all the noise and the people moving around him when he was being pushed around in his stroller.

We got a really neat diaper bag that is also a baby seat for when Logan is a bit older called Hoppop. There is a video of it here. I also got a mobile mommy sling....still have to practice and get comfortable with it. Hopefully it Will be alright.

Baby Sleep Solution

Katya, my co-worker at CCO is doing a massive bike ride to raise money for cancer research -over 200 kilometers in two days! I'm totally amazed and proud of her for doing this challenge. Pretty much everyone has a friend or family member who has been touched by cancer. Five dollars is not a sacrifice but little donations add up. The research it supports could help saved a loved ones life or maybe even your own. I challenge everyone reading this to go here to donate five bucks -just skip your Starbucks Latte and get a karma boost instead.

Thank you Tito Simon and Tita Fan for my play mat!

Today is day one of trying out the Baby Sleep Solution. I read this book last night and it's a bit of the 'BW', 'Happiest Baby on the Block' and the 'No Cry Sleep Solution' -except this lady says start at eight weeks and by 12 weeks your baby will sleep through the night -not just six or seven hours of sleep but up to twelve and take two regular naps in the day. Um, yeah, I'm totally all over this one! The 'No Cry' book basically says you're out of luck until month four.


So this is day one of following the first of four steps. The first step is getting your baby to eat every four hours in the day (8am, 12am, 4pm and 8pm) and try to get him to be the wake the most between the last two daytime feedings (4-8pm). This needs to be established first before working on the night feedings. Anyways, you can track our progress on our Trixie Tracker page.

Here's one of the charts from our tracker showing the propability of Logan being awake or sleep. Hopefully in four weeks the 8am until 8am will be become solid black.

Bath Time

I think the spa indulgence while I was pregnant might have had an osmosis effect on Logan. He isn't too keen on his little plastic infant bath but loves a big bath with bubbles where he can 'swim'. He has even fallen asleep once while I washed his hair.

Ikea Goodness

Allan gives me some 'off time' every Sunday. In the morning I go to my meditative yoga class to clear my mind and balance in my chakras -Lee should be proud of me. Then in the afternoon I have time for making cupcakes. I had no idea that there are so many people obsessed with cupcakes out there! Lot's of pages and pictures to inspire me! My muffin tops are more puffy and rounded now so things are improving...I've decided that my trademark is going to be the mini two-bite muffins. Yum-yum!

Note that the cupcakes I made are in 'Ikea colours'. Back in University I worked at Ikea, hence when I walk into your living room I know that you're sitting on an Klippan sofa which is beside a Billy bookcase and Lack side tables. Anyway, on Monday we delivered the muffins to my friends at Ikea North York so they could meet Logan -AKA 'Larry' as Tom likes to call him.

Ulcle Alwyn's Birthday

On the weekend we had brunch to celebrate Uncle Alwyn's birthday.

It also gave time for Logan to hang out with his cousins -or rather the other way around since he slept for the majority of the time.



Logan loves his cousins -they're so much fun and absolutely hilarious. Here is a video of Kiyan's awesome octopus face...