Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The art of slumber

Storm clouds moving in at Crystal Crescent Beach

The starlings nesting in our roof have fledged. I was quite entertained watching a juvenile follow its mom around on our yard this morning while I was nursing Cale. The young bird would never stray more than a foot away from the mom and every time the mom pecked at the ground the young would be right by her side, mouth gaping wide open, hoping desperately for a feed. I can sympathize with the mother! Ever since Caleb's 3 month growth spurt he has been wanting to feed every two hours or less, 24 hours a day. This means the longest stretch of sleep I've had in over a month is about 1.5-2 hours. I've been managing surprisingly well, but after reading lots of books and realizing I was getting jealous when Arlo would let out a satisfied sigh while in a deep sleep, Alan and I decided it was time to try and make some changes in order to get Caleb to sleep more.

So happy at the beach - you would never suspect that he is not much of a sleeper!

We started our journey on Sunday. The first thing we needed to do was get Caleb out of the routine of eating before and after every nap. I think he would happily be nursed to sleep for the rest of the year, but it had become difficult for Alan to put him to down and we knew he couldn't actually be hungry every 2 hours, so we decided to eliminate the pre-nap feed. We also decided not feed him every time he awoke at night. I knew there was no way we could just let him cry it out, especially not at this young age, so we have instead just been rocking him, sshhhing him and patting him in our arms until he is almost asleep. We then place him back in his crib and stay with him until he is sound asleep. This way he is learning to fall asleep on his own, but still knows that we are always going to be there to support him. So far, this has been going very well. He seems to have no problem stretching out time between feedings and has been able to fall asleep without a snack. He still is waking up in the night, but not as often, so I'm hopeful that we are on the road to better sleep, for all of us. I'll let you know how we are doing in a few days time - hopefully with a blog titled 'I got 6 hours of sleep!!!'!

Discovering sand!

Happy 42nd Anniversary Mom and Dad!

3 comments:

Dr. Jillian Murphy said...

Beautiful pics! Things get better.....I promise. Though, that being said, Winnie kept me up for 2 hours last night....then she's all sunshine and rainbows this morning:) Too funny!
Repeat after me: "they are worth it. They are worth it.". lol.

Anonymous said...

Did the Dr. say to add anything a little more solid to his diet?
How did the photo session go with Sarah?
What a fantastic picture of the storm clouds.
Our cutie looks so pleased with his world.

Maureen

Ashley said...

I was actually a bit surprised that the doctor thought his night waking was completely normal. Some babies just sleep more than others. She assured us he would fall into a better routine soon enough, and told us to wait until 6 months to try solids. Apparently kids are much less likely to get allergies later in life if you wait. We are going to hold off at least until he can sit up on his own and starts to show an interest in food.
The photo shoot was great! Sarah is a true professional and we got some great family and individual photos! Can't wait to get our copies so we can share them with everyone.