We have to train him?!?!

Why did no one tell me that you have to actually train your child how to sleep?  Here I was thinking that babies just knew how to sleep.  I mean, why else would people use the phrase "sleeping like a baby*"??

I naively thought that as babies got older, they would start sleeping more on their own.  I'm sure some babies do, but from what I've been reading, most babies have to learn to sleep.  How does one learn to sleep? Enter the phrase that has been uttered daily in our house for the last week:  Sleep Training.  Fortunately, there are tons of books written by sleep experts on this subject.  Unfortunately, there are tons of books written by sleep experts on this subject.  Why didn't my kid come with a personalized manual?  Sleep training does not have to be "put your kid in their crib and leave them crying until they fall asleep!"  If you take the time (not that I have much free time!), you can find a method that you are comfortable with and adapt it to what's right for your child and your family.  

As you can see, I've been doing some reading...and making multiple trips to the library!

The main issue for us...the dang pacifier!  

He falls asleep almost instantly when you give it to him, but guess what happens when it falls out??  Once or twice a night wouldn't be so bad, but as my inlaws can attest from their recent trip to visit, its become more like 6-8 times per night!  One night he woke up crying for the paci 3 times in an hour and 15 minutes...that's not healthy for him OR for us!!  So we are starting to train him not to need the paci to fall asleep and to self soothe (another phrase uttered daily in our house) so he can fall asleep and stay asleep by himself.  

Its been a week of sleep training and things are getting better but I'm not ready to say we have the paci problem solved yet.  I'll be sure to give a full update on what we are doings, how its working, and how things are going soon!

*Whoever coined this phrase obviously never had kids!  I might just punch the next person that says this to me when they see him sleeping peacefully.  Do they not know how much effort it sometimes takes just to get him to fall asleep....let alone stay asleep???

  

2:30am

The feel of your rhythmic breathing on my neck

The smell of sweet milky on your breath

The sound of your little coos

The sight of your dreamy smiles

Our cheeks next to each other as I rock you to sleep

Sometimes being awake at 2:30am isn't so bad...

East Coast Trip: Part 2

Let's just say, my last post was a bit premature and we are back to night wakings every 1-2 hours.  Because I don't think I could put two cognitive sentences together right now, instead I'll share some pictures of the second part of our East Coast trip.  After a week in PA with my family, we headed north to spend time with Bryan's family and some friends.  

First we took the train up to NY to Bryan's parent's house

We spent a beautiful day on Lake George

Then we were off to Boston so Nolan could meet his Great Nana

Poppy was so happy to finally meet Nolan!

 We took a trip to have lunch with my old coworkers.  Here's Nolan with the ladies :)

I'd like to thank our wonderful friends A and R for letting us stay at their place while we were in Boston.  Nolan got to test out their house for when Baby S arrives!  

With all the travel, time zone changes, and people, Nolan did AWESOME and of course everyone loved meeting him.  Lucky us that he decided to save his sleep strike for when we got home :)

A light...

...at the end of the growth spurt tunnel!

I am happy to report that after a loooong 10 days and even longer 10 nights, Nolan seems to be resuming his normal* sleep patterns.  I really think the regression was part of his three month growth spurt since it started the same week he turned 3 months (on a side note, how is my baby already 3 months old!?!?).  This was the first growth spurt that really hit us this hard and for this many days so it was rough on all of us.  There were quite a few tears, (his and mine), lots of night wakings, and too short naps, but hopefully we are on the tail end of things.

With the exception of last night when he had some bad gas that was waking him up (note to self...don't eat any more flax seed muffins while breastfeeding), he's been going down at night around 8:00-8:30pm and not waking up until 4:00-4:30am.  Yes, you read that right...8 hours of sleep!!  Not even a peep looking for his paci.

We're still working on lengthening his naps more since he seems to wake up after about 40 minutes for every single nap.  We'll get there...one nap at a time!  Baby steps, right?

Thank you to all who emailed me with their support, suggestions, and words of encouragement.  I know I'm not the first to go through this, but its nice to hear reassurance from other parents out there!

*I'm learning that there isn't truly a normal for a baby...once you think they are on a schedule BAM...they change it!!  But that's what keeps you on your toes, right?? :)