Sleep, glorious sleep

Ok.  This post is partially because Neal's running late at work, Joey's asleep, and even though there are thousands of things around the house I could be doing, I'm sitting on my bum twiddling my thumbs because I'm bored.

But seriously.

Remember this cute little guy that caused so many Facebook posts about lack of naps?

You guys, he took 4 naps that were 45+ minutes today!  FOUR!  Woo-hoo!

Not only that, but each of them he went to sleep:

BY HIMSELF

IN HIS CRIB

WITHOUT ME IN THE ROOM

Every. Single. Time.

It's one of those days where I'm like "Yay!  I don't fail as a mom!"

I have painstakingly worked for the last two months to teach him how to fall asleep on his own.  I wanted SO BAD to avoid cry it out.  I hate the idea of it, and I just knew I was going to give in.  So each day I did something just a little bit different that would help him fall asleep more independently.

BAM.

Now, I will be cursed and it'll never happen again ;-)

But for reals.  I'm happy/relieved/exhausted/nervous all at the same time.

Woo-hoo!

I hate parenting advice books/websites/etc

When Joey was first born, my mom told me that it's great that they know more about babies now (like about dairy sensitivities) but that she feels kind of bad for us because there's SO much information out there about babies right now.  It's enough to drive a person mad.

I didn't agree with her.

Until now.

Over the last two weeks Joey has decided he hates naps.  Before this, he would easily take 3-4 1-2 hour naps, depending on the day.  4 months hit and boom.  We're stuck with a child who takes craptacular naps.

So, in my normal fashion, I went to the trusty internet to see if I could find a solution, and here is what I found:

- You could be keeping your child awake too long

-You could be keeping your child awake not long enough

- It could be teething, an ear infection, or cold (none of which are the answer)

- Your child may not need as much sleep

- Your child may need more sleep

- Make sure the room is dark and cool, but make sure it's not like night time because then he might get his days and nights mixed up

- It may be a growth spurt which should only last 2-3 days but some people swear they last 2 weeks

- It could be some tummy trouble

- He needs help getting through the transition from light sleep to deep sleep, so go in and pat his back, shhh, etc

- You going in may wake him up even more or make him dependent on you to fall back to sleep

- He's hungry because you're doing "eat, play, sleep" so he gets hungry shortly after he goes to bed.

- He may be about to hit a developmental milestone, so he's practicing in his sleep.
- He needs more of a routine, so put him to bed at specific times, like 9, 12, and 3.
- He needs less of a routine so just put him to bed 2 hours after he wakes up.
- Don't do a routine at all, wait until he looks sleepy and then put him to bed.

And I'm sure I could come up with more that I found.

But really people????

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

End rant.