Sleeping: Oh, what a difference a couple of weeks make!! With some gentle encouragement from Mommy & Daddy, Tucker has put himself on a routine of sorts. He is eating every 3 hours on the dot during the day - we could set a clock by him!! 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. We try to stick to this loose routine in preparation for when we'll return to preschool - it works perfectly around our arrival and departure times. It also means that he & Lana take an afternoon nap at the same time - heaven!! After he eats each time, he spends a few minutes awake - some times he's awake longer than others, but at the first sign of drowsiness, we swaddle him up & put him in his bed!
Oh yes, that's right - his bed!! He lasted in the bassinet for about a week. Dan & I just cannot sleep well with a child in the room with us - we hear every little noise, and are constantly jumping up. We have a video monitor, so it gives us enough peace of mind to be able to see him at night.
Speaking of nighttime - for the past week, he's been sleeping from the 7:00 p.m. feeding all the way to the 1:00 a.m. feeding. However, that means that we were getting up at 1:00 a.m. and then again at 4:00 a.m., so although he was going a long stretch from 7:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m., it didn't mean we got any more sleep. So last night, we woke him up at 10:30 p.m. and fed him, and we didn't hear anything else from him until almost 4:00 a.m.! That was a gooood stretch of sleep. Dan did the 10:30 p.m. feeding and got to sleep until 7:00 a.m. I went to sleep at 10:00 and got to sleep until the 4:00 a.m. feeding, and then went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Perfect! I hope this pattern continues.
He's been doing really well with us laying him down drowsy but awake. Sometimes he just drifts right off to sleep by himself. Sometimes he'll let out a couple of "yells" - not crying at all - just letting us know he's irritated. If he does truly cry, we immediately go in and settle him...pat his tummy, pick him up and shush him, whatever it takes until he's calm again. Then (while he's awake!), we lay him back down and repeat as often as necessary.
Several times we've tried to give him a paci, but he is not interested. Every once in a while, if we're in the car and he's upset, he'll take it, but if he's in his bed, it's a no-go. We've decided we think that's a good thing!! With Lana, she did that whole routine of her paci falling out when she fell asleep, and then she would wake up and cry until we gave it back to her....ugh. Up and down, up and down. We're relieved to not be doing that again.
We're using a white noise machine in his room now, not because he was having trouble with the noise, but so that we felt like we could move around the house. His room is in the very dead center of the house. It has wood floors and wood walls, and you can hear every single noise in there! He seemed to be sleeping well through the noise, but it was making me anxious, and I felt like I was constantly telling Lana to be quiet. We turned on the white noise as a buffer, and I think we've all relaxed about it.
Eating: "They" say that, at 3 weeks old, Tucker should be eating 2-3 ounces each feeding, with 8-10 feedings per day. However, he's eating 4-5 ounces each feeding, with 7 feedings per day. He's getting in all the nutrition he needs, so we're not bothered by it. The switch to GentleEase formula seems to have helped him, too. He still has a tendency to want to fall asleep during and right after eating, but we work hard to get in a full feeding, and keep him up for at least a few minutes after. He's also still projectile vomiting after eating about once a week, but it's nothing like it was before, so hopefully the reflux meds are making a difference for him! He weighed 10 pounds at his two week check up. We go back next week for his 4 week check-up - I can't wait to see how he's grown! I think his little cheeks are fattening up already.
