Free nights!

We have had quite a challenging few weeks. But I'll start first by saying this: I will be the first to tell you that I know close to nothing when it comes to raising children. (And I thank all of my wonderful in-laws for their examples of great parenting.) But I’ve had this feeling that there must be a better way of doing it, at least for us. Valin still wasn’t eating very much, up 2-3 times a night, and more winey the usual. I personally craved some form of routine (and more sleep) but didn’t know how to do it. Then my sister-in-law, Sara lent me a wonderful book called “On Becoming Babywise” and a sister I visit teach, Stephine gave me one called “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby,” and together they have given me the knowledge to get Valin on a routine that promotes physical, emotional, and intelligential healthy habits. With the routine suggested in Babywise Valin is now eating at least 4-8 more ounces a day, not including siold food. And with the sleep suggestions in Healthy Sleep Habits Valin sleeps for a full 8-10 hours a night without waking to eat. Plus, now Valin is asleep by 7:00 (give or take 30 mins) so we have the rest of the night to be together. We actually get to hangout, play games, and just be together. I can't tell you how great it has been for our marriage to be able to have this time together again.

But to be honest, it has been a challenging road to get to this point. First we had to tell Valin learn to put himself to sleep. This meant crying because we were so cool, he wanted to hangout with us, even though he was tired and physically and mentally needed to sleep. I just had to say to my self after another session of crying, "Oh, he wants to play with me. I would love to play with him too, but I will have to sacrifice what I want because he needs to sleep." And now, now that he goes down without crying after we turn the lights out, rock and sing to him a little to help him wind down, we are all happy. Valin gets the sleep he needs (as do I) which means he is happier, more content, and even more curious and wanting to learn.

We also had a hard time getting him to sleep more than an hour for his naps which then would mean an early bedtime (thought he would treat it as a nap and wake up after an hour and cry for an hour after that because we had to tell him learn that it was bedtime). So we tried to lengthen the naps by making the wakeful times in between longer, but that just made him overtired and fight sleep and sleep for an hour anyway. So we tried giving Valin three naps during the day. That works on Sundays when he gets a power nap in church, but not for he rest of the week. So I think I'll try keeping him down for the full 2 hours (for the morning nap because the afternoon one is fine) and see if he'll learn to sleep while there. I think that if we stick to a rough schedule (30 min variations) which reflects he's natural sleeping pattern, then Valin learn to let himself fall asleep when he needs to.