A Blogger Sabbatical

In case you didn't notice, I was away from this blog for quite a good long time. I'm sorry for that - it was unplanned.

In September 2014, baby G and I moved from California to Virginia, leaving my husband in CA to finish his work before joining us in October. We were moving in with my family, and G and I stayed in a small room while some renovations were being done to our little basement apartment. At the same time, I was also planning a bachelorette party and bridal shower for my best friend's wedding which was to be held a month after we arrived in Virginia.

We expected the renovations to be completed before October, and so had all of our belongings and furniture delivered to the house the day after my friend's wedding. But the renovations got pushed back... and pushed back... and pushed back... and they were finally completed shortly before Thanksgiving. So then we had to get to unpacking, and organizing, and cleaning, etc.

Of course, then the Holiday season began and we were incredibly busy with different families to visit, we took a short trip to Williamsburg, and just plain relaxing.

Then, I took the GRE right before the end of the year (so prior to that spent a lot of my free time studying), and my husband began his classes at the start of January. So I feel like I finally have a bit of time to devote to this blog again!

There's a lot of things coming up that I'm looking forward to - the big one being that our little boy is turning 1 year old in March! So we have a party to plan (so excited!) and him turning one also means a few other things are in store. Like his first dentist appointment, first haircut, and of course (we hope), his first words and other developmental milestones.

So there should be plenty for me to write about. I will begin applications to grad schools soon (I've already partially begun), so that take me away again, but hopefully not for long. (Of course, if I do get in to a program, who knows how long I'll have to devote to this what with studies and all).

But again, apologies for the unexplained absence!

Getting Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night (after 10 months of bad sleep habits)

We were not one of those lucky parents whose child began sleeping through the night mere weeks, or days even, after they were born. Some infants have no sleep issues at all, of which I am insanely jealous. Our boy definitely does not fall into that category.

I didn't mind waking up numerous times a night to nurse him, because he'd almost always go right back to sleep. For a short while, we actually bed shared, which made sleep so much easier for everyone involved - I could fall asleep while nursing without getting a crick in my neck from sitting in the rocking chair, and G would sleep much longer and more peacefully when he was with us.

But he was getting bigger by the day, and even our normally roomy Queen bed suddenly started feeling small with the three of us in it together. Plus, he started getting to the age when he didn't need to nurse 4 or 5 times a night, but I would be so tired that if he stirred I'd pull him to me without even a glance at the clock to see how long it had been since he last nursed. And, being a stay-at-home-mom, I wanted to make sure my husband got as much sleep as possible, since he had to be up early every day to go to work. I could always catch a nap during the day if needed, so I'd wake him up only if needed. So the minute baby fussed and began waking, I'd latch him on and go back to sleep.

We moved him into his own room permanently when he was 4 months old. The transition really wasn't so bad; he handled moving from our bed to his crib well. I still was waking up and nursing him 4 times a night or so on average - and because I'd often fall asleep in the chair nursing him, I probably spent more time asleep in his room than I did in my own bed. Everything seemed to be going well, and when he was nearly 6 months old, he began going 5 or 6 hours between feeds at night - which meant there were some nights I only nursed him once or twice!