six months
to
seven months
We can finally say that Jonah’s sleeping has finally taken a turn for the better! After the Thanksgiving Break and after he turned six months, I was determined to sleep train him. Things have been better now at night. I will nurse him to sleep around 7:30 pm. If he doesn’t fall asleep nursing and is pushing away from the bottle or the breast, then I will just stand up and rock him for a second and lay him down either asleep or awake. If he is still awake, he usually will either lean over to his side and sleep or just fuss and cry for about 20 minutes before falling asleep. That is so much better than it was before because before it was hour upon hour of crying! I do not go to him until after 2 AM. Some nights he doesn’t cry, some nights he does, but if he does cry it’s only for a short time before falling back asleep. If he starts crying, I will set an alarm for 2:00 am to listen for him to see if he is asleep or awake and he’s always asleep by then. I keep the monitor on at that point. So typically after that, he won’t wake up until 5:00 am and that’s when I will nurse him back to sleep and he will sleep again until about 7:00 am, give or take.
With his better night sleeping, his day naps are getting better as well. I am still nursing him to sleep, but he is really good now when I transfer him into his crib. He used to wake up at the slightest movement when I would try and put him down, and it was like I was inching my way down into the crib. Now it’s like he knows it’s happening and he doesn’t mind. He’s comfortable and just content to sleep so I’ll lay him down and he’ll either just still sleep or he will roll over to his side and sleep like that. I am still swaddling his arms down to sleep, but keeping his legs out and that is working well. If he wakes up before an hour, then I will leave them in there for another 20 minutes to see if he will fall back asleep on his own. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. But, overall, the sleeping has drastically improved since turning six months old! His naps are lasting longer too! There are still some that are a half an hour, but the one and a half to two hour naps are becoming a lot more frequent.
Now more about Jonah…
His hair is still so fluffy! It sticks straight up! It’s crazy!
Colson loves to look for the soft spot on Jonah’s head and watch his hair move with his heartbeat. He gets a crack out of that.
Jonah is becoming more distractible and more enjoyable.
His favorite things to grab at are bags and stick type things, like markers and hangers. He is pulling himself forward inch by inch and swimming his arms. He is getting so close to crawling, but still not sitting for very long. It seems like he’s capable, but he is always leaning forward to move and so he falls over.
Jonah is definitely starting to get some separation anxiety. He loved playing with the cousins and the family during Christmas break, but anytime he saw me in the room, he would whine and cry and want me, even if he was perfectly fine. Little did I know this would begin a long term trend of being a hard core momma’s boy! A Grade A Clinger!
Here are more pictures of Jonah from his seventh month:
