Hello! I thought I should post a follow-up to the last post. First of all - thanks so much for all of the love and support and kind words you sent our way! It means a lot. I don't want to jinx it, but it seems that things are definitely improving on the sleep front. Jai and I watched in stunned silence last night, as Griffin put himself to sleep without crying. And he just did it again for his morning nap. I put him down, read him a story, and gave him a kiss, then left the room. I came right down to peek in on him (hooray for video monitors!) He looked around for a while, and then closed his eyes and went to sleep. My goodness I feel like a Proud Mama!
Not only that, but last night, he slept right through the night, all on his own. I think I was not the only one who has been sleep deprived. Poor little Griffin! Before, I was lucky if I could get one 45 minute nap out of him per day. I didn't know any better. I just put him down when it got really obvious that he was tired. Even at the beginning of this process, when I was trying to come up with a schedule that we could follow every day, I wasn't sure how the two nap thing was going to work. And at first it didn't really. He cried right through a couple of the nap times, or cried for thirty minutes, then slept for twenty. I was about to just drop it. But then yesterday, when I was going to skip the morning nap, he started to look tired. Fifteen minutes after his new nap time, he was rubbing his eyes and cranky, so I put him down. Yesterday he had a 45 minute nap in the morning, and an hour long nap in the afternoon, AND he slept through the night. Really????
For the first time, we are following a schedule, instead of eating when he seems hungry, and sleeping when he seems tired. I know this probably should have been obvious, but I can't believe the difference it makes. Parenting is such a steep learning curve! Geez! Plus, the added bonus of following a schedule is that it makes me feel a little more in charge. It's a subtle but powerful thing to switch from following your baby's needs to doing something that you know is best for them, regardless of how they feel about it. And then to see him begin to enjoy it, well, it feels pretty amazing.
3 comments:
Seems like you've cracked the nut! So encouraging to hear. Keep your chin up. Some days will be good, others not so much. You said it best when you said that you have to do things that you know is good for them but not what they necessarily want. Proud Mama for sure!
There are certainly many moments that we question our ability to parent and lots of hiccups along the way but Griffin and you will stumble on the right answers to all of them. I'm happy to hear that you are all getting more prolonged hours of sleep and that you are all feeling better. Here's hoping that it continues and gets better day by day.
Love to all of you and special big hugs to our little man.
Mom & Dad (S) XXXXOOOO
Hi! I'm "sherrieg's" sister and she directed me to your posts about sleep issues. Our daughter's 7 mos. and the sleep thing is by far our biggest challenge -- she doesn't do much napping and is up about every 2 hours at night (occasionally as much as every hour). Glad to know we're not the only ones. Good luck sorting things out with your sweet little boy!
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