Baby Bo

I feel like once I've finally figured things out around here in baby world, everything suddenly changes.  Bo had been slowly stretching his night sleep and slept ten hours straight for six nights in a row.  That was a great time in my life, and I went to bed at night crowing with joy about the uninterrupted sleep I was about to get.  Until, on the seventh day, Bo woke up at 11:30.  AND 3:45.  And proceeded to wake up twice a night for the next week.  I was in shock.  My mind could not compute what was happening to me in the middle of the night as I stumbled over baby toys in an effort to find the baby and make the crying stop.   At 4:30 in the morning, this is a very traumatic moment. 

What?  Me, trouble?

 While I fed him, I searched the internet for ways to end this vicious cycle.  I finally read that waking up at random times (which he was doing) probably indicated a growth spurt, and in the morning I'd repeat my mantra, "it's a growth spurt, it's a growth spurt, it's a growth spurt."  But at night, I became convinced that he was getting into a habitual routine and seeking my company in the middle of the night and IT WOULD NEVER STOP.  And then, unable to fall asleep, tossed and turned until it was time to get up.  At 6 am.  Because this was VBS week and I had to remind 14 kindergartners to sit still 18million times a day.  I got really really tired after a few days of that routine. Somehow my body forgot that I'd been getting up in the night for three months.  It just seemed so much worse after a week of sleeping till morning.

a boy's just gotta eat.

So, after positive self-talk and really trying to relax about the whole getting up in the night thing, it did get a little easier again.  Last night Matt and I went out to dinner and our friends watched Bo.  They put him down at 8:30 . . . and he slept ten hours again!  I'm trying not to get my hopes up for tonight.  Maybe I can get my friend Meghan to come back and work her magic . . . 

So that covers my worry about Bo's night sleep, and then there's worrying about Bo's day sleep.  I started reading "The Baby Whisperer Solves Everything," even though at the time I didn't really have any problems to solve . . . until her charts and formulas indicated that Bo should be sleeping and hour and half for each nap.  Bo only slept about 45 minutes for most naps . . . and an hour and half sounded magical.  I set out to achieve these long naps.  At first it was just frustrating, but one day I finally succeeded in getting Bo to go back to sleep after the 45 minute intruder woke him up.  Seriously, I feel so powerful when I get him to sleep for another hour, or he falls asleep by himself in his crib without a fuss.  Maybe it was the Baby Whisperer's tips and my perseverance, or maybe he just got big enough to accomplish these goals, but we're having much better nap times now.  Translation - Mommy has more time to think of crazy projects.

This week while I taught Kindergarten at VBS, Bo was in the nursery.  He was the only baby, the rest of the kids were 2-4 years old, so he got a lot of attention.  My friend told me she heard her 2-year-old calling her baby doll "Baby Bo" and putting him to bed with a blankey.  I tried to be an easy mom when I dropped him off. . . I explained his routine but ended with, "But I just want this to be a good experience for you, so do what you need to do."  However, turns out I didn't really mean that . . . I really meant, "Please refer to the typed list of instructions I left in his diaper bag."  Yikes, yes, it's true, I typed out some helpful tips.  I like to think I'm fairly flexible with him . . . but in reality, he sticks to his routine and I've found that following that actually brings us more freedom and I can better understand what he needs.  After a couple days in the nursery we all got the hang of it and it turned out to be a positive experience for everybody.

I think he's pretty sweet.  I love his new tricks, how he's found his feet and rolled over (once).  I love reading books with him before he falls asleep.  Yesterday Matt and I crept into his room and watched him talking to the lion in his crib when he woke up.  They're pals.  I think I'm settling into this mom thing.