Zonked

Relief!

We had a bad week 2 weeks ago. "Overtired" had become a swear word in our family.

IT came out of nowhere.

Of course, IT happened right after I conveniently told one of my relatives (you know who you are) that if Caleb woke up at night he could put himself back to sleep so feeding him to sleep wasn't any problem.

"IT" was his constant, unflappable need for attention. Not the "Look at mee, look at mee" kind. No, this was more like, "Don't leave me! Never ever ever ever!"

Our bedtime routine usually went something like: give him a bath, read him a book or play around a little, feed him, let him fall asleep in my arms, and then gently tuck him in his crib. Sometimes he would wake up and stretched his tiny arms and legs before adjusting into a better position and falling back asleep. After gazing at his precious little sleeping face for a few moments I would tip-toe out of his bedroom.

Two weeks ago from yesterday, that all came to a screeching halt. That night he decided he didn't like to sleep by himself and he didn't want to be alone. I guess I probably wouldn't want to sleep on a mattress imprisoned by wooden bars compared to a pair of nice warm (very sore) arms either. Still, he had slept pefectly fine by himself NUMEROUS times before.

After feeding him, I would gently tuck him in his crib but instead of a cute little stretch, his eyes would pop open, widen, and he would let out a huge scream. I felt like I was torturing him by putting him in his crib.

After a while of him screaming I'd pick him up and he'd be completely content. I'd rock him until his little eyes closed, waited for a couple minutes and then set him back in his crib ever soooo gently.

If he didn't wake up I'd tip toe out of the room and head off to bed (because he would wake up the first 10 tries and the clock would then be reading 11:30 p.m., my bedtime).

After ten minutes or so I'd finally find a good spot in bed and settle in for the nigh..........

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Arg.

This repeated itself over and over until I would get WAY to tired to get up from bed one more time and hold him so he could sleep. So, I'd let him join us and that was that--he slept like--well--like a baby. (By the way, whoever coined that phrase was very st*p*d). I meant to say that he slept well, very well.

This happened night after night.

Day after day he would whine when we set him down to do anything--like dishes or making dinner or even going to the bathroom.

It was a trying week. I know he's a baby afterall and I should expect this from him, but it was still hard. I did expect times like this but it was still exhausting!

NOW

This whole last week he's only been waking up 1 or 2 times a night as opposed to 3 or 4 times BEFORE the whole terrible week thing. Soo, I feel like the spell has broken and I won't jinx it if I blog about it. Plus, I've been laying him in bed AWAKE and he falls alseep on his own. Ahhh, bliss. He's also REALLY fun to be around. He smiles constantly and giggles at just about anything. Peek-a-boo is a favorite game of his. (If you ever play it with him, make sure you say "boo" loudly. He gets a kick out of that.)

Since we're on the topic about his sleeping, I wanted to mention that he loves sleeping on his stomach. The minute I lay him (on his back) in his crib , he'll turn over onto his stomach and fall asleep that way. It's recommended that we lay him on his back, but I talked to Caleb's pediatrician and he said that if he turns over himself, don't worry about it--there's no sense in losing sleep over it. Good advice--I like my sleep. :)

We took off the crib bumper the other day because of his stomach-sleeping habits.
It was a bit of an adjustment for him but I think he's starting to get used to them. I took this picture tonight. I thought the way his little foot was sticking out was so cute. :)