Ah, Sweet Sleep

I'm writing this while Henry is in the shower with Matthew and I am listening to Dean protest his bedtime. There doesn't seem to be any other time to post, otherwise I would be writing more often! We've had another busy couple of weeks, which is not to say there hasn't been some down time...just that I spent it reading or talking to friends or doing something else that didn't involve sitting in front of a computer. I really try to crank out the hours at work while I am there and don't feel like getting back on the computer when I get home.

So Henry tuned five Friday before last, and that Sunday we had his birthday party at the Monkey Room. This year I decided not to order a cake but to make it myself -- Henry loves baking and I figured we could do it together the day before, while Matthew was at a wedding. What I didn't figure was that I also had to come up with a wholesome-nutritious-individual-serving snack for Henry to bring to school on his birthday (I baked and iced 5 and half dozen mini-muffins), prepare two containers of finger sandwiches (Mom helped), bake the two birthday cakes (they were from a mix and Henry did the sprinkles), and then whip up a batch of gluten-free brownies for the kids who couldn't eat the cake. Whew -- by themselves, each one was not that hard. I was certainly was not aiming to be Martha Stewart. But by the end of the weekend, I was so sick of my oven I was almost ready to put my head in it.

Okay, that's as far as I got yesterday in composing a post. All of a sudden Henry was out of the shower, the baby needed another pacifier, and there went the rest of my evening. So here I am again trying to crank this out. Henry is now on the Northshore for the night, Dean is napping, and I've finished a really stressful week at work and am trying to head off a migraine.
Anyway, Henry's party was a success, he loved all his new toys, and I think he really did appreciate all the effort his daddy and I went to to make sure he had a great birthday. I don't want to spoil him, but he's really such a good kid and it really gives us pleasure to make him happy. But next year it's either store bought muffins or store bought cake, I ain't doing both.

Dean has had us pretty tired for the past month. He started sleeping through the night right around 3 months, but then about six weeks ago he started waking up more and more often, all night long, sometimes ten times. He would go back to sleep as soon as we gave him a pacifier, but that was hardly a good solution. His pediatrician gave me a pep talk on "cry it out" and we decided we had to try it.

Okay, that was as far as I got with the post LAST night, let's see how far I get now that Dean is having his morning nap. It would probably help if Matthew was not banging on the house trying to put up a fence so the dogs (Mom's and Dinah) can stay here while we all go to the beach in a week and half, but did I mention we're going to the beach in a week and a half? so I am not going to complain.

So ever since we tried to let him cry it out, Dean has been a much better sleeper. He really only cried much the first night, and even then it was only for a few minutes. I don't think I would have had the stamina to take it much longer than that. We wouldn't have done it at all except we were both becoming zombies, and we figured it wasn't good for him to be having so much interrupted sleep, either. It is too soon to break out the bubbly (or, in this case, the sleeping pills), since I know how quickly old habits can resume and some kids just never sleep well during the night...BUT...it does seem like we are on the right track, and last night he slept the whole night. Since Henry was at Paw and Dellie's, Matthew and I were able to sleep in until Dean woke us at 8:45. I feel like I could run a marathon!

One of the things the doc suggested was that I stop nursing him to sleep at night. All his other naps, I always put him down awake and follow the wake-eat-play-sleep routine, but at nighttime I was doing what I always did with Henry, nursing him in the dark and then putting him down mostly asleep. Now that I try to keep him awake, I can read him a little story immediately after he eats. Henry picked the one we're reading now -- it has fuzzy bees in it and a buzzing sound chip at the end. Dean loves it, and Henry was so happy to be able to pick it out. Henry adores Dean so much I really think he would swallow him whole if he could. As it is, we are constantly having to remind Henry to be gentle and not squeeze him too hard or smother him with kisses. It's hard for him, because Henry now identifies himself more as one of us -- the big folks in the house who take care of the baby. He is always quick to give the baby a pacifier, tells me when Dean spits up, and sighs an adult-sounding sigh when the baby wakes up too early from his nap. And yet he is only five, after all, and I neither want him to feel adult responsibilities nor test his limits by doing all the things we do with the baby. I am glad he's getting some only-child time at his grandparents right now. Not that we've been neglecting him, but sometimes a kid just needs to be a kid.