Sleep

There are many things I use the blog to look back and reference, especially now that I want to remember what and when Avery Claire did things. I know that all kids are different, and we aren't comparing, but my memory isn't great and I like to look back and see. I've discovered, though, that I failed to blog very much about things we struggled with. Obviously, you want to paint a rosy picture, right? At least appear that you have it all together? So, I want to do a better job of blogging about it all this time around {I guess for the VERY SLIM to nonexistant chance of baby #3}!!

When you have a new baby, one of the questions people ask you is "how's he sleeping?" Well, folks...he's sleeping great. As long as he's being held.

For the first couple of weeks, Bennett slept anywhere you put him, pretty much. I think it's pretty normal for them to become more aware after a couple of weeks, so that was okay. 

And then "the colic" set in. Now, Bennett was never officially diagnosed with colic. He just started crying anywhere from 9-11 pm and nothing consoled him. He would become very fidgety - his arms and legs would move like crazy. And my Mama Kat always said a baby with cold hands had colic - he qualified there, too! Just like the crying fit started, it'd stop. He'd relax and FINALLY fall asleep. 

And by that time, Mama was exhausted. There was no chance of me laying him down so he could wake up and then I'd have to get him to sleep all over again. 

We'd lay him down {in his bed, our bed, the pack-n-play, anywhere} and he was awake in just a little bit. The doctor prescribed prescription gas drops. They helped A TON with his "colic." So we just knew he'd sleep better laying at night after those kicked in. We tried tricking him. We bought this rock-n-play. He looks all cozy, right. That lasted about 15 minutes. We've tried it all. 

But this is his favorite place to sleep. He will sleep for hours here. 

And in the mornings, after his bottle, he'll sleep for hours here. 

We let Avery Claire "cry it out" at about 4 months. I know lots of people disagree with the cry it out method. We didn't leave her in her bed for hours crying - we went in every few minutes to comfort her. And after about 3 nights, she laid down and went to sleep in her bed and slept all night. I don't think Bennett's able to self-soothe yet. And she was sooooo difficult to GET to sleep, we were exhausted, and I had started back to work. Cry-it-out seemed like our last resort - one we have never regretted. She learned to be a GREAT sleeper. 

We laugh and say "he shows good potential!" Because he will fall asleep by himself, so I'm hoping he's developing the ability to self-soothe. 

And once he masters rolling over, I think that'll help. He's done it a couple of times, but won't do it consistently.

I have discovered that he sleeps better swaddled. He hates it at first, but once he settles down, he sleeps better. So, for the past few nights, he's slept beside me, swaddled. If he wiggles a lot, I can put my hand on him and he'll settle down. I know I don't want that to become a habit, too, though! It's been nice to at least sleep on my side for a few nights, but him being between us makes me nervous. My pillow is literally hanging 3/4 off of the bed, because he somehow scoots closer to me as he sleeps, and I worry his face will get close to it. 

And I know that he'll only be this little once. The nighttime crying is so much better. And he "shows great potential!" ;-In a few months, he'll be too busy to snuggle with his Mama. So, for now, I'm just gonna snuggle and soak it in. We'll get him in his bed by the time he starts middle school, surely.