More of Week 6

We had a fairly slow rest of the week this week until our busy weekend, which was nice! Noah is still doing great with his "sleep training". Friday night we had the perfect night--no shushing required when he first laid down or after any of his feedings!! He's even taking a couple of naps in his crib a day--falling asleep there. Our baby is awesome. :)

Noah and I did go to Kimmwick (about 20 minutes south of our house) to visit the Blue Owl Cafe with our friend Emily on Friday. I don't have any pictures from it--Noah slept most of the time, and Emily and I aren't as cute (plus I just forgot to take pictures...). If you're ever in the area, I recommend a trip--the baked goods are amazing!

Saturday, Noah and Daniel and I went garage-saleing (have to get Noah trained early!) and found some amazing deals. Noah needs some winter clothes, so we were on the hunt. We got 12 cute outfits for $16--4 of the outfits even still had the tags on them! Plus, our loot included two NFL authentic Rams outfits--one Kurt Warner jersey and a sweatshirt. Noah's ready for Sunday afternoons with Daniel now!

Then that afternoon, our sweet friends Steve and Becca came to visit from Philly. Congrats on your engagement! We're sorry for beating you at Bocce! :)

Noah also got to go to church at our St. Louis church for the first time today. He was so attentive-looking during the song service, then promptly fell asleep during sermon time. Pretty easy to take care of!

Noah still loves that playmat! This is where he spends a solid 20-45 minutes in the mornings while I get ready for the day.

He's so calm when he's awake! What a good baby.

Okay, so I hated to let him keep crying, but I needed to show my son's  "Houdini" skills...I think we've outgrown this swaddler! 

Daddy likes playing on the playmat, too! (His eyes looked drugged, but it's just the unfortunate camera angle...)

Noah was supposed to wake Daniel up for our garage saleing...it wasn't as successful as I had hoped! 

Steve and Becca with Noah.

Our friend Jess (from Philly) made this really cute onesie. Noah likes to wear it to church (you might remember it from last week's trip). 

Extreme Baby Makeover Continued and Week 6

I apologize for leaving you hanging (well, the two of you who probably read this...no one ever comments so I only know of a couple people who talk to me about the blog...) :)
Maybe you're wondering how our sleep training is going? In one word, "fantastic". It was definitely a rough start, like I said in my last post, but each night has slowly gotten better. Noah is now falling asleep in his crib without any "reassuring" though he does typically whimper for about 10 minutes first. Tonight, however, he fell asleep without a peep! Go, Noah! I do have to do the occasional "reassuring" throughout the night, whether it's after a feeding to go back to sleep or if he wakes up in between feedings, but the reassuring works and he usually falls quickly back to sleep. I will forever sing the praises of our pediatrician, and the Ferber method! :)
Also, a huge thanks to my wonderful Mama for coming to stay with us last week and helping out--a huge encouragement to my spirit.

Today was a fresh start on Motherhood. I actually got a shower and brushed my teeth without another person here to take care of Noah. I got two loads of laundry done. Noah and I went to CVS, JC Penney, and Kohls--and all of this happened by noon! To treat myself, we went out to lunch (which Noah slept through, so that made it really easy). I'm thinking I can do this. :)

Loving life in St. Louis--reason # 82, three trips to Lebanon to see the fam in one month--though those will probably slow down in the coming months.

Next things to look forward to--friends from Philly come this weekend, and Grandma and Grandpa Sampson come to visit next weekend along with a stay by Chris and family, and a quick visit from Bub and Rae.

Lovin' our crazy life!

Maybe Daddy caught us napping on the couch when he came home from work?

The pacifier is close enough. :) 

Quality time with Cousin Matthew

Not quite sure about this...

Mom??

A little hard to see, but that red mark on his arm? Yeah, he gave himself a hickey...whoops! 

All dressed up for church with Grandpa Shoemaker

He loves sleeping on his stomach. I'm convinced sleeping would go even better if we were allowed to put him in his crib like this! 

Night #1

So the start to our sleep training seemed like something out of a comedy...we did exactly what the pediatrician told us. I fed Noah, and then gave him a bath. I followed the bath by his medicine, and walked back to his nursery. We hadn't even made it to his room before he started vomiting! Poor little dude. We got him cleaned up (so much for the medicine) which thankfully just included changing his swaddler. We made it to his nursery and sat down to read two stories, just like Dr. Rohatgi said. I was on the next to the last page of the second story, and wouldn't you know, Noah pooped his pants! Ay yai yai. So I had to get him all cleaned up from that, reread our second story, and put him in bed.

This is when it got hard...we were told to lay him in bed, and when he started crying, wait one minute before going into his room, reassure him (give him his pacifier, pat him briefly, etc) and leave the room, even if he was still fussing. The next time, we were to wait two minutes before going in, the next time, three minutes, and so on, all the way to 15 minutes. (I was also told not to feed him again for at least 4 hours from his previous feeding.) Daniel was NOT excited about this whole plan. But so we began...our poor son cried for THREE hours. Bless his heart. After feeding him at the designated four hour time gap, I laid him back in bed, ready to start the process over again. But this time I only had to go in his room twice, and he finally fell asleep! He slept for an hour before waking up, at which time I was ready to go again, and again, I only had to go in his room twice before he fell back asleep. But then he woke up an hour and a half before his next feeding time...and yes, we had another hour and a half of crying with periodic "reassuring". This was hard for this mama to do! I knew I could calm him down if I just picked him up and rocked him, but I also knew that our sleeping patterns and nights could not continue as they have been. That was a big motivation. After his next feeding, I didn't have to go in to "reassure" Noah at all (though by this point he was probably just utterly exhausted!) and he slept until just 30 minutes before his next feed time.

So we had a very rough start but we slowly got better and better, probably due to his extreme fatigue. :)

But Mom and I noticed a significant change in his overall demeanor today. Now I've always said we have a good baby, but he was even better today. He didn't seem as uncomfortable, and was so calm. He laid on his playmat for up to 45 minutes at a time (which usually only lasts 5-10 minutes) and sat in his swing for about 30 minutes twice (which again is usually only 5 minutes). And his little legs didn't "cycle" as much as they typically did. He was so pleasant today. Who knows what we can attribute that to...the new sleep routine? No caffeine in his system? The medicine? That he pooped? Whatever it is, this mama is happy!

Here's to wishing good luck for night #2 and beyond!

Extreme Baby Makeover

Noah is a great baby...except for his sleeping. I'm pretty sure we've mentioned that a couple times in his short little life. :) But he had his one month well baby check-up at the pediatrician today, and we are ready to turn this boy around! First off, we got a script for Zantac to help his reflux (yay!!). The poor boy is so uncomfortable and has some periods of intense crying that we're hoping this will help. Next, we were told to start giving him some prune juice to see if we can get him pooping a little more often so he is more comfortable. I'm also going to do a little bit of a re-vamp on my own diet (bye-bye chocolate and Sonic Happy Hour!) And last, we are starting the "Ferber Method" to get help with sleeping--a different night time routine and a little bit of "cry it out". While he seems a little young to start this, his sleep has just been getting worse and worse (last night he only slept 20-45 minutes at a time and the pediatrician says he should be able to do 4-6 hours in a row at night by now) and if we don't do something soon, he is going to be controlling our behavior! Let's face it...he already is! So the next few nights are going to be really rough in the Sampson household, but we're hoping it pays off. Daddy is NOT excited about this--he hates to hear Noah cry--so pray we can both be strong for the better good of our family!

But the good news is Noah is growing GREAT--he's 21 3/4 inches long, and is up to 11 pounds and 9.2 ounces. A little chunker. :) No wonder my back hurts by the end of the day!

After his 2nd round of Hep B vaccine, our pediatrician visit was complete. Just a few tears later, Noah settled into a 3 and a half hour nap (and I said he didn't sleep well!!)... we should have had that vaccine at 10:00 pm....

Showing off his battle wound (the bandaid covering his vaccination spot on his left thigh)

Waving to the camera...and almost a smile!

His Sesame Street bandaid.

One month!

We made another trip to Lebanon this weekend...this time to meet Baby Matthew. Welcome to the family, Matthew! We're so glad you're here!
As always, you can click on a picture to make it bigger.

Ryan and Matthew, Dawn and Noah

Ryan and Matthew, Dawn and Noah, Brandon and Addie and Brody

We haven't taken many pictures of the three of us together. Our baby is getting so big already!

Cute new family of three--Ryan, Danielle, and Matthew.

Grandpa loves cuddle time with Noah.

Noah really likes this position while being patted on his back or bottom. Thanks for the lovin', Grandma! 

Noah's lips were stuck together on the trip back from Lebanon...sorry to make fun of you, son, but it looked hilarious! 

The weekend wore Daniel out! (Plus, if he took a sleeping picture of me, he deserved to have a sleeping picture taken of him! :)

It's My Birthday!

Week 4

Noah had a rough couple of days earlier this week...he fell asleep pretty quickly, but had a really hard time staying asleep. He was waking up every hour or two (where he had been going 3 and 4 hour stretches through the night) so none of us were getting much sleep! But we've been implementing a nighttime routine and he is slowly getting better and better. Last night we had one 4 hour stretch followed by a couple 3 hours so we're hoping to continue getting more sleep! :)

Chillin' with Dad. I know this picture is sideways but I don't know how to rotate it here...

I know, another sideways pic.
Dad is really good at putting Noah to sleep.

Cousin Megan came to visit this week! Noah got to take a lunch date to Chili's. We're really glad to be living closer to Megan and Sam and hope to get to see them a lot more often! 

See? Told you Dad was good at putting him to sleep!

Catching a quick nap. That Boppy pillow has so many good uses. :) 

He looks so peaceful when he sleeps. It's hard to get good pictures of his sweet face when he's sleeping because the flash always startles him, even in his sleep. He gives little smiles as he's falling into deep sleep, which are adorable. We can't wait to see true smiles with his dimples showing through!

That tongue sticks out a lot when he's totally relaxed. And look at those arm rolls the little chunker is getting! :)

The rest of these pics are for Amy (now you've really arrived--two shout outs!) :) for the OT presentation...some tummy time and some hands to midline and some kicking against gravity...

Julie's favorite tummy time strategy to recommend! :)