Are You Sleeping, Are You Sleeping?

When you have a baby, the big question is, "Are you sleeping?" or "How is he sleeping?" or "Is he sleeping through the night yet?" 

Now that Little Bear is almost three months old, I thought I'd let you know how it's going.

When I had my first baby, this question used to stress me out. Would there be some kind of judgement if he wasn't sleeping good? What would the questioner think of me if I said I had actually let my baby cry to sleep? I would wonder if the person questioning me was a co-sleeper, a Ferberizer or Baby-wiser!" I think people have mellowed out now, but ten years ago there were some pretty strong opinions out there about sleep. 

I like my sleep and I am a very grumpy "awake in the middle of the night" person. I have greatly improved my middle of the night demeanor over the years purely for my children's survival, but still, it is not pretty. Mister Baseball isn't too pretty in the middle of the night either. Well, correction, he looks good, but can be pretty grumpy too. We both like our sleep.

You know what is great about this- when they are not coughing, throwing up, having bloody noses, stomach pains, bad dreams or itchy skin- our kids like to sleep too. I hear about kids getting up at 6am and my mouth falls agape. During the school year, our boys sleep until dad wakes them up to get ready.  In summer, they sleep until 8 or 8:30am.

Our dog will even sleep that late or even later with us. 

By six months, all of our boys were sleeping from 7pm to 7am. Fabulous!

So, how is Little Bear fitting into this sleep loving family?

He is doing great. I don't think I have bragged lately about how absolutely fabulous this little boy is. He certainly got the memo that he is the fourth boy and must be a complete delight so his mother appears to be able to handle four boys. A COMPLETE DELIGHT. So easy that it is almost comical. He eats heartily (obviously), naps wonderfully, and smiles and coos when he is awake. We take him to a RIDICULOUS amount of baseball games all over town and he just goes with the flow. Okay, done bragging. Maybe. Back to the sleep question.

He goes down to bed at around 8pm. I put him to bed awake in his crib and he just goes to sleep. At first he had to get used to his crib and would cry for a few minutes. This only took a few days. He sleeps until 2:30ish. At this point, I pick him up out of his crib and bring him into bed with us. I nurse him on my side, during which we both promptly go back to sleep. He then sleeps until 7:30 or 8am with me, sometimes waking for a second feeding around 5:30ish.  He wakes up happy and lays in my bed smiling and talking to me. I don't miss much sleep so I'd say he is fitting into this sleep loving family just fine.

A friend of ours called us a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning. It was a little after 8:30am. He woke us up. He was like, "You have all those kids. I thought for sure you guys would be awake." He has three boys that are friends with ours. His wife said to me last week, "We have you guys figured out. You are slipping them all some whiskey!" She caught us- that's the trick!

Really though, I am a reader of books, a researcher, a person who wants to know everything about anything that I find interesting or necessary. I thought that "Babywise" and "The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" and "The Happiest Baby on the Block" all had some really great information. I tend to take what works for me and then let the rest fall away. But, I have to say that my award for the best book on sleep goes to, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." It gives you information about a child's need for sleep through the teen years. 

So my answer about sleep, "Great, we are doing great."