Yesterday evening was kind of a funny one. Baby boy was super fussy during the late afternoon, but wouldn’t take more than 30 minute cat naps. By about 5:30pm, he was yawning and clearly wanting to sleep but we didn’t want to mess up his nighttime sleep by letting him nap so late, so I strapped him into the Ergo360 and we took a quick 20 minute stroll through our neighbourhood with the big dog. I had him front-facing so that he could watch the comings and goings of cars, look at the houses, observe Juno (the dog) sniff and pee on things, and ultimately so that he wouldn’t fall asleep but was still having a good time. DW was really tired and had a nap while we were gone. Her pregnancy symptoms have gotten really uncomfortable lately. She’s 35.5 weeks pregnant now, and everything is super swollen, and her pre-existing shoulder impingement has gotten much worse. It causes severe numbness and now pain in her arms, and keeps her up. She’s also got that lovely pregnancy insomnia that I experienced towards the end too. It’s funny- we’re often both up at 3am enjoying another meal and having good conversation- me because breastfeeding while weight training has made me a hungry beast, and her because she’s in her third trimester.
Anyways, another good night for Dumplin’:
Sleep Training Day 5:
6:38pm start
Sleep wave in minutes: 11
Fussed at 7:25pm, 9:30pm, 2:30am
Total time until sleep: 11 minutes
Feedings: 9:30pm, 2:30am, 6am
Wake-up: sometime around 7:15ish?
He gave me a 5-hour stretch between feedings at the beginning of the night! Too bad I was up with DW watching Insurgent and not sleeping. He fussed at reasonable times, to which I responded by going in and nursing him. Our nighttime nursings have been so sweet and special to me because I miss him so much at night. Many times I’ve daydreamed about pulling him back into bed with us, but I know that that’s just for me, and he’s actually fine and better off in his crib. I think he’s getting more restorative sleep in his crib, and he was sorta waking up every time we rolled over or moved, got up to pee, etc. At nap time yesterday afternoon, I was tired and took him into the spare bedroom with the intention of nursing him to sleep for a nap. I knew it was kind of a bad idea in some ways, but I really missed the closeness with my boy, and I also wanted to see if we could have some flexibility in this regard, without messing up his sleep training. Interestingly, he nursed side-lying, but unlatched himself when he was done. He then just laid beside me playing with the top sheet, kicking his feet, as he does. It made me sad that my old strategy of boobing him to sleep didn’t work, but I was proud of him for having broken that association in 4 days!
This morning, Dumplin’ woke up at around 7-something, and when DW went to his room for his morning routine, he was swatting at the aquarium, trying to turn it on! Funny guy. He just melts my heart.
Our boy with his little dog.
I am so impressed at how great he’s doing with the transition!! And I just love that photo, I think it’s one of my favorites ever. ❤❤❤
Awesome update! It’s giving me such hope for sleep training with K. Sorry to hear about DWs nerve issues – I had really awful carpel tunnel in that last couple months ago I can relate a bit. The good news is that it goes back to normal a couple weeks after baby arrives. I’ve had issues with cysts in my right wrist for the last 10-15 years and pregnancy swelling aggravated it.
Yeah I can’t even imagine the discomfort with having carpal tunnel or any impingement issues- although my kidney pain was pretty intense. She’s hoping that Mochi comes soon, but I keep telling her that Mochi needs to cook a lot longer!
Yes! Definitely, as long as he OR SHE can!
It’s amazing how quickly he got used to this change and how remarkably well he adjusted to the change. You must feel so proud of him (and you and J too)!
Thank you! I agree. I’m still shocked lol.
Love reading your progress on this! Yay! Love the fact that you and DW are such good partners in crime around this effort!
Thank you! I agree- we make a really good team. She’s very flexible, and is always willing to assume any role that I’m not comfortable with. I’m very lucky 🙂
Isn’t it ironic that often a good sleep period often results in us doing something other than sleeping ourselves?
Yup! So many things to do. DW got in an argument with her mom once when she scolding us for not “sleeping when the baby was sleeping”, to which DW said “oh- so are you gonna do our laundry and empty the dishwasher?” Lol.
I feel like things were so different for our parents. I get the same lines all the time from them.
Yes, I think they had more help lol.
And no problem with letting us all cry it out if they didn’t have help and needed to get it done on their own… Or at least that was my Mom!