The Sound and the Fury

So even though I was an English major in college, I never actually read that book, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it was not about a stay-at-home mom trying desperately not to make the same sleep blunders with her second baby that she did with her first and having little success because her older child keeps getting in the way.  But that's what my story is about.

Raise the roof

You can probably read earlier blogs and get a fuller idea of my difficulties getting Elijah to sleep.  One big problem is that he was so used to being swaddled that when we had to abruptly stop swaddling him, he couldn't adjust to lying down and going to sleep without the swaddler.  That isn't the current problem with Simon.  As soon as he loses that Moro reflex, I am going to start weaning him off swaddling, but we're not there yet.

 Tummy time

The other problem I had with Elijah is the same one I am now having with Simon--it takes 20 flipping minutes to get him to go to sleep during the day for a nap and then he only sleeps for 30 minutes.  It makes no sense to me that he can sleep for 3 to 4 hours at night but then during the day, he can only nap for 30 minutes.  I have read tons of stuff and I know that 30 minutes is a sleep cycle, but if he can put himself back to sleep after a cycle at night, then why not during the day?  I'm assuming part of the problem is that he is used to going to sleep in my arms and then being put down.  And all the sleep experts tell you to put them down drowsy but awake, but with both my boys all that ever did was cause them to wake all the way back up.  I've been trying to get Simon to fall asleep on his back in bed (either his crib or the pack and play bassinet downstairs) but this where Elijah throws a wrench in the works.

Mike's old Daniel Boone cap

See, I am willing to take the time to "train" Simon to fall asleep in his crib or pack and play by picking him up and soothing him and then putting him back down until he learns.  I happen to know it works because I have managed it a few times in the pack and play while Elijah is napping.  But this will take a long time at first until he gets it and it's impossible to just buckle down and put in the time it takes when you have a toddler running around making a ton of noise.  I could go upstairs and shut Elijah out of the room but that usually upsets him, like he thinks he's being punished.  Plus, I don't like being unable to see what Elijah is doing for longer than like 2-3 seconds.  That's how you wind up with crayola walls.  However, I can't do it with Elijah present because he makes too much noise for Simon to fall asleep and after awhile I get fed up.  But something's gotta give because right now Simon is demanding so much of my attention because he's fussy all day because... drum roll please... he's not getting enough sleep!

What a merry-go-round.  Actually, I guess "merry" isn't a good adjective.  More like a crazy-go-round.  For most things I just think we just have to make it until Simon is a little older.  But if the sleep habits start bad now then it's going to be way harder to fix them later--I know from experience.  *sigh*  Well Simon is asleep now and if it wouldn't wake him up, I'd probably go bang my head against the wall, but I don't want to wake up the kids.