Drake turned the big 1-2 yesterday! Time is absolutely flying and I can't believe Derrick's paternity leave ends tomorrow. When Drake was born it seemed like Derrick had eternity off of work but we're losing him tomorrow and hopefully I can handle it.
Good- We figured out which diapers contain the blowouts! It seemed like at least 75% of his poops were coming out of his diaper so we bought 4 different brands of diapers and started testing. 7th Generation was the winner! He's had some real doozies (dooties?) and the clothes have stayed clean!
Bad- Cutting his fingernails could be a bad on it's own. It's so hard and I worry I'm going to cut him every time. We started doing it in the bath because he's more relaxed. I was cutting them tonight and looked down to see his thumb covered in blood! It was awful. I cut the nail too short and knicked the skin on the end. He didn't cry when it happened so I didn't notice until I'd finished a few other nails but we kept seeing tiny little blood drops on his towel, pjs, and burp cloth while getting him ready for bed. It was terrible.
Funny- We've decided to start doing a dream feed. Essentially, it's a feeding right when we go to bed so hopefully his long stretch of sleep lines more up with ours. Currently he goes down around 7:30 and sleeps until around 1:30 but we don't go to bed until between 10 and 11 so we only get 2-3 hours before he wakes up again. With a dream feed, we put him down at 7:30 and then we wake him up again at 10:30 to eat. The first night we did this he slept until almost 5 so we got a 6 hours stretch! The trick with it is you're supposed to feed them without waking them up, as much as possible. Both nights we've tried this he has been out and we have not been able to wake him up. His head is lolling off the back of his shoulders and I'm rubbing his belly, stroking his cheeks, opening his mouth and he's just sleeping like a log. The only reason we were successful the first night is because he started stirring when I finally gave up and put him back in his pack-n-play. When we tried again he did eat, without ever opening his eyes...success! Night two, I couldn't get him to wake up at all, no matter what I did. It's hilarious and definitely makes Derrick and I wonder why we're tip toeing around our room before bed at night! We'll try again tonight and see how it goes!
In other news, he's officially almost grown out of 3 month clothes. A few still fit but we have to retire a lot. He's in 3-6 month pajamas right now and they are only a tiny bit long. He's a big dude.
He's getting a lot more interactive and greets us in the morning with giant smiles :) We've taken him out to dinner a few times recently and he's fairly content to sit on our lap and take it all in. Worst case, we stand next to the table with him and he's happy as a clam. He appears to be hanging onto that laid back personality.
We started crying it out in the evenings and the first night was torture even though he only cried for a total of 15 minutes. The second night he cried for 3 minutes and tonight 5. As hard as it is, it's validating when he puts himself to sleep and still wakes up smiling in the morning. Crying it out isn't for everybody, and I can definitely see why, but Derrick stays strong for us and I'm glad we're getting some evening independence out of it. If naps are any indication, I think Drake would have us up there every 5 minutes holding and rocking him if we didn't make him cry it out. Naps are still a struggle that we're working on. He's happy to nap on my chest but we're trying to work on crib naps. Wish us luck!
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