Sleep

Finn's sleep habits have gone down the toilette. Remember how he was sleeping 10, 11 hours at a stretch every night (well, maybe you don't remember, but I certainly do)? No more. It started a couple weeks ago when he got this bug (ear infection and perhaps RSV) and wasn't feeling well. He seems to be feeling much better now, but the sleep? We haven't gotten that back on track. He will go down in his bassinet and spend the first few hours there, but once he wakes up, there's no putting him back down in there. So he ends up spending the rest of the night in bed with us, attached to me. Which is fine, it's nice. In theory. I mean, I've always considered myself somewhat of an AP mom. But the truth is that I don't sleep very well with a baby in bed with me. I never seem to get into a deep sleep because I'm so conscious of his little body there, and I get up in the morning with aches and pains galore because of the contorted positions I sleep in to accomodate him.

And I don't look forward to the process of kicking him out of our bed. Joey slept with us for 14 months and getting him out of our bed was a nightmare. The twins slept together until they were almost 2, so that was cool. Lilah did what Finn is doing - she started the night out in the bassinet and ended up in bed with us, and when we moved her to her own room, I remember swearing that if I ever had another baby, I'd never co-sleep again. And here I am.



Oh, and remember how I was afraid that Finn might be hearing impaired? How he slept like the dead and I could stand over his bassinet and clap my hands really loudly and he'd sleep through it? It makes me laugh now, because apparently this kid can hear me thinking in the next room now. That's how light a sleeper he is these days.

So the plan is that when we get our tax refund in the coming weeks, we will be buying a big girl bed for Lilah and moving her in with the twins (they have a huge bedroom that will easily accommodate 3), and then moving Finn out of our room and into what is now Lilah's room and what was previously Joey's room. And then I guess we'll have to do some sleep training. We used The Sleep Lady method with Lilah, and it actually worked very well and I found it to be very humane, as I've never been a fan of CIO (we did end up having to let Joey cry it out eventually, and the first night I left and made Michael deal with it because I just couldn't. What a loser, huh?). Still, I wish Finn would just go back to his old, sleeping through the night, all on his own.