In the short twelve weeks that little Dominic has pleased everyone with his presence, he's been quite busy developing and growing. We've had some ups, we've had some downs, and we've had some just rights. I'd say right now, we're in the just right zone, with daddy upstairs sleeping, baby in his snugabunny napping, and mommy finally sitting down to document my little bear's life.
Since returning to work on September 1, life has certainly not been as bad as I was anticipating. From week 2 to week 8, Dominic's bedtime was never before midnight. Why his body chose midnight as a good hour to go to sleep, I will never want to know. This is the thing that gave me great pause when it came down to returning to work. I just knew that I was certain to be up all night long, every night of the week. I was certain that I was not going to lay my head down until that clock hit 12. The dread was due to my having to be sitting at my desk at 0600 every morning. I can only imagine all of you would too be dreading a late bedtime, numerous wake-ups, up at no later than 0430, and off to work by 0500 to drop baby at babysitters and get to work on time.
But Dominic, my loving and sweet, sweet boy, started going to bed at 9PM and not a minute later, the very night before I went back to work. We went to bed at 9PM, had a wake-up at midnight, and another at around 0330, which meant that I was up for the rest of the day. I was immensely grateful and indebted to my son for letting me sleep even that long. It'd been WEEKS and weeks and weeks that I was in this delirious state of just existing. My sanity was really taking a dive, and my husband had to come to my rescue and let me sleep for a couple of days. It worked. :)
Over time, his sleeping pattern has evolved in wonderful favor. We went down to visit our favorite Aunt and Uncle and cousins the weekend of the ninth, and would you believe that my awake baby slept both weekend nights from 9PM until 0515 in the morning! I was warned, "Don't get used to that," but the whole next week, and the entire previous week, my son sleeps NO LESS than 6 hours in a row! Last night? He fell asleep around 845PM and did not wake up until 15 minutes after my alarm woke me and got me out of bed. On the weekends, my 12 week old sleeps from around 9 until around 4, and then doesn't get back up again until 0930 in the morning. I must admit, for not expecting it to last, it sure has been a blessing! Knowing this pattern can be knocked out of alignment with the simple task he will be given to teethe, I am thinking that we've got ourselves a schedule.
How did I do that? I think back on it. The week I went back to work, I decided that he needed to have a bath at the same time, every night. Between 7:30 and 8, Dominic should be in the bath. By 8:20, he should be done with the bath and we should be getting his clothes and sleepy lotion on. And until 9, he should be eating and falling asleep in our arms. Any time before then, we watch Baby Einstein, the Food Network, watch baby laughing youtube.com videos, or his favorite crooner and winner of America's Got Talent, Landau Eugene Murphy JR. We let him take his cat naps throughout the evening, which have recently gone from around 5pm until 6:30 or 7PM. This does not infringe on his 9PM bedtime; rather, it appears to encourage it.
Well, I was going to move on to more great things that my genius 1,000,000 IQ son has achieved in twelve short weeks, but he is successfully informing me of his hunger by shoving his fists in his mouth, grunting and talking, and well... just generally ALWAYS being hungry. Good thing I type fast. :)
More stories of a baby coming next time- and hopefully, sooner than later. I really don't want to forget all of the cool things I got to enjoy during his babyhood.
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