sleep schedules. how i love them.

I sure do. I seriously could not handle parenting without my kids on predictable schedule! Thankfully, both my kids took to "nap training" fairly well and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is a life saver. C didn't really sleep through the night until he was a year old. And now that I have my 2nd, I realize that some of that was definitely our fault. As much as I thought was "training" him well, I know now that I went to him too much when he fussed or cried. Granted, he seemed to cry more than E does and all babies are different. But I think there were numerous times when I should have just let him be and he would have figured out how to self soothe much quicker. E sure did! Anyway, here's a snapshot of E's sleep schedule at almost 5 months. Again, posterity.

7-8am -- Wake. She usually wakes around 7 or 730 but some days she'll sleep in til 8! I feed her 7 oz when she wakes up cause she's gone 12 hours without food. woohoo!!

8:30 or 9ish -- Nap. Depending on what time she gets up, she'll nap about 1.5-2 hours later. In the last week, I've noticed she's been stretching it more to 2 hours where before she really couldn't go more than 1.5.

10ish -- Wake. Her morning nap used to be really long but she's adjusted her schedule so that now she only naps an hour in the morning. Feed her within a half hour upon waking.

11:30-12ish -- Nap. Most days she's tired by 11:30 but recently, as I said, I've noticed she's stretching her awake periods longer. This is her longest nap of the day at consistently 2 hours.

1:30-2ish -- Wake. Again, feed within the hour. Good days are when I can feed her at 2:30. Gets her to bedtime without getting too fussy or hungry!

3:30-4ish -- Nap. Third and final nap of the day. Another short one, very consistently no more than an hour.

4:30ish -- Wake. Interestingly, she wakes from this nap fussier than the rest. Sometimes she only sleeps 45 minutes and wakes up crying where all her other naps she wakes up so happy and quiet that sometimes I don't even realize she's up! I don't worry about it though since it's her last nap of the day.

6:00pm-ish -- She starts to get cranky! She's getting hungry and tired which is a bad combo. Bathtime! Sometimes she gets a bath even earlier if she seems really tired. Like I said, this girl can SLEEP.

6:15ish -- Last feeding of the day, 7 oz. (Her other feedings are 6-7oz, btw) And then it's a couple of books, a song and in off to bed! Some nights she's sleeping by 6:30 but my goal is for her bedtime to be 7pm. She seems happy to be sleeping by 6:30 most nights though! And that's fine by me as long as she keeps sleeping through the night. I figure as she gets older, she'll stretch it out to 7pm, which will be perfect.

And that's her day in a nutshell! The end.

4.5 months

Poor E. The second child gets no blog love. She also hardly has any photos/videos of her compared to C. Your birth order really does shape who you are and your view of life. Her seat will always have a brother in it. I hope she likes that.

Anyway, here's a quick download of a few things about E so I don't feel so guilty about my non-documentation. In no particular order, here's what's going on with our little girl at 4.5 months!

1. She SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT. Did you hear that? 12 hours straight! Sometimes 13!! Started doing this at 2.5 months! C never did that. Still doesn't! The longest he does is 11 hours and these days that's rare. This girl loooves to sleep. She'll go down usually around 6:30p and wake up around 7-7:30. Then she'll take 3 naps during the day and can't stay awake more than 1 1/2 hours in between most of the time. Sleeper! :) In the last week I've noticed she's having longer stretches in the day between naps but I'm hoping her night sleeping won't change. Ever.

2. She is so smiley! Really, she is. She will pretty much smile at everyone she sees. She's probably just super happy cause she sleeps so darn much. Who wouldn't be?

3. She's really alert. I know, every parent probably says that about their kid. But I swear, it's true. C's a smart kid and was alert as a baby too. But this girl seems to really understand what's going on at a much younger age than C. When we read her books, she seems to truly be taking it in. Goodnight Moon is her absolute favorite! She pays more attention to the tv than C did at this age (scary!! and a bummer cause it means mommy can't watch tv when she's awake). And sometimes I really think she's trying to say real words like "hi" and "mama" vs just sounds. Maybe I'm just being your typical "my kid's a genius" mom; likely that's the case. Still, worth noting though.

4. She's very rashy. :( C was rashy until about 3 months and then it cleared up. Hers is much worse -- on her face, inner elbows and behind her knees. Some of it is heat rash but I think most of it has to do with my diet. She's on more breastmilk than C was and his really cleared up when he was off it. Hoping she's not an allergy baby like her daddy! We got lucky with C and he's not allergic to anything thus far. Only time will tell.

5. She loves music. Much like her brother, E seem to love, love music! She gets really smiley and excited when she hears a song she likes. Interestingly, she likes "regular" songs that mommy sings off of the radio more than baby songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Not sure what to make of that, but as long as she's into music, I'd say that's a good thing.

6. She puts herself to sleep. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. From when she was only a couple of months old we started noticing that when we tried to soothe or help her to sleep, sometimes it just made it worse. So we let her figure it out and after a few minutes of fussing, she'd put herself to sleep! To this day as long as you get her down early enough, we can literally put her in her crib wide awake and she will go to sleep usually without any crying. We are amazed and so grateful! (Please E, do not change!)

7. She loves, loves her brother. As much as she recognizes my voice from her time in the womb, I am convinced that is true for C's voice as well. After all, his head and little voice was right by my belly during my entire pregnancy. She gets so happy whenever C is around! She lights up like he's the best thing in her life next to milk, maybe better. Heart.

 My perfect girl. Completes our family and we love her so much.