Today Liam is six weeks old. I should know - I was up with him at 5:08 a.m. to see the anniversary in. It's no surprise that there is a lack of sleep occurring in our house these days, and on a daily basis it's usually not too bad, but the cumulative effects are starting to show.
Today marks a turning point though. Up til now, Liam has been sleeping in a bassinette in our room. And it's been hell. He snorts and snuffles and kicks all night, and the bassinette, though beautiful, groans and creaks in the worst way. And I'm not sure what purpose this is all serving, because when I feed him at night I get up and take him to another room, anyway. So it's not like it's helping me get MORE rest, it's making both of us get LESS. Well, even before he was born I had declared six weeks the magical age at which I would be comfortable moving him into his crib in his own room. And now that the day is here, I'm not sad at all... I'm ecstatic. Yes, it will be somewhat less reassuring not being woken up six times every hour (I may be tired but at least I always know my kid is still alive.) But I think the benefits will outweigh that.
Daytime sleep is another issue. Sometimes he sleeps practically all day, sometimes not at all. And there is a high percentage of false alarms. Feed him, rock him, think he's out cold, set him down and boom - he's awake again. Was he faking? Or is it normal to sleep in shifts just shorter than the length of time it takes to get anything done? Normal occurrences at our house: Once, I was writing a thank you card, and got this far: "Dear Brenda, Bob, Adam and Nate, thank you for the baby gift for Liam. It was --" The card then sat on the counter for a couple of days before I had the time to write another five sentences and give it to Chad to mail for me. I kid you not. I am known, quite often, to fill the sink with hot soapy water, dump the dishes in, then he wakes up and I get back to a sink full of cold greasy water and scummy dishes hours and hours later. It's amazing how little ever gets done in one fell swoop, and it's unnerving because it all depends on Liam's sleep and that is just so totally random.
So this is a picture from yesterday, when he was giving me grief again. Bright idea - I will plunk him into the Snugli and take him around the house with me. Kill two birds with one stone, right? Wrong. I get him in there and THEN I think about what I have to do. I can't move the laundry from the washer to the dryer because I can't bend over with him strapped onto me like Mini-Me there. I can't start dinner because I can't dangle a baby over a hot stove (nobody has told me this before but I am pretty sure it would be wrong.) I have been telling myself all day long I will get a run in today, but well yaknow...
And then, of course, I had to wrestle him OUT of the Snugli, at which point he woke up again. It figured.
My cousin Kelly gave me a recommendation for a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and yesterday I put a request into the inter-library service to get it. If it doesn't show up by the time Darin quits at Chapters I may buy it outright. I think we need some sorting out in our house these days, and this looks like a good place to start.
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