How quickly they forget

Is your baby sleeping through the night?  No?

How often I've heard this?  For the record, my baby is not sleeping through the night.  He is only 2 months old. 

Here's the thing.  I got sucked into this baby sleeping through the night thing.  Not that I cared if I got more sleep, cuz I don't mind getting up to feed him.  I cared because I thought I should care, at least lots of other people made me feel like I should care.  So I started putting rice cereal in his bottle.  granted i never actually put the recommend amount because deep down i just didn't feel comfortable.  I have been putting 1tbsp of cereal in his bottle at night.  I told myself it was because he is eating so much, which is true, but the rice has not stopped this.  I still have to figure a solution for this but as far as the cereal, I now wonder if I'm stuck doing this.  I don't think I am, I mean it's not a drug or something that has to be lessened gradually.  So after all the stress of trying to figure out how to make him sleep through the night I've finally decided to just stop.  Stop caring what others think and only care about what is best for me, my husband, and Nugget.  There you have it.  If you were planning on giving me advise about how to help him sleep longer at night and it included giving him rice cereal in his bottle at night, you can keep that advise to yourself.  It's nothing personal.  Well it is personal, it is personal to me and my family.  I'm just trying to do what is best for my baby in my own opinion. 

But lets talk about these people who have so proudly proclaimed their baby's perfect sleeping habits.  If you really prod, you may actually find out that their baby was at least 12 weeks old before sleeping through the night.  And if what so many moms have told me is true, after 12 weeks each baby has a renewal and they are much easier to care for.  I'm guessing it is partially because they are naturally starting to sleep longer at night.  Therefore the mom is sleeping longer and therefore everyone is just much happier.  It seems some of these "my baby slept all night"  moms forget that those first 12 weeks are hard and come with a lot of sleepless nights.  Maybe after giving birth you not only forget the pain of birth but you also forget those first 12 weeks.  which i didnt' have labor pain, i had an epidural.  Oooh, I have that to brag to all you "my baby is sleeping through the night moms", I didn't have any labor pains and I only pushed for 30 minutes. 

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when I get done I'll...

We have a little bit of a schedule for Nugget.  I feed him about 7:30ish, then a bath, and then I rock him to sleep.  It worked last night and it has worked so far tonight.  He'll wake up again about 11ish and then again at 3ish.  Yes, he is still waking up at night but the time between has gotten longer.  The best part is not the duration between waking, it's the sound sleep.  Instead of being fussy, he is sleeping pretty soundly. 

The routine ends about 8:30ish which means I'm able to get a few things done after he goes to sleep.  As a side note:  except for the lake of sleep, I really do wish I had more time with him after work.  But that is for another post.   Anyway, I'm now wondering what to do with my time after 8:30.  The cool thing is that I'll be able to get some housework type things done.  But, if I get done with that, then what?  Do I spin?  Do I cook?  Do I knit?  Do I blog?  It's like I've been given this extra few hours.  Not really of course but I think because I haven't felt like I've had this time before now it seems to mean a lot more to me.  Before I had Nugget I had all the time in the world to pursue my hobbies (and I had a lot of hobbies).  But I wasted so much of that time.  Now 1 or 2 hours at the end of the night is so precious and treated like a gift. 

So what did I do with those extra hours tonight?  First I put together Southwestern Chicken to be cooked in the slow cooker tomorrow.  Then I roasted some bell pepper that I then cleaned, cut, vacuum sealed and froze.  There are a couple recipes that I really like that call for roasted bell pepper and I find it much easier to do ahead of time and just defrost.  And now I'm blogging about the extra time that is allowing me to blog.  ahem.

Oh, you know I really like to give everyone links to good stuff and resources.  Well I couldn't get through another post without a link.  Tonight it's a podcast that I just found.  New Moms New Babies podcast.  I've listened to a few episode and they seem to have a great chemistry between them and they have some great info to share.  From this podcast I learned about Nick Kelsh who has written several books and has some great advise on taking pics of babies.  I also learned about the website Just Ask Baby which has some really interesting childhood development resources. 

Well, it's getting time for Nugget to start stirring.  Tomorrow night when I get done with washing the dog I'll...


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Faces of James

I just love these pics.

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