Sleepy time

I thought maybe I should document Zane's sleeping patterns or lack there of for posterity. He is not on any form of a schedule, largely due to a lack of trying, but also do to his large range of sleeping patterns. Some days he is up all day, playing in his gym, cuddling, in his swing, and all together fighting going to sleep. This leads to a crabby baby come about 5:45. This time sadly coincides with Zach's arrival home so sometimes Zach thinks that Zane isn't happy to see him. This is not the case, but I hate that the little time Zach gets to spend with him on these days he is so crabby.

Some days he takes a bunch of little naps lasting at max 15 to 20 minutes. These are usually the days, like today, that I am exhausted and try to adopt the 'sleep when the baby sleeps' theory. So I get him to sleep, creep into his room, lay him down ever so gently, and then tip toe to my bed. About the time I get nice and cozy and about to fall asleep he screams. Zane in general doesn't wake up screaming, he is more of a grunting, squirming, work up to a scream kind of guy. But on these days he is a screamer. So I drag myself in there to find him adorably playing in his crib. He will fall asleep again soon and the whole process starts over. We occasionally nap in the chair together but that rarely lasts long either. Recently this same pattern has started when I try to get him to sleep through my "workouts" ( a.k.a. walking on the treadmill). He screams as soon as I open the door to the basement. Smart little guy!

Then there are days where he sleeps a lot. These are usually when there are a lot of people around. So for those of you who were reading the above paragraphs and thinking "Audra's crazy, he sleeps all the time, I can't get him to open his eyes when I'm there, " you are right he does this when there is a crowd. Or even just the weekend when Zach's here he seems to sleep much more. This is frustrating since these are the times when there actually is someone else there to watch him/play with him while I nap.

At night he has gotten better as far as how long he sleeps at a time but he still struggles with going back to sleep. As it stands he usually is asleep by at the latest 8:00pm and sleeps until around 12 or 1am. Then he wakes up again between 3:30 and 5am. Sometimes he eats and goes right back to sleep. That is fantastic, except when he doesn't burp and we all know how that ends.

However, more often than not he takes at least one of these opportunities to have a little late night party! The standing rule with us is that if you have been up for an hour and a half to two hours the other person comes in and takes over. Everyone's sanity is saved and we have come to except the fact that sometimes it just takes the other person to get him to sleep. Last week there was a night where I woke up and realized Zach had been in there for 2 hours and I should go rescue him. I walk in and it is obvious that Zach has given up trying to put him to sleep. Zane is sitting up in his lap looking out at his room. When I walk in his little face lights up, he giggles and smiles as if to say "mom great to see you, welcome to the party." I couldn't help but laugh. Zach probably didn't find it as amusing but it was adorable non the less. We are grateful that during these late night parties he is generally happy and not screaming the entire time.

Usually he wakes up for the morning anywhere between 6 and 7 which is totally fine unless this time rolls around and he has never gone to sleep from the 4:00 feed. It happens and those are rough days. All and all he does fine and we are managing it. He recently has found a magic blanket, which sadly isn't any of the numerous home made blankets he has. It is a super soft white fleece Winnie the Pooh blanket, which makes him very sleepy the moment he feels it. The picture to the right is him on his magic blanket shortly after waking up. Maybe we can convince him to be a crochet blanket baby yet, I'm still trying.