live blogging: where am I? what's that smell?

Henry slept soundly last night from 7:20 until 5:02 this morning. I didn't go to him right away when he woke up and instead listened to him loudly babble with a few pitching screeches that translated to the English language as "I KNOW YOU ARE THERE! WHY AM I HERE?"

There were long periods of silence and then he'd start again.

At 6:30, I brought him to bed with me and he fell asleep nursing within 10 minutes. Charlie came home, thankfully, because that little virus that I've been barely keeping at bay has morphed in to the plague. Henry and I slept until 8:00. Charlie then brought him out and fed him breakfast and let the kids play while I slept until 9:55.

When I stumbled out of the bedroom, thinking that my entire motherhood experience has been a dream, Charlie said that he'd put Henry down for a nap at around 9:30 and although he hasn't cried, he hasn't really slept, either. It is now 10:15 and I can hear him babbling. I suspect that the morning nap is shot because he slept with me for an hour and a half - so I'm going to go get him and try putting him down for his second nap at around noon.

I'm taking a recess from live blogging.

But while I'm out running and playing (or sleeping and soaking) I would really like to hear more about No-Cry-Solutions that people keep commenting on, and also, the "reverse cycling" that Maria mentioned.

For the record: Some families are up early and go to bed early. Some go to bed late and wake up late. If you take your child out shopping at 9 PM and your child is not overtired, and their schedule is in sync with your family schedule, great. Equally great is the family that puts their child to bed at 6 PM, with the expectation that they will be up for the day at 5 AM. But for those families that ignore or are ignorant to their child's sleep cues and drag them all over creation - and then wonder why they are fussy, or argue that they "just don't sleep!", I want to hit them in the head gently place Dr. Weissbluth's book in to their tightly clenched hands.

I don't think that crying-it-out is the only way for a child to self-soothe. I do believe, that if a child is put in to bed at the optimal time, there will be little to no crying. Last night when I put Henry to bed at 6:35, he cried. But when I put him down around 40 minutes later, he went right to sleep. When he woke up crying from his second nap yesterday - he cried on and off for about 45 minutes, before I realized that he wasn't going to go back to sleep and I needed to get him.

Sleep training can really make a person second-guess every move they make. But, I think the more you know your child's sleep patterns and schedule - the better you are able to know when they are up and need you, and when they still need to sleep.

If I ran to Henry so that he never cried from his crib - I'm fairly certain that he would still be waking up every three hours and his catnaps would not extend more than 30 minutes. I also know that as much as I enjoyed "wearing" Henry is the Bjorn and letting him nap on me, in the longterm, that is not helping him establish healthy sleep habits.

Although I will nurse Henry in the morning from bed, he is very restless and does not sleep well for long stretches of time when he is with us. This is a good thing because with four children, a stuffed giraffe and a queen size bed, co-sleeping isn't very practical for our family.

I am now stepping off of my soapbox and in to the tub.