MamaZayha
 
 
The other morning, I awoke to Zayha kicking me. At first I thought he was awake, but it occurred to me that he was trying to push himself away from me.
 
I love cuddling with him, and feeding in the middle of the night is easy since I fall asleep while he’s still sucking away. But it’s been hard to get good rest when I have to share my bedspace, keep the covers off his face, and not use my body pillow.
 
Now, it’s become apparent that he doesn’t want to sleep with me anymore, either! Apparently I disturb HIS sleep!
 
So, Jamie and I have begun putting him to bed in his own crib in his room. We’ve started a bedtime routine starting around 7:30pm: change of diaper & clothes, read a story, wrap in a swaddle cloth, then nurse.
 
And instead of nursing or walking him to sleep, we’re beginning to let him cry it out. We wait 5 minutes, come in for a cuddle, put him down, wait through 10 minutes of crying, hold him again, then 15 minutes....except that he’s almost always out before the 10 minutes are up!
 
It’s so hard to refrain from rescuing him during the crying jags. But I think we’re striking a good balance between filling his loving cup and teaching him independence.
 
He sleeps from about 8pm to 1 or 2 in the morning, then is up again at 4:30 and 7:30 am.  We finally wake up around 10 or 11am.  Sometimes he does sleep through the 2am call, thank goodness!
 
The next step will be weaning him off the middle-of-the-night feedings. But while he’s still just on mommy’s milk, we’ll probably keep these going a little while longer - 12 hours is a long time without a snack!
On a sheepskin in his crib wrapped in a swaddle cloth.
Monday, October 9, 2006
A Crib of One’s Own