When Owen was first born I thought I had lucked out with a good sleeper. He only woke up 1-2 times a night from the time we brought him home and would go right back to sleep after eating. He even slept through the night a couple of times. For the first little while we would rock and bounce him while he cried until 11 or 12 but then we finally realized he was just overly tired and would go to sleep much easier around 8. Also around this time (I can't remember exactly when but maybe 4 or 6 weeks) we found out how much he loved his swing he slept in it and napped in it everyday until he was over 5 months old.
When he was around 4 months it all got really bad. He started sleeping only 2 hours at a time ( on a good night) and refused to sleep in his crib. The only way he would sleep at all would be in our bed where I would just nurse him all night. I was waking up 10+ times a night and it was making me ornery! For the next two months it just got progressively worse. It took hours to get him to bed to only sleep for thirty minutes.
We went to his 6 month check-up and the doctor said not to let him cry to sleep. When he woke up to just nurse him and rock him and treasure it because soon Owen wouldn't want me to rock him. I understand that.. But 10 times a night?! I don't think so. A week after that Clark talked me into letting Owen cry to sleep anyway. I was exhausted and at my wits end and was finally willing to try it. We got him ready for bed, rocked him until he was drowsy but still awake and put him in his crib. He cried for 40 minutes, it was so sad. We checked on him every 5 minutes. Let's be honest, Clark checked on him every time because I just wanted to pick him up. He actually threw up because he was crying for so long , which made me cry. But finally he fell asleep and slept through the whole night! It was amazing! The next night he cried for 8 minutes and slept through the night again. After that he never cried for more than a few minutes. He didn't usually sleep through the night though and I would get up and feed him once. But I'd take it! It was so much nicer!
Since then he's gone through phases where he doesn't sleep as good. When we went to Logan over thanksgiving for two nights it threw him off and then I took him to Ohio for a week and it threw him off even more. Or when he got an ear infection at christmas time and started waking up really early. but it never takes him long to get back on track. By Christmas he was sleeping 10-13 hours straight at night. I stopped feeding him during the night and that's when I stopped breast feeding for good. He was also taking two 1-2 hour naps a day and still is.
Owen is funny.
The earlier we put him to bed the later he'll sleep in. When we put him to bed at 7:15 he'll sleep until 8 or 8:30 but when we put him to bed at 8 or 9 he'll wake up at 6 or earlier. It's hard to be home that early to make sure he gets to bed on time every night, but if we don't we're kicking ourselves in the morning.
I wish sleeping was easier with babies and I wish we could count on them sleeping from this time to this time every single day and take a nap at the same time. But every day is different, just like it is with us. Sometimes we have a hard time falling asleep and sometimes we wake up a lot during the night. I just try to remember that with Owen, and try not to expect too much from him :)
Also, Owen falls asleep in the funniest positions. When I go in to check on him sometimes I Just have to laugh. This is my favorite. Foot up on the crib, arm hanging out.. I love him.
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