(no subject)
Unexpected! James has been weaned for... two weeks now? Three, maybe? I kind of lost track. It happened so gradually and naturally that it didn't particularly stand out. But since weaning, putting him down to sleep has taken /forever/. We read books (two at naptime, three at bedtime), then if he wants to we snuggle (though he's been wanting to less and less the past few days, I think his initial obsession with cuddling was as a substitute for nursing, and as he's adjusting it's becoming less important to him) and I sing him a few songs (or the same songs over and over again). And then we wait. It can take between one and two hours for him to fall asleep - though at naptime I usually give up after an hour or so, if he doesn't seem like he's drifting at all.
SO! For the unexpected part - today we read our books (Green Eggs & Ham, the current favorite, and Harold and the Purple Crayon), I sang Summer Wind (Frank Sinatra) about three times. Then waited. And waited. I turned away from him and read my book for awhile. Waited. Looked back at him, he was still awake, rolling around. After an hour I was losing patience, so I finally said "James, mommy needs to go do something. I'll be back in a few minutes." What I needed to go do was bash my head against a wall, but I did not detail that to the child. He asked to get up too, and I told him to lie down, and gave him a sippy, and told him again I would be right back. Went, turned on baby monitor, sat down and waited for him to start crying for me... and waited... and waited... and waited...
After twenty minutes I went and peeked in at him. He was sound asleep. He never even called for me once.
Wut?
Don't expect this to regularly be so simple, but am definitely going to try to start encouraging this. Sleeptime would be so much less rough on us both if we could ease him into falling asleep solo.
-G
SO! For the unexpected part - today we read our books (Green Eggs & Ham, the current favorite, and Harold and the Purple Crayon), I sang Summer Wind (Frank Sinatra) about three times. Then waited. And waited. I turned away from him and read my book for awhile. Waited. Looked back at him, he was still awake, rolling around. After an hour I was losing patience, so I finally said "James, mommy needs to go do something. I'll be back in a few minutes." What I needed to go do was bash my head against a wall, but I did not detail that to the child. He asked to get up too, and I told him to lie down, and gave him a sippy, and told him again I would be right back. Went, turned on baby monitor, sat down and waited for him to start crying for me... and waited... and waited... and waited...
After twenty minutes I went and peeked in at him. He was sound asleep. He never even called for me once.
Wut?
Don't expect this to regularly be so simple, but am definitely going to try to start encouraging this. Sleeptime would be so much less rough on us both if we could ease him into falling asleep solo.
-G