Growing a Little Schulze: Daniel

Daniel turned 3 months on February 30th! Oh, wait. Only 28 days in February. Well, we'll just say he was 3 months old for the month of March.

Sleep:

It's all about the sleep this month. Or challenges with sleeping. Although it's not really the sleep itself that's the issue. It's getting him to fall asleep that's making me a little crazy.

Nighttime sleep:
He actually slept through the night on March 1st and 2nd! And for some reason, I feel more tired than when he doesn't. Then in the middle of the month the issues really ramped up. He would fall asleep nursing,. I would put him in his crib but he would wake up 10 mins later. A couple nights we did this multiple times: nurse, sleep 10, wake up, nurse sleep 10, wake up. I was ready to tear my hair out.

Or one night where he fell asleep with a little patting and jiggling while I was reading Claire a bedtime story. He snoozed for a bit and then woke up to nurse. He fell asleep after first side but then woke up again. So I figured out he needed to nurse both sides even if he fell asleep in between. I thought I had solved the problem! But I hadn't. Even once I thought I had him all settled in bed he'd wake up again half an hour later and fuss. After a few nights of nothing really working, I just left him in his bed to work it out. He'd let out a random fuss every 10 minutes or so for 30 minutes and then would finally go out. This happened multiple nights.

It doesn't sound so bad typing it out. But it was frustrating. I never knew if he would be in bed by 8:00 or 10:00. I was never quite sure when he was really ready to go to bed. And then he was asleep for good but then hearing him cry was stressful because I couldn't really turn off mommy mode and relax. I was getting no downtime. Which is not good!

But once he was down for the night he did pretty well. He'd usually wake up once to eat, either around the 2 o'clock mark or between 4 and 5. And then he'd sleep until 8 or 9.

Naps:

He's been napping in the swing a lot late morning and mid afternoon. Sometimes he naps on the way to school and then again in the evening. So 4 naps or so. He likes to turn his head and snuggle his face into the side of the swing or car seat. In the swing or bouncer I'll tuck a blanket in the side to give him something extra to snuggle against. I feel like I should try to stop using swing to put him to sleep. But it so easy to pop him in and let him drift off with less crying. And with two others to take care of, I often choose the easy way out. But on 3/20 he feel asleep without too much effort in my arms around 3:25. I put him down in his crib and he slept until 4:05! Naps continued to happen wherever and whenever was easiest but at least the crib was an option!

Development:
This month it's about the rolling! On 3/13 he was experimenting with rolling both ways. Back to front he made it 3/4 of the way. He slowly managed front to back! Then on 3/24 we have successful back to front rolling! It was very slow and took multiple tries. But the next day it became hard to keep him on his back without him rolling. He wasn't yet rolling bed though. He stayed on his back where we put him.

Trying to roll but only made it this far!

Fun stuff:
He's ticklish! His belly, under his chin, a little spot on his collarbone... all good places to tickle and make him giggle! He also loves when you move his arm to do pat a cake. It makes him laugh out loud! Most any vigorous arm movements produce laughs but the singing adds an extra level.

Sizing:

3-6/6 mo clothes

Squeezing in sz 1 diapers the first part of the month, moved up to size 2 by the end.