Finally... Some Sleep

This week I seem to have a lot to tell you about our little Piper, who just turned five months old.  So much has been happening in the last couple of weeks.

It started with moving her out of our room.  Even though we had just converted the third bedroom to the playroom, i.e. place to stash all of the girls' junk toys, we really needed Piper out of our room.  She had been waking up a little too much for my comfort in the middle of the night and would lay their talking/singing loudly to herself.  Needless to say it would keep me up and I wanted to sleep so badly that I would get up and nurse her just to put her to sleep.  Not a good habit to create.  So last week Elliott and I simply rolled the Pack n Play (where she sleeps at the moment) into the playroom and added my nursing chair.  The girls' toys remain and they play in there when Piper isn't sleeping.

Piper's sleeping schedule has really (gratefully) evened out as well.  One day she just turned a corner, going to bed now at 7:30 from her normal 11pm.  Wow, I don't even know what to say I am so excited about this change!  I kept the momentum going by creating more of a bedtime routine for her, with a bath every night, hoping she would get the idea that after bath comes jammies then sleep.  7:30 is about the time that the other girls go down too, so it has been working out well.  Piper sometimes (more often than not) wakes up about an hour after she goes to bed for the night and we let her cry it out.  Lily did the exact same thing - waking up after an hour each night - so I am not too worried.  Piper will get back to sleep in under 20 minutes and only get one or possibly two feedings in the night, which is blissfully less than before.  And on several occasions we have noticed her talking in the night, but then going back to sleep on her own.  So the plan is working!  Even her naptimes are evening out, enough so that I have started to notice a pattern and am working to grow that pattern.  Best of all, I am getting sleep!  I am starting to feel normal again, yeah!

Piper got her first tooth a day after her five month mark.  So far she hasn't bitten me while nursing (fingers crossed, knock on wood) but she still likes to chew on your fingers and doesn't understand that it hurts us now.  She has started eating solids consistently at bedtime and is a champ at it.  So far she has tried green beans, peas, squash, carrots, bananans, broccoli, rice cereal and applesauce.  The only failures were broccoli (can't blame her, the texture was weird) and bananas (go figure!  usually a baby favorite).  Next month I may try and incorporate another mealtime into the day, but I am just getting in the groove of a dinner around 6pm for her (usually after Lily and Ava eat) and am trying hard to stay on top of that.



Lily is becoming more interactive with Piper each day.  She used to be slightly oblivious, but now she will take the time to talk to her, notice her, and share with her, which is really sweet.  Ava continues to be a second mother, always cooing at Piper and laughing with her, which Piper ADORES.  She seriously eats it up!  And she finds Ava hilarious and has the biggest laughs at Ava's antics.

Piper also has started to reach for objects and grab hold for dear life, much to her sisters' chagrin.  Lily and Ava's hair and toys have fallen prey to Piper's grip and those times aren't pretty to behold.  But I try to remind them Piper's a baby and we just have to stay out of her way.  And hope she doesn't start crawling to soon.

As for the other two, Lily talks more and more each day.  Every morning we are now greeted with a sweet "good morning mom!  good morning dad!" which sometimes all too quickly gives way to "no!" ( accompanied with throwing herself on the floor) over some little matter like changing her diaper.  (But she consistently tells us when she needs her diaper changed, so that's a plus.)  Lately she has started tacking on "why?" to my answers of no, but when I explain why to her she then replies "oh, OK" and goes about her business.  Ava not so much.  We are starting to move into the realm of lying about things, although I don't think she understands the concept of truth/lying.  She just insists she wasn't doing things I catch her doing (like unrolling the toilet paper or touching things on the kitchen counter).  I have decided telling the truth is a hard concept to teach but I am taking a stab at it anyway.


I accidentally got the girls to eat a whole can (!) of green beans the other night.  While I was heating up chicken nuggets I opened a can of green beans to eat with the nuggets and put it on the counter in a bowl and let them get a head start.  They had the whole bowl polished off before the nuggets were done.  Don't ask be to duplicate that magical act, I don't think I would be able to!

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