Sleeping/Napping

October 13

This is something that has been going on for a while but it just hit me today how fast this kid can fall asleep IF HE WANTS TO.

When we first had Stephen all we had to do was swaddle him and try to block out most of the visual stimulation and he went to sleep. As he got older and the reflux kicked in, we’d swaddle him, put him on his tummy and he’d go to sleep (don't freak out on us, our pedi told us to do it). Anyway, he'd fall asleep without any fuss. We could be talking in the room even and he’d go to sleep. We thought we were such good parents. Then he turned 4 months and everything fell apart. No more would he just go to sleep after we did the routine, now we had to pat and sh-sh-sh-sh him to sleep. Well then he got bigger and when he was 6.5 months that no longer worked. So now we have this routine: we start by reading books (one of his most favorite activities), he drinks a bottle to relax, then we sing songs and rock a bit and then we lay him down in the crib. Sometimes this works amazingly well---he snuggles in and falls to sleep. Most of the time, it doesn’t work out so well and he fights it. And yes, there are times when he fights and fights and it has been known to go on for 90 minutes until he is thoroughly worn out (and so am I!). The weird thing is, whether he fights for 2 minutes or 20 minutes when he gives up and stops fighting he can fall asleep in about 15 seconds—no kidding. It’s truly amazing! I wish I could fall asleep that quick.