Back to Life

Let me tell you a little bit about this something we call sleep: It's Amazing and I'm Getting it!! The baby decided that he would jump from 7-8hrs of sleep a night to 9-10hrs. 7-8hrs is great, don't get me wrong, but unlike Silas I am not going to bed at 8pm so those 7-8hr nights for him are like 5-6hr nights for me. Which are WAY better than the Up Three Times Before 6am nights, but still...10hrs is a HUGE milestone. That means I get a full nights sleep and THAT is what I have been longing and waiting for for the last three months. I sent Sleep an invitation hoping it would RSVP and I thought for sure it was standing me up. But, it pulled through and showed up and MAN am I glad! Let's just hope Sleep is here to stay.

I would be lying if I said that I figured the baby would be sleeping 10hrs straight by three months (like most babies do). I was dreading the blog post titled "My 1 Year Old Still Wakes Up 23 Times A Night". For one, he eats like he has a hollow leg and going from eating every two-three hours during the day to holding for 10hrs I thought was impossible. And for two, I have been only half-heartedly following Baby Wise (which guarantees night time sleep by 12weeks). At first I stressed myself out because I was rocking Silas to sleep instead of letting him fall asleep on his own (BabyWise method). Seriously, standing over his crib and holding his Binky in his mouth and he kicks himself to sleep for 30min isn't my idea of nap time, and heck it killed my back to bend over like that. And plus, by the time he actually fell asleep it was a fast 20 minutes until he got hungry and woke up. So I threw in the towel and rock him to sleep 95% of the time. Half because it helps Silas fall sleep faster and half because I enjoy snuggling him and watching him smile and sometimes laugh as he falls into a deep sleep. He does great with the (Baby Wise) Eat, Play, Sleep routine, but his naps are rarely over an hour (usually they're 40 minutes unless he naps with me in bed. Shut up, at least he doesn't' sleep with us at night!!) and when he wakes up, even if it isn't eat time I get him up and we hang out until eat time....instead of letting him fuss it out until it's officially time to get up. Because listening to him cry is TORTURE! And you know, all the 'Smart Kid' articles say not to let the baby cry. Not that I think letting him cry or not cry has anything to do with smarts or adjusting to life, it just makes me feel better because he is slightly/totally spoiled!

So, despite my anxiety over not following Baby Wise 100%, or even 80% for that matter, things worked out and Sleep has arrived. Honestly, I was having visions of my 3yr old kid STILL not sleeping through the night, you know, like those kids on Nanny 911, and was already figuring out plan B. So a huge Thank You to plan A for pulling through and giving me and my baby the gift of night time sleep.