Again!

Michael did it again...he fell asleep while playing in his playpen, at the same time he did Monday. He must really think Matt and Meredith are really boring to listen to in the morning!

So, I guess we'll go with it. I tried to put him down yesterday for a nap in his crib at about 8:30 a.m. before we went to daycare, but he was having none of it. But today he falls asleep at 8 a.m. on his own? Who knows.

Since establishing this better routine for Michael has pretty much been consuming my life lately and quite frankly I have nothing else to talk about, I will expand on it a bit. Hopefully I won't be jinxing myself in the process!

I read "The Baby Whisperer" book and it encourages parents to keep their babies on a predictable schedule so they are eating and sleeping consistently. The goal is that their needs are totally met during the day and they aren't overtired by bedtime and therefore will sleep through the night. It also has solutions to help babies fall asleep on their own without nursing or rocking to sleep. This helps solve two of our problems: the first, Michael was waking up four or five times a night and the second, we could only get him to sleep by nursing and even that wasn't even working half the time!

We've been trying the routine since Sunday and so far it is going well. Every day is a little different, but we've been trying to keep Michael on a 3-4 hour schedule. He eats, then plays for about an hour and a half, then sleeps (the goal being 1 1/2 hours- 2 hours). He's been going to bed at 7:30 and waking up at 7. Today he woke up a little earlier, yesterday he woke up a little later. So...every day is a bit different and we just go with it.

There is a "goal" schedule in the book and it looks like this:

7:00-eat
7:30- play
9:00- nap
11:00-eat
11:30- play
1:00-nap
3:00-eat
3:30-play
5 or 6: short nap
then eat, nighttime routine, to bed by 7:30
11: dream feed

We are not quite on this schedule yet because I think Michael still needs to eat a bit more often than they recommend. We'll keep working on it and see what happens!

The great news is that he seems to be responding really well and has slept through the night except for one night feeding the past two nights. I on the other hand, am having a hard time adjusting to the schedule. Even when he is sleeping, I am sitting by the monitor constantly listening to see if he is okay or if he is waking up. Even though I am supposed to be using this time to do my own thing, I am too nervous too. Or I'm afraid if I start folding that load of laundry, I'll jinx it and he'll wake up. (what is up with me thinking I'll jinx everything lately??)

Last night I gave the monitor to Scott to listen to while I went down to the TV cave in the basement to relax while watching season four of Weeds and drinking a Sprite Zero. Even then, I had to periodically mute the sound so I could listen to see if I could hear Michael. Usually it was the dishwasher, the basketball game Scott was watching, or just my own imagination.

I imagine my own son crying when I am trying to relax...wow! I am going crazy...I'll keep you posted on how that is going! :o)