Learning As I Go

So if you read my last post it sounded like I was really trying to get Kai on a schedule and sleeping on his own...like I said earlier, I am reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and so far it has been helpful, the only problem is, I decided to try some techniques before I read through the whole book.  

Kai had Colic early on, and after reading more into the book, it clearly says that babies that had colic develop their ability to fall asleep on their own a lot slower than other babies.  It also suggests that although you may allow a normal baby to cry for up to an hour, you shouldn't if your baby had colic.  So I was a little frustrated, but also relieved I guess.  I'm not really the type of person that needs a rigid schedule, but because he only sleeps 30 minutes at a time during the day, and is up every 2-3 hours at night, if I try to get anything done I have to stay up later than him, and then I'm in the deep pit of exhaustion.  I know that this is part of being a mother, and I'm not complaining.  Just trying to figure out what works best for my family.  I do NOT like to hear my baby cry, but sometimes there is NOTHING I can do to comfort him.  Of course it's our natural instinct to want to comfort our children, but sometimes we just have to put him or her down and walk away for our own sanity.

Most people say that babies should be getting 12-14 hours of sleep every night, and then about 4-5 during the day.  But what I didn't know is that some babies just sleep less.  And that's OK!  I was worried that Kai wasn't getting enough sleep, so I was trying to make sure if he was only sleeping 30 minutes, that he was only awake an hour in between.  Once I started doing this, he wouldn't go down for the night until 8 or 9, and be up at 5:30 or 6.  So now, I'm trying to give him longer awake time in the afternoon, so that he can go to sleep by 6 or 7 for the night, because no matter what time he goes to bed he's up between 5:30 and 6:30.

It is so comforting to have my parents around to confirm that I'm not doing an awful job of parenting Kai.  I just need to keep trying different things and see what works for us.  This is hard too, because small babies change their own routines so often that it's hard to keep up.  The biggest thing is just to be flexible and not so stuck in "My baby HAS to do it this way". 

So I am not going to worry about a nap routine till at least 6 months, and who knows, by then he might have fallen into his own routine by himself.

I learn new things every day...like mamas should :) 

I love you my little Malakai