Sleep Log

So, we are going through a transition time - although, really, when is it *not* a transition time for an infant? Andrew is in the thick of developing rolling over skills.  He rolls back to front almost immediately upon being put down.  He has only rolled front to back twice, but we know he can do it.

On top of the rolling, he seems to be in the process of dropping his third nap - some days he wants it, other days he doesn't.  So night sleep is affected because his day sleep is a bit inconsistent.

Add to that the fact that we are in Indian Summer right now, and it's not cooling off at night the way it had been.  We have a choice to either leave the window shut and let the room get too hot, or open the window, render the humidifier useless, and end up with stuffy noses.  The dry air makes *my* nose stuffy, so I can't imagine what it does to his little nostrils.

So yesterday was a two nap day, and he got tired early, around 6:45.  He got, like, upset tired, which is several stages beyond the place we usually like to be at bedtime.  So I immediately responded with the bedtime routine, and upon nursing, he dropped off to sleep within about 5 minutes.  I put him in his crib at about 7:10, and he was so out that he didn't even need the plug to get resettled.  After an hour or so, he got restless and called for help.  I gave him some saline for his nose, and resettled him with plug and lovey, and he went to sleep, but only for one more cycle.

So I put him down on his tummy.  I know - shock and horror.  But he went to sleep immediately, after a few pats on the back.  I had hoped that this would allow him to sleep all the way through the first shift, but Travis reported that he still woke up twice, and mommy reinforcements were called at 12:30a.  Now, that seems a little early, but think about the fact that he went to bed 45 mins-1hr early, and it's actually right on time.

Andrew came to bed with me in the futon and nursed back to sleep.  At 1:45a or so he stirred, and rolled himself over onto his tummy.  I patted his back until he drifted off.  He woke to nurse again at 3:30a (again, right on time), but had an extremely hard time resettling.  I put more saline in his nose, because he seemed congested, and then tried to nurse him back down, but he was still restless.  So I helped him roll to his tummy, and he drifted off immediately.

I think we're going to stick with the tummy sleeping, now that he can roll over, in the hopes that it helps him transition through sleep cycles more gracefully and maybe not have so many resettles that require a parent.  I have a hunch that the early wakeups were a combination of the weird two-nap schedule and just not being used to being on his tummy.  The fact that he was rolling himself over (or trying to) later in the night indicates to me that that is his preference.

So we'll see how we go.