It's time we come clean about our dirty little secret. As I sit here late on a Sunday evening typing this post I wonder what tonight holds. You see, at 7 months, Teddy has yet to sleep consistently through the night. He may give us one night of total sleep in an average week but most nights we can guarantee at least one wake up. Last night it was two. How I have not completely lost it by this point I do not know. The wake ups are not horrible, luckily the little man is all business. And thanks to the holding power of Luvs we don't do diaper changes unless we absolutely have to. That would just wake him up more. But seriously kid, it's about time!
Like Katherine, Teddy started sleeping through the night right about the time I went back to work. But unlike her, that period was short lived. At the time I blamed it on his first daycare cold, congestion keeping him up all night. Then came another cold. And another. You could say that for the months of August and September either him or I or both was nursing a cold. So I didn't really think much of the night time wake ups.
As October began, Teddy was starting solids and I was sure that a full belly would equal a full night of sleep. HA! Part of the problem here would be Teddy's reluctance at times to eat solids. He really prefers a good warm bottle to an baby food I send his way. So some nights you feel like you are force feeding to get a good meal in him. Some days are more successful than others, I haven't noticed whether the more successful days equal more successful nights although he did eat a good dinner tonight so we'll see.
Mobility!!! Ha! There's my ticket to a good night's sleep. That little body can sure get itself around now. You'd think it would exhaust him. Not so much. Nap a lot during the day, nap a little during the day, doesn't matter. Overall the dude is a cat napper during the day anyways (moment of silence here for Katherine's three hour marathon naps as a baby, God I miss those). And his favorite place to sleep? On top of someone, me preferably. Teddy is a snuggler, which on the one hand is wonderful but on the other hand...well you pay for it. The second I lay him down he's usually awake. Thank God for the swing, which he is very quickly growing out of. He'd be in heaven if I'd bow to the sleep gods and let him snooze on top of me for a night. In fact, I'd place money on the odds that he would sleep straight through till morning.
Bottom line? It's a pot shot every night. And I'm at a loss about what to do except wait it out. After all, the kid has to sleep through the night eventually, right? We have started to try to ween him off night time feedings by offering the paci and comfort before anything else and slowly decreasing the amount of formula in those night time bottles. But then, if he doesn't have a good day of eating he sucks down those night time bottles in nothing flat. The vicious cycle begins. There's always the ol' "cry it out" method. I'll be honest, I don't think I have the will power for that one. And I don't feel like we're there yet, especially because he goes down sooooo easy at the start of the night.
So I count the small things right now as progress, whether they are or not. For instance, tonight he went down at his usual time but woke up about 30 minutes later. I walked in to a pair of happy eyes that seemed to say "Hey Mommy! Let's play!" I popped in the paci, fixed his covers and snuck back out. He was back asleep minutes later.
Baby steps...baby steps.
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