Gametes In Love

Oy! S2’s been having some not-so-great nights of late. Now, I know some families have it much worse off than we, but 4-5 wake-ups a night is no fun, and when someone at work tells you (more or less) that you look like cr@p, you tend to wanna draw the line somewhere.

G spoiled us so much. He was a good sleeper, early on, and went through phases of wakeups only when he was sick or in a bad teething spell. S2 on the other hand? I’ve got no clue.

To boot, his naps for the past month have been terrible as well. He used to take one great nap daily that was at least 90 min long. The rest were short, but he always had one good one to round it all out. Now? We’re lucky to see 30 min out of that child, and he’s even teasing us of late with 1 (that’s right. ONE) minute long naps.

Worse still is bed-time. He wiggles himself onto his tummy. He’s mastered this skill now. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know how to get himself out of this predicament on demand, so he’ll roll over, and freak out. Bed-time is now a good almost hour-long process of just sitting by him, ready to flip him back over. And do this over and over, until he’s asleep for good.

Yes, this is a phase. Yes, this too shall pass. Just not soon enough.

This morning I woke up to the soft snoring sounds of this duo:

The only thing that would be missing to describe an average morning for us these days is the other half of the bed. Where I would be sleeping, half-reclined, with S2 snuggled under my arm.

G’s been coming in, in the early mornings, carrying his friends, and last week, even a pillow (as if we didn’t have enough). It’s not that restful of sleep for us (especially S) since he still thrashes around a lot and does things like … sleep sideways. S has to constantly wrestle him back on the bed so he doesn’t fall off. Observe his well stretched arm cupping G’s butt — it’s his sleep state of protection.

I’m shocked that with all the photos I took this morning and my flash going off they didn’t wake up. But they’re sure cute though, no? Even with all the crusty nose boogies 🙂

G taught us this morning why it’s important for toddlers to wear pajamas at night. In short, it keeps their beds dry. Let me tell you how we got from “no PJs” to “weee!”

Step 1: Have your toddler outgrow their jammies. G (until yesterday) has still been in 18m footed sleepers. However, he started complaining about them feeling a little tight, so I pulled out the 2Ts.

Step 2: Have your toddler complain about the new jammies being too big… and take them off all on his own.

Step 3: Allow your toddler to go to sleep w/o any jammies. I thought that this could be a good lesson for him. No jammies = cold evening. I was fully prepared to go and dress him in the middle of the night. Little did I know his IKEA bedding would not only keep him warm, but get him hot enough? to inspire him to go commando.

Step 4: Go to sleep, where unknownst to you…

Step 5: … have toddler remove his diaper in the middle of the night and…

Step 6: … pee all.night.long. [cue cheesy Lionel Richie music] All night. All night lo-ong.

I came back into our bedroom this morning after nursing S2 to get myself dressed. I spotted S in bed and said “Babe, it’s time to get up, it’s almost 7.” S only responded “I have a naked boy in bed with me right now.” While I was in the nursery, G had woken up and went to our bedroom. I wasn’t too shocked to hear that he had cuddled up with S. However, I just thought S meant that “naked” = down to the diaper since that’s what G calls it. Nope. Naked naked. Birthday suit naked.

This child loooves to run naked. It’s his favorite past-time around bath-time. I swear, come his teenage years, we will be the parents that are called when a wily teenager decides to streak the school cafeteria. Sigh.

So… one guess as to who’s doing laundry today.

I figured no one would care for continuous daily crib sleep updates.

In short, it’s been good and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised how quickly S2’s acclimated to it.
I do have to make a journey out to him twice a night on average. S takes a non-feeding shift too, but it hasn’t been bad. If S2 does make his way back in the room with us it’s close to 5am, and the past two nights he hasn’t needed to because his second ‘mommy’ call has been around 7 which is a respectable time to get up for the day, anyway.

One very exciting side effect is how quickly his head is re-shaping. Within a week, even a big part of the back flat spot started going away. It’s not back to perfect by any means, but I’m hopeful that by the time we see Dr. M for S2’s 4 month check-up there will be even more progress. I still ocassionally use the swing during the day for a nap here or there, but am really making an effort to have him sleep more in his bed.

At daycare they still use the swing for him a lot. Mostly because he sleeps terribly otherwise. My theory on that one, though, is that they don’t swadle for naps, and the only way he’ll sleep recumbent is if he’s wearing his straight jacket.

The one thing I wasn’t prepared for with the move to the nursery, is how empty our bedroom feels (to me) when he’s not here. It’s pretty amazing how much a 2-foot tall person can make a space feel whole, and if you’ve ever seen our monstrous-sized bedroom you know that’s saying a lot.

I miss him but this transition was clearly needed. And I love waking up to him cooing to his mobile 🙂

So yah, good bye flat-head condition. I won’t be missing you!

Well our first evening wasn’t too shabby. He fell asleep without complaint in his new digs around 7:30. Woke up at 12:50, nursed, and conked back out until 4:40. At that time, as promised I brought him back in the bedroom with me, nursed him and put him in the swing for the rest of the “night”. He got up again two hours later. S was great, and just held him. The two of them napped ’till 7:45.

Ratio of crib sleep to swing sleep (in the last 24 hours)? 4:1. Not bad at all, I say. Dare I request a repeat?

It’s time. It’s time for S2 to graduate to his own room.

I’ve waited long enough. Perhaps longer than I should have, and I admit that he’s been sleeping in our room not because he’s needed it, but because I’ve been too lazy and timid to make the move.

He sleeps 4 feet away from me, which, I gotta tell you, at 3am in the morning, that’s a pretty convenient distance to sleep-walk. Much more convenient than the walk around the house to the nursery. Nursing in my bed is pretty comfy: it’s soft and I can sit up in it for hours on end. My blanket is there, so my feet stay warm. Also, if I get in one of my paranoid “Is my child still alive?” states, all I have to do is quiet down and I can hear him breathing. Much easier than walking to the nursery at 2 am in the morning and wait to see & feel his chest rise. No joke, I did this just about every night until G turned one. At 3am when your eyes are glazed over with fatigue it takes a lot longer to see an infant breathe. I will even admit to poking my poor sleeping child, just to see a response.

Despite all my comfort reasons for having S2 stay in our room, his little legs have grown to a point where they are now starting to reach the edge of the swing. His head is getting flat in the back. And he’s developing an unhealthy dependency on swing sleep.

So tonight is the night.

I had him nap in the crib all day today. 2 short naps, and one decently long nap later I think we’re cleared for a night-time trial. I’m starting easy (on myself), though. My goal is to put him down in his crib for bedtime, come to him in the middle of the night when he wakes, and put him back down in the crib. If he wakes up more than once, bring him back in our bedroom for the rest of the night. After all, I deserve sleep too 🙂

So… wish us luck.

It’s actually kind of a serious question. You see, G is trying to drop his sole nap at home with us. And I’M NOT READY!!!

In lieu of nap-time I’m trying to institute quiet time. However, quiet time, when we leave G alone produced him grabbing everything he could reach out of his closet and throwing it out in the hallway. He was making a “tower”.

Oh and here is Daddy trying to “model” good napping behavior. The result? S got a good nap in. G on the other hand, again decided to build a tower. This time out of books… over the Daddy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOzrLJxhQKQ]

4 a.m. gave to me:
One snoring husband
Two snoring children
Three toddler loveys
A four legged fur-ball
ALL IN MY BED

I’m thankful we have a King.

PS. Yes, I recognize that the 5th day of Christmas is really Dec. 29th, but the song wouldn’t have sounded as good if I went in the negative numbers.

I had really hoped to keep G blanket-in-crib free until he turned 2. While, yes, he sleeps with a lovey, and yes we put the fancy, thick crib bumpers back in a few months ago, it’s not the same to me as a blanket in his crib.Yes, I still worry about SIDS, and have taken the recommendation to keep blankets away from kid’s cribs until 2 to heart. Remember, too, that I used to go and check that G still breathing at 2am every morning until he turned 1.

I’ve tried to make him comfortable by still running the heater in his room, and putting him in fuzzy jammies, but G now goes to bed asking for a blanket. I’ve been giving him a really light-weight blanket and letting him fall asleep with it (since I stay in his room until he does), but then I take it away.

Except now he wakes up in the middle of the night and asks for a blanket. I can’t supervise him with it if my eyes are shut while sleeping.

So what do I do? Do I cave and say “Ok, you’ll be 2 in three months. Wrap yourself away!”, or do I hold firm on the no-blanket rule?

For the record, in day-care they nap with blankets. But they’re supervised by 4 teachers.

Am I just over-thinking this?

Since I whined about G’s latest sleep habits,  it’s only fair I follow-up with an update.

Overall? Things are good. Not 100% back to normal, but a lot better than the clingy, cry-ie mess we had on our hands.

The second night we had no tears. At all. He just stood up in his crib until story time was over. I kind of had to talk him into sitting down, and later lying down, but he got the program. It got progressively easier with each night since. We’re now down to 1 story, and 1 song. I sit in the glider until he snoozes, but I do so in silence. He occasionally pops up his head like a prairie dog to make sure I’m still there, but it’s working.

The next step is to put him down, read, sing and just get up and walk away while he falls asleep on his own. We’ll get there soon enough though.