Charlie the Night Owl

Charlie is about as good as babies come. He entertains himself, sleeps through the night, loves to smile and laugh, and rarely fusses. His one area for improvement, however, would be his bedtime hour. At 6 months, he still is up until 11:00 each night, just like a newborn. And then he sleeps in late the next morning, which would be great if he was the only kid, but we are already up and going with Sophie and Davey around 6:30.

One morning he slept in ridiculously long. The photo on the left is Charlie at 8:00 am, and then on the right at 10:00 am, and then below is at 11:00 am when he finally woke up

He sleeps so well, so it seems silly to complain, but I just wish we could shift his day a few hours to get him in sync with the rest of the family. It would be amazing if he would go down early and get up early, instead of down late and up late. I love spending time with him, because he's just a happy, snuggly little guy, but it does get tiring to have no time to myself. It's why this poor blog is always so far behind. But for now I'll just keep dreaming of earlier bedtimes and the possibility of maybe having a few hours at night to clean up, blog, read a book, or work on other projects.

We used to go on walks after the other kids were in bed, but now it's completely dark by 8:30

Bath is another way we fill our nights. He loves water and splashing.

Davey's Sleep Struggles

Davey started to have troubles sleeping while we were traveling this summer. He HATED going to bed and would start crying about it when it was still only breakfast, and night was hours away. It was a dramatic battle whenever bedtime rolled around, which was so hard because he used to be so easy to put down. Some milk, a song, say good night and that was it! Now it took multiple attempts that always ended in crying and screaming. 

Then while we were at grandma's house, he started climbing out of his pack n' play - nooo! Dave would just sit outside his door for an hour each night until he finally fell asleep, but then I would find him wandering the house at 2 am playing in the toy room, or trying to get into the refrigerator. Since we were traveling, we didn't have options for door locks or moving him to a toddler bed, and just toughed it out, hoping he would go back to normal when we got home to his own room and crib. 

Sleeping in the hall at grandmas. I found him early in the morning on the carpet, so I made him a little bed so he could be more comfortable.

Well, he didn't. Bedtime was still a battle, and now he would climb out and go into Sophie's room at night. Sometimes it woke her up, or sometimes she would just find him in her bed or on her rug in the morning.  I eventually found a door lock for lever handles (the door monkey - it's genius!!) and was in the process of ordering bunk beds, when he suddenly started sleeping in his crib again. 

Crying about sleep - it was a daily struggle

Sleeping on his crib mattress at home. This didn't work any better, so we just put it back in his crib. 

It was a rough couple months, but it looks like we won't be making the crib-to-bed transition yet after all. We moved his nap earlier (noon instead of 2) and I think that has helped him feel more tired at bedtime, and I think the novelty of climbing out just wore off. He has been going down so much easier, and still climbs out on occasion, but the door monkey keeps him trapped in his room until we go get him in the morning. Hopefully when we do eventually move him to a big bed it goes smoothly since we've already worked through this period of independence and exploration.

And now things are going better! Sleeping, in his bed, without a struggle. I took these on two different days, but he has identical sleep position :)

The Four Month Sleep Regression

Around three months Davey was really sleeping well. He was taking good naps, and was regularly staying down for 7-8 hour stretches at night, waking for only one, sometimes two feedings.  Then in July, just a couple days before he hit the four month mark, things took a turn for the worse and my dream child turned into a monster. He was unable to nap for more than 20 minutes and was waking 4-5 times at night, and every time he woke up it was with a blood curdling scream. He was always tired, which meant he was often grumpy, and yet he just wouldn't sleep. I was getting exhausted and had to resist the impulse to put him in a closet and just let him scream. After two weeks of fighting the beast, I finally asked Google "why is my baby not sleeping anymore?!"

I was surprised to see it is a common problem for this age, and I started to do some research on the "four month sleep regression." I think Sophie just always slept bad, so I never really noticed a "regression," but for him the change was drastic and I needed help. There are a million baby sleep websites out there and I don't take a lot of stock in what they have to say, but most seemed to agree that this is the age when a baby's brain "wakes up." Everything is interesting and distracting - their hands, the noises, the lights, the blankets. Rolling is super fun. Mom is there, and then suddenly she isn't - panic!! Bouncing, rocking, patting and swaying just don't have the same effect. REM cycles begin and they have to make it through that lighter stage before falling into the deep sleep of death every time they go down. It sucks, but it's all part growing up.

Armed with this knowledge. we started making adjustments that very same day. The biggest change was putting him down to sleep awake so he could start learning how to self sooth and fall asleep on his own. We stopped swaddling him, and having his arms free to play with blankets and suck on his fingers actually really helped. And instead of just letting him fall asleep whenever he felt like it, we put him on more or less of a schedule and tried to put him down within an hour of the "schedule" for naps and bed. We started seeing changes almost immediately and after a few weeks I'm happy to report he is doing awesome!!

Bedtime has moved from 10:30 to 7:30 and it's so amazing to have our evenings back. We can also just drop him in his crib for naps and bed, kiss his head, and 90% of the time he will fall asleep within 5 minutes. He is taking three, 1-2 hour naps each day, is no longer waking up terrified, and best of all has turned back into a happy baby now that he's getting the sleep he needs. Our only struggle now is nights. They are much better, but we're still not quite there. Sometimes he'll go eight hours in one stretch, and sometimes he'll be up every two hours like clockwork (it really is impressive how regular it is). I think he's still a little young to start official sleep training, plus he shares a room with Sophie and I'm not ready to ruin her sleep in an attempt to fix his, but I hope the progress we've made now is a good sign for the future. I guess I need to cherish the midnight feedings and snuggles, because I sincerely hope their days are numbered. 

My happy boy! In fact he is often so busy smiling in the morning that he doesn't want to be bothered with eating, which really makes things a bit uncomfortable for me

One a side note, I find it pretty funny that my 4 month old baby, who can't even roll, now fits size 12 month jammies, which have rubber feet because some babies this size can walk (Sophie could)