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Top 5 Tips on How to Survive Sleep Regression

sleeping at 4 months old

Ok, so I should have never posted that Giulio was sleeping so well (averaging 9 hours a night) because I jinxed myself ensuring that sleep regression would hit us hard! Around 4.5/5 months, Giulio stopped sleeping through the night. He now wakes up 2 to 3 times a night to eat. There are a lot of explanations for this oh-so-common phenomenon, but this is the one I like best: he doesn't nurse well during the day because he's so easily distracted that he needs to eat at night for the extra calories. Here's an RN's more profound way of saying that. That combined with the fact that he's so big and active, he needs a lot of extra calories and breast milk is mostly water, so he needs to eat OFTEN. Also, he's SO CLOSE to crawling that, just like when he wasn't sleeping to practice rolling over, he's not sleeping well because he needs to practice crawling...

sleeping at 4 months old

Anyway, here are my top 5 tips on how to survive sleep regression.

1. Sleep when the baby sleeps. As crummy and impossible as it is, go back to the newborn schedule of sleeping when the baby sleeps. Hide the pile of dirty laundry, try not to think about the dirty dishes in the sink, and order take out.

sleeping as a newborn in the hospital

sleeping as a newborn

2. Mood lighting! Put some nightlights around the house so you can walk around and go to the bathroom without turning on any lights. Once bright lights are involved, it will be harder for you and the baby to go back to sleep. Do NOT bring phone, ipads, etc into the nursery with you to pass the time while nursing!! That will wake you up just as much, if not more, than bright lights. Don't do it!!

sleeping at 5 months old

3. Rehydrate. Have a bottle of water or sports drink ready to grab after nursing. It just took me waking up thirsty with a dry mouth once to know that I needed to rehydrate after night time nursing sessions. It will help you sleep better.

4. White noise the entire house. Everyone knows white noise helps the baby to sleep, but it can help you sleep too! I get back to sleep so much faster when I have the fan going.

sleeping at 5 months old

sleeping at 2 months old

5. Know that it can't last forever. I'm pretty sure that all babies eventually sleep through the night or at least toddlers/kids/teenagers do...so try to remain positive. And celebrate small victories, for example, I got to sleep 9 hours last night (not in a row, but it felt great just the same)!!

Giulio falls asleep pretty quickly and he naps regularly 3 times a day, so I know as he eats more solids and starts crawling away (requiring even more calories of course) he'll go back to sleeping through the night and I'll get that coveted 8 hours!

sleeping at 1 month old

Half a Year Old!!!

A very merry HALF birthday to my little man Giulio!!! I can't believe it's been 6 months; the time just flies by! As I write this, Giulio's behind me in his jumperoo playing with all the little toys and periodically jumping for joy. Those giant thighs of his must be made of pure muscle, because he can jump really high!

Giulio jump, jump, jumperooing!

So Giulio is the size of the average one year old weighing 22 lbs and measuring 27.5 inches long! Basically he's huge! By the end of the day my arms hurt from carrying him, but he's my sweetie pie baby face and I love carrying him around all day anyway!

ALMOST crawling on the carpet

I don't have a lot of new stuff to report. He's eating a bit of solids and is ALMOST crawling. I really thought I'd be announcing that he started crawling in this post, but he hasn't quite figured it out yet: he can only go backwards.

"Watch as we roll over!"

He loves Olney and just laughs and laughs when Olney barks and whines. The more Olney whines, the more Giulio laughs. Olney's good and let's Giulio pet him sometimes, but mostly Olney just licks Giulio every chance he gets.

Notice what a handful he is!

Oh, and Giulio is loving bath time. Now that he can sit up, he is all by himself in the big bathtub. He can splash and he loves his squirty crab toy the best. Fabri got some great photos the other day while I was giving him his bath!!

Last night Giulio watched his Daddy play soccer for the first time. He's playing in a tournament with the Savigliano hospital and the first game was against the Savigliano police (of who we have many friends including, if you recall, Gabrielle [whose wife just had twins!!])

Oh, one other important new happening, the little man has two little teeth in that mouth!!

5 Months Old!!

The little man is 5 months old. He weighs 21 lbs and is a little bit longer than last month. It's not easy to measure the length of a rolly polly wiggle worm baby!

He can roll both ways and is very close to crawling. He's doing a lot of cute babbling too!

We just started solids this week. So far he likes apple sauce and avocado. Next we'll try pears and, when he hits 26 weeks, vegetable broth with potato, zucchini and carrot!

Zia Giovanna's Wedding

Giulio went to his first wedding last month. 2012 is a wedding filled year! We have 2 surprise friend weddings that come up this fall and then Giulio's Auntie Laura is getting married. Good thing this kid is such a party animal or I might be worried...

We woke up Saturday morning and got dressed in our finest attire. Thank goodness Giulio has a bunch of hand me downs from a family friend, because I never would have bought such a fancy (and cute) ensemble.

We went to the church where Zia Giovanna was dressed in a beautiful white dress and married Zio Paolo who was quite handsome himself.

Then we drove out to the wine hills to a fabulous party. After a brief deluge, the likes of which the Italians had never seen before, we dried off a bit and got right down to celebrating.

Giulio took a brief 20 minute nap, but he did not want to miss out on even a second of the party. He wasn't fussy at all though and was still dancing at 1am when I decided that all little babies should have been in bed an hour ago and we went up to our room.

The next morning we were finally able to see the real beauty of the place Giovanna & Paolo had chosen.

Then there was a party at Ruffia for all the folks that were still in town. Giulio did take a nap at one point, but mostly mingled with the crowd. Fortunately this little man gets along with everyone and all I had to do was feed him and put him down to nap when he got fussy.

Now Paolo is Giulio's REAL Zio Paolo instead of an imposter uncle that only buys presents every other birthday...

Giulio is (and has been for ~2 weeks) 4 months old!

The cutie pie baby face, is now weighing in at 19 lbs 12 oz and is 26 inches long! He can roll over from his belly to his back and has been observed ALMOST rolling from his back to his belly. 

Four months old means prefering standing to sitting and bouncing to standing still.

Giulio & I rocking our stripes while Giulio bounces on the couch!

It means when you're hot, you go in the pool

or into the bathtub!

It means getting to visit Daddy at work

and having Mommy read a story before bed every night!

How many piggies can you see on the bed?

But even though 4 months old is soooo big, 

Giulio can nap on Daddy's lap AND cheer for the Nats at the same time

the little man still needs lots of sleep (averaging 9 hours a night now)!!

International Travel Baby!

No posts for a whole month! That's some bad blog writing. We've been busy little bees. We just got back a little two weeks ago from the US and we're all FINALLY over the jet lag. Of course now that we're back on track, Giulio and I are both a little sicky...ugh.

In Paris getting ready to board this Airbus 380 for Washington!

Giulio got to put both of his passports to use this month. We had a WONDERFUL time in the US and Giulio performed like a champ! We can't wait to visit again in October. Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip:

Rooting for the Nats with Grandma & Grandpa at the Battle of the Beltway!

I got these blue eyes from my Great Grandpa.

A little tummy time - Giulio rolled over for his first time during this trip

Sticking our feet in the ocean!

Hanging out with Auntie Laura.

Does he look like his Grandpa Barry?