Triumph!

Right now, at this very minute, there are three sleeping boys upstairs!

Two have been sleeping for an hour, and Benjamin has been sleeping almost 40 minutes. There is relief ahead!

It's amazing how little I still feel I know about raising kids. Sure, there's a lot I do by feel now, a lot that has become second nature. But last night I found myself flipping through another book, trying to refresh my memory about how a newborn should be sleeping! I remembered that eventually over the next month or two a baby settles into a morning and afternoon nap, and a late afternoon catnap. But a newborn? My mind was blank; it was as if I hadn't done it twice already before!

Thankfully, a friend loaned me a book that filled me in. In fact, a newborn's day is divided up by feedings: each two to three hour block involves eating, awake time, and a nap (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours of nap). Now, Benjamin is not sleeping that long on his own yet, but he has been doing a solid hour or so. On his own. In a crib. I also realized (thanks to the book) that when we started to fuss exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes after eating (like clockwork) he was actually over tired, not just gassy! And so I have been putting him down an hour after eating, and he just closes his eyes and goes to sleep!

That's a lot of exclamation points in one entry, but that's the best way I know to express my joy! Now all I have to do is work in getting Colin to school and back.

One mountain at a time.