Friday, February 22, 2008

live blogging: sleep school day 2 / nap 1

We aren't off to a good start, today.

After I posted, I quickly got dressed, made our bed, unloaded the dishwasher, got the baby dressed and pulled out clothes for the triplets to wear for the day. There was a LOT of negotiating as to why the girls couldn't only wear their tutus and Keens and William couldn't only wear his superhero cape and a pair of socks. Not only is it raining and 53 degrees, but we're going to the post office and I don't think it's a good idea to have scantily clad children in that kind of environment.

By the time I started to feed Henry, it was around 7:40. He was getting very fussy. After about two spoonfuls, I wiped his face and put him in his crib. He was down at 7:48. He fussed (not even crying, but fussing) until around 7:54 and then he was asleep.

He woke up at 8:30. I didn't run to him right away and I could hear him fussing and stirring for about 10 minutes. He was quiet until 9:00. He began to fuss, on and off, for the next 15 minutes, before he started to cry at 9:20, and that's when I picked him up and nursed him for a few minutes. Actually, I first tried to put him in his highchair while I helped three kids who were using the potty at once and making a horrible mess of things - but he screeched and wouldn't let me go, so I put him in the Bjorn and nursed him while I tried to keep the kids from flipping their potty chairs over.

I'm a little frustrated with Charlie that he taught William how to go pee-pee standing up. Now, that's all he wants to do. But he doesn't quite grasp "grasping and aiming" yet, or if he does - he thinks it takes too much effort, so he just likes to stand and let things go where they may. The new rule in effect is that EVERYONE has to sit down when they go potty. William can stand again once he learns how to aim properly - or Henry stops crawling. Which ever comes first.

All in all, not a great morning nap. I know that the problem stemmed from me not picking him up and nursing him back to sleep straight away at 5:00 this morning. If I had done that before he got riled up - he would have probably slept until about 6:30 and then, his first nap would have been around 8:45 - like yesterday.

The problem is: I would prefer that he sleep in until 6 without me having to run to him.

The challenge is: Me getting him to sleep through until 6 without having to run to him.

I fed him the remainder of his breakfast at around 9:30 and now, we're going to dash to the post office so I can mail off our taxes - a few important documents - and Jessica's Keens.

6 comments:

  1. maybe you could nurse Henry for 10-15 mins before you go to bed - maybe he'll sleep later...

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  2. Hey,

    Try re-reading the Weissbluth section on "wake-up time" p. 247.

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  3. Have you tried dropping a couple of cheerios into the potty and teaching William to aim for them? It might help with his accuracy. lol.

    P.S. Sorry if this comment is coming through more than once, I seem to be experiencing some technical errors!

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  4. My gosh, this live blogging is fabulous! Okay, here's what I've been thinking this morning. I think you should firmly establish his nap schedule and get his naps all squared away BEFORE you begin tackling the early morning problem. The reason why is because if you can establish a real wakeup time, even if that means taking him to bed and nursing him back to sleep, and then establish real naptimes as a result of having him asleep until YOU want him, I think the 5am wake up thing will go away all by itself. Remember what our Sleep God says, that sleep begets sleep. And he also says that daytime sleep will prevent the nighttime sleep problems, like waking up at 5am.

    Also, Henry's definitely having trouble transitioning through his first sleep cycle. Babies transition from deep sleep to REM sleep at exactly 40-45 minutes. If he doesn't sleep at least an hour and a half, he isn't getting both cycles of sleep which is why he's cranky. Now I used to time when my kids went down to the minute and I'd be waiting by the door at exactly 40 minutes and run in and pat their butt and stick their pacifier back in to get them into the next sleep cycle, because it just takes a little time for them to get it. Or you can let them cry to get into the next cycle but some kids wake totally up then and you are shit out of luck.

    Did I tell you I participated in the new book Weissbluth is writing???? There's going to be a whole chapter on multiples. I just love sleep talk!!!

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  5. Darn! Michel S beat me to it. (Full disclosure here - my son and I are soooooo different to your style, we took another route to sleep learning) But, having said that - I was wondering if doing whatever you need to do to get him to the normal wakeup time in the morning and then doing sleep school on his naps until those 45min naps are history. Then the wakeup time might fix itself (or you can get Charlie to work on that while you sleep!) It took me a while to figure out that by trying to concentrate on all his sleep, I was overwhelming him. Besides, I'm starting to understand that kids really do understand that day sleep and night sleep are different.

    I really admire your focus Jen. You just get in and do things - if it were me, I would be still suffering paralysis by analysis.

    BTW - not sure if this "advice" is welcome. Please feel free to reject my comment if you don't want advice. It's just that I remember how much those 45 min sleeps sucked and I'm cheering you on from the other end of the world!!!!

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  6. I think Michele is right on. (Sleep is also one of my fav topics.) Focus on the day sleep and the night sleep will probably organize itself.

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