Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Sleeping Arrangements

Noah is a fairly good sleeper. He keeps to his normal bedtime schedule of 8pm to 6 am on most nights. When he wakes up for night feedings he always dozes back to sleep as soon as he's done eating. And he has begun occasionally dropping the 1 am feeding which allows me to sleep uninterrupted from my bedtime until around 4 am - heavenly. His napping is normally good too. On a routine weekday he gets between 3 and 4 hours of naps total. So for the most part he's a good little sleeping boy.

But the issues I have to concern myself with now are how he goes to sleep and where he goes to sleep. I get Noah to sleep by nuzzling his head in close to my chest and bouncing about like a crazy woman. Then when he's nodded off I put him down to sleep. According to the pediatrician I should begin putting Noah down to sleep when he's tired and before he's sleeping. The few times I've done this he's gone instantly from a sleepy baby to a clubbin' fiend gung ho for a night on the town. I don't foresee that changing too easily. Noah now sleeps in the co-sleeper bassinet that we keep next to our bed. Unfortunately it won't be long until he gets too long and too heavy for it. But I can't imagine moving him to his own room yet. Not only do I feel he is too little to be SOOO far away, but also since he still wakes up for night feedings I'll have to make the journey in the middle of the night. I don't want to have to leave my warm snug bed to go downstairs and feed him. What is an overly clingy and lazy mother to do?

Oh, so remember several posts ago I was both celebrating and lamenting the fact that Noah was now putting things in his mouth. Well, the boy faked me out. He has done this maybe five times total in his entire life. In fact he won't even put food in his mouth. I'll give him a piece of apple and he really wants to chew the crap out of it - but ONLY if I hold it for him. If I give him the piece of apple in his hand he plays with it and never even gets it near his mouth. The same goes with those Gerber melt in your mouth puffs. Noah seems to enjoy them when I put them in his mouth. If I put some on the tray in front of him he just chases them around the tray with his little hands. If I hold up the puff in my hand - he opens his mouth wide and puts his hands up -far from his mouth and the puff - like he is surrendering. Once in awhile he'll palm a puff and then put his hand in his mouth - but with the puff facing out away from his mouth. It just happens to be hanging out there while he enjoys chewing on his hand. This boy LOVES to eat - but for some reason it hasn’t occurred to him that he could try and shove things in his own gaping maw. The pediatrician said this wasn't uncommon for babies that rarely feed out of bottles. I guess because a bottle fed baby will learn early on to wrap their hands around the bottle - therefore gaining control of the food source. So it also occurs to them to shove other things into their mouth. While a strictly breastfed baby doesn't get as handsy. I'm sure Noah will indeed find his own mouth some day, until then I guess it's kind of funny hearing him grunt hungrily for food while holding it in his own damn hand.

5 comments:

hazel said...

this made me laugh - him sucking on the back of his hand, while food -- a short distance away -- survives another few minutes.

I too am a little worried about how we put bella to bed. she snuggles in like she's breastfeeding (on her side) and likes her butt patted. (not her back, but her butt.) when we put her down, even when she's just fallen asleep, she wakes right back up. now, I don't really care too much about me getting her to bed, or sean, but I do worry that other people won't be so patient or accommodating. like babysitters. like in-law babysitters.

hazel said...

and re: kelly's arm's reach suggestion - maybe you can see about finding a full sized cosleeper. I think our cosleepers (which are arm's reach) are minis, so maybe there's a, um, maxi?

Missuz J said...

Lately, I hate pediatricians. I hate them and their little charts and suggestions and comments. No one knows Noah better than you. If you want to make a change in his sleeping arrangements, make it, your way. If not, the pediatrician can fuck off. (harsh. sorry)

Marksthespot said...

You tell 'em, J. Especially their pernicious influence on mothers-in-law.

NME said...

As Patrice said - I have a mini Arm's Reach Cosleeper. It is good up until 34 inches and 23 pounds. So that gives me another 7 inches and 6 pounds - but I don't know if that buys me much time. I remember comparing the mini with the regular size one when I bought it - and the length and weight difference wasn't that much. Plus you can't use any of them once the kid can possibly get out of it themselves - and I bet that is sooner than I think.
If said babysitters don't want to put her to sleep the way you do - then they will have to babysit a very awake baby. Nothing you can do about that. Just make sure KKKathy has fair warning.
The pediatricians, the books, the magazines can all suck sometime because they give guidelines and as we know not every child or parent is the same.