Nap Training

I used to wonder why he doesn't take any naps while other babies have routine naps. He would doze off in the baby carrier or car seat when he's tired but never solid regular naps. When I learned from Irene how it affects brain and temperament development, I became eager to work out a regular nap schedule. In late May I read the "Healthy Sleeping Habits Happy Child" book. I find this a revolutionary book, it explains the hows and whys. Some notes from the book that helped me (I hope my new mommy friends find it helpful too):
- Babies need to sleep after 1-2 hours of wakefulness.
- When infant/child appears wired, he may be over-tired already.
- Sleep begets sleep: The more rested you are, the easier it is to fall asleep and stay asleep. The more tired you are, the harder it is.
p119: Most common cause for waking up too early before 4 mo is fussiness; after 4 mo, is a too-late bedtime.
p121: The common cause of an absent or a too-short morning nap is an interval of wakefulness that is too long bw the wake-up time and the beginning of the nap.

P248 Nap1: 9am, 1-2 hrs.
Restorative if it's about an hour or longer. 40-45 is sometimes enough but most babies this age sleep at least 1 hr.
If a nap doesn't occur, it is best to keep you baby awake and go to the next sleep period. Probably the next sleep period will take place a little earlier.

P256 Nap2: 12-2. Should begin before 3.
Common problem is the interval of wakefulness following the first nap is too long. The causes baby to become overtired and he has difficulty either falling asleep or staying asleep.
If missed this nap, try to nap in early evening say 4 and limit to 1 hour.

I find the key is in timing: start the soothing process before he appears tired. The book makes an interesting analogy between catching the wave of drowsiness and surfboarding. "Perfect timing produces no crying" is very true. I watch for when he becomes quiet and learn when he starts his long humming it means he is a little overtired already. I also started a sleep log to learn his sleep pattern and see if he's getting enough sleep. After a couple weeks of training, he is pretty good with his two naps, 10:30-11:30/12, 3/3:30-4:30, and bed time routine starting a little after 7. He now often coos for a few minutes and may cry for 5-10 minutes on a normal routine schedule. He usually doesn't get up at night, but does once in a rare while.

I also extrapolate the sleep theory to adult sleep, and learn that I've been depriving myself sleep. I find I am able to fall asleep while he naps, which means I need more sleep than what I've been giving myself. I protest sleep even more than the baby. So now I try to sleep when he naps instead of working on chores (well, I'm not so good at that yet, since I'm writing blog while he's napping here).

sleep log

Sunny Day on the Lawn

On a walk on this sunny day I let him loose by putting him down on the grass. He was happy as a little puppy (see picture).
He grabs grass and can't wait to stuff into his mouth. When I try to trade grass for toys, he doesn't care for toys at all!

First teaching Lessons

On one rainy day I cut out some pictures from ads and glued them to a brown grocery bag, with actual objects illustrated on the side. I wanted to teach him the correlation of the pictures with words, sound and objects. But this might have been a little to early for him -- he was more interested in chewing the objects at this point.



Still, I always put out a few objects while reading to him these days to help developing the correlation and object identification.



I also tried drawing with colored pencils and then handing him the pencils. He examined the pencils up and down, and decided chewing on them was more fun :-) A bit too early for art lessons...

He likes the game of Peek-a-poo a lot. This is supposed to help developing baby's understanding of "object permanence" concept. Object permanence refers to the understanding of the existence of an object when the object is not readily visible. Babies at this age are starting to grasp that, so they are fascinated to learn that you are behind the scarf when they can't see you. One experiment I tried was to put a toy under an upside down pot and a clear plastic container. He knows to flip over the container to get the toy but not always the pot. When he does pick up the pot, he is more interested in chewing the rim of it and forgets about the object under it. So it's not clear if he gets the Object Permanence idea there.

Here is a game that I was excited about. Like most babies at this stage, Andy loves sounds. I put in front of him a plastic container, the aluminum rice pot, and a metal pot lid, and started banging with a wooden spatula. He was fascinated with the sounds it made! After he watched for a while I handed over the spatula. He examined it a lot, moving it up and down, changing hands. It looked like he was going to chew on it, and I went out the room to get the camera in case he decides to make music instead. And sure enough I heard the banging in the other room! That was an exciting moment! He managed to bang all three. And eventually he picked up the pot to chew on its rim. I then showed him to bang on the "drums" with bare hands and he held his hand out and followed on the rice pot right away. I was proud.

Bigger pictures here.

8 mo Observations

Andy has grown a lot.
- The biggest development is that he is able to sit stably for much longer now. This allows him to play longer and me starting some lessons with him. More on that in a separate post.
- He has grown long enough to reach the floor when standing in the Exersaucer now. So he is able to reach all the musical toys in that and discovered for himself how to make each toy make (e.g. bang a key, turn a page, pull a lever). My yoga session has got longer as he plays in it for close to half hour now. He gets so excited with the Exersaucer that he often starts his own dance of beating legs and pushing arms.
- He is on a regular 2 nap schedule now after a week training.
- He continues to drool and chew on everything he gets his hands on. He likes all regular human food so far. I cook him thick multi-grain stews with meat and veggie bits.

Dinner at Apu's

We had a delicious dinner at Apu's the weekend after coming back from WI. Apu's dog Cobbey was very friendly and Andy really liked him!

chef Apu

Andy loves patting Cobbey

WI Trip

5/21 Wednesday
We spent the day in transit. We got up early to catch the bus to the airport. The flights were ok, the second lag was a little late. Andy took it a lot better than I anticipated. He was happy for the most part, the second lag was a little rough. He dozed off from time to time but no long naps. Plane taking off or landing didn't seem to bother him; he focused on nursing at those times. The entire Ravet family came to greet him at the airport, so he got to meet his cousins Quinn and Kaia for the first time. We stopped by Irene's to pick up the traveling crib and some of Lilian's favorite toys when she was Andy's age.

5/22 Thursday

Today was the first day in Madison. The weather was nice and sunny. It was pretty relaxing. We walked around the neighborhood.

Here is Andy in cool shades.

It's been almost two years since we came back the last time. I met up with Irene at the Memorial Union Terrace. It's the popular terrace right outside the student union by Lake Mentoda. 17 mo Lilian was very talkative. I was impressed by how much the kid understands at that age and how strong her language skill was (able to say things in 2-3 languages).

With Irene and Lilian at the Terrace

5/23 Friday
LR got to check out the "Family Enhancement Center" today. They have lots of toys and an outdoor playing area. He was a bit timid about the new place. I visited Irene again to observe the in-home nanny experience. Irene shared lots of baby learning tidbits. She used pudding for paint when Lilian started trying her hands with art projects (didn't have enough hand coordination for writing utensils).

5/24 Saturday
We went to the farmers market on the capitol square today. It's a beautiful early summer day. Pictures.

At the Farmers Market

In the afternoon we went to the Carson's for a memorial day grill out. Carolyn has 3 boys now, the youngest Lucas is 3 months old. It was a lot fun getting together with them.

Lucas and Andy say Hi to each other

5/25 Sunday
It's Joe's big running day today. The weather was perfect for it, cloudy and cool. He had a cramp by mile 14 but managed to complete his first marathon. Joe's parents and us cheered him on at a few mile stops. We are all very proud of him. Andy enjoyed watching all the runners. Pictures

A developmental observation:
I noticed tonight that Andy was able to pull the bottle out of his mouth and push it back in with both hands. He did this several times as he emptied the bottle. It was exciting to see this hand coordination.

5/26 Monday
Bob got to meet Andy for the first time here.

5/27 Tuesday
I took Andy to see the fish hatchery at my dad's work DNR this afternoon. Andy was interested in all the wild life there.

DNR walking trail

5/28 Wednesday
We got up before 5am for the flight home. The week went by so fast. It was great to see families and friends and Madison was at its prettiest this time of the year. Andy has been a good sport traveling. He didn't have any problem with plane ascending or descending; in fact, landing seems to put him to sleep! He seemed to adjust to the new places and time difference well to my surprise. He cried a little more for a couple of the nights, but still fell asleep about the same time at night (after 9pm). He automatically adjusted to CST in the mornings: the first day he woke up after 9am, and then were 6:30-7am consistently. Though he exhibited a little shyness towards new places and people, we were also glad that he warmed up to the families and friends quickly.

First Haircut

Ok, too many complains about his hair getting long and questions of "is it a boy or girl?" and that it'd be nice to look sharp on his first WI trip in a couple of days, so here came his first haircut. Andy had a thick patch on the top of the head mainly, so that made the haircut easy. He sat down in the "barer chair" (the car seat) in the bathroom, and the patch was trimmed in a few snips. He behaved surprisingly well during the cut.

Before:

But started to fuss right after. Maybe he was missing the long hairdo.

Happy old self again after the shower.