{letterboard: Letter Folk (Poet) // romper: June and January // socks: June and January // moccasins: Freshly Picked}

{week 21} Gah, four and a half months?!

The biggest change this week was that we dropped Daphne’s dreamfeed. I had started the dreamfeed in order to collapse her last nap into her nighttime sleep, but then she started waking up for the dreamfeed (which was between 10 and 10:30 pm). So, over a couple of days, I shortened the dreamfeed nursing down to one side while increasing the bedtime bottle by an ounce, and then dropped the dreamfeed nursing completely while increasing the bottle by another ounce. Daphne now takes 6 ounces in a bottle at bedtime!

In order to account for the extra supply from not doing the dreamfeed, I started pumping. I don’t have a plan about how long I will pump at this time (since my supply seems to dwindle over the day) but I do produce enough to make it worth it, at least for a bit. It will help build up our freezer stash (especially since Baby D is taking such a big bottle now). I also have started pumping a little later in the mornings, but before I feed Daphne for her first feeding. It seems a little backwards, but I have a ton of supply first thing in the morning and Daphne is sleeping later these days. Since Aaron is back at work now, I have to get my morning pump in before the girls (well, at least Eloise) is up for the day.

Now that Daphne is sleeping longer into the morning and going to bed earlier at night, her total nighttime sleep is about 12 hours (8 pm to 8 am). It’s not perfect sleep and she still wakes up for her pacifier or a cuddle, but it’s pretty amazing! I have a few moments of quiet time in the morning, and Aaron and I have time in the evenings after bedtime (we are currently 3 seasons into The Good Wife, watching an episode or two per night).

Daphne is back in the Rock N Play for sleep, which was partly because of our trip to Boise and partly because she sleeps so well in it! Once we get used to the dropped dreamfeed routine, we will formally sleep train (we plan to use the Ferber Method, like with Eloise) to help transition her into her crib.

For posterity and because a few people have been asking, here is Daphne’s daily routine. She flexes between a 3 hour and 4 hour feeding schedule, but has a consistent wake-up time and bedtime. And as I have mentioned previously, this routine/schedule will work wonderfully for when the school year starts for Eloise and I am doing drop-offs and pick-ups, plus, both girls sleep until 8! I try to be home for at least two of her naps (especially the morning one) since she doesn’t sleep as well on-the-go, though it’s tricky because if we don’t leave the house super early (like 9-ish) we are stuck at home until around noon.

7 AM – pump

8 AM – wake-up/nurse

9:30 AM – nap

11:30 AM – nurse

1:15 PM – nap

3:00 PM – nurse

5:00 PM – cat nap

6:15 PM – feed

8:00 PM – bedtime with bottle

9:30 PM – pump

And in non-sleep related news, Daphne has started scooting. Like an Army crawl, only way slower and not very far! She does lots of tummy time on her playmat and rolls around from her back to her tummy, but she recently has started wanting to move differently. I expect she will be an early crawler for sure!

Happy 12 weeks Daphne!

M

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{letterboard: Letter Folk (Poet) // onesie: Carter’s (old) // shorts: Old Navy // moccasins: Freshly Picked // Sophie the Giraffe}

{week 20} Wow, 20 weeks, huh? This past week feels like it has been a big one, so here we go!

Daphne had her 4 month check-up (2 weeks late, poor second child!) last Friday right after we got home from Boise. Her ped was really happy with Baby D’s growth (details below) and was pleasantly surprised to hear she was rolling! She did have to get her second set of vaccines, which she did fairly well with. The first vaccine was oral and she took that pretty well, the second vaccine was an injection that she missed entirely, and she was crying for the next two. Luckily, she calmed down almost immediately but it is still so hard to see!

The ped offered for us to start solids (rice cereal) since it has been shown that starting solids early helps (prevent) food allergies. I was surprised that he was so straight-forward (and encouraging) with starting solids now since it hasn’t been that long since we were doing this with Eloise, and Eloise’s ped really cautioned us against starting solids too early and encouraged us to wait until she was 6 months. Aaron and I are on the same page and are planning on waiting to start solids until Daphne is at least 5 months, but probably 5.5. I know a lot of parents are so eager to start solids, but we really aren’t. It is more work (I plan on making all of Daphne’s purees like I did with Eloise, plus prepping all of the food for baby-led weaning), requires way more planning, and makes diapers really stinky!

Sleep. I won’t talk much about it since I don’t want to jinx anything, but we have started making some big sleep changes. Mostly, the big change this week has been that we moved Baby D to her crib for sleeping. Last week when we were in Boise, we went ahead and let Daphne sleep in her Rock N’ Play for all naps and nights since we knew it was where she slept best (and she slept really well!). But somewhat impulsively over the weekend, I put Daphne down for her first nap in her crib, and she did well, so we just kept her sleeping in her crib all day and over night. She is still adjusting to being in her crib and we are still needing to go in and soothe and give her her paci, but it feels like progress. We haven’t totally committed to “sleep training” yet, but Daphne is a pretty good self-soother, so we are hoping we won’t have to do too much (formally, at least).

Since Aaron headed back to work this week, it was time for me to put Daphne on a bit more of a scheduled routine, as compared to a routine based on whatever time she woke up in the morning. Though we have more than a month before school starts for Eloise, I feel like I need to get Daphne on a schedule that would allow us to do pre-school drop-off and pick-up without interfering too much with Daphne’s (sleep) schedule. With her current wake-up time (of 6 or 7 am), I would have to wake her up mid-nap (twice) in order to get Eloise to and from school… no Bueno. Luckily, I found a good schedule/routine that works for everyone and lets us move between a 3 or 3.5 hour schedule based on what Daphne needs. We started on Monday and so far, so good!

Daphne, just this week, has grown out of her first pair of (gold) Freshly Picked moccasins. Sad day. At least we have plenty for her to grow into! She seems to be growing a bit more all of the sudden with clothes seeming smaller and smaller too.

And here are Daphne’s 4 month stats:

• weight: 15 lbs, 4 oz (75%)
• length: 25 inches (50.75%)
• head circumference: 41.7 cm (50.75%)

As compared to Eloise, Daphne is one pound less, the same length, and a much smaller head! I suspect though that Daphne is actually longer from shoulder to crotch than Eloise was (given how she fits in her clothes).

Happy 20 weeks Daphne!

M

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{letterboard: Letter Folk (Poet) // onesie: Carter’s // shorts: Carter’s // blanket: Aden and Anais}

{week 19} This has been a big week for Daphne since it’s her first trip to Boise! She usually does pretty well in the car when we drive around town, but a long road trip is a totally different game! But, she did SO well. We kept on our usual schedule of 3 hour feedings and ended up making three stops to nurse/eat/get out wiggles, and then stretched the last feeding of the trip a bit so we didn’t have to stop just 20 or 30 minutes away from my parents’ house. Obviously there was so much time spent in the car seat, but Daphne did well playing right after a feeding, and then putting herself down for a nap so long as she had a paci (or her thumb) and her lovie! Only at the very end of the trip did she fuss – and we were stretching her feeding time so it was risky!

Once we got into Boise, she transitioned to the time change right away; I kept her on Pacific time thru bedtime and then we switched to Mountain time by the next morning. Daphne has kept to her regular feeding intervals which has been nice and predictable. And with sleep, she has been in our bedroom in the Rock N’ Play. The past few mornings she has slept in (wahoo!) until 7 or 7:30 am (as opposed to her usual 6 am) and only been up once or twice in the night.

It has been SO hot here (into the triple digits every single day!) so Daphne and I have spent all of our time inside in the A/C. And when we do get in the car to go out, we have this little fan that we clip near her car seat since our car vents don’t go anywhere near her! {We got this fan a few weeks ago when we noticed that she was getting pretty hot driving around Seattle once the weather was warm.}

We have been introducing Daphne to my family and Boise friends which has been a delight! She met her Aunt Yaya (my sister), Aunt Dollie (my sister) and Uncle Lance and cousin Dawson, Uncle Jason (my brother) and Aunt Kelly, and her Great Uncle Gary (my dad’s brother) and Great Aunt Gail, and some of my closest girlfriends and their families.

Daphne also had her first haircut this week! We took a family trip down to my hair appointment (since I only get my hair cut in Boise) because we were planning on having Eloise get her hair cut for the first time. Plans changed on that and Eloise didn’t get a hair cut (a very opinionated toddler!) but Daphne did! She had this one small section in the back behind her ear that was almost an inch longer than the rest of her hair, so I had it trimmed up and it can grow out with the rest of her hair. She did so well (Aaron just held her) and I don’t think even realized what was going on!

And lastly, I forgot to bring the Bumbo seat for Daphne in our rush to get out the door last week. Not a huge deal, but she loves to be upright and sitting during at least some of her awake time, but is nowhere near sitting up on her own. We were at a friend’s house for dinner and she offered us a jumperoo that both of her boys had outgrown and they were looking to get rid of. And let me tell you, Daphne is obsessed! She squeals with delight when she is in it, and even though it is enormous (!) it will be great to occupy Daphne and is pretty temporary (in the whole scheme of things, right?).

Happy 19 weeks Daphne!

M

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{letterboard: Letter Folk (Poet) // top: babyGap (old) // leggings: babyGap (old; similar) // moccasins: Freshly Picked}

{week 18} Daphne just turned 4 months this weekend, so go check out her monthly post if you missed it!

Happy 18 weeks Daphne!

M

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