Sleep and feeding pattens from birth to two months

At the hospital they give you a piece of paper where you track feedings and diapers. When when got to the end of the paper, we decided to make the move over to Trixie Tracker.

We had used the online tracking for Logan starting around one month to six months. We found that experience interesting and we were interested in doing some comparisons.

Birth to 1 Month old

We only have data on this for Kalia. Her sleep patterns were actually really good for a newborn --I truly believe this is from following the Baby Whisper advice early.

In addition to putting her down when she is "sleepy but awake" and using a noise machine in her room, I really feel that the day time feeding is key to starting them sleeping better. I started feeding Kalia as much as she wanted to eat at regular times during the day: 7:30am, 11:30am, 3:30am and 7:30am. Given she is a new born I would give her extra feedings if she needed it and was flexible with these times by an hour either way. The first two weeks I was also breast feeding, which is not shown on these charts.

I'll use red to highlight the scheduled feedings. Once her day time feeding gets predictable and you get into a routine, the night time sleep/feedings start to fall into place too.

1 month to 2 months old

Here is where we can compare things between Logan and Kalia. Both are getting pretty much the same amount of sleep but the structure of that sleep is very different! Here is Logan's sleep chart at one month:

And here is Kalia's:
Clearly a huge difference! And if you look at their feeding charts you can see why.

I didn't put Logan on a feeding schedule until he was almost two months old:

And here is Kalia's at one month. At this point I could be pretty sure that I would have from 8pm to midnight free to "me time" and sleep! She would also likely wake up twice to feed after midnight. If I see that she is finishing her bottle each time, then I increase the amount I make future bottles. She can eat as much as she wants and I let her tell me when she has had enough. This routine is great for sleep and for planning our day --I know pretty accurately when she is going to start getting hungry and I can plan outings and packing of bags around this. I believe it's also the reason why she cries less; I know if she's fussing that I can rule out being hungry based on the time and attend to her other needs better.

Kalia is now into her second month and only waking up once a night for bottle. I'm also laying the work to correct an issue we had with Logan --no soother at night so I don't have to keep popping it back into his mouth all night.

The End of Tracking for Logan

Both Allan and I have been big fans of the online Trixie Tracker. We started tracking pumping, feedings, diapers and sleeps when Logan was just over one month old until he was 7 months. Allan and I have decided to stop tracking but it's helped us in so many ways -so here's a post dedicated to our tracker and six months of data collection.

Reason's why we loved our tracker

-Allan could check from work how our day was going

-I could see that the hard work put into sleep training was paying off; I needed all the motivation I could get!

-Even though it only took a few minutes a day people thought I was a supermom when they saw our site ;)

-When Grandma and Grandpa babysat I could look at the last few days of data and say with great accuracy what to expect from sleep, feeding and diapers ('He had a good nap this morning so he'll likely take about an hour and a half nap around two, around 6:30 he'll want to cuddle and might sleep for thirty minutes...') Truly data driven parenting.

-The first three months are fuzzy in my mind. It's nice to look back and see that we got through it!

-We've passed on the site info to friends who have new babies so they can see what the patterns look like and what to expect

-I love analyzing data and this gave me a little project :)

Sleep!

One of the reasons why we are stopping our tracking is that Logan now consistently sleeps through the night. He now doesn't even wake up at night for soother. The best thing that we did was switch to feeding Logan large volumes of milk four times a day (8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm) and then decreasing his night feedings. This had a immediate effect on his sleeping pattens and made going out on outings more predictable.

Month 1

Month 6

Pumping
Okay, all male relative have permission to skip this section.
Giving Logan breast milk was very important to me for many of reasons. Before having Logan I thought I could breastfeed if I just stuck with and got help from my doula. I went to the breastfeeding classes at the hospital and read up on it and thought I could do it no problem. But I found it awkward, painful and stressful. I could do it with Allan's help but I was afraid of being at home with a hungry baby and not being able to get him to latch by myself. We had a chat with our doctor who basically said 'having a baby is stressful enough. Any breast milk you can give your baby is a special gift -it doesn't matter how he gets it.' And so I pumped for four months and Logan did not have any formula until he was three months.

Anyone who has pumped breast milk knows it's time consuming -the whole process and sterilizing afterwards...maybe twenty minutes or so, compared to one minute to make a formula bottle. The first month I was pumping five times a day, often when Logan slept. If you look above at Logan's sleep pattens this didn't leave a lot of time for me to sleep. I think this whole thing shows how determined I was and it's something that I'm happy I could give Logan. Would I do it again if I have another baby? Probably not. LOL

Solids

According to our tracker Logan has tried over forty different foods so far!

Diapers
Did we ever change a lot of dirty diapers at the very beginning! Since the start of tracking we have recorded 832 diaper changes. Only maybe fifty were cloth diapers but I am happy to say that amazingly Markham composts their diapers.

Good bye, Trixie Tracker!

We love you!

A day in like of...

I participated in a swap on Swap-Bot recently -you send out a write up about your day to five people you are assigned to and get five e-mails back about others people day. It's been really interesting reading about what other people are going though each day -one person juggling parenting and work, anouther with her husband going through cancer treatments. I also thought that it would be interesting to record a 'typical' day at different stages with Logan because our days now are soooo different than when he was only a month or two old.

Anyway, here is our day....

My day starts in the wee hours putting a pacifier back into my baby’s mouth so that he can fall back to sleep. I do this three times before I officially start my day around 7am. My husband Allan and baby Logan get up around then. I change Logan’s diaper and then feed him his bottle while I watch the morning news. My husband meets me downstairs and puts on coffee. Allan plays with Logan while I have a bowl of cereal and update our Trixie Tracker.

We have swimming lessons this morning. Allan’s parents are up so they entertain Logan while I grab a few things I forgot to pack in our bag last night –wipes and a towel for myself. We are in the car by 8:30 and in the pool change room by 8:50! On time! My friend Lori and her son, Evan, are waiting for us and we head out to the pool together. While we waited for our instructor, Evan and Logan held hands; very cute. Today Logan went under the water for the first time. He was a bit unsure but I just smiled and acted like it was soooo fun and then he kinda was okay with it. Showering and getting us both changed was a bit of a challenge. Luckily Logan was so tired from the excitement that when I put him down in the locker (so he wouldn’t roll away) he fell asleep.

Since I had the car today I thought I’d make use of it and go to the Dollarstore. I love the Dollarstore because anything I see I can afford and I buy whatever I want without guilt. Other typical places we go to when we have the car to go doctor appointments or playgroups are: Markville mall, Michael’s craft store, Chapters and the grocery store. Logan woke up once we got inside the store and was all smiles. He likes looking at all the colourful things in the store.

By 11 I am home and have Logan is starting to become a cranky baby, so I put him down for a proper nap. I know that I have at least an hour before he wakes up for his lunch so I check e-mails, talk to hubby on the phone, check facebook, do our trixie tracker, eat lunch and lounge. His nap lasts two hours and when he gets up I change his diaper, give him his lunch and we play and sing songs.

We walk to the library in the afternoon. There a young woman approaches me and asks me to help her with a job application she is trying to fill out for a grocery store. We end up chatting afterwards and I find out she’s taking free job searching classes for newcomers at the library. Her family saved up money for many years to pay for her to come to Canada from China.

By the time we get home from the library it is time for me to go through the bottle, diaper routine again but this time Logan also gets a bit of peas and oatmeal baby cereal. I get a call from one of my best friend and he has broken up with his boyfriend. He might come for a visit later this week.

When my husband returns home we head out to see what is happening with our house –the tiles and cabinets are in bathrooms and kitchen now. Looks like it will be ready for us to move in shortly. There are people living across the street now. On the way home we stop at the shopping plaza and I go get groceries while Logan and Allan head over to Future Shop and Rogers.

Allan plays with Logan for a bit and then does his bedtime routine. While he does this I unpack the groceries and make dinner –butter chicken, steamed veggies and rice. When Allan comes down, we eat, chat for a bit and sit down and try to figure out the Quicken personal finical software that Allan bought at Future Shop. Then I take a shower and pack our swimming bag for tomorrow and lay out my clothing for tomorrow morning. Then pay bills, do the trixie tracker and put a load of laundry in the wash.

Two songs on ‘Rock Band’ on our Xbox with Allan and then I’m upstairs getting ready for bed. It’s 11 o’clock and I read over a paper myself and others from work have written about using diagrams in interviews. Yeah, it’s work related and yes I’m on Mat. Leave but I really enjoy it and it’s in my best interest to help our paper get published. I want to read the paper over once more before I work on the final revisions tomorrow night. I always find if I ‘sleep on things’ I’m more productive the next day. Just before midnight I’m ready to sleep and excited about our next swimming class in the morning.

Loggie Goes Downtown

First, let me just brag about Logan's sleep habits....last night he slept 11 hours and 34 minutes straight through! Here is his chart from our Trixie Tracker report...blue is sleep, yellow is awake and the time line is at the top. Just for fun, take a look at what Logan's sleeping habits were like at one month old. Big difference. Eight hours of sleep and free time at night is sooo nice. It was worth all the work and reading that went into the 'sleep training'.
Anyway, I made cupcakes again!

Logan and I took the subway downtown to drop them off to my colleagues at CCO and to take Sarah A out for a birthday celebration lunch. Logan had just woken up and was starting to get hungry when we got there so he was very cuddly and drooled on everyone.
((HUGS)) Miss you all!

Well rested!

I haven't posted anything in awhile -sorry Zia Sarah and Auntie V! However the good news is that I can't use lack of sleep as an excuse. Logan is sleeping really well now and is actually sleeping through the night: 8 hours plus. Last night he had a stretch of 9 hours and 41 minutes!

Here is the last 8 days of Logan's sleep tracking from the Trixie Tracker, with the blue being sleep time. Compare this to just over a month ago when I started the 'sleep training' and the results are crazy!!! I'm really proud of the both of us.

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....

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.

Mom's New Project

From the start Allan and I have been tracking Logan's diapers and feedings. This is especially important when breastfeeding because you measure if they are taking in enough food by their diapers. And now that we're giving breast milk in a bottle, I'm now also tracking pumping.

I've tried to take things up a notch in the last few days and try and track his sleep too. I thought there might be a pattern developing and wanted to track improvements in overnight sleeps. I started creating the world's most complicated excel spreadsheet, until thanks to the lovely ladies over at Rookie Mom I came across the Trixie Tracker.

Now I'm sure this tracker is not for everyone as it's a bit obsessive maybe. However those that know me well will likely roll their eyes because it's 'sooo me'. I'm in love with it. It even can calculate the probability of Logan being asleep at any hour. Brilliant! Now I will be able to better guess if it's a good idea to take that long uninterrupted shower or bath I've been wanting. It even let's you share some of the information online for others to view. Now dad and grandparents you can check out how our day is going...what is doesn't show is a sleep deprived mommy serializing and getting bottles ready at 4am but you get the idea. Doesn't this make you want to have kids, Auntie Vinita?!?