Kelsey is 4 weeks old right now. She currently weighs 10 lbs. 9 oz. She has been gaining around 10 -12 oz. or so a week which seems like a lot to me, but the pediatrician is not concerned. (A friend of mine gave me her baby scale to borrow, so I am able to weigh her each week.) She eats anywhere from 3-4 oz. at a time, averaging 25 or 26 oz. a day. She still gets the hiccups all the time, and has a hard time burping. She has been on Prevacid for reflux since she turned 3 weeks old (10 days now), and things seemed to be going very well....very few crying spells, sleeping better, and overall more happy and not as fussy. Until yesterday. It's back to crying, being very fussy, having lots of gas, and always pulling up legs and "thrashing" around (which makes it hard for her to sleep.) I was noticing also that she was gulping and gagging more again. Then, this morning she projectile vomitted all over me, herself, and the floor with no warning. She has never been one to spit up much at all, so this was a shock. It seems the reflux is getting worse or we may have to up the Prevacid. (At the moment, she is taking half of what Morgan ended up on in the end....and it is not based on weight.) She is still a noisy sleeper (though that had gotten a bit better and is now worse again) and kicks and moves all over when she sleeps (even in a swaddle). It makes it hard to know in the middle of the night if she is really awake or just making noises in her sleep.
I started trying to implement Babywise strategies last week with Kelsey such as the eat-wake- sleep cycle, sleep training for naps and bedtime, and keeping on a flexible 3 hour schedule. I know there are lots of viewpoints about the Babywise strategies and philosophies, and I know it is not for everyone, but it just works for us. It fits my personality and our lifestyle. We used it with Morgan (still do!) and loved the structure yet flexibility that it gave us. So, while some of my friends love it and some hate it, it works for us for now, and yet I acknowledge that it's not for everyone. With that being said, we started sleep training last week, and she is doing great at going down for naps on her own and sleeping well (when her tummy isn't bothering her, that is). We have a short naptime (and a bedtime) routine that she is used to now, and I put her down drowsy but not asleep. For the most part, she then puts herself completely to sleep on her own. (Every once in awhile I have to go back in to pat her tummy or put her paci back in, but that usually does the trick.) Her typical waketime between naps which includes feeding and then "play" (which consists simply of looking around and interacting with her environment at the moment) is about 45 minutes or so. Unlike Morgan, Kelsey is pretty good at giving sleep cues, such as yawning, fidgeting, staring, and whimpering. If I can catch her by the 2nd yawn and before the whimpering, she usually goes down relatively easily. Also, the last three nights she has only had one middle of the night feeding (aside from the 10:30 dreamfeed) anywhere from 2:30 to 3:30 and then gets up around 6:45 or 7:00. Now, granted, it took me a bit to realize that when I would hear her in the middle of the night (around 1 and around 4) not to assume she was awake and wanting to eat. I stood by her crib and watched her the other night and realized that she was making noise and seemed to be stirring (which I had always assumed meant she was waking up and wanting to eat), but that really she still had her eyes closed asleep and was not showing any hunger cues like fists in her mouth or sucking motions or trying to wriggle her hands out of her swaddle. She was simply stirring (a LOT) in her sleep and sometimes making grunting or other such noises, but she wasn't totally awake. So, after realizing this, I began putting the paci in or reswaddling her and she would stay asleep for another hour or two or fall back into a deeper sleep again. I did the same thing when I heard her around 5:30 or so. The first couple nights I did this, she went until 2:30, then 6:45, and last night she held out until 3:30, then 7:00. With her reflux issues seeming to be flaring up again, though, we'll see if this continues because she has had some rough naps today due to her tummy hurting.
Morgan continues to adore her baby sister, and now that we are able to do a bit more of our regular "routine" on most days, it has helped somewhat with her behavior. Jared goes back to work full time again next week, though, and I'm pretty nervous about that, seeing as his job keeps him tied up most nights of the week and lots of Saturdays. I'm not sure I am totally ready for that yet, but I guess I have no choice, huh? :)
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