Experiment in progress… shhh…

Baby Boy is the sweetest, cuddliest little one that I’ve known since his big sister. She was a snugglebug, too, and still wants to be cuddled before bed. But his sweetness is compounded by his laid-back personality and his adorable smile. Check out the photo gallery if you don’t believe me. He is just so darn adorable!

This makes it hard to put him down for naps and to bed, since I do want to cuddle him. I often would rather just snuggle up with him for a nap, as if he was my own living teddy bear. However, I really don’t do it that much, since I do have the Munchkin to contend with. And I don’t want to create a monster who won’t sleep by himself.

The challenge lately has been just getting him down to sleep. He is easily giving us 6 to 7 hours at a stretch before waking to eat, but when his night starts is the big question. So, we have been experimenting with the best way to “decompress” him and relax him enough to fall asleep for the night.

The best way, we have discovered, is to swaddle him. He did wriggle out of his blanket last night, but when I laid him down he was securely bundled. Then he needs some quiet. During the day he seems to be able to fall asleep with his sister screaming in his ear, but at night he needs a lower noise threshold. We’re not talking “Fortress of Solitude” here, but we do have to get him away from the TV. His pacifier also helps, but it is not always a necessity. I used a pacifier with the Munchkin only to settle her down for naps, and she rejected it at 10 months old. So I don’t use it to keep a baby quiet during the day, and I’m hoping that it becomes a non-verbal cue for Baby Boy to settle down and go to sleep, just like it did for the Munchkin.

If I can move his bedtime up a bit, it would make my life a whole lot easier. It would give me more sleep time and then I wouldn’t be so tired throughout the day. Fatigue makes me irritable, which isn’t fair to the Munchkin, when all she is doing is being a typical 22-month-old. You know, loud, rambunctious, occasionally whiny, and questioning authority.

So far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2005 at 8:09 am and is filed under Children.
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