Sleep?

Some may think that having had a child already, I would be an old pro at this newborn stuff. Even considering Elisa was "newborn" for longer than the average newborn, staying in that newborn "stage" well into 6 months.

But you'd be wrong. Aside from her prematurity, which basically handed me this infant that was pre-programmed to eat every three hours, sleep in between, etc. I tried reading a few parenting books when she first came home, but very quickly tossed them aside when I realized they were irrelevant to my "unusual" baby. Also, every parent will tell you that each child is different and that what worked for one...may not work for another.

So imagine my surprise when Aidan comes along, term and handed to me 4 days later and told "good luck figuring him out!" I scratched my head for weeks, looking to read cues but only having the clock as experience as to tell me when he might need something. Add to that his colic that caused him to cry all.the.time.

In an effort to maybe shed some light, I decided to look up some parenting books again and see if they had relevant information for Aidan, and I came across the 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program.



Imagine my surprise when I realized that not every time he cries means he's hungry.

And now you are going did she really just say that? I can just see you smacking your forehead and thinking DUH!

Let me remind you that I could set a clock by Elisa. Hungry at predictable times, sleeping at predictable times. Sleeping through the night by the time she was 4 months actual, 1.5 adjusted. Hardly EVER cried unless she was hungry or dirty and even that was rare since she was so scheduled we usually beat any hunger or dirty cues she might send out.

Add to that with the constant crying and no wonder I was confused. So I would continually try to feed him, and become even more frustrated when he would fuss and get angry and I just couldn't understand why nothing worked.

Then the realization...he's TIRED. I already realized he wasn't sleeping much during the day because he was either eating or crying but I was under the mistaken impression that he would somehow conk himself out when he got tired enough, other wise he must be hungry, bored or wet. Yeah. He just needed some HELP to learn that what he was feeling was actually tiredness and NOT hunger.

So yay for research! A pattern to our day is finally developing and Aidan is much happier now that he's actually sleeping better during the day. I'm actually getting a more consistent 2-3 hour break between feeds instead of the 1-2 I was getting. Sometimes when he wakes up, he's actually not ready to get up and with just some gentle rocking he's back to sleep for another hour or so. One night, we even got two extra hours out of him by rocking him back to sleep instead of assuming he woke just because he was hungry.

I finally have a much happier baby...and in turn a much happier mommy and daddy. It is rather sad when your two year old goes around saying "brother's crying!" whenever Aidan makes any noise. Hopefully we can get some more "talking" out of him instead of crying as we continue to try this theory.