Tag Archives: sleeping

SLEEPING (RE)ARRANGEMENTS

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Just about every night when I lay my head on the pillow and pull the covers up over my bare shoulder and breath out a sigh from the weight of the day and finally close my eyes, a warning signal must go off in Cooper’s room because suddenly he’s all “must.be.held.now!” It’s the strangest thing because if he wakes up earlier in the night, say around 9 or 10, I can get him to go back to sleep with no problems and I sneak out of his room feeling like super mom and do a little dance back down the hallway. But when he wakes up later in the night I just can’t do it. He’s perfectly content and sound asleep in my arms until he’s back in his crib. It doesn’t usually happen right away, but give it a few minutes until he realizes what’s going on and we’re back to square one. And there’s only so much a person can handle half awake at 3am. I do admit that I’ve been giving in a little quicker because as soon as he’s snuggled next to me it’s sound sleeping until morning and well, that’s just delightful.

I’m not one for the whole cry it out thing. If that’s what worked for you, than that’s great. Different strokes for different folks. I tried it once. I geared myself up for it, put him in his bed, kissed him good night, and marched out of his room with as much phony confidence as I could muster. And then I frantically ran to grab the video monitor and managed to watch the tears roll down my baby’s perfect little cheeks for a whole 30 seconds before I raced back in, swooped him up in my arms and promised to never ever do that again. We both apologized and decided there had to be a better way. Little did I know that better way was nestled right between me and big poppa in the middle of our bed.

I was trying to stay up late to get things done, but then he started waking up earlier and earlier at night with no interest in going back to sleep unless his head was on my chest or he was in our bed. At first it was only for a few hours starting around 5:30am when Corey was making all kinds of noise and getting ready for work, and then for a while it was as early as midnight. Last night it was 4:15am (top two teeth are finally IN!). I don’t think we’ve ever made it until 7am in the crib. Maybe once or twice but too long ago to seem real. Any time I told someone about our predicament, “Think it could be teething? Night terrors?” the only thing I got in return was a look full of judgement and a “you’ll be sorry” word of warning. Sorry? Is something wrong?

I immediately jumped online and starting throwing all kind of crap into the Google search bar:
10 month old partial co-sleeping
10 month old waking up in the middle of the night
10 month old will only go back to sleep in our bed

I tried rushing in before he fully woke up, making the room darker, making it brighter, cooler pajamas, warmer pajamas, more pacifiers, a shirt with my smell….none of it worked. And I was getting frustrated because I thought I was supposed to keep trying to get him back in his crib. Then I brought it up to Corey and he was (like always) the voice of reason: “It’s only a problem because you’re making it a problem”. And he was right. Again. But don’t tell him that.

I have no problem bringing my little ball of honey and laying him next to me when he needs it. At least he’s going to bed in his crib and it’s wayyy better than doing laps around his room for 30 minutes only to have to do it all over again in 10 more minutes when he’s back awake and proclaiming at the top of his lungs that the whole house should also be awake. I did a little thinking and finally admit to myself how much I enjoy his heavy breath against my skin and that little hand searching for my face in the middle of the night while his eyes are still closed just to make sure I’m there. Sure, my arm usually falls asleep from staying in one position and it would be SO much more comfortable if only I could turn over, but I’ll have so many days of sleeping however I want that I’ll sacrifice a few now. I can’t imagine that when it’s time to review my life (Defending Your Life anyone? Meryl Streep at her finest!) I’ll be like “you know what I could have done without? Those snuggles! Ugh!”

So for now, it’s not a problem and I’m going to try my darndest to not make it into one just because other people think it should be. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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5 & 6 MONTH UPDATE

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Months 5 and 6 have been my favorite so far (warning: I will probably say this every month). Cooper is currently full of smiles from sun up to sun down….mostly. I just can’t believe he’s already half a year old! I’m the happiest and saddest ever at the same time. Does that make sense? I constantly find myself drowning in a wave of nostalgia for these days even as they are happening. I know I will be longing for these days when he’s off hanging out with his friends and sometimes when I’m rocking him to sleep I close my eyes and feel the weight of him in my arms and sniff that special little place behind his ear. And then there are other days where nothing I do seems to entertain him longer than a few seconds and through all the frustration the only thing I can do is watch the clock until the magical moment Daddy walks through the door.

Motherhood is a funny thing, isn’t it?

He’s going to the doctor for his 6 month check up (we didn’t have to go last month, which is why I’m a little behind on the updates), and I’m not looking forward to the flu shot I know he’s going to get. We’re going to be in for a day or two of snuggle time, but I’m already prepared for it and will try to enjoy every second of it. According to my scale at home he’s around 13lbs 6oz, so we’ll see how that matches up to the doctor’s scale.

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Still no teeth, so there is drool all over everything. But he did discover his feet and its pretty darn cute!

He’s “sleeping through the night” which means I’m not getting up to feed him anymore. Instead, I only get up around 20 times to either soothe him back to sleep, or check the monitor (“Is his chest moving? Yes? Ok, back to bed”). We had our first night of UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP last week. I didn’t have to go in his room one time! When I told Corey the good news in the morning as he was getting ready for work, he just looked at me and said “…but you’ve been checking on him, right?”. I’m supposed to check on him? I guess you learn something new everyday!

We’ve entered the wonderful world of baby food and Cooper seems to be enjoying it! Sure he’s getting a few more baths lately, but spoon feeding your baby? Hands down, the most fun thing ever. Besides a little bit of baby food, he’s still primarily on breast milk with Neosure and I supplement a few oz of formula here and there as needed.

 

He’s rolling both ways like a pro, and now we’re working on the whole “sitting up” thing, but he doesn’t want anything to do with it. Besides a few seconds here or there, he pretty much topples over the second we let go. It probably has something to do with how skinny this poor kid is (he’s still wearing 3 month clothes and all his 3 month pants are still way too big in the waist). He’s just got no meat to hold him up! That or he can’t eat his feet in this position.

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At the end of the day Cooper is a little ball of joy and I love being his mother even though sometimes it’s a really hard, almost impossible job. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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4 MONTHS OLD

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This guy turned 1/3 of a year old this week! Where has 4 months gone? I feel like he’s practically in college already!

We’re trying to work on tummy time. He can hold his head up really good, but put this boy on his tummy and in about 30 seconds he freaks out. Will he just miraculously like it one day? I am doing him a serious disservice if we don’t do the 90 minutes of daily tummy time? Either way, we try to get it in when we can. And now that he’s getting (a little) thicker around the middle we’ve been doing a few minutes of bumbo chair time here and there.

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Teething is definitely in full swing. If you pull down his lip, theres a huge white bump under his gums. He’s been loving the mesh feeder full of strawberries, pacifiers straight out of the freezer, and his hands (still).

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This is actually the outfit I wore home from the hospital. Yikes. Sorry, mom!

He started sleeping in his crib the other night (more on that later), and I’m surprisingly not as upset as I thought I’d be. I don’t know if it’s all the extra leg room or the expensive memory foam mattress we bought, but he seems to love his crib and sleeps like champ in there. We’re averaging about 5 solid hours of uninterrupted sleep (for him, not me) every night.

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Our nightly routine (yes, I said it ROUTINE! Hallelujiah!) goes something like this:

7-8pm: Bottle, jammies, night time diaper (i.e., extra absorbent…did I ever mention he hates a wet diaper? wakes him up EVERY. TIME.!)
8:30pm: In bed, awake. He’s usually passed out by 9pm.
12pm: Bottle, straight back to bed
4am: Bottle, sometimes a diaper change (usually before the bottle. I learned this the hard way), and straight back to bed (sometimes in our bed)

He’s typically awake by 7am, although he did let me sleep in until 9am the other day. I woke up and looked at my phone and literally just stared at it for a few seconds because I was so confused. And then I kissed Coop and thanked him profusely for the much needed sleep.

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I’m trying to work on getting us out of the house more, even though it gives Corey serious chest pains, but it just feels like so much work! Between the feeding, the pumping, the mixing, the sanitizing, the changing, and the packing, I don’t see how anyone has time. It seriously takes me ALL day to get ready for a quick run to Target, which has only happened a handful of times so far and never by myself. He’s always been really well behaved any time we left the house and doesn’t mind the car too much, expect for red lights, and stop signs, and if I’m behind anyone driving less than 25mph, but I’m still reluctant for the sole reason of all the planning involved. I’m hoping this gets easier!

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Until then, we are more than content lounging around on the couch, watching movies, and passing the giggliest, happiest, sometimes sleepiest, baby back and forth between us.

Life is good.

3 MONTHS OLD

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Cooper_month3

We survived our first solo doctor visit, which included 2 shots, and lots of snuggling later in the day. This little chunker now weighs an even 10lbs and 23.25 inches long. That’s almost two feet tall! It sounds so crazy to think of it that way.

We’re finally in a nice consistent groove throughout the day, but it might be due to the fact that we don’t really go many places. Between the feeding, the pumping, the mixing, the sterilizing, and the changing, I don’t see how anyone has the time!

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I purposely made our appointment for 2pm so I’d have the entire morning to get us ready.  When the doctor walked in the room, Cooper just finished a bottle and was passed out in my arms. She took one look at us an smiled, “Isn’t that nice? You rush around all day and you come here and you are FORCED to just sit still.” And I couldn’t agree more! There’s nothing I enjoy more than having a sleeping baby on my chest, which is probably a good thing because he wakes up just about every time I try and move him. When will I learn?

He recently discovered his hands, and I think the joys of teething may have started already. He is drooling like crazy and is fascinated with his hands. He spends a good portion of his day with his hands in his mouth or trying to get them there.cooper_handsinmouthHe spends the rest of the day smiling. I think it’s safe to say (I’m knocking on wood justttttt in case) we have the happiest baby around. It’s very rare that he has a complete fit or even cries for more than a few seconds. If he’s unhappy it’s usually a wet diaper (does any else’s kid absolutely hate being wet. I mean, I don’t think I’d like it either but he REALLY doesn’t like it), but he’s usually pretty easily soothed.

Basically, we’re pretty fond of him.

I think we’ll keep him.

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