How did people parent before Pinterest? I mean seriously. I’m so dependent on it for feeding and sleeping schedules, not to mention activities for Ollie to discover the world around him.
Our schedule has been to “dream feed”Ollie at midnight and then wake up at 8:30 to eat again. The schedule has been working great for us. I knew other babies were going to bed earlier, but he is so little, I wanted to get the extra feeding in.
It worked great until this last week. He simply wasn’t interested in his morning feeding. Turns out, babies are supposed to sleep for 12 hours at night. Sorry, Ollie, first time parent, here.
We started it last night. We went to his room around 8:30, had the lights off, except his lamp. Then he ate until he fell asleep. I went to change him. I think most people know this about baby boys, but good communication is not assuming things about people. Boy babies tend to pee when you take their diaper off. We do a trick of wiping a cool wipie under his belly button. It works 90% of the time. It didn’t work last night. I turned on the overhead light because that can get everywhere. I wasn’t about to send him to bed covered in pee.
Obviously, he is wide awake now, and fussing a little because the changing table is cold and he is covered in pee. That’s pretty normal for us putting him to bed. He gets over it quickly. So I put him in his sleeper and night sack. He’s determined to learn this crawling business, so anytime I lay him down, he rolls on his belly. Putting clothes on him is like branding a calf.. We say our prayers, I kiss him good-night and turn his humidifier on. He smiles at me and rolls over.
Why did you think this would be an issue, Chelsea? He can’t tell time. Of course he is going to think it’s time for bed because you went through your nighttime routine. Your such an awesome mom. Why don’t you take a much-needed shower and spend time with your husband. And by spend time with your husband I mean be in the same room while he does school work. . Okay... he (Ollie, not Aaron) is starting to fuss, but according to “Sleep-Sense,” it’s good to let them cry out a bit. Okay, now he has an angry cry now. It’s been long enough to check on him.
And he pooped. So I change him. Take him to the rocker because he worked himself up and read to him. Not a full book, because he isn’t so interested in doing anything but reminding me that I abandoned him. So, I sing to him. I’m not very good at knowing words to songs so there’s a lot of made up words. The hypnotizing rocking and singing finally lulls him to sleep.
Until 2:30 and then 3:30. I was good, I didn’t pick him up. He didn’t really wake me up, though. I couldn’t sleep either. I had less time with my baby and I didn’t like it. I tossed and turned and could not turn my brain off. I was tempted to crawl in the crib with him. Aaron wouldn’t even notice my absence. He only woke up one time, despite the baby monitor being right next to his head at full volume.
Ollie did better with his breakfast, so despite the lovely bags under my eyes, I think it was a good idea.
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