sleep

The boy just wants to go to sleep

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I feel like every time I write a post about Oliver, it is a compare and contrast with Evie. I guess that’s just how it goes for the second child (Rachael or Anna, care to comment?). But lately we have transitioned to Oliver falling asleep on his own, and it was night and day different than it was with Evie.

Currently, Oliver is sleeping in the travel crib in our room, as Sara is not quite ready to lose her overnight cuddle buddy to Evie. He is absolutely a joy at that time of the day. After he comes out of the bath and gets greased, he signs night-night to everyone and gives kisses, followed by blowing kisses. I take him into our bedroom and read him a few books, which he anticipates with such joy that he usually giggles uncontrollably. After we read a few books, I put him into his crib. He settles his lion in the crook of his arm and I cover him with his blanket. He also usually points furiously to his lion, because I used to always ask him where his lion was, so he got into the habit. Then we usually play a little peekaboo over the side of the crib, and I turn off the light.

For a while I would sing to him until he fell asleep, but he just kept going to bed easier and easier, until it got to the point that I would just lay there in the dark quietly (and possibly *ahem* fall asleep for a bit) until he fell asleep. Finally I kept saying to Sara, “I think I could just leave, and he wouldn’t mind. I think he would just go to sleep.”

So I started doing exactly that: after I get him settled with his lion and his blanket, I turn out the light, say goodnight and leave. For the first week or so, I was sure he was going to howl at some point, but he never really did. He just lays quietly until he goes to sleep.

Compare that to the completely depressed and defeated post I wrote a few years ago on the same topic, except regarding Evie. And the interesting thing is that Oliver is almost exactly the same age as Evie was when we moved her out, so even that is about the same. In some weird way, I feel like this sort of justifies all the trouble we went through with Evie’s sleep: all the trouble we went through WASN’T because we are awful parents! Kids are just different, and “conventional wisdom” doesn’t always work the same for every baby. That girl just doesn’t sleep! She still doesn’t, to this day.

Now it’s not completely resolved as of yet. He still wakes up occasionally in the night (at least once, usually when we come to bed, and sometimes that’s it), and our ultimate plan is to put him in his crib in Evie’s room. So we’re not there yet. But there’s not really any reason to think these things would be that difficult, based on what’s gone so far.

In addition to personality differences between the two of them, there’s probably an aspect of this that’s on us. It could be that we’re a lot more laid back about the whole thing, or maybe just too busy to spend much time worrying about it. But it’s a chicken and an egg kind of problem, because maybe the reason we’re so laid back about it now, is because he’s so laid back about it.

I really can’t tell you how relieved I am about how the whole thing is going down (before I jinxed it by writing this, of course).

Confessions of a Compulsive Sleep Arranger

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Alright, let me start by saying none of this is actually my fault. And I’m not really crazy, as you will soon see. But lately it has come up that I have a bit of a bedtime ritual. It wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that Oliver is sleeping in there, and I tend to wake him up. I wouldn’t really say it is a compulsion; I don’t freak out if I miss a step or something. But it just takes me a little while to get the bed situated in the optimal configuration for sleeping.

  1. All of the sheets and blankets have to be straight. Not like perfect laser-straight lines or anything, but I want the hems at my feet and neck. This isn’t just fussiness or something, I have a legitimate reason for this! I am tall! You shorter people might not realize, but if the sheet is at any kind of angle or anything, my feet will stick out of the blanket, and that drives me crazy. It would be perfectly fine if my sheets could stay tucked in, but that’s another story. And I’m sure as heck not making my bed.
  2. I can’t sleep with socks. I just can’t. Those have to come off.
  3. I have super dry skin, and nowhere is worse than my feet. I get shivers thinking about how my scratchy heels catch on the sheet as I slide them in. Ugh! So, after the socks come off, lotion goes on. My feet sitting down there just…being dry is worse than wearing socks. It’s like wearing skin-tight, sandpaper socks.
  4. Probably because of this, or because of bad experiences with scratchy wool blankets, I can’t stand touching the blanket with skin. So the sheet has to be covering me first, and then the blankets can go on top. This goes back to #1; feet out of all the blankets is the worst, but feet out of just the sheet and touching the blanket is the second worst. DON’T get me started on flannel sheets. ::shudder:: The worst of both worlds.
  5. Right now there are a couple of extra complications. We aren’t using a big comforter because of Oliver, so instead there are several smaller blankets (it’s too blasted cold for only one blanket). This means that each layer has to be arranged properly. And with Evie in the picture, all those blankets are spread to the 4 corners every day, so by bedtime they’re in complete disarray (and not tucked in!).
  6. Ah, the bed is finally prepared! Now, on to the pillow! I’m a pillow flipper. Big time. So the pillow has to be flipped at least once, always, to ensure maximum coldness. If I wake up in the night, the pillow has to be flipped every time. I don’t think this is a big deal, except if I can’t sleep. Then I flip the pillow so much that both sides get hot, making it even *harder* to get to sleep. In that case, I’m not above getting an auxiliary cold pillow so that one can be cooling on the floor and ready to go. I should note however that I almost NEVER have trouble getting to sleep, so this isn’t really a problem.

There are a million other little things too. For example, I am in charge of bringing the baby monitor in and plugging it in at night. This usually means after I get into bed I realize I forgot the monitor somewhere in the house. So I have to get back up, get the monitor, fumble around on the floor in the dark for the plug, then get back into bed (which always requires a little rearranging). Then, of course, I have to sit back up and move the monitor because it is facing in such a way that the giant green search light led is pointing right at my face and I can see green when I close my eyes.

So, I can see how it might have turned into a sort of a ritual, and it might be annoying to some people. However, I have very good reasons for all of the steps, and there really aren’t that many. Quite honestly, I don’t see how people could NOT do these things. Who wants their feet sticking out in the cold? Who wants dry, sandpapery feet sliding all over the place? Who wants blankets that end up in a big pile, so one part of you is too hot and the other part is too cold?

Not this guy, that’s for sure!