Month one and two: Let Me Sleep On It

Today we set up the baby monitor for the first time because Madeus has moved into his big boy crib. Yep we broke all the rules of The Baby Whisperer and Baby Wise and Madeus has been sleeping in our room.

We always intended for him to sleep in the bassinet next to us. However, his first night home we put him into the bassinet. He was all bundled up and peaceful and then 30 minutes into the night he started to scream and scream and scream. After two nights of this (granted, my milk also wasn't in), we decided to go along with the nursing books and put him in the bed between us. This, I believe, may be the biggest faux pas according to The Baby Whisperer. But we felt much less nervous about monitoring his breathing and Madeus was much calmer. He slept in our bed for two weeks. During this time he slept six hours straight one time. He seemed to be able to do long stretches regularly, but I woke him in order to establish enough feeding time.

After two weeks, we were ready to move him into the bassinet. I am not sure why, it just felt right. We did start using some of the principles of The Baby Whisperer by putting him down before he was asleep. This has been the most helpful thing I have learned from that book (book reviews to follow in another blog). He again adjusted well, and started sleeping fairly regularly from 11 pm to 3 and 3 to 7. Around week four or five we stopped swaddling him but it didn't seem to affect him negatively.

On New Year's Eve we moved Madeus into his crib. He is getting so long that there wasn't much room left in the pram, he was actually starting to shake it a lot when he kicked. When we moved him upstairs, I stayed the first several nights on the futon next to the crib. He slept 7 hours and 7 1/2 hours straight. Today, since we set up the monitor, will be the first day he goes at it alone.

So I don't know what the lesson is. We broke all the major rules and he seems to be sleeping better than most babies his age. I don't think it was necessarily something we did. He just seems to be a good sleeper, maybe it correlates with him being a good eater. I think it is probably genetic because Michael is the same way:) At any rate, the transition from bed to bassinet to crib made breast feeding much easier for me. Also, during those first few weeks Madeus and I were so joined at the breast that the in-bed sleeping allowed Michael some bonding time between him and the baby as well.

The books says parents' intuition is often wrong with babies because they respond with emotion. However, me being emotionally sound and ready for him to move into his crib, I think, makes a difference in how he responds as well. For us, it just felt right. And yet.. probably this is just a stage and in a few more weeks I will have a screaming up all night baby... and then, we will have to adjust what feels right:)