Chester

Chester
Chester at 5:30 am on his 3 month birthday!

The Chester Diaries: Celebrating the feast and famine known as new motherhood.

Welcome to my blog! My name is Lara and I gave birth in April, 2010 to a baby boy. I've been calling him "Chester" since he was a little chestnut in my tummy. To commemorate his three month birthday, I wanted to write about the crazy, joyous and exhausting ride I've been having as a first-time mom. If you're interested in reading about the highs and lows of uncharted mommy territory as well as my unhealthy obsession with shopping, (particularly baby gear), reviews, and pop culture observations, then you've come to the right place. Be warned: This cute kid has a mommy who can be a bit of a potty mouth.

Note: This blog is no longer active but please enjoy Chester's journey from 3 months to 2+ years.


Thursday, November 18

Two times lucky

His monkey friend.  It's like looking into a mirror, no?

Day Two of Operation Crib Nap went pretty good.  I think I overreached when I tried to get him down for a nap in the morning.  He was kinda whiney so I thought, 'why not give it a shot?' Instead all he did was play with his toys.  One thing that was super amazing?  He actually changed the music on his mobile himself!  The sleepy music we use to get him to drift off to sleep he changed to a more upbeat tune.  My jaw dropped when he did it.  Clever kid.  He actually did it twice - the first time he hit the fourth (lowest button) and the second time, he hit the second button - an even more upbeat tune.  At that point I decided to give up on trying for Nap #1.  I'm just going to keep in mind that this is all about baby steps.  We gotta learn to walk before we run.  I need to perfect Nap 2 before trying for the second!  (I do think the afternoon nap is more important than the first, hence why I'm giving it #1 priority.)  I actually don't mind if he has his first nap in the front room for now.  When I start my job again, I can just duck into the office and get some work done.  The funny thing was as soon as I took him out of the crib and sat him on my lap, he became instantly whiney (tired) again, so I sat him in his little chair and after a few minutes of rocking him, he was out like a light.  He only slept from 11:54 to 12:30 but that's probably because of the tappy tapping of keys. 


Not digging the boring music mum.  Let's put something FUN on the jukebox!

After having such a disappointing nap attempt I wasn't holding out much hope for my afternoon try but it actually worked out pretty well.  Chester was extremely grouchy.  He wouldn't even eat properly.  What I did was end my feeding early, take a break, have a sandwich, let him jump out his aggression on the bouncer, and just when he seemed to get a little tired, I did a fast nursing, changed him and put him down in his crib.  (I'm trying to get him to sleep as close to nursing as possible as I don't want to have a five hour gap between feedings like I did yesterday.)  I closed the curtains, shut off the overhead lights and got one of his favourite binkies.  (He's really enjoying the Bjorn Free's lately.)  I got him the same little bear and I sat beside his crib, reading.  It took him a little longer to settle today.  I brought him in around 2:20 pm and left the room at 2:40.  He was still madly sucking away, so not completely asleep.  And yes, he had his feet through the crib again, but not as far out as the day before.  The results?  He slept until 5:05!  He was pretty grumpy when he woke up though.  He screamed his head off the second he gained consciousness I think.  This is how I found him when I walked into the room post nap, pillow marks n' all.


Note the poor bear's head shoved through the crib bars.

I think he might have actually stayed down longer had I not started making clinking noises while I emptied the dishwasher.  I actually snuck in an hour nap myself.  I'm just getting comfortable with him by himself in the crib in the afternoon so it will take me a bit to relax and maybe enjoy a longer snooze.  Going for the hat trick tomorrow.  Hoping that this isn't just a fluke.

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