Liam's First Museum visit, and other October photos

Whee!

Robin helping to make our signature Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.  He completely took over this time, insisting on using the mixer by himself and doing everything his way.  It made quite a mess, but eventually we got some good batter.

I seldom get to see him sleep these days.  Still so sweet...

A trip to the zoo with some friends

Robin even fed the lorikeets this time!

Playing with play dough with another friend

Liam's first trip to the museum!

Feeding coins to the sabre tooth tiger.  Robin both loves and is terrified by this thing.  He'll watch it forever from afar, but heaven forbid you suggest he feed it.

Liam flying past Saturn

Yikes!  It's Sue, the T-Rex!!!

Good news!  Liam is finally sleeping through the night on a (mostly) regular basis!

When he was about 4 months, I was on the phone with a friend, who asked me if he was "doing all the things he was supposed to for 4 months, like sleeping through the night."  I replied "Um... no, I'm still getting up with him an average of two times per night."  But she got me thinking.  I looked back to see when Robin slept through the night, and he was doing it at about 3 1/2 months.  I thought further, and wondered if I was perpetuating his night-waking.  See, I would put him to bed in a pack 'n play in our room, then go to bed myself.  He would wake in the wee hours of the morning and, not wanting him to disturb Dean much (since Dean usually had to work the next day) I would get a quick drink and then take Liam into bed and feed him.  Somewhere through the process, we would both fall asleep.  Then, anywhere from a few minutes to two hours before Robin is allowed to get up, I would wake up because either a) Liam was starting to wiggle and thrash about (not necessarily awake, just moving) or b) the position I was sleeping in (making sure I didn't squish the little guy) became horribly uncomfortable.  In either case, I would try to change positions, waking Liam in the process, and when he was awake, well, he might as well eat.  So I thought I was probably interfering with his ability to self-soothe once he was in bed with us.  From there, I began to wonder if I was further interfering with his self-soothing by grabbing him shortly after he started making noise at night, rather than leaving him alone to see if he could fall asleep again.  Shortly after coming to these conclusions, the Pediatrician asked me the same question my friend did, and that sealed the deal.

SO... I began putting him to bed in his own room after his final evening feeding.  I also turned the volume on the monitor down to one notch.  That way he had to get fairly loud to wake me up.  To my surprise, he started sleeping through the night a lot just from that change.  When he DID wake up to eat, I would attempt to stay awake and put him back in his crib when he was done.  That doesn't always happen, and he sometimes winds up sleeping in our bed again, but it makes us all more comfortable when he's in his own room.

Liam is also sitting up for longer periods (though he's still prone to toppling over,) manipulating toys, and pushing himself up on his hands (from his tummy.)  He can easily flip from both tummy to back and back to tummy, and actually seems to prefer being on his tummy.  We always put him to bed on his back (current research says that's safest) but he flips himself over to his tummy at least half of the time.  He's a strong little boy and growing so fast--it's hard to believe it's been five months already!  He's also begun blowing raspberries--as if he weren't dribbly enough already--and he's starting to grab and feel people's faces.  I don't remember Robin ever doing that last part.  It's one more thing that's making me feel that Liam is more socially conscious than Robin was at that age.  We shall see!