Lovey/Lovie

Now that Ollie is nearly 4 months old, Wes and I have started to think about long-term sleeping arrangements and sleep habits. While we love having him in the bedroom with us (I highly recommend a co-sleeper to anyone who is the least bit interested), we want to transition him into his own room before he becomes too attached to rooming in with us -- when, as I noted to Wes yesterday, it's harder for us to give him up than it is for him to give us up. A mom-friend of mine (thanks, HP!) recommended a book called The No-Cry Sleep Solution, by Elizabeth Pantley. It provides steps to help babies and toddlers transition into sleeping longer stretches with fewer sleep aids, but doing so slowly to avoid the dreaded cry-it-out method. I can't honestly say I wouldn't let a kid cry in his crib if I were exhausted to the max or at my wits end. But Ollie is such a mild-tempered child, so happy, and if he's crying there's usually a clear-cut reason why. And he's actually a great sleeper, too. At my parents' house, he slept in a crib in the next room (versus the co-sleeper we've been doing at home) and went 6-7 hours stretches more than one night. He, on more than one instance, fell asleep on his own, and the last two mornings I found him awake, smiling, just waiting for someone to come pick him up.

Ollie is not, however, the best napper. He fights them tooth and nail and then becomes fussier as he gets more tired. So I thought I'd try the suggestions in the book to help create a nighttime routine, transition him into his crib at home, and hopefully get him down for more regular naps. Wednesday night, when we got home, I'd intended to put him in the crib, but he was wide awake and Wes and I were both dead tired. So into the co-sleeper he went. He babbled and must have at some point just drifted off as I fell asleep before he did, and I heard not a peep for several hours. After 5am, he got kind of fussy and ended up in bed with me for a few more hours of sleep.

Last night, after a 4:30-7pm nap in the stroller while Wes and I were out, Ollie started showing signs of tiredness at 8:15pm. I put on his night diaper, put him in his sleeping bag, nursed him, and -- lo and behold -- he was asleep. I put him in his crib, where he slept contentedly until 2:30am, then from 3-6am. After the 6am feeding, though, Ollie was wide awake. I put him back in his crib, where I heard him chatting. Then a new sound -- Ollie had turned on his mobile -- with his feet. As Wes wasn't due up for work for another hour, I hopped back up and brought the baby into bed with us. He nursed some more and slept some more.

One of the suggestions the author of this book has is to encourage the baby's attachment to a lovey, so that when the baby no longer needs to nurse at night, he can calm himself during night wakings with the lovey instead of mom or dad. Wes and I have had this monkey, now appropriately named Lovie (as in Smith, the coach for the Bears), on Ollie's dresser since he was born. I used this thing to learn nursing positions and we even buckled him into the car seat to try it out. So he was a natural choice. The author suggestions snuggling with the lovey when the baby is sleepy so he associates the toy with falling asleep. So he rocks with us and, as shown, nursed with us.

Right now, the major challenge is napping. The author of the book encourages parents to help their baby sleep with whatever sleep aids are necessary and then work to eliminate the aids after the baby has learned to sleep during that time of day. So where is Ollie now? In the stroller, in the middle of the living room, nestled in with his blanket and Lovie. I rolled him to sleep, and there he'll stay until he wakes up on his own. Eventually we'll have to get rid of the stroller, I know, but for now I'm satisfied that he sleeps well at night and can, perhaps, be cajoled to nap, too.