is life with a sleeping baby…

Whenever someone would ask that horrible questions “how does your baby sleep?”. I would laugh. Sometimes out loud. Often like a crazy woman. He didn’t. Ever. Naps? No way! He has much more important things to do, like jumping around in his jumperoo or nursing every 45 minutes. Since birth and until five days ago, Gideon would take 1-3 cat naps a day, usually no more than 45 minutes a piece and on average 20 minutes long (though there was that really cool few days where he slept for 2 hours!).

Since he decided to grow up and move out of our bed he has taken 2 naps everyday, no less than 1.5 hours long (each!!!).

Also, we had what we liked to call, the Gideon monster. At around 5p our dear sweet happy-go-lucky child turned into this wailing monster for about 6 hours. During that period he needed constant patting, swaddling, rocking and nursing. His usual nurse-every-hour routine turned into nursing for five hours straight and God help us if we tried laying him down.

Since the move, we continue our normal night-time routine (dinner, bath, baby massage, Bible time, and snack) and simply put him in his crib and viola… a sleeping baby. No rocking for hours, no patting his back, no nothing. Just give him Mr. Giraffe and leave the room.

The best part about it all… I feel rested. I am no longer waking up 5-6 times each night to nurse him. Instead he only wakes up twice (although one night he only woke up once!) and quickly falls right back to sleep. I can get out of bed without doing some sort of ninja yoga routine and (inevitably) waking him up. I can sneeze and not worry about scaring the life out of him.

It’s amazing what a good nights rest does and it is amazing how little I was actually getting. I loved having Gideon sleep with us and we will continue to do that for each new baby we have. But the transition wasn’t as traumatic as I thought it would be, and it was insanely easier than I ever dreamed it could be.

Yay for sleeping babies and a well rested mama.