And then he slept...

I haven't posted too much on here about Ezra's sleeping habits, or lack thereof.  Probably b/c I'm too busy trying to get him to sleep that I don't have time.  In fact, I don't really post much of what Ezra's up to these days on here and I'm really going to start trying to make a better effort.  Not because you guys really care, but because one day, I will.  I've enjoyed looking back and reading up on what Gage was doing at this same point in his life and some of it I had completely forgotten about.  I can see that he wasn't as good a sleeper as I remember and that he's hated green beans from the beginning.  I posted each and every little thing about Gage because I could and because everything was that much cooler the first time around.

So prior to this last week Ezra has been 'that baby'.  The baby who doesn't like to sleep unless you hold him.  I guess Gage was that baby early on but he never had a rough transition to sleeping in his crib.  We put him there and he liked it and that was it.  Sure we had to do a little sleep training here and there but that was mostly to get him to fall asleep, not all.night.long. We knew E was high maintenance from the beginning but it had gotten to a ridiculous point.  He no longer wanted to sleep AT ALL, even at night unless one of us was holding him. This made me nervous to sleep with him, but sometimes it was the only way.  I asked around at school, thinking I had forgotten something from Gage and all of the other girls that had babies 2 months before Ezra happily reported their babies were sleeping perfectly and mostly through the night.  We had gone through several rounds of putting him down and letting him cry over the last few weeks but I think that lack of consistency was the key.  We had been lazy with a bedtime routine but had tried hard over the last week.  After the weekend at Nana's last week, things just seemed to have gotten worse.  In any case, something happened Monday night (after being up every 45 mins. the night before) and he slept.  Sure, it took him about a half hour to go down and he woke up once, but HE slept.  Better than he had ever slept before. It was glorious.  Tuesday night it happened again- I swore I wouldn't get too excited but on Wed. night, I figured 3 in a row could no longer be a fluke.  So there you have it, the week that Ezra started sleeping....2/11/13.  He was just shy of 5 months old..........

FFwd to Fri. night.  The sleeping ceased.....the 'hold me' reappeared.  Sat. night, it was bad- he went from sleeping a stretch of 6-7 hours early in the week to 2.5 hrs.  It was exhausting again, at least we could be happy that during the week when we had to work he slept.  Then today, I found the culprit.  My sweet 2 days short of 5 month old baby is sprouting his 1st little tooth- 5.5 months earlier than Gage did.  It might be a long road....

The Big Boy Bed....

Yes, I have read all the posts and heard all the stories and wasn't gullible enough to think we wouldn't have our fair share of issues, but all went well for the 1st week of Gage's big boy bed.  BTW, we are still in the process of redecorating his room so until then, I won't be sharing any pictures.  Anyway, we had gone to buy and pick out Gage a big boy bed weeks ago, but due to taking the time to get his crib and the other baby furniture out of his room, we hadn't had time to get it all together in his room until last Sunday.  He was soo super excited about it talked about it every night for a week.  He still talks about it and is very proud.  He slept in his big boy bed both at night and for naps every day for 7 days, until today.....

Today, I think he finally realized he could get up and run around and wasn't confined during nap time.  He went down for a late nap today (not sure if we pushed him past his limit) but he refused to sleep. Instead he jumped on his bed, looked out his window, played fetch with his Nuk and plugged and unplugged his night light.  We made him stay in his room for over an hour and a half and NOTHING.  I just got home from being gone over night, maybe he was excited to see me, but either way, it was definitely a change for us.  We're not used to this, at all. I feel for those people who deal with this all the time.  Because he didn't have a nap, we knew it was early bedtime for him, which usually he complies with.  We put him down as early as 6pm some nights he doesn't nap and he goes right to sleep.  Needless to say it's 715pm and he's still jumping on his bed and looking out his window.  This is not going to be easy. We held off as long as we could, thank God we didn't do it earlier, but it was time and now it's time for us apparently to be driven crazy.  We have threatened the crib and he is happy to comply. What do you think? Do we take a step backwards, will one night in the crib change his mind?  Oh, the fun of toddlers!

The Boogeyman

I'm sitting here at 720pm listening to my poor baby cry himself to sleep, as he's done every night for about a week now.  He's starting to get scared of things and everything in his room freaks him out.  For a few nights he cried about the 'cat' that was looking at him and it took us forever to realize that his lion towel was hanging on the back of the door and he wanted us to put it away.  Then there was the 'cat in the closet'.  Ace and Jasper, our 2 real cats, used to hang out in his closet and occasionally one would get shut in there at night.  So it appears he remembered that as well.  Then it was all the animals that sit on his shelves and in the rocking chair that we had to take down and put away. This has always been the case at Nana's house, but she has so many that are new to him it was understandable.  These animals have been in his room his whole life.  Tonight when I went to check on him, he turned himself around the opposite way in his crib so he couldn't see 'the cat', although it's not there anymore.  He also wanted me to leave the door open- a new request.

It's just funny to me that there comes a time that a child is scared of everyday things for no reason.  I wonder if it's the same time they start to get a vivid imagination, are reading more books and learning about new things and therefore their little brains are trying to keep up.  Thankfully he's not scared of the dark yet (although he does have a night light) and hopefully it's just a phase.  It's sad to know he's scared, but I'm not sure there's but so much I can do. Especially when he just wants me to keep coming back and it seems to be a way to prolong bed time.  Any suggestions?

Day 2: Sleepless in Bristow...

It's been 10 days now...since Gage has slept through the night.  I guess this is what I get for bragging about what a good sleeper he's been all these months.  I swear, I feel  like I'm a new mom again, dragging my tail to work after interrupted sleep.  We're not quite sure what's going on, but since last Sunday Gage has been up SCREAMING once a night. He skipped last Thurs. and decided to sleep through the night and this week we have won the jackpot and he has been up twice the last 2 nights.  The 1st few times it happened we were very concerned b/c he never screams....or really even cries.  But after inspection, nothing really seemed to be wrong and he went right back to sleep.  Then...the cycle continued.  Every night he gets up, stands up at the end of his crib and screams bloody murder.  We go in, we pick him up and w/in 30 seconds he's back asleep....we put him down and that's that.  Very odd.  Although he's been up the last 2 nights twice, it's much of the same and as soon as we go in there he is back to sleep w/in minutes.  We did decide last night he needed a little Ferberizing and we let him cry for a whole 5 mins. (I know, daring, right?)  He screamed the whole time.  However, the 2nd time we let him be for 7 mins!  ha....he actually took a few breaks, maybe to catch his breath, or maybe to listen to make sure we were coming, either way, it didn't seem as desperate.  Tonight is another night and we'll keep our fingers crossed this phase is over. 

Although we are having this slight inconvenience at our house this week, today I am very thankful for a happy and healthy child.  Unfortunately, there are so many families that aren't so lucky.  We will attempt not to take this for granted and will count our blessings and thank God for Gage to be growing and developing adequately and getting healthy reports at every check up.  Of course we're also thankful for Gage to be a happy and easy baby 98% of the time.