The Sleep Gods Deliver

Finally, finally, we got sleep last night.  The torturous night waking must have been due to teething, although after all that I still don't see any signs of incoming choppers. Don't get me wrong, the baby still woke about five times throughout the night, but he wasn't hysterical upon waking.  He also slept in his crib all night.  Each time he woke me, I would look over at him (as the crib is in our room), and he would either be sitting in the crib or kneeling against the side peeking over the edge.  I would calmly approach him each time, take him in my arms, and nurse him back to sleep.  I have tried leaving him, but when I do, he cries and then is awake for much longer.  It is more pleasant for all to get him back to sleep while he is still in that barely awake state. Isn't it amazing how one day you can be thinking that you can't handle 'it', you're just miserable, and the next day you find it hard to remember what even happened yesterday because your sweet baby is so happy, loving and adorable? I know I was there, in that state, but it seems so long ago, so distant and today's pleasantness makes me forget all about it!

I still nurse the baby to sleep.  Whenever I put him down for a nap and whenever I put him down for the night he is nursed to sleep.  Whenever he wakes I nurse him back to sleep. I don't mind this most of the time, but I would like him to be able to fall asleep, if not on his own, by other means such as rocking or by me rubbing his back. The rubbing the back method would be nice in the middle of the night.  I know that he is capable of falling asleep without nursing because he will fall asleep in the car, in his stroller and in his swing.  These all involve motion so it is not too far fetched to assume that he should be able to fall asleep rocking with little effort. 

I have continued reading the no-cry sleep solution and a suggestion within the book is that you first start with putting the baby in, say, his stroller and then transitioning him to his bed.  I like this suggestion because if it works, if the baby successfully transitions into his bed using this method, there is hope for me to leave him with a sitter so that hubby and I can go on a date if we so choose.  

Side note: Today is my wedding anniversary.  We went out to eat to celebrate and took the little guy with us.  He was an angel in the restaurant, but a piece of me wanted to enjoy a moment with just my husband.  Well, I like the idea of it, but I don't know if I could actually leave the baby yet with anyone but his papa.  I might not be ready in reality. My husband wanted to take me to dinner, but I really didn't want to go because I am trying to create a routine for the baby to go to bed at night and the last thing I need is to make an exception already.  We went to lunch instead!

I really want to get to the point where the baby is sleeping close to through the night, taking naps and getting close to the amount of sleep that is typical for his age. He used to be a good sleeper. I miss those days. I think I have figured out that my baby is not getting enough sleep. So, routines.... The number one concept suggested in the book. When the baby was first born I created a schedule that I wanted to follow each day.  I must have read somewhere that babies like and do well with schedules.  I remember my husband making a comment about how it looked beautiful on paper but he would be surprised if I followed it in reality.  I came close on most days when the baby was very small.  Then he started to develop a little more, I wanted to get out of the house more, and from there the schedule sort of fell apart.  Now its time to get back on track. 

I have always had a night time routine to a certain extent.  It was always bath, story, nurse, bed.  Since the weather has been warmer the routine morphed into go for a walk after bath, but then the neighbors would be outside and we would visit for a bit and then the baby would be too sleepy and cranky to hear a story.  Oh yeah, and it was usually getting late at that point.  

We are still playing around with timing on the routine because it seems that the baby just wants to nurse once it is bath time.  We may have to move bath time up.  Our new schedule is as follows:

530 dinner for baby

545 family walk with the dog

615 story time (mostly because we have found baby doesn't have interest after his bath) / play time

630 bath time, lotion, and pajama time

700 Nurse baby (maybe story after bath if baby is interested). I sing to him while nursing at this time. I hold the baby for a while after he falls asleep because I have noticed this helps in terms of him staying asleep during the transition to his crib

730 I transition him to his crib

I figure this is an "ish" schedule.  Not everything is going to happen at the exact time stated but as long as it happens at relatively the same time each night that is what matters.  Both last night and this evening the baby was asleep and in his bed before 8pm which is new and exciting.  I guess he is not as much of a night owl as I thought, we just needed to start his routine earlier.  I used to have him take a bath between 7 and 8.  Way too late.  If anything I need to push the bath time up to 6 or 615 and get him to bed at 7.  He slept for periods between one and a half and three hours last night.  I am hoping that as time goes on the hours of sleep will increase.  

We have begun implementation of more rigid nap times.  The baby takes naps but we didn't have a nap time per say.  Now we do.  It is difficult to coordinate my daily tasks with a nap schedule but I have decided that with a little effort we can find a happy medium.  It needs to happen.  We will all be happier.  

As I conclude this post the baby has been asleep in his crib for an hour and a half and I can now relax with my husband while it is still our anniversary!