CIO success!

I have been against the CIO philosophy since Brodie was born and even before because of what I had learned in my child development classes. But, after several very sleepless nights and a month or 2 of Brodie screaming every time we set him in his crib awake we knew we had to do something for all of our sanity. As a last resort (and with a lot of coaching and encouragement from my mom) we decided to finally just try CIO for 1 week tops and if it wasn't working we'd go back to rocking Brodie to sleep.

Well, I am so amazed at how fast it worked and how good Brodie is doing now! Here is the breakdown of how long it took:

1st night- cried from 9:26pm-9:56pm (30 min)

2nd night- fell asleep nursing and stayed asleep during transfer to crib

3rd night- cried for 16 minutes

4th night- cried from 7:40-7:43pm (only 3 minutes) and slept (minus a 1/2 asleep diaper change/back pat at midnight) until 8am!

5th night- cried from 10:00-10:02pm (only 2 minutes!) and he had just taken a 2.5 hr nap and woken up at 8:15pm

This is an amazing change from the up to 2 hour cuddle/fight to get him to sleep in our arms. I feel like I have the nights back with my hubby.

The only thing I am trying to figure out is how to handle middle of the night nursing sessions if he doesn't fall back to sleep when I put him back in his crib. I've gotten good advice from several different people and am trying to decide what we want to do. My mom said that if he wakes up after nursing and it's near the morning (like 5am or something) not to leave him crying in his crib because he is too awake to cry himself to sleep again and just bring him in bed and let him cuddle and fall asleep with us until we want to wake up. I like the cuddling aspect of that but we don't sleep well when he's in bed with us and sometimes he doesn't fall back asleep for 30 minutes or so so he's tossing and turning and whining for a long time. Another one of the people I talked to said he has the physical capability to sleep for 11+ hrs without eating so I should just forgo the middle of the night nursing and give him several minutes to cry himself back to sleep without going in. The last person said to go nurse him and then let him CIO again in his crib. Trying to figure out what is best in that regard but I'll take him going to sleep in a few minutes for now! :)

~Heather

11 Months Old!

Ok here is the 11 month post not even a week later but at least it's on time this month. :)

Brodie is 11 months old today, and is as happy as he usually is. We went to the pediatrician to get a rash looked at on Wednesday and he weighed 18lb 8oz (15%). This was a new pediatrician and the experience was amazing! No freak out about weight, he actually involved Brodie in the appointment, and he was just super nice and helpful. It was amazing to have a doctor actually listen to you and not hurry you along!

Brodie is in the middle of teething hardcore, with 4 of those suckers working their way through. Two have broken through the gums already and the other 2 are bulging so it won't be long now. He seems to finally be less fussy so they must not be bugging him as much. He even slept from about 10pm-6:45am last night without waking up! That hasn't happened in a while. :)

The other thing that emerged this week is that he will put anything and everything up to his ear and pretend like he is talking on the phone. It could be a real phone, a block, some food, a glow stick, the remote, his hand, etc. It is really cute to see him beginning to pretend play and know the function of something. He even started to communicate with this sign. Yesterday I was rinsing out diapers in the bathroom and couldn't hear in the living room. I came out about 5 minutes later and Brodie immediately did his sign for phone and tried grabbing for my cell. I looked and had a missed call from my mom. He was trying to tell me it rang!

Speaking of signing, he is FINALLY starting to do a few signs. He understands a lot (food, water, milk, more, all done, diaper change, and sleep). He is actually starting to do the sign for milk and more which is freaking adorable! I'm so glad he is beginning to communicate his wants and needs with me. It is going to make it so much easier to deduce what he needs when he can tell me the basics. :)

I think that's all that has happened in the past few days. I can't believe my love bug is 11 months old and next month he is going to be turning a year old and entering the new phase of toddler hood! :)

~Heather

10 month post (much belated!)

Brodie turned 10 months old on the 2nd of August and I am JUST writing his post. Heck, he is going to be 11 months old Friday. I fail! Here are a few 10 month old pics (and after will be

pictures related to the blurbs, some of which happened before 10 months).

This month has FLOWN by, partially because I had surgery on the 1st and a week was spent recovering from that. But more than likely the reason it seems to have gone so quickly is because Brodie has become about 10x more mobile!

I'm solely relying on pictures and Facebook posts to remind me of everything that has happened this month and the dates on which they occurred....OMGosh I just reread his 9 month post and he has changed SOOOOOOOOOOOO much since then. OK, here we go!

*On July 7th Brodie officially started crawling! That is a month and a half ago, and he crawls like a pro now. He is SO fast and never resorts to scooting around anymore. He is ninja fast!

*I wrote in the 9 month post that he started pulling himself up on his 9 month day....yea he is standing up most of the day now! He pulls up on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, including me, Nick, any furniture, a toy in the middle of the room, the toilet, cabinets, his high chair, etc etc etc.

*On July 13th Brodie started "cruising" by walking along the couch and since he figured out he could do that he NEVER STOPS MOVING! You know how I said he pulls up on everything? Yea, when he gets up on whatever thing it is he starts walking along while holding on. This includes our TV stand, couches, walk along toys, walls, etc.

*Brodie started walking on his walker toy on August 2nd and became great at it by Aug 7th. He still doesn't know how to turn it though.

*On August 17th Brodie began to let go of what he was holding onto while standing up for a few seconds. Since then, this act has become more frequent and lasts longer each time. I think the longest he's gone without holding on to anything is about 7-8 seconds. It's a trip watching him just stand unassisted in the middle of the room all wobbly. It makes him look like such a big boy it scares me! I have a feeling walking is just around the corner...he has made a few attempts already (and taken a 1/2 step on his own) but I'm not OK with saying it was his first step since he hasn't done anything since. :)

*The same day he started cruising (July 13th) he officially cut his first tooth. He now has 3 teeth in (the 2 bottom middle ones and top right one) and is smack dab in the middle of cutting the 2 next to the 2 bottom ones. He is miserable today, very clingy, and whiny. I am writing this during his longest nap so far of the day. :)

*He went swimming for the first time on July 7th. Since then he has been 2 more times and also to the beach, which he loved.

*On July 18th he started waving bye bye and babbling while he did it. I am not sure if he knows what it means exactly but he enjoys doing it often. :)

*Brodie ate spaghetti for the first time on Aug 10th. This is momentous because the pictures reminded me of my spaghetti face pictures. :) I am going to try to get one of Nick and frame them all side by side.

*Oh, Brodie started dancing this month as well. On Aug 11th he danced his little booty off to the intro song of the movie Rio (super cute by the way if you haven't seen it).

*Brodie started pointing at things on August 17th too! Whatever he is interested in or wants to talk to/look at he will point and babble (LOUDLY) at until we go over there. He also points at books, which I think is ADORABLE!

*We went to Sea World on the 20th and it was a blast. Brodie really got into looking at the animals this time, noticing them moving and smiling at the Walrus' and Beluga whales.

*I got a new camera at the end of July and have been having a BLAST taking pictures of the Brodster. As a result, he knows to pose when the camera comes out and I am a little afraid I've given him vision damage from the flash going off so much :P

*It is now wayyyy harder to get Brodie down for bed. If he's awake at all he will scream until he's hoarse or until we come get him. We don't like C.I.O. so we are trying to come up with another solution. In the meantime, that part of the night is hard most nights. :(

*Brodie made himself pass out from not breathing/crying too much when we took away his empty dinner plate. His lips/nose got blue and the eyes rolled in the back of his head. He was out 15-20 seconds and it scared the crap outta us and even though it's just because he was throwing a tantrum we are freaked out that he is going to do it again (he's gotten close 4x since).

*Brodie is (I'm just going to say this since it's happened 5x in the last week) down to 3x nursing a day, plus 1-2x at night depending on the night. I'm a little sad that the amount of nursing sessions are going down because I love that cuddling/bonding time with him every day. But, I am sort of happy about it because I can leave him now for longer without having to worry about him not taking a bottle (because he refuses to) or starving. I think he is SLOWLY self weaning but I am not going to encourage weaning until after a year at least. I don't ever want him to have formula; I'd rather him go straight to cow's milk at a year (I know it's a silly thing but that's just my breastfeeding goal in my head :) ).

*It's less than 33.5 days until my son's first birthday! That seems freaking impossible to me! This year has flown by and I don't want to think about my little baby becoming a big old toddler so soon. For his 1st birthday we are just having immediate family over for a hot dog/hamburger grill and letting Brodie eat a cupcake and smash it everywhere. I'm going to attempt a cookie monster cake but we'll see if that actually happens :P

I'll be writing another post this Friday (much shorter I promise!) when my little boy turns 11 months old! I'm going to attempt to weigh him using the Wii fit board and try to get a length on him. He has gone through a growth spurt in the last few weeks for sure. We moved him up to a "big boy car seat" last week. In a matter of 2 weeks he went from fitting in the infant carrier just fine to not being able to get his arms under the straps when they were all the way out and on the top setting! He is also getting a lot heavier (at least it seems that way to me)!

Til next time,

~Heather and family

9 months old!!!!

Mr. Brodie Cole Head turned 9 months old on the 2nd. I can't believe we are approaching his 1 year birthday so quickly!!!
At his 9 month well baby check up he weighed 16lb 9oz (gained 2lb 3oz from his 7 mo check), was 27.5in long (grew 2 inches since his 6 mo check), and had a head circumference of 44.75 cm (2.25cm bigger than at his 6 mo check).


Brodie had to get a hemoglobin test to check his iron levels (came back normal) and a TB test at this appointment.

The pediatrician said he looked great, and gave us the go ahead to expand his food list to everything but milk and honey. :) This is a huge step for me, because now he can eat table foods and it makes it easier for me to plan different foods for him based on our menu. Yesterday he ate scrambled egg, toast, and applesauce for breakfast. He liked egg once I had the texture fine enough and he's always liked toast/applesauce. Since Brodie had a rash after eating cottage cheese the doctor wants me to keep an eye out for any other rashes related to allergenic foods.

Since I just wrote a post last week about what Brodie has been up to there isn't much new stuff to report. He is getting up on his knees a TON more and rocking forward and backwards really fast. It's like he's prepping for takeoff!

The other new thing that Brodie started doing is pulling himself up from belly to standing using the couch. He did this for the first time on his 9 month day and has since done it a few more times. He has to be pretty motivated to use all that energy! Nick lowered the crib down this morning to the lowest setting to prevent any mishaps.
Brodie is also becoming quite attached to Nick and I. I think we have officially entered into the "separation anxiety" age which is a bit frustrating. He won't even go to Grandma or Auntie all the time if he sees me. But, it is cute to see him cuddling on Nick and so sweet when he nuzzles into my chest and wants me. This clingyness has made us be more creative in what we do with the Broders because we still need to get things done throughout the day obviously. Prime example, Nick letting Brodie help him do some programming while mom cleaned up breakfast! :)


Anyway, today we will be going to see fireworks with Brodie and hopefully have some fun family time for the 4th of July! Hopefully Brodie handles the fireworks as well as he did at Sea World a few weeks ago. :) Til next time!

~Heather

Very belated 8 month post! (8m3.5w)

Hello all! I have decided that I officially suck at blogging. But, I at least need to get Brodie's 8 month post done before he turns 9 months old next Saturday (EEK!). I am going to look back on my pictures to see what we did this month, since it has been a blur and gone by so quickly.


On Brodie's 8 month day I was sick with strep throat so his monthly pictures turned out less than stellar. That whole week and the following weekend Nick and I were both miserable- he got full blown pneumonia and had to go to the ER on top of me having strep and an eye infection. The next week I had a gall bladder attack (confirmed by abdominal ultrasound) so this month has also been spent with me running around to various doctor appointments and getting a surgery date to get the sucker out! Brodie was a champ through his mom and dad both being sick, and we had a lot of help from my family during our sickly days! Here is the "best" 8 month picture.

Back to Brodie... he is now pulling himself up on us or up on the couch with little to no assistance! He tries to pull up while on the ground but doesn't quite have the strength to get up on his feet without my help to the coffee table or entertainment center.

I'd say the biggest "milestone" that has happened this month is him going from basically immobile to almost crawling! On 6/4 (2 days past his 8 month day) he started "scooting" using just the palms of his hands on our wood floors and dragging the rest of his body limply towards a toy. A week later on 6/11 he was already full on scooting using both his arms and feet! He pushes off the ground with his toes, making his legs and butt stick in the air a bit and uses his whole arm to help propel him forward. He can scoot pretty dang fast, and he follows us into different rooms of the house now. The next "phase" of crawling started on 6/21, and involved him getting up on his knees briefly and rocking back and forth on them. Last Thursday (6/23) was the first day he rocked for more than 1/2 a second. I believe it's only a matter of days until he figures out to put one knee in front of the other and is full on crawling! So crazy!!!! This is him after scooting over to see his hamster that Auntie Heidi is housing for him until his 1st birthday.


Some other things Brodie has started doing this month different noise effects. Now he "slurps" which consists of him sucking in his lips and making whatever noises he can by doing this. He also has learned how to use his tongue to do the lalala sound. Brodie has also gone on several trips this month, including to Sea World to see the new Turtle Reef as well as see his first firework show. He also went to the annual IHS picnic and to a wedding! :)



He eats a bunch of solids now (3x a day plus snacks if we are out and his schedule permits) and this month we have started adding chunks of food to his diet on top of the purees (which I have lost track of types of food I've done :/). Brodie now eats cheerios, toast, tortillas, blueberries, cherries, kiwi, strawberry, bell pepper, and so on! I've got to say he's in love with cheerios more than anything else though.

Lastly, Brodie started sitting up in the shopping cart on trips to the store these last couple of weeks and boy does he love it!! Overall he is observing more, playing more, talking more, and eating more in this month. It's crazy to me how fast time is going and how much of a big boy Brodie is becoming. I can definitely say he's not an infant anymore, but definitely an active baby. And, he is going to hit a year old in just over 3 months and enter into toddler hood. I think that he is growing up too fast for me~!
I guess next week I'll be writing about his 9 month pictures! Time definitely flies!

~Heather