weird nappers

So my children decided this would be the day for weird napping positions.  Must have been a tiring morning:

 

 

 

naptime

Looks like the floor was just a better place for nap today, after getting out almost all his toys instead of sleeping.

 

crying it out

I thought cry it out meant the baby was supposed to cry, not the momma. But alas, I must admit to crying some big ol' tears.

But let me back up.

I have always been pro-cry it out (CIO). I used it during my many years of babysitting and scoffed (yes, I've repented) at moms who said they just couldn't let their kids cry. Then I had Owen and ate every single one of those words. It's a different story when it's the baby you carried IN you for 9 (10) months that is screaming and when you know that you're the one thing that could calm them down quickly. And on my quest for sleep answers and reading the 20+ books I did, many of them talk about the major consequences of doing CIO, the main one being trust. Even in the book I really like, The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems, Hogg says that if you try CIO, you will have to go to extreme measures to earn the trust of your baby back. There is so much written out there (especially in the blog world) on both sides of this method. And most people are passionate about the side of the camp they fall in.

So what's a momma to do when her precious babe just isn't getting the sleep she knows he needs? She follows her mommy-gut. I was trying to explain this to a mommy-to-be at her shower this weekend. Mommy-gut is that stuff you somehow just KNOW when you have a baby. It comes from being the one person that knows your baby the best. And I'm hoping my mommy-gut also comes a lot from the Holy Spirit since he's way smarter about all this than I am. Every momma has a different mommy-gut. And not one single mom's is better than another. That's why we all raise our kids differently and find that some things that work for others don't work at all for us or our little ones.

So to get to my point, I felt that Owen was just ready to do this. He's exhausted and so am I. So I looked around me at some families who I know have done CIO. They have happy, well-adjusted children who adore them and from what I can tell, trust them completely. So this past week, I've asked a bunch of questions, gotten some great advice, and decided to jump in. Last night you could find me curled up outside his door, with my video monitor and my phone being used as a timer, crying right along with my little guy. And the 2nd round of sleep training begins. . .

meow

I laugh when I think of my child as "cat napper." What I wouldn't give for my child to sleep as much as Sophie, our orange tabby cat. This is how Sophie spends a majority of her day:My child does. not. sleep. Ok, that's an exaggeration because I know Owen's friend Cohen really doesn't sleep. But my child didn't get the memo that things were supposed to start mellowing out around 3 months and they're supposed to be giving their mama's more time to snooze. My child is loving his 20-30 minute naps. It's like he has an alarm clock, because they're never longer than that. And we've tried everything. Swaddled, unswaddled. Room darkening shades. White noise with a fan. White noise with a CD. Nursed, un-nursed.

And his night sleep isn't that much better. He'll sleep from 7-11 but then we're up every 2 hours. We're vaguely falling into a time routine (finally), where he's up at 7 or 8 for the day (minus today when he though 4am was a fun time to be up for the day). Then we nap around 9 or 10, again around 2, around 5, and then in bed by 7. But those naps are usually only 20 minutes. Talk about getting nothing done. I feel like I'm living in his room trying to get him to go to sleep. Any suggestions? Or is my kid just going to be a short napper?

And oh yeah, we're also going on one week with no poop. I found this quote online from The Scoop on Poop:

There is a difference between constipation and infrequent stooling. Infrequent stoolers are gassy and have a large, soft bowel movement every three to seven days. If your baby's poop is soft and he's not overly fussy, his digestive system is doing its job.

That's totally Owen. Awful gas that makes even William wrinkle his nose. I called the doc and she's not worried as it doesn't seem to be upsetting him much. I'm just dreading leaving the house because when it comes, I know it will be massive and definitely require a bath versus wipes. Yuck.