Christmas miracles

Wow, a long time since posting. I always think of things to say...just can't find the time to say them! But I might be finding more time soon. I might be dropping MY afternoon nap!

Henry is starting to stretch out his night sleeping! yeah! It started on Saturday after the VanderWier christmas party( Dec. 27). he nursed before we left at 10 pm and then not again until 9 the next morning! Since then I typically only get up once per night, at like 4 or 5 am, and then he wakes up about 9 am. He is settling into a predictable routine. He wakes up about 9, takes a 30 minute nap at about 10:15, nurses again at around noon, takes a nice nap about 1-3 (though he usually wakes about 35 minutes in and needs to be re-settled). Then we nurse again when he wakes up, maybe a 40 minute nap around 5:30, nurse again between 6 and 7, then bedtime between 8 and 9. It is so good to be able to count on it and plan things. The only problem is that going out of the house really screws with all of this. So while Dave has been home, no problem, but when I'm on my own and get lonely...we'll see.

Christmas was great, it is so fun with a toddler. Santa brought charlotte her dollhouse and dolls, which she loves. And then we went out to chinese for dinner with the Courvilles.

Henry is just doing his mid-afternoon nap wake up so I have to publish, but hopefully, I'll get more down soon.

Henry 5.0

Things have really gotten so much better since my last post! Starting the evening before he turned 5 weeks old, Henry mysteriously stopped having the cramping screaming crying fits. He actually was laid down to sleep...and slept! He also started sleeping normal baby amounts during the day (every 1-2 hours after waking up, he'd nap) and he stopped doing marathon 5 hour awake stretches that ended in fits. This is all so good.

Now, don't get me wrong, he is still a baby and still cries and generally is fussy from 5-9 at night. Unfortunately, this is when Dave is home and Dave still refers to him as a "monster". But during the day, it is not so bad to deal with him!

We have had some times where "cry it out" seemed appropriate, and worked. Like, 5 minutes of crying followed by 2 hours of good sleep. And some times of course when that didn't work, the crying went on, the comforting went on, etc.

One surefire way to upset the apple cart is if I eat dairy. Everytime I have it, which isn't often, but I think that maybe it was just my imagination, is followed by about two days of a very fussy little guy!

And another change MIGHT be going on with him regarding night sleep. He usually would do a nice long stretch in the early night, like 8 or 9 pm to 2 am. Though I didn't get to bed/sleep until 10 or 10:30 so it was frustrating. Last night he nursed at 5 pm, then he was awake. and awake. and awake. I just couldn't get him to nap (though he seemed sleepy) so I tried to nurse him. NO WAY! he screamed and screamed. So, completely in tears and preparing for a horrible night, I put him in bed. I even went in at about 9:15 to try to trick him into nursing in his sleep. Didn't work.

He didn't wake up until 1 am! Which got me about 3 hours of sleep interruped by one potty break (darn). THen I thought he'd nurse every 2 hours from there...but he didn't wake up again until 6:30! Which got me 4.5 hours of sleep interrupted by one "oh my god, is he still breathing, let me check as long as I have to get up to pee" break. Today he has been very sleepy still. In fact, right now, I'm trying to decide if I should get him up babywise-style or just let him go til he meets his sleep needs. He proved that he can go awhile without nursing, let's just get it to the right time of day, or rather, night! So i'm going to get him at 3.5 hours between nursing just to harass him and try to nurse and maybe tonight will be better, and maybe I'll enjoy it more!!

Oh, incidentally, CJ is in daycare today so that is why I even have time to post and I took an 1.5 hour nap since Henry decided that the 6:30 feeding was the start of his day and I"d been up since 5:44 worrying he was dead. Early morning for mommy.