Sleeping Update

Wow. Thank you everyone for your responses! There were a number of comments on here, my email and facebook that were filled with great suggestions. Another friend dropped off her favorite book that deals with all these issues for me to read.

I have a huge thank you to give to my neighbour (and new blogger) Heather. Not only does she have two kids at home during the day (two others are in school), she also babysits three others. She offered to come and take Hunter to playgroup for me so I could have a toddler break. Too bad Cavan didn't want to nap during that time! But I did get my living room and kitchen cleaned up. And then to top that off, she made us supper! Thank you so much Heather for helping me yesterday. I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness and abounding energy!

We had so many suggestions from other parents about sleeping. And it was great to hear that most everyone has gone through the same issues at one time or another. Last night we put a few of those suggestions to work.

I made Hunter his favorite meal of pancakes (I added applesauce to them to get some more fruit in him) so he would be good and full of food before he went to sleep. We also set up a baby gate at his door. Not too sure if this was good or not. He woke up at 1am and stood at the gate and screamed his little head off. I am sure all of my neighbours hear him! It took Matt over an hour to get him settled. Part of it was a really wet diaper, and then once Matt gave him a bit of milk he settled down. He woke again at 4:30 and started the whole screaming routine again at the gate and we just threw him in bed with us. He slept in there until 5:30! So that is an improvement. He was also not allowed to watch any of his movies until Matt left for work at 8am.

For Cavan I loaded my ipod with white noise (thank you Soph for the link!) and moved the stereo into his room. We made sure he was really good and full of food other than just breastmilk. He woke up when Hunter went through his first screaming fit and I sat up with him sleeping on me until Matt got Hunter settled. He woke up again just before 4, but after a quick boob he went back to sleep until 5am. I tried to not breastfeed him during the night, but I was so tired I just gave in to the little tank. On the weekend Matt is going to get up with him instead. So definite improvement with Cavan.

And I even got out of the house to go to a weight traing circuit class. My butt was kicked, but I am so glad I attended. I am a bit sore, but I will still be attending aerobics tomorrow night.

Thank you again everyone! It is wonderful to know that I am not alone!