Baby Boot Camp

Well, it is day 4 of baby boot camp.  Yawn.  We are making progress, for sure, but I did listen to him scream at the top of his lungs for over an hour this AM before finally going to sleep (for 10 minutes).  Motherhood is always fun, easy, quiet and simple.

Not.

Before Kyle was born, I read and wanted to go by the Baby Wise model.  Ha!  The eat-wake-sleep cycle concept couldn't have been more impossible to try to instill.  They suggested taking socks off to keep the baby from falling asleep while nursing.  At times, he was nearly naked in my arms after removing all the covering and clothes I had on him, and he was still dead asleep.  I distinctly remember feeding him one evening at around 5-6 weeks and trying to switch to the other side... He was out.  I was holding him up like Rafiki held Simba in the Lion King and he was still out.  I tickled him..... Out.  Talked to him..... Out.  Tried unswaddling him..... Still out.  It was no use.  So, we settled into a nurse, sleep, wake cycle.  The exact thing the Baby Wise writers warn against throughout the entire book.

And that's where we've been.  As he grew older though, he wasn't quite as "out" after eating.  Dozy, sure, but would almost always wake when I stood up to lay him in his crib.  Sometimes he would go right back to sleep and sometimes he would scream, angry that I had awoken him, for hours.

I have put off re-wiring our system for many reasons.  Inevitably something lurked just far enough out in our future, I didn't want to be dealing with a screaming child at nap time while we were at someone else's house to visit, on family vacation, trying to plan something big and important..... The list went on.  So, here I am, with a nine month old, determined to get him retrained before we leave to visit family for Christmas.

Patience is not a virtue I boast of possessing.  I know now, more than ever, that I am an unreasonably impatient person.   I struggle daily to keep my impatience in check while I deal with my almost-as-stubborn-as-me baby.  Because I know what he needs better than he does, it irritates me when he is screaming instead of sleeping.  I am constantly reminded by my mother that, 1) I was just as stubborn about fighting sleep as a child and 2) I cannot control what he does; I can only continue to do what I do and let him figure it out on his own.

He is feisty.  He is stubborn and persistent.  He can cry and scream for longer than I thought humanly possible.  But, I am confident he will learn.  Like he already is......

Sleep tight, Mr. Baby.  Naps are a good thing; I wish I could take two everyday!

I love you,

Mommy