Last night's goal was to get Leo to sleep in the bassinet by our bed, so I spent a healthy part of the day reading message boards about how to get a kid to sleep somewhere the kid does not want to sleep (because all parenting decisions should be made based on the consensus of internet strangers with bad grammar). The basic approach was as follows:
Step 1) Get the kid cleaned, fed, burped, and tightly swaddled
Step 2) Soothe the kid to drowsiness, but not sleep
Step 3) Put kid in bassinet
Step 4) Continue soothing, but do not pick up, until sleep is achieved
Step 5) Cry tears of sweet relief
We worked our way up to Step 3, then I set my alarm for the next feeding / pumping time. Then came Step 4. And maybe it was the fact that he'd taken a solid four hour nap that afternoon or just the insane night owl genes he inherited from Aaron, but no amount of singing or shushing or head stroking got him anywhere near sleep. In fact, it seemed to be pissing him off. And the longer we tried this, the more pissed off he became. Still, I did not pick him up, because every time he closed his eyes and went quiet, that little flame of hope ignited. This time, he'd fall asleep.
Then, as if there was any question how Leo felt about this endeavor, he took a very noisy dump. Well, that's one way to get picked up.
"Okay," I thought. "I give up. You win. We'll go back to the Funbags of Death and hope for the best."
So, we got up to work on the diaper, and after I'd changed him, I put him in the crib in his room. So far, this has been something of a holding area, a place to put him down for a few minutes while I worked on something else.
But, when I came back after dealing with the diaper, he was asleep. And not just kind of asleep. Konked-out, down-for-the-count, watch-carefully-to-make-sure-he's-still-breathing asleep. And, for a moment, I thought. "Oh no. I can't leave him here. He's too little to sleep in here by himself. He needs to be in the bassinet. Close to me." It was a familiar argument. I'd heard moms make it in various iterations for years. It was why toddlers couldn't go to daycare, kids couldn't go to sleep-away camp, and teenagers couldn't study abroad. And, for a moment, I understood exactly how they felt.
Then, my need for sleep took over. "Are you crazy? SLEEPING child is SLEEPING! Why would you move SLEEPING child back to the place where he was NOT SLEEPING?"
The need for sleep had a point. I went back to my room, and left Leo in his, and we both slept.
Step 1) Get the kid cleaned, fed, burped, and tightly swaddled
Step 2) Soothe the kid to drowsiness, but not sleep
Step 3) Put kid in bassinet
Step 4) Continue soothing, but do not pick up, until sleep is achieved
Step 5) Cry tears of sweet relief
We worked our way up to Step 3, then I set my alarm for the next feeding / pumping time. Then came Step 4. And maybe it was the fact that he'd taken a solid four hour nap that afternoon or just the insane night owl genes he inherited from Aaron, but no amount of singing or shushing or head stroking got him anywhere near sleep. In fact, it seemed to be pissing him off. And the longer we tried this, the more pissed off he became. Still, I did not pick him up, because every time he closed his eyes and went quiet, that little flame of hope ignited. This time, he'd fall asleep.
Then, as if there was any question how Leo felt about this endeavor, he took a very noisy dump. Well, that's one way to get picked up.
"Okay," I thought. "I give up. You win. We'll go back to the Funbags of Death and hope for the best."
So, we got up to work on the diaper, and after I'd changed him, I put him in the crib in his room. So far, this has been something of a holding area, a place to put him down for a few minutes while I worked on something else.
But, when I came back after dealing with the diaper, he was asleep. And not just kind of asleep. Konked-out, down-for-the-count, watch-carefully-to-make-sure-he's-still-breathing asleep. And, for a moment, I thought. "Oh no. I can't leave him here. He's too little to sleep in here by himself. He needs to be in the bassinet. Close to me." It was a familiar argument. I'd heard moms make it in various iterations for years. It was why toddlers couldn't go to daycare, kids couldn't go to sleep-away camp, and teenagers couldn't study abroad. And, for a moment, I understood exactly how they felt.
Then, my need for sleep took over. "Are you crazy? SLEEPING child is SLEEPING! Why would you move SLEEPING child back to the place where he was NOT SLEEPING?"
The need for sleep had a point. I went back to my room, and left Leo in his, and we both slept.
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