Giving in to the randomness.

It's not easy. Especially since I'd like to think that what I've done regarding sleep since the last post was successful, not just lucky.

Yesterday, Jupiter took one hour-long nap in his swaddle in his crib. I slept for about 35 minutes of that and it was a great refresher. Experiment #1: success!

When he needed a late-afternoon nap and wasn't needing to nurse, I put him in the sling and wore him around until he fell asleep, and then he napped in the sling for an hour. This wasn't an experiment since I knew it would work.

Last night, I decided we would start the new bedtime routine whenever Jupiter seemed to need it. Turns out it was right around 6:00 - he was alert but showing signs of just starting to be sleepy. So we bathed and dressed and he hardly fussed. Experiment #2: success!

Then pops came home and we all three went out on the front porch to relax and listen to the cicadas. Jupiter relaxed, so completely that he looked asleep. But once we removed the bink he woke up and decided that he was NOT GOING TO SLEEP WITHOUT SOME BOOB. Which is fine and predictable. We headed upstairs to his darkened nursery (to anyone who doesn't have light-blocking curtains: they are an amazing investment) and I turned on his lullaby music. It's glockenspeil versions of Rolling Stones hits. Nice for baby and mama. I nursed him off to sleep and he stayed asleep through the swaddling process. I shall repeat: HE STAYED ASLEEP DURING SWADDLING. Whoa, right?!

Well, he woke up 20 minutes later and Jay had to shush him back to sleep for ten minutes. So experiment #3 was only a partial success. But I really enjoyed the lullaby addition, and moving the bath time up in the schedule seems like a great modification. But again, who knows?

I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have a solution. Or at least, not one that will hold for more than 24 hours. This goes against the way I generally live my life. Not easy.

Right now, Jupe is swaddled, asleep in his crib for his morning nap. I've decided to only use the sling (for now) when he needs a nap and doesn't need to be nursed down. Or when the nursing doesn't work.

Regarding naps, I found this entry from the Child of Mind blog so encouraging that I'm copying the entire thing:

I've been getting a few emails about naps and the complete randomness that seems to characterize the first 6 months of nap times. A few of these emails have been a little funny, the gist of which can be summarized as: "You're so lucky you're a child psychologist. It must have been so much easier dealing with your babies and the sleep issues that come up." SO not true. At least not in the first 6 months. See... I like predictability. I like knowing what will happen, or not happen, and when. That's what I love about developmental psychology: There are principles that govern how children change from one stage to the next and the vast majority of kids DO change in predictable ways from one age to the next. I knew that sleeping through the night was not going to be in my future for a while with my twin boys. But I kept hearing these words of wisdom: "You can always nap when THEY nap. Make sure to ALWAYS sleep when they sleep." Hahahahahahahahaha! Yeah, not so much. In the first 6 months, neither of my boys slept for more than 30 - 45 min at a time. I'd nurse one to sleepiness, swaddle, rock, bounce, sing, shush, put him down. Lather, rinse, repeat with the second boy. By then the first was up again. CERTAIN sleep gurus (cough) Weissbluth (cough) seemed to insist that I was damaging my kids' brains by "letting" them wake up after such short naps. My kids didn't read the right books. (In all honesty, I think there are some valuable insights in that book, but I do have some problems with it as well.) Suffice it to say that I was relieved when I learned that many babies don't consolidate their regular, extended nap schedules until around the age of 6 months.

Again, there's no solution. I guess I should be grateful that Jupiter takes some longer naps some of the time, and that he's such a regular night sleeper. For now I'm just glad he's letting me have some time right now, today.

**PS: As soon as I finished that last sentence he woke up. :)