sometimes we let him cry, sometimes we don't. it depends on the cry and the number of yawns that intersperse the cries. but in general, our schedule looks like this:
8pm
i crawl into his toddler bed (the gulliver crib converted), nurse him for a few minutes, and then lay next to him until he falls asleep.
12am
i nurse him again
3am
more insistent cries mean that nursing to sleep won't work. i take him onto the futon on the ground and we fall asleep.
4am
nurse
5am
nurse
6am
nurse
7am
good morning.
i've tried letting him cry at 3 am, but that has only led to hourly wakings. i'm too exhausted to go back and forth between rooms.
his morning nap usually happens around 11am, in the stroller. for some reason he has been fighting the bed for the past two weeks. the weather is nice, so we walk and walk.
the afternoon nap is on the way out. sometimes it happens at 3, but usually he pushes it back to 4 or even 5. this one happens either in the stroller or on a drive.
he nurses twice in the morning, twice in the afternoon. and nights are an open bar, per usual.
am i tired? yes. do i function? more or less.
we have a part-time babysitter (9 hours a week, m-w). i dash off to starbucks, which is the nearest coffee shop, and write as much as i can for 2.5 hours. usually i can produce 2-3 pages of something. the babysitter has made all the difference in the world. i resent leon less during our time together because i have those 9 hours reserved for work. it was so hard staying focused on him when half of me was fretting about my stalled dissertation. it's slowly starting back up again, but i know that i'm going to have force myself to work at nights. until now i've refused to do this because of sleep deprivation and leon's inability to sit still. things are getting better. he loves the playground and can spend an hour sitting in the sandbox by himself. i've managed to edit a few pages with one eye on him.
it's taken a long time, but it's getting better. his phone conversations are getting more and more hilarious, and i don't know whether to laugh or cry when he throws a tantrum. that lower lip gets me every time.
7 comments:
Oh God... you don't sleep at all, guys!
Have your tried the EASY method??
It'll take time for your case and A LOT OF patience, but it works.
This book talks about EASY method:
"Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby"
My friend has the same problem now with a 23 onth old boy in Somerville, she is seriously meeting with the infamous Dr Ferber (spelling) at Children's to understand his view on the whole method. She is near depression from the sleep interruption...I hope that things get easier soon.
dang that is insane. things will definitely get better :)
you can get into the gulliver with him?? i recently wrote to my mama group about this issue and everyone told me not to try it. after watching ian assemble the thing, i decided to heed their warnings, but now i'm having second thoughts. hm.
i'm so glad to read that you've been able to get a little bit of work done! good for you. and good luck with the sleep...i've been toying with the notion of night weaning alden, since his feeding schedule is almost exactly like leon's. kind of hard when he now refuses solid food! oh babies.
I think your turn for a good nights sleep is well overdue! Audrey has been a bit unsettled lately, but with the wedding and guests staying and an erratic schedule it's no wonder. I still swear by the Save Our Sleep schedules, and always letting Audrey fall asleep by herself. It sounds like Leon needs you to be able to fall back to sleep whenever he wakes in the night. May I suggest ear plugs? I can't bear Audrey's cries in the night - sometimes I'm sympathetic, but other times I get so angry. That's when I close both doors and bury my head in my pillow. Either way she always wakes up in the morning happy as anything. Leon will survive the night, he's just being a clever cookie.
Leon is as cute as ever! I love reading your blog. I just wanted to pipe in that I think 9 hours of uninterrupted work per week is great! I feel like when I was writing the dissertation, I was able to work more than this (no baby yet), but the best work of the day was always in the first 2 concentrated hours. Go mama!!! By the way, where are you guys moving? xo Jennifer
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