Baby Steps

It is now Day 3 of Keaton actually sleeping through the night... in fact, he's averaging 10 hours now! On Thursday night I was up from 12:30 am off and on (mostly on) until 4 am when Casey woke up because Keaton would wake up every time I put him in his crib, no matter how dead asleep he may have been previously. I couldn't take it anymore. At that point I was so exhausted and weary that I couldn't form coherent sentences. Keaton would wake up and want to play or be entertained, and Casey proved (after a few 'experiments') that he was just bored. Nothing was actually wrong with him- he had been fed and his diaper was dry. He wasn't in pain and didn't have a temperature. So at that point we decided to try Cry It Out. It was torture. I swear the minutes dragged on and on. Almost 30 minutes later (after going into Keaton's room a few times to make sure he was actually okay and to try and calm him down without picking him up), he finally went to sleep. And slept well. So Friday night, Case and I tried it again. We started a new routine, too- I feed Keaton solids around 7:30, then we play for a bit, then I read him a book and put him to bed. No more rocking him to sleep. He cried for about 45 minutes that time (of course I went in to check on him often, and realized that the only time he'd cry was when his binky would fall out)... Case and I got some adult beverages and took the baby monitor outside so we could detach ourselves a bit. But all of that paid off. He slept from 9:30 pm to 7 am without waking up once! I woke up a ton, and didn't sleep well at all because I kept going in to check on him to make sure he hadn't rolled over and make sure he was breathing, etc. But it worked again.

We went on a road trip to see our SC friends Jenny & Olivier that live in Mahomet, IL Saturday, and had a play date with their son Lucas. The boys had a fun day and we took a bunch of pictures of the two of them together. They splashed in the baby pool and enjoyed playing together. At one point we put both of them in the same crib because Keaton was sleepy, but Lucas started crying and it grabbed Keaton's attention. Keaton started to laugh at Lucas. Keaton's laughing distracted Lucas, and then all of a sudden they traded places and Keaton started crying while Lucas stared at him. Jenny and I could not help but laugh at them, which freaked out Casey and Olivier who heard the whole thing in the baby monitor. They came in to see what the heck we were laughing about while the babies were crying. I'm pretty sure they think we're nuts, but that's okay... maybe we are. :) We enjoyed hanging out with our friends and made the 2 hour trip back home so we could get Keaton in bed at a decent time. He slept from about 9:15 pm to 4 am, woke up to eat, and slept until 7:30 am. Good times. :)

I almost forgot- Saturday night, Keaton tried carrots for the first time and loved them. :) Yesterday I fed him the rest of the jar, and made him some more rice cereal. I thought I had made too much but he inhaled all of it. He is such a little bird- he sees the spoon coming at him and opens his mouth really wide. He will also make noises at me if I'm going too slow. :) So he ate all that food and then had about 2 oz of milk and was satisfied. Then we played, read a book, and I put him down- a little earlier this time. He was asleep by 9, and slept until 2:45 this morning when he woke up to eat. He slept again until about 6:30 and woke up briefly, then slept until about 8. I guess I can officially say that this routine is working. He's still crying when he goes to bed, but I can calm him down after a bit and he sleeps better than he ever has. I know not everyone believes in Cry It Out, and as much as I absolutely hate hearing my kid cry, it has really worked for us. And I honestly don't believe he trusts me less, because I always go back in and let him know I'm there but am not going to pick him up. The only thing that's changed about him is that he has more energy and is less fussy during the day because he's slept better. In fact, he seems to take more naps during the day now, too! Maybe he realizes that sleep is a good thing! I am very thankful that things are working. I know it won't always be like this, especially when he's going through a growth spurt or something, but for now my wishes of getting decent sleep have been granted after 2 long weeks of struggle. Woo hoo!

I guess that's about all for now. We're finally making progress!

-Ash