I got a BFP!

I got a BFP on Christmas Eve! I kind of knew for a few days already, as my cycles are 24-27 and I was already a week late at that time, but I refused to take the test. I guess I didn't really believe that I could get preggo after having sex ONCE(!) last month!!

The good thing is that this way I saved myself a lot of worrying. I know it will come (although it hasn't yet, thank goodness). I just reread the first few post from when I got BFP with Parker and I got it at 3w3d. Now I am about 5w2d so it's almost two weeks later!

The only symptom I have so far is mood swings and tiredness. Although with the <6h of sleep the tiredness is no surprise.

BTW, we have finally moved! Christmas at the new house went pretty smoothly. My sister and her friend cooked for the New Years Eve and my mother in law and cousin cooked for Christmas Day, so I could concentrate on unpacking and cleaning up.

The move itself went all right as well. It was long but the movers were pretty good and didn't charge an arm and a leg. Unfortunately we were left with a few pretty bad scratches on our new hardwood floors.

I have to go now but will try to post every now and then. This reminds me, I still need to do the 15 month Parker update!

Parker: 14 months

It's almost the end of his 14th month, he will be 15 months old in only 4 days. Let's bring a bit more structure tot he monthly update entries.

NAPS: Parker transitioned to one nap a day within about 3 weeks. We were all over the place (putting him down from 11 am to 1.30 pm and anything in between) before establishing that 11 am lunch followed by noon nap most consistently produces naps over 1.5 hours. P can sleep from 1.5 to 3.5 hours now, although he gets tired if the 1.5 naps go for a couple of days in a row.

NIGHT SLEEP: Today is the first night of 3 oz for 1st night bottle (we decrease the amount of milk by 0.5oz every Sunday) and P is starting to drop one of his night bottles again, just like last time. He still wakes up any time between 11 pm and 1.30 am for his bottle, but will usually go back to sleep fairly easily if I you give him a pacifier (and stay in bed with him). He did it twice last week and it looks like tonight will be the third night (last two nights I didn't have the paci ready so it was my fault). On the nights that he skipped the first bottle, he had only the small one (3.5oz) at his usually 2nd night bottle time (4-5am), which is different than what we did a few months ago.

Parker sleeps int he big bed now, including naps when with mommy and daddy. He still sometimes sleeps in the crib when with Grandpa and Lola.

WALKING: P started to really walk on the last day of being 13 months. This is when he first time waled a few steps, stopped, and walked again. Now, almost a month later, he can walk very well now although he still falls quite often. I keep thinking it's his shoes, but I do notice that he does that more when he just wakes up, as if he needs some time to get going. It is a lot of fun to take him to a playground now. He can get up the steps by himself and slide down the slide (he learned to do it on his tummy; I think it's time to start teaching him how to slide sitting up though).

FOOD: P feeds himself all meals now, with a little assistance with breakfast (oatmeal). He does not like to be fed so breakfasts are not his largest meals. Although when Grandpa and Lola feed him, they still entertain him during the meal, so he tends to eat more for breakfast. P doe not like soups anymore, again, most likely because he can't eat them himself. So soups appear on the menu only once a week, if that. I made a whole new batch right before he stopped eating them, so we are covered with the soups for a while. He loves to eat whatever we are eating, tonight it happened to be tacos. He didn't have a taco made in one piece but ate pretty much everything what goes on a taco: meat (like), tomato (like), lettuce (no like), tortilla (like), avocado (like a lot). :) No cheese and sour cream due to the allergy. Here is his usual menu at 14 months:

Breakfast: Oatmeal or rice cereal with almond milk, fruit
Lunch: turkey sandwich or toast with almond butter or jelly, soup once a week (if that), fruit
Snack: Fruit (banana, mango, apple, kiwi, pear)
Dinner: Anything we eat

Parker also has one 4-5-oz bottle of hemp milk a day. I just realized that he is supposed to have almond milk during the day and sometime between the last post and now we switched to hemp 24/7. Good that I am writing this blog! :)

P loves fruit but veggies are hard. He will eat broccoli, and cooked carrots, but that's about it. It's not his fault, really, it's mine. I am out of ideas for veggies rather than those two. Something I need to work on.

DAY CARE: The schedule is the same - Grandpa and Lola 2xweek, Mommy and Daddy the rest with some help from Miriam, who is our on call babysitter from Bright Horizon Back-Up Care. Miriam stayed with Parker twice on my telework day and when I had my implant done. She will be coming next Friday on Marc's telecommute day and I have to schedule her for Mon for my telecommute (again, thank you, blog, for making me realize that).

NEW THINGS: Parker understands a lot now, even though he doesn't say much. Actually, he says A LOT, we just don't understand. :) He will bring anything you ask him to, he knows to give something to someone, he understands that he should point to a toy on a Xmas tree and wait until we give it to him, etc.. The first time we realized how much he understood was about a week ago. I noticed that he was chewing on something and tried to take it out of his mouth, worrying that it was something not edible. He didn't like me doing that and made it impossible. I started asking "Parker, what is it that you are eating, show mommy" and he went to the stroller and pointed at a cup with his little star snack in it.

Parker enjoys time with Daddy much more now and most of the time doesn't cry when mommy is not there any more. This is probably thanks to the fact that Marc spends more time with him and... my attitude. When P cries, I give him a hug and explain that it's ok to stay with Dada. I think he learned that mommy no longer will give in to his cries and he doesn't bother.

BOOKS: I am still waiting for the time when he will sit on my lap and listen to a story. He looks at books himself a lot (The Very Hungry Caterpillar is still his favorite although closely followed by Furry Friends and a couple of other books) but won't sit still to listen and look at pictures. So reading to him is still just as reading to yourself :) with him looking at other books or playing with other toys.

TOYS: P discovered how to throw a ball. He enjoys putting stuff in his little bucket and carrying it around the house. He still loves to un/screw tops on bottles. He absolutely loves his Zebra and sleeps hugging it. The blocks are not as big of a hit at the moment but he played with them a lot just a week ago. Loves "baba w babie" and ring stacker (his new toy). Still absolutely loved his cardboard nesting stacking blocks.

MOMMY'S READING: I am done with the "Easy to love..." book and have to say that it changed my life. I used to get frustrated when P wouldn't do what I ask or want him to do. I know think differently, for a different perspective. I feel that I have more respect for him and his choices, and it make me calmer. I also have more patience because I no longer expect that he will understand (and comply) immediately. I now know that sometimes I have to repeat what I want 3 or 4 times and then show him what I mean, and it's not because he disrespects me or doesn't want to listen. I also see how I can help him learn how to interact with other kids. My life is much easier because of this book. :)

I am currently reading "What's Eating Your Child" by Kelly Dorfman. My conclusion is that we are feeding Parker right for the most part. Reading the book encourages me to stick with natural rather than processed food, and I am starting to cook more (made two batches of meat balls for the whole family last week, and backed muffins from scratch this morning!).

I am also reading "The Wonder Weeks" by Hetty Van De Rijt and Frans Plooij on per need basis. :) His next to the last stormy period just ended so I won't be reading it for the next few weeks.

I also downloaded "Bed Timing, The Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep at Just Right Age" by Marc Lewis and Isabela Granic. I used their guidance when P started falling asleep on his own around 5-6 months and I want to learn what they suggest as far as making toddler's sleep better. I haven't started reading it yet but I will report back once I do.

Just a quick update on the new place front. Our closing is scheduled for Thursday, December 20! Yay! We are hoping we can move in that Saturday (or even Friday!) and spend Christmas at our new place. They is still a lot to do int he house; dehumidifiers are still running (which worries me) and appliances and floors/carpets are not there yet, in addition to some cosmetic touches that need to be done, so I am not entirely confident we will close on time. Although I still have hope. :)

Not a baby anymore

I think I can say that Parker is officially walking! He still doesn't want to be "made" to do it, and still crawls on many occasions, but he walks about 50% of time. He can take anywhere from 3 to 10 steps at the time before he falls. But more importantly, he can stop and start again, he can even squat and get up! My boy is growing up! He will be 14 months tomorrow! I still can't believe that he is not a baby anymore!

Parker: 13 months

Our little First Year calendar for Parker is up and I don't have any place to document his accomplishments, so I decided to post them here (duh). I am going to try to make monthly updates, which is not very less ambitious goal and therefore more likely to be accomplished. :)

I also realized that I need to modify the entry titles to include P's name, in case at some point he will have a little brother or sister. I will also state the month number/age.

I am still planning on writing about other stuff that happened around this time, not related directly to Parker, either in "his" posts or separate posts.

So here we go!

Parker is 13 months and 17 day today.

- He is starting to transition to one nap a day. Has been sleeping until after 7 am more often (still only 1-2 times a week) and refused to take his morning nap for the last few days.

- Parker is starting to walk by himself. Since Babcia and Ciociobabcia Halinka (a.k.a. Ciocia) came to visit on September 18th, Parker has been walking (on two) more than before, although at first it wasn't really his idea. :) He can now take 3-4 steps all on his own before falling back on his butt.

- Parker is allergic to egg. Dr. Kim (his wonderful pediatrician, or actually, our family doctor) has indicated that he is "not responding well to egg". However, he was perfectly fine after eating a french toast a few weeks ago. So I gave him a scrambled egg for dinner on Saturday and... it all came back 15 minutes after he fell asleep. Poor baby, bad mama!

- Parker is a very good eater - he loves almost everything, and one of his favorites is broccoli. Here is his typical menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal or rice cereal with almond milk with fruit (blueberries or raspberries or blackberries.
Lunch: Home cooked soup
Snack: Fruit (banana, mango, shredded apple)
Dinner: Sandwiches with either ham, turkey, jelly, or almond butter, plus some veggies (although most of the times we are not successful in preparing those on time)

Parker also has two 6-oz bottles of almond milk a day.

Food is something I worry about a lot. I feel that maybe he doesn't get enough during the day, and that's why he needs the bottle (or two) at night (more about it later). The problem is that he is a very slow eater. Each meal takes 30-45 minutes as is, and ends a lot of time because he is bored and wants to get out, rather than that he is full (he will still eat if you feed him while he is playing). I really don't want him to learn that eating a meal (unlike snack) not at the table is ok and I am being torn between this and his night waking.

- Parker had a great time with Babcia and Ciocia for over a month. Unfortunately they had to go back eventually, and now Grandpa and Lola are filling in two to three times a week. Mommy and daddy are staying home/telecommuting three times a week with a bit of help from Ewelina (while telecommuting). All until our wonderful Ciocia Aga comes back in mid-December!

- Parker's favorite book continues to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar and he's song is still My Jestesmy Krasnoludki (he is slowly starting to raise his arms on "pod grzybkami mamy budki" and "a na glowach mamy czapki". His first language is definitely Polish, he can show someones eye (oko) and nose (nos). He knows where lamp is (lampa) and clock (tik-tak). He loves to play with blocks. Parker's favorite youtube video Animal Song is slowly giving away to the Shapes Song 2. Parker also loves the Giggles iPad game and one with the animals in a zoo. He also loves the Night Night game.

- We are teaching Parker to move on to doing other things after hearing a "no". We also try not to say "no" when this is not possible. This is very challenging sometimes as it involves ignoring him throwing food items on the floor (we just keep repeating: "Give it to mommy/daddy when you don't want it"; it's finally starting to work occasionally).

- Parker naps in his crib. He also sleeps in his crib first part of the night probably half of the time, and the other half he sleeps in the big bed. He always ends up in the big bed eventually though, which mommy loves. :) He wakes up only once a night for his bottle most nights. He used to wake up for a 11-12 am bottle and then last until the morning. Then we tried to wean him off that bottle, only for him to now start waking around 3-4 am. Plus he will still request a bottle around midnight on occasion. I think it may have been to early to wean him off; all kids are different. Since all efforts to wean him off are more troublesome than actually giving him the darn bottle (plus they don't work), I accepted that my son will drink milk at night for the next several months and am perfectly happy with it. He let us know when he was ready for solids, he let us know when he was ready to drop his third nap and now his second nap, I strongly believe that he will let us know when he is ready to drop his 4 am snack.

- Parker loves falling asleep with mommy or daddy (or any other person, although mommy is clearly the most favorite), although he is getting too big to sleep comfortably in our arms.

- Parker loves playing with (or rather observing) other kids. With our busy schedules, unfortunately we don't have many occasions for this to happen. Now, when we don't have any guests staying with us, I will try to arrange more play dates. Then when Ciocia Aga comes, we will set some play time with other kids to be a part of a routine. Also, our friend Magda mentioned that she would like to drop off her 3 year old son a few times a week, which would be a lot of fun for Parker.

Our new place is closer and closer to getting ready, the drywall is up so now it's only cosmetic. We are shooting to close sometimes in December and hoping to spend Christmas already in the new place.

I am currently reading "Easy to love, difficult to discipline" by Becky A. Bailey and highly recommend the book. All advice about approaching children seem to make so much sense to me, and I now joined the team against spanking. Not that I think an occasional (light) slap on the butt would damage my child but I do think it sends a wrong message and teaches them how to (wrongly) approach others that don't do as they wish they did. Many other things I am trying to correct in my own behavior, toward adults too, not only children. Love the book.

This blog post is NOT sponsored

This blog post is NOT sponsored, I promise! But I just have to express my love to Diapers.com. I am actually in love with both, diapers.com and Amazon. I do about 80% of my shopping there. But this post was inspired by my today's purchase. Went to Amazon (where items are generally about 1$1-$3 cheaper than on Diapers, and the 2-day shipping is always free) to buy two (to compare) seat liners for our Cameleon and a belly bar for the City Mini. It's Monday, Amazon promised to deliver the liners on Wednesday but the belly bar wouldn't arrive until Friday. We leave for the beach on Friday so this wasn't acceptable. Went to Diapers and it turned out all items were either the same price or only $0.05 more. With the purchase totaling well over $100, the next day shipping is free. And guess what, I just got an email that my stuff will be arriving tomorrow! I love you, diapers.com! :)

I realize I owe a regular post about Parker. I haven't even done his first birthday post yet. All soon to come. Now off to work!

Summer update

Lots of changes on our end! I don't even know if I had mentioned before. We sold our house a couple of months ago and moved to an apartment. We bought a house, a condo actually, but it's still being build. We are supposed to move in December/January. It's twice as big as our old house and I am also excited about living in a brand new place, after having to repair something every freaking week in the old house.

Parker still wakes up once during the night for food, usually around 11 pm. It's not too bad as we don't go to sleep until midnight, usually. But I know he is not hungry at that time, as he then can last until 7 am. I don't want him to get used to eating just because, but it may be too late for that.

Also, P stopped falling asleep on his own and is not sleeping through he night yet. Ever since he started crawling, he would get on all four in the middle of the night and cry. We would then have to help him to laying down position. Then he started pulling up on his feet and got used to my assistance. So now he usually wakes up at night at least once (in addition to the 11 pm feeding) and cries. On top of that, he has been sick lately and is now teething (has three teeth already but I think more are coming as he is putting his hands in his mouths more than ever). So now I actually pick him up and rock him to sleep at night! I feel like we are back to when he was 6 months. Except he now is more stubborn. I will rock him almost to sleep and then put him down. He is almost asleep and then suddenly gets up and smiles. :) During naps it's no problem, he will close his eyes and fall asleep. But at night he keeps fighting and getting up. Sometimes it takes me almost an hour before he falls asleep. When I tired to rock him to sound asleep, he would wake up several times at night and want to be rocked. So I know try to put him to his crib "drowsy but awake" as they say. I am not terribly worried, I know he will stop this eventually but it would be nice to have 6-7 continuous hours of sleep again. All my friends are doing some type of cry it out method of sleep training but I really don't believe it's necessary (unless you need/want to speed the process, and I don't think it's worth the crying) so it's hard to talk to anyone about that...

Now food. We give P mostly jar food and some little cereal for finger food. He is really lazy about feeding himself (which is good on other hand because I don't have to worry about him eating dirt and other trash off the floor); he can hold his own bottle but that's about it. Even with the little cheerios he can hardly make it to his mouth! Again, I am not worried much but I would like to start feeding him some "real" food. I feel like he is getting bored with the jar food. But how do you find the time? We usually eat at 9 or 10, after P goes to bed, which happens around 7-8. It would be so great to have family dinners, though!

P also pulls up to everything and he tries to stand without holding on to anything now. He can stand holding on with one hand pretty well already. He cruises along everything very comfortably too. He can also somehow get on top of boxes that are half his height! I was so amazed! (We still have some unpacked boxes laying around).

Parker also started having separation/attachment issues. Man, it's starting to be annoying! He doesn't even want to go to his Daddy when I am around. :(

I can't wait till August! We are going to the Outer Banks of North Carlina with our friends who have a baby girl 3 months younger than P. It's going to be fun!

P is crawling!!!

Parker started crawling today! At 8 months 2 weeks and 3 days old! In the morning, Marc put him on the carpet in the corner of his room and called his name from the other side. P didn't want to do his tummy crawl, I guess he no longer thought it was efficient enough, but didn't know how to coordinate his arms and legs just yet. He got frustrated and started crying. But then later on, while with my sister, he carefully made a few steps and... now he is crawling like a pro! I will post a video when I figure out how. :)

Tooth #2

Tooth #2 has officially made an appearance today, that is May 18th. :)

8 months - Sleep regression?

Parker made his first step crawling (on all four, tummy off the floor) in the walk-in master closet of our new condo model on Saturday, May 5. :) Mommy was so proud! She took two videos! This also marked the beginning of a week of sleepless nights, for both, Parker and me. His poor little body wanted to practice crawling even in his sleep, so he not only had a really hard time falling asleep (crawling all over the crib, unable to lay still) but also would wake up several times a night on all four, totally freaked out. I had to pick him up, calm him down, and rock him back to sleep in the glider. This coincided with a growth spurt, so he wanted to eat pretty much every time he woke up. We both weren't getting much rest but I did enjoy snuggling with him so much during this time! He sleeps much better now (last night was second night when he didn't get on all four even once) and I already miss our cuddling time.

After a week and a half practicing he still is not crawling, really, but he is very comfortably standing on all four and rocking back and fort. He can also lift his arm to grab a toy, as well as go from laying on his back to sitting up (I witnessed this first time this morning!) He hasn't figured out the right hand left leg idea yet, though.

The same day, Sat, May 5, Parker also started holding his bottle when drinking his formula and water. He still doesn't do it all the time today and prefers when we hold his bottle. But he is getting better every day.

Parker is also slowly learning to pick up small pieces of food and put them in his mouth. He is having trouble getting the pieces off the flat surface of the high chair's tray but does much better when I hand him a piece. He then manages to put it in his mouth most of the times.

It's absolutely fascinating to watch him learn new things every day, literally. I feel that our lives were so empty before he came about.

The first tooth

My baby boy has his first tooth! At almost 8 months (4 days short), after four months of drooling. :) His first little tooth is not very visible yet, but you can feel how sharp it is very well.

I have been slacking off with the writing, I know. A lot has been happening. We sold our house, bought another and are waiting for it to be built. My mom is back home, my sister took her place caring for Parker.We went for a two weeks vacation (well, it wasn't really a vacation as I was working 90% of the time) at the beach. So yeah, we have been busy.

A little update on Parker.

1. He continues to grow. He is very "long and lean". :) At less than 8 months he wears size 12-18 months.
2. He is starting to take longer day naps. While he used to sleep up to 45 minutes, his standard now is 1-1.5 hour.
3. He still sleeps through the night, most of the nights. His last three (before last night) were a bit worse as he was waking up a lot but I think it was due to teething.
4. He loves his solids! Eats fruit, vegetables, rice cereal and oatmeal. He still drinks a decent amount of formula, although we tried to feed him solids only (during the day) and he did great. Only later I read that he should still be drinking more formula and went back.
5. He is not crawling on all four yet but he is very efficient in the "army crawl". He can et wherever he wants that way, and get there fast!
6. He started sleeping on his tummy.
7. He snuggles more.
8. He is still not on a schedule. Sleeps till 5 or 6 or 7 am (usually falls back asleep when get his paci at 5 am) and goes back to sleep around 8 or 9. Sometimes he will fall asleep in the big bed with us after his morning bottle. He stays awake for 2-3 hours at the time and has a bottle ever 3 hours or so. Solids in between.
9. He is a very happy baby, smiles all the time and has a great sense of humor.
10. He loves goofing out with daddy and snuggle with mommy.
11. He is my life.

Priceless donation

I donated my frozen breast milk yesterday. And now I am sad. It's like a part of me that belongs to my baby was given away, lost. I know the baby who got it will benefit from it. But I am still upset that I let my mom stop me from giving it to Parker. Maybe it would have prevented his UTIs! I read in many sources that breastfeeding is the main weapon against those early UTIs. I am still upset with my mom. I told her yesterday that the lady picked up my milk for her baby. I don't think my mom realizes how precious breast milk is and how very very beneficial it is to the babies! My older sister and I were both on formula from the first day, and doctors back then never mentioned that breast milk is so beneficial. So when I encountered breastfeeding trouble, my mom's natural advice was formula. Now, after living with her for 5 months, I know that she says stuff before she even thinks, and that only when pushed, she will re-think and sometimes even change her mind (although she won't admit it). But back in October, I just followed her advice, without much questioning. So when she suggested we stop giving Parker my breast milk because it may cause his fussiness, I just did. And I was too scared to bring up giving him my milk again. Now I know that it was stupid, I shouldn't have felt that way. But it's too late, my milk is gone.

I told my mom yesterday that a woman will be coming to pick up my milk. I was hoping she will realize that breast milk is not just another way of feeding a baby. That women give their babies someone else milk because of how beneficial it is. Why did I not give my milk to my baby? I still don't know. :( I feel stupid for giving it away. Parker is not allergic to the milk, we know it. And now it would have been beneficial to him just as much as any other time. UGH! I have to stop thinking about it because I am getting upset with myself!

Almost 6 months: Sleeping through the night

Parker is almost 6 months (three days short). Everything is falling into place. He started falling asleep in his crib a few weeks ago and now this is pretty much the only way he falls asleep, even for naps during the day (actually during the day it takes him shorter to fall asleep, for some reason). And he now is starting to sleep long stretches of time too! He slept from 7 to midnight on Sat night, ate, and then slept until 5.50 am! He stirred and called for a pacifier a few times but went right back to sleep. Last night he slept from 8.30 till 2.45, ate, and then woke up 5.45. And I only had to give him his monius (paci) once, right when we went to bed and made some noise. My baby is sleeping through the night! And we didn't have to sleep train him!

That's right, after all this talk, we decided not to sleep train P. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to letting him cry at all, not even talking about leaving him to cry for several minutes! We didn't have to do it, though. I got inspired by some website and started thinking why is he waking up. We figured that it was because he got used to falling asleep with a bottle. And we were right! Once he learned to fall asleep w/o the bottle, he started sleeping longer periods of time, pretty much instantaneously. We would give him milk but when we saw that he was drifting off, we would take it away. He would wake back up and we would give him the bottle back until he was done. Then we would rock him to sleep. It was a bit hard the first two days, as he wouldn't fall asleep immediately, we had to rock him for 20-30 minutes at the time. But now he falls asleep really quickly and doesn't wake up at night but a couple of times!!

A 4 month old sleep (or lack thereof)

Parker is growing like crazy. Last time (about two weeks ago) he was 27" (96th percentile for length) and 14 lb 6.5 oz (25th percentile for weight). Our long and lean baby. :) He will be getting his 2-moths shots this Friday (at 4.5 months, lol). Assuming his urine test comes clean. We had him tested for urinary reflux (NOT FUN) last week due to his two UTIs earlier. He doesn't have it, which is great, but I still want to test him for UTI, as the last test showed some bacteria (not enough to call it a UTI though).

Parker started waking up every 1.5 hours at night. It's been killing us! We are looking into sleep training (Ferber and such). I would like to wait another 2 weeks until he is 5 months but I am not sure we will be able to.

We also ordered a mini crib for P as we want him to continue sleeping in our room and he is outgrowing his co-sleeper. A mini because a full size crib won't fit in our bedroom (would block a closet door from opening). After I ordered it I realized that it's not going to come until next week and decided I get a cheap IKEA crib instead and take off my closet door. :) Anyway, we will be transitioning him from a co-sleeper to a crib, and hope it won't interfere with the sleep training. Although it shouldn't be so bad, as it's going to be the same room. Plus, since I am now buying the crib, I can probably get it on Wednesday and we can start the sleep training the next day.

We have been playing with the idea of introducing solids for P for a while but haven't done much yet. He got an apple a few days ago, a piece in this mesh "sucker", and he loved it. I think we will continue with this for now. We gave him rice cereal in his night bottle twice before, hoping he would sleep longer, but nothing changed. He isn't really waking up because of hunger; he takes three sips of milk and goes back to sleep.

P also got used to eating small quantities but very often. He eats every two to two and a half hours, plus he takes a bottle before sleeping. He now gets fed a bottle about 10-14 times a day!!! More than a just born baby would! It's exhausting, really. At 4 months he should be having 4-6 bottles. During the day he eats 4-6 oz every two hours and sometimes even 4 oz is a challenge. We tried to hold off his bottle for 3 h or so but since he drinks before nap, it's just not possible (he sleeps every two h or get really cranky). I guess this all may change once he starts falling asleep w/o bottle, which, I hope, will be soon. :) My mom says neither I nor my two sisters were good sleepers and that's probably why P is not either. He not only looks like me but also has my stubborn character! LOL! I will get mine! LOL! I wish he took at least sleeping after his dad, we would have been golden then! :)