Sleep Training - it's working!

About a few days ago we started to see some promising results of ST. Kaua has been going down to bed, recently with only a short amount of fuss - approximately 5-10 mins, then even more recently, has been going down w/o fuss!!!! Hallelujah! Unfortunately, he still isn't super consistent and there has been an occasional going to sleep with screaming, but generally, prebedtime fuss is fairly mundane and consists of blowing off steam whining/crying instead of screams. the past 3 days or so, he has gone down w/o any crying or fussing, but I have to admit that I cheat a little and stay in the room after putting him down for an extra 5 minutes or so, gently patting him and shushing him until he sleeps. I dont know if this is helping or harming the situation, but I greatly enjoy leaving the room with a sleeping baby rather than leaving the room with a crying baby.

As for MOTN, that still is a challenge, but there has been significant improvement in that department as well. He generally doesn't need a bottle anymore, but does still get up one time in the MOTN and has been inconsistent in getting back to sleep. Sometimes he'll fuss and cry for what seems like forever and at other times, he'll go back to sleep with just a small amount of shushing and patting (after picking him up to calm him down). He'll also get up a second time usually around 5am-6am and again, we've still been allowing him to co-sleep with us at this waking, only b/c we each only have about 1-2 hours left of sleep and we desparately want those precious minutes/hours (for all of us). It is sooo easy to just bring him into bed at this time and have him sleep quickly, rather than having him screaming for 20 minutes, pretty much ensuring that none of us get anymore sleep for the morning. It is upon this waking that Kaua usually asks for his first bottle of the day, and it's been working out to give it to him. I figure that he's been asleep and w/o a bottle for practically 11-12 hours, so a bottle at this time is more than necessary.

As for how we ST, I must say that having that bedtime routine is a must. I'm not super exact in how we do it, but it generally consists of bath, playtime, storytime, lullabye while rocking him with the lights off, then put him down. The playtime, storytime and lullabye with rocking is an always. The bath is sometimes done early or later, depending on where Kaua is and who is watching him. Dinner sometimes is thrown in, as well as a bottle, and these mixers to the bedtime routine dont seem to throw him off very much. I'm also not extremely strict with the clock and when he goes down to sleep, but I do try to keep everything in between 6:30-7:30pm. Occassionally, it may be later, depending on how he naps during the day. (Which is another challenge, only because there are several different people watching him on any given day, so his nap location and the way he goes down are ever changing.)

Anyway, I must say that ST was a success and we saw real results after 2 weeks.

As for bebe #2, I'm now 13 weeks and apparently out of the 1T. Time sure does fly! The doctor's visit yesterday went smoothly (despite a 45 min. delay at the office!) and bebe's heartbeat is at 160's. A little higher than Kaua, so I'm hoping that signifies a girl! I know, it's an old wives tale that girls have faster heartbeats than boys, but anything to amuse me. We're seriously considering flying to the main city to give birth because let's face it, I'm a wimp when it comes to labor and I need to have access to an epidural and they dont offer epis at the local hospital. It'll take significant planning, however, to fly to another island to give birth, in large part because I wouldn't know when to go, how long to make acommodation arrangements, how long to have a car rental, etc. Another issue is what to do with Kaua when we do go to the hospital. Here, we have family members who he's extremely comfortable with, but there, none. Both my grandma and mom have volunteered to fly up with us though, so that is a possibility, if we can work out the acommodations part.So if we can pull it off, we're going to try.

Housing situation is getting better. DH installed the wood laminate floors and it's looking wonderful. Still tons more work to do and it is pretty exhausting, especially with a toddler, but it's working out.

Oh and kaua can take several steps on his own, but STILL NO WALKING! Ugh! This boy is really taking after his mama, and may end up walking at 15 months like I did. He turned 14 months old yesterday...so we've got 1 month to get him to beat my record. lol.