Naptime

Alex and Daddy last night.

I know, I know. I should take the opportunity to make dinner when Alex takes a nap, even if it is 2:00 in the afternoon. Instead I'm updating Raspberry World. Where are my priorities?

So far, the rest of the week has been better than Monday. But Alex has still been pretty fussy. Now that we're alone together during the days, I am trying to help him into a schedule for naps and eating. According to most of what I've read, and what he seems to be able to manage, I don't think he's too young for that. But there are definitely some growing pains associated with it.

I try to keep focusing on what we've accomplished so far. He's sleeping in his crib every night and for about half of his naps. He's growing well and is able to sleep for several hours at a time without eating (he just doesn't do it at the time Marty and I would like to sleep). In fact, last night he finished eating at 8:30 PM, went to sleep, and woke up at 2 AM to eat. Five and a half hours! That was the longest he's ever managed in one stretch before, but it's definitely a good sign!

He's also making some developmental advances:



He's not playing with toys yet, and you have to put the rattle in his hand, but he will hold it for a little while if you do.

Thanks to a couple of trips we've made to the library, I've looked through a bunch of books about sleep this week. The one that makes the most sense to me (so far) is the Baby Whisperer. I like how she incorporates the eating and the sleeping patterns together instead of discussing them separately. And since my goal is really to get a pattern going during the day, not to work on getting him to sleep through the night at this early age, her advice mostly makes sense for us.

My goals right now are to space out the feedings to once every 3 or 4 hours, and to get Alex to take more naps in between feedings. I can tell we're making progress, even though we've only been working on it for a few days.

Right now he's been asleep in his crib since about 1:45. I tried to put him down as soon as he started yawning, but he was overtired and fussing. He was working himself up into a lather so I swaddled him, and he calmed down and was able to get to sleep. He woke up once, around 2:15, and I just went in and picked him up for a minute and he dropped back off (calming him in the crib didn't work). Another time, he woke up and yelled for about thirty seconds, but by the time I got into the room he was asleep again.

So that's the naptime update from here today.