Quentin has suddenly grew his two front bottom teeth. This has been a little painful for both of us, but things are getting much better.
At our last pediatric appointment the doctor said that we should start putting him to bed awake. One so that he learns to self-sooth and two so we can clean his teeth with a piece of cloth or gauze before he goes to sleep. We've been easing into this since he's used to feeding until he falls asleep. It was the only way I could get him to sleep initially and now he's just used to it.
I've noticed that he's actually ready to go to bed around 7 pm instead of 8 pm and so I'm going to try and put him to bed earlier. At 6:56 pm last night he looked at me and started crying. Pretty good cue that he's ready for bed.
Also I've been feeding him as much as I can before his bath so he doesn't wake up two or three times after he falls asleep. Plus he's always cranky starting around 5 pm so it works better. He eats more when I break up the feedings.
After he falls sleep eating after his bath I try and wake him up just enough to wipe off his teeth and then I lay him on his side and rub his back for a second until he falls back asleep. I say good night and that's it. If he wakes up we don't go get him unless he's been crying for awhile and it's obvious he isn't going to go back to sleep on his own.
Two nights ago he cried when I left and I ended up going back and rocking him and rubbing his back until he fell asleep and last night I fed him again before he went to sleep. Baby steps.
I feel ok about letting him cry a little bit knowing that he ate enough so I'm not spending my whole evening in the bedroom feeding him. Since we've been doing this, he usually wakes up once each evening and cries for only five to ten minutes. He's continued to sleep until about 7:30 - 8 am so I know he isn't hungry. We still need to work on nap time which has been more miss than hit.
We were also told to start feeding him solids. I've been trying to give him rice cereal with breast milk which he took willingly not long ago, but he's decided he doesn't want any now. "The Contented Little Baby Book" says that it might be because he's getting too much breast milk and isn't hungry so I made sure he was really hungry before I gave him any a few days ago. He took about five bites which is way better than before.
My friend said she made her own rice cereal with really soft rice and her baby liked that so maybe I'll try it. The baby books I have make it seem like something horrible is going to happen to your baby if he isn't eating and array of solids by six months. It's hard not to get stressed out by these books, reading all the stuff your child is supposed to be doing. It's important to keep perspective when reading them. They have the same effect on my self-image as beauty magazines.
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