A small victory

Last night, Caleb slept! That's right, we may finally be turning a corner.

He slept from 7:30-10:30, drank a bottle of milk, and then slept through until 6am! At which point he nursed a little and is still sleeping...and it's already 7am! So that means that this morning I was able to pray, shower, dress, eat, check email and start this blog all without little bambinos at my feet.

What is different? Well, a couple of things.

First of all, we've had some light shed on Caleb's personality that likely is the reason for much of his sleeplessness so far...he has a wicked temper! I have never seen the like in a baby. When he doesn't get what he wants immediately, he screams, kicks, hits, flails on the ground, and throws anything he can get his hands on. We regularly find his soothers clear across the room. The other day he actually picked up the laptop and tossed it when I closed it up so he couldn't touch it. Before you think it, we don't spoil him by giving in to his every whim. As much as you can help a one year old learn that screaming doesn't get you everything, we are trying to teach that. Because he hates to be alone, when he wakes and finds he's by himself, that temper boils over and the screaming begins.

I've also realized that he nurses when he's scared. Yesterday I had some friends and their kids over, and the house was full and boisterous. Whenever the noise level peaked, Caleb clung to me to nurse. So all those nights when he wakes up alone and needs to be calmed down, he wants to nurse.

The last few days he's started to give up morning naps, which I will sorely miss, but would trade anytime for a good night's sleep.

The last thing we've started to do is let him sleep. Up until this point we've been waking him around 10pm (on those very few nights when he didn't wake at 10pm on his own) to give him a night feed, hoping it would help him sleep through. Then the other week it occurred to me that perhaps by waking him we are interrupting a natural sleep cycle. So even though it meant likely waking just after I'd fallen asleep at 11 or 12, I let him go. Two nights ago this method produced his first six hour sleep at home (from 7pm to 1am). Then he woke at 1am, 3am, 5am, 6am and 7am, but at least he got that six hour stretch.

And so, last night, he slept through. It's impossible to know why, if it was something we did, or if his body finally kicked into sleeping gear, but whatever the reason, I'm so grateful. Two days of showering, two days of breakfast by myself, and yesterday was the first day in a long time when there was an air of peace lingering in the home.

One small step for baby, one large step for family and mom's sanity.