Somebody else's kid
I picked Benjamin up yesterday afternoon and Jacquelin informed me that he went right to sleep for his nap. (The previous day, he cried for an hour) This wasn't too surprising to me, since I knew he was very tired, and also less scared of the new place since it was his second day there. But when she told me that he went right to sleep for his nap in Clare-baby's crib, my jaw hit the floor. My son has never slept in a crib before in his whole life. When he was a little baby, he would cry and cry and cry. It never worked. We eventually packed ours up on threw it in the shed when he was about 11 months old. But she said she just layed him in there, gave him a blanket and a pillow, turned on the mobile and he watched it until he fell asleep. No crying.
Now, I don't think that this is supposed to mean that a crib would have been the answer to all our sleep problems, or that we should get one now, but it was nice to hear that he slept well and didn't cry for an hour, at any rate.
I took him home and since it was sunny and not raining, we took Holly for a walk to the park. Ben was thrilled when I let him go on all the toys except for the slide (it was still wet) and I was happy to push him around on the merry-go-round, because i made Holly go around and around with us and I worked very hard to tire her out. I'm sick of her insaneness. When Ben was done, we went back home and put on "Pengin movie" (Happy Feet) while I worked on making stir-fry dinner. This wasn't too crazy, because I'd precut most of the veggies the night before. (On the phone with my dad, who's response was "that's the sort of thing that we're supposed to do." ha ha ha. Trust me Dad, I'm not normally this organized, but when there's no one to help, you kind of have to be.) Ben came in after awhile and helped cook. He was excited for tofu, which we don't have very often.
After dinner, we had bath and went upstairs nice and early, but I didn't let him trick me into nursing before he was really tired. We played toys and read books and cuddled and hung out for about an hour. When he finally looked really droopy, I turned out the lights and we nursed and he fell asleep nursing. One side only. Thank God!
I got a few things done, but mostly was just excited to be able to go to bed early myself. It did take me awhile to fall asleep, but I did eventually. I slept slightly less fitfully than I have been, waking at 2 and again at 5 a.m. Bless his heart, that boy was still sound asleep in his own bed when my alarm started going off at 6 a.m. Wow. I can't remember the last time he slept through the whole night until morning, but I guarantee, that whenever it was, I wrote about it in lj. So whenever I last said that (it's got to have been months and months) was the last time it happened.
Since I wasn't exhausted from being up late and nursing in the middle of the night, I got up nice and early, just before 6:30, and let the dog out. I got dressed and was just about to sit down and have some breakfast when I heard some suspicious shuffling upstairs. Yup, Ben woke up and crossed the hall. And when he found the big bed empty, he started coming downstairs. No freaking out, no crying. Wow. (I'm starting to feel like a broken record) So I scooped him up and brought him downstairs to nurse on the couch. (He said "Mama get in this bed" and pointed to the big bed, but I told him it was morning time, he'd slept through the whole night.) While we nursed, I told him how proud I was of him being such a big boy and going right to sleep with no crying or kicking or not listening. And about how proud I was that he slept through the whole night in his very own big boy bed. (I am going to go ahead and claim partial credit that I did adjust the temperature in there again last night. Amazingly, this time I had to turn the heater DOWN. It looked like Ben had messed with the dial and that's why he kept on hard-boiling at night and waking up. I thought to check for this because now, instead of getting a freezing baby climbing into bed with me, I was getting a sweaty one. Poor dude.)
So. Slept in a crib, no crying. Went right to sleep at bedtime, no crying. Slept through the whole night, woke up with no crying. Are we sure this is my kid? I'd start to wonder except that he did cry for me when I dropped him off at Clare-baby's house this morning. Ah, well ... that's OK. I cried a little too. Sniff sniff.
Now, I don't think that this is supposed to mean that a crib would have been the answer to all our sleep problems, or that we should get one now, but it was nice to hear that he slept well and didn't cry for an hour, at any rate.
I took him home and since it was sunny and not raining, we took Holly for a walk to the park. Ben was thrilled when I let him go on all the toys except for the slide (it was still wet) and I was happy to push him around on the merry-go-round, because i made Holly go around and around with us and I worked very hard to tire her out. I'm sick of her insaneness. When Ben was done, we went back home and put on "Pengin movie" (Happy Feet) while I worked on making stir-fry dinner. This wasn't too crazy, because I'd precut most of the veggies the night before. (On the phone with my dad, who's response was "that's the sort of thing that we're supposed to do." ha ha ha. Trust me Dad, I'm not normally this organized, but when there's no one to help, you kind of have to be.) Ben came in after awhile and helped cook. He was excited for tofu, which we don't have very often.
After dinner, we had bath and went upstairs nice and early, but I didn't let him trick me into nursing before he was really tired. We played toys and read books and cuddled and hung out for about an hour. When he finally looked really droopy, I turned out the lights and we nursed and he fell asleep nursing. One side only. Thank God!
I got a few things done, but mostly was just excited to be able to go to bed early myself. It did take me awhile to fall asleep, but I did eventually. I slept slightly less fitfully than I have been, waking at 2 and again at 5 a.m. Bless his heart, that boy was still sound asleep in his own bed when my alarm started going off at 6 a.m. Wow. I can't remember the last time he slept through the whole night until morning, but I guarantee, that whenever it was, I wrote about it in lj. So whenever I last said that (it's got to have been months and months) was the last time it happened.
Since I wasn't exhausted from being up late and nursing in the middle of the night, I got up nice and early, just before 6:30, and let the dog out. I got dressed and was just about to sit down and have some breakfast when I heard some suspicious shuffling upstairs. Yup, Ben woke up and crossed the hall. And when he found the big bed empty, he started coming downstairs. No freaking out, no crying. Wow. (I'm starting to feel like a broken record) So I scooped him up and brought him downstairs to nurse on the couch. (He said "Mama get in this bed" and pointed to the big bed, but I told him it was morning time, he'd slept through the whole night.) While we nursed, I told him how proud I was of him being such a big boy and going right to sleep with no crying or kicking or not listening. And about how proud I was that he slept through the whole night in his very own big boy bed. (I am going to go ahead and claim partial credit that I did adjust the temperature in there again last night. Amazingly, this time I had to turn the heater DOWN. It looked like Ben had messed with the dial and that's why he kept on hard-boiling at night and waking up. I thought to check for this because now, instead of getting a freezing baby climbing into bed with me, I was getting a sweaty one. Poor dude.)
So. Slept in a crib, no crying. Went right to sleep at bedtime, no crying. Slept through the whole night, woke up with no crying. Are we sure this is my kid? I'd start to wonder except that he did cry for me when I dropped him off at Clare-baby's house this morning. Ah, well ... that's OK. I cried a little too. Sniff sniff.