Right now this little guy is upstairs sleeping peacefully, and I am not taking one second of it for granted. The last months have been terrible for sleep around here. I dreaded bed time and the full on fit that would be thrown every night when we put the little guy down. Caden had been sleeping in a pack n' play at the foot of our bed. Every few hours during the night he would wake up, stand up, and scream at us until we put him in bed with us. Then we would have a few hours with nursing, thrashing, crawling over and head butting Clark (Caden did this, not me), kicks to the face, etc. Not a very restful sleep for anyone. We knew we were creating a sleep problem, but we had nowhere to put the kid so we dealt with it.
Last Thursday night Caden woke up at 11:30 pm, we tried to put him in our bed, but he just wanted to play, until 4 AM! It was bad. Clark wasn't happy when his alarm went off at 5:30. When I woke up after a few hours of sleep Friday morning I knew that this era had come to an end. I changed the bedding in Ethan's crib, put the crib bumper back on, and told Ethan it was time for him to pass on his crib to his brother. That day I quickly read through my books on sleep training babies and we made a plan.
The first night he woke up every few hours and screamed for awhile and we let him. The second night he made it 9 hours! And last night the cute little Caden slept 12 hours straight! Halleluiah! It has been amazing how he has started eating more solid food (another concern) now that he isn't nursing all night long!
Now we are ready for the next step...we moved Ethan to a little make-shift bed at the foot of our bed (we figured this process with Caden would take a while). We want the boys to share the room but are a little apprehensive that they will keep each other up all night. Any suggestions?
I loved the early months of snuggling all night with this little guy...but he's growing up (10 months old in just a few days) and it is good that this era has come to an end.
All this growing up is bringing other fun changes too:
Caden is now standing on his own without holding onto anything for a few seconds at a time. He holds up burp cloths and blankets in front of his face to play peek-a-boo. He waves, the first time I thought for sure it was an accident, but now when we wave to him and say, "hi Caden," he waves his little arm back at us. He also has mad pinching skills. It is one of his comforting behaviors, so if you have a loose piece of skin (especially on your neck), I'm warning you stay back, because it hurts! He's used these pinching skills to peel stickers off of things and to unplug the little safe guards we have in the outlets that apparently make them "baby proof" but not Caden proof.
His favorite nicknames are: Caderade, Cade, every once in a while I call him Cadey (then Clark gets mad because it sounds too much like Katie), Love Dove (one of mine), my little buddy (Ethan's), that little guy.
We love our Caderade!
5 comments:
Grammy loves his little teeth!!! Snoozing all around!!!! YAHOO!!!!!!!
Ya for Caden and you and Clark! I hope you get some sleep. I know we've talked about all this sleep stuff and room sharing, but I say just do it! Most of the time Kate and Sara do well. I remember some times asking Kate to sing a song to Sara to help her go to sleep. This was at the beginning of their room sharing and I think it helped both of them. I told Kate she was the only one who could do that for Sara, hoping it would make her feel important. Don't know if it really worked, but it got us through a few nights! Good luck
I am so glad that things are getting better with Caden. I remember when i was little my parents would NEVER let me sleep in their bed even if I had a nightmare. I had to settle with sleeping next to the bed. They were smart, but I was the 4th child :)
Teeth chances the whole look, doesn't it? What a big boy.
Good job on getting Caden on a sleep structure. It's hard to listen to them cry, but it's so much better for them (and you!) when they know how to sleep. I'm sure you'll all be a lot happier from now on.
I am a big fan of room sharing. I think they'll learn how to sleep together. Sure, they'll be nights when they keep each other up, but...those are relationship building. I always say, as long as the noise and bodies stay in the room...go for it.
It seems like forever since I've seen this kiddo, he's grown-up SO much!
I'm so glad you commented on my blog, I apparently lost my brain two years ago and never got your blog connected to mine.
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