Look how beautiful the graph is getting. Like the tides rolling in between the docks at Pier 39. We had two records this last week...On Monday(16) he only woke up 4 times! and this is what his dreamy sleep cycle looked like:
7:18pm - down
10:23pm - up, nurse
10:35pm - down
2:02am - up (woo!), nurse, dipe change, nurse
2:17am - down
4:19am - nursex3, rock
4:37am - down
6:18am- up, rock, nurse
6:28am - down
7:19am - UP!
He had two 3 hours+ sleep spans. I thought it was the beginning of the end. And then Tuesday(17) night happened:
6:50pm - down
7:47pm - up, nurse, rock
8:12pm - down
8:21pm - WHY!? up, rock
8:25pm - down
9:36pm - hmmmm. up, nurse
9:53pm - down
9:58pm - up, rock
10:02pm - down
10:11pm - BLEH! up, rock, nurse
10:19pm - down
12:29am - up, dipe change, nurse
12:45am - down
1:45am - up, nurse
2:02am - down
4:04am - up nurse
4:25am - down
6:11am - up, nurse
6:24am - UP!
That was fun. That was like 9 or 10 record-breaking awakenings. The only major difference in our routine was that on Monday he dunked his entire head in the bath water...maybe we need to do that every night in order for him to sleep alot? Ha! No. Although he does seem to love the water. (We're going to look into 6 month old swim lessons that they offer here!) We are getting quite good at just rocking once and him going down. Maybe I should move on to Phase 2 since we're getting good at not repeating the nursing/rocking so much anymore.
My Birthing Class gals have been emailing back and forth about sleep. One of the other little ones is doing the same thing as Aki Bear and waking up every couple of hours. From these emails I've decided I need to be really set on a routine with him. This is our routine:
Bath time! He loves this. At first he was really into standing and walking through the water as well as "swimming" - he kicks and paddles his hands/arms. The last couple of days he's been mellower and enjoying just lying down while I hold his head up and his body just floats and I'll sing him a water song or something.
Diaper and Massage! I put a fresh diaper on him so he doesn't pee on me and then I give him a mini massage. I usually just massage his legs and feet. I use any residual oil and rub it on his chest and belly and arms. I do this fairly quickly as our house isn't kept at a super warm temp.
PJs! We put on his pajamas.
Songs and/or Nursing! We will just lie on the bed in a dimly lit room and if he's in the mood I will sing to him and he'll lie there happily sucking on his fingers or my fingers. If he doesn't want that he will nurse. The way I can tell that he wants to nurse is that he'll roll over towards me and grab at my boob. If he nurses he usually will fall asleep.
To Bed! I swaddle him (one arm out) and put him in his crib. Sometimes I will rock him first.
He usually is tucked in between 6:45pm and 7:15pm. I think what I'll change is that when we do the Diaper, Massage and PJs steps I will keep the room dimly lit...it's usually bright. Gotta set the tone. I'll let you know how Phase 2 goes.
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