24 Weeks! Sleep Training and Cloth Diaper update

Today Liam is 24 weeks (5 months and 2 weeks) old. Over the last couple of weeks, we have tried to establish a sleep routine for Liam and have been sleep training him for both bedtime and naps. So far our routine is as such:

5:30ish- bring him upstairs and get him dressed in PJs. I then brush his two teeth and wash his face and hands (every third night he gets a proper bath).

5:45ish- depending on how crabby he is we read "Little Blue Truck" by Alice Schertle. Then I nurse him. Sometimes he falls asleep but for the past couple of days he hasn't. By 6ish I turn the sound machine on in his room, put him in his crib with his bear and paci, and swaddle him. Some nights he cries. Other nights (like tonight) he goes right to sleep.

Then he usually wakes up at 8/8:30 to nurse again. If he wakes up a third time (9:30/10ish), I usually put back in the paci and leave him in his crib. The other night he slept 5.5 hours. Last night he slept 5. For a breastfed baby, that is considered "sleeping through the night" and I am quite happy with it. After the longer stretch he usually wakes up every 2-3 hours until 6am when he is up and happy.

For naps, he is usually awake for 3-3.5 hours before I try him for a nap. He usually wakes up with us at 6am and is ready for his nap at 9am. Its much easier to get him to nap at home rather than a daycare but we are doing better each day. I found that with the sleep training, it was easier once we had that established routine. Once he knew the times that I wanted him to nap/sleep (using the swing to help him nap) then getting him away from the swing wasn't that hard. Every day is a learning battle but we have come miles from where we used to be and it feels great.

I recently got my entire stash in for my cloth diapers. I am currently only cloth diapering at home (not daycare yet) and it has been going well. No leaks and no complaints. I would like to buy some hemp inserts so that his nighttime diapers are not as bulky. Washing them hasn't been too hard or too time consuming. I think my only complaint is that I can't let them "pile up" for too long or they do start to smell.

Christmas is two weeks away and our little man will be 6 months old!!! I will have been breastfeeding for 6 months and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We plan to start him on solid food over Christmas (as I have previously mentioned) and I think I have decided that I am going to feed him either sweet potatoes, or carrots. I will also have to start giving him an iron supplement (but will wait until I talk to his pediatrician at his 6 month appointment). I hope that my next post will be of my little man opening his Christmas gifts and munching on something solid :).