Last night I fed the little man at 9:30 p.m. (on one side) and then we gave him his bath and I finished feeding him. Afterward he was wide awake and wanted to play. I brought him into our room where Tyler and I hung out with him for a bit. We read scriptures and said our family prayer and then Tyler generously offered to put him to sleep while I slept myself. I was out like a light! This was at 10:50 p.m. I found out this morning that our little man didn't enter a deep slumber until about 12:20 a.m. I sure married a good and patient man, but I felt so bad since he has to get up and go to work!
Anyway, Tyler and I were both expecting Max to wake up around 12:30 since 3 hours is usually his max (no pun intended). You know, it is really amazing to me how right on his "inner feeding clock" is. I was awakened by a cry of hunger, as usual, and I looked at the clock. It read 2:43 a.m.! For a second I thought that I was misreading the clock because I didn't have my glasses on. Surely I was just missing the 1 in front of the 2...it couldn't be that late! But as I stared at the number and realized that it was, indeed, 2:43, panic began to set in. Had I not woken up when he cried earlier to be fed?! Tyler woke up because I leapt out of bed and in my rush to get into the other room, ran into the wall. :) I was so worried that I had starved my son.
I got him out of bed and started feeding him when I realized that there is no way he could have been crying to be fed without either Tyler or myself waking up to it. If Max is hungry, then Max will be fed. He will make sure of it. He will not stop fussing until his needs are met. Once I realized that I had not missed a feeding, but that my son had actually gone that long in between feedings, I was so happy and grateful! My pounding, worried heart slowed to a normal rhythm and a great peace and love for this little man set in. Now, I am not at all expecting a repeat in the nights to come, but I will not object if this was the beginning of a new sleep chapter in our lives. It would have been even better if Max and Tyler had both been sleeping all of that time. All in good time. For now I am grateful for the one night and the 4 continuous hours of sleep that I so enjoyed!
Also, yesterday morning and this morning have been very fun with Max! I have had some good play time with him that has included lots of smiling. :) He has also added some baby cooing and garble to his usual grunting. It is so fun to listen to his "stories"! He seems so intent on what he is saying and looks right at me to make sure that I am getting it all. That's when I've been able to get the smiles. Oh, he is so cute! I love this motherhood business. I am excited to meet all of the little spirits that will be sent to our home. And I hope that I can teach this one well since he will be the big brother of them all. What a sweet, fun, special little boy. We love him so much!
4 comments:
Max is cute boy and he has got himself some pretty darn good parents.
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It's great that you and Ty are such a good team with the new arrival, and I love that photo of Max that you posted...looks like he's filling out very nicely!
Dana, your post reminded me on an incident with Matt when he was a baby. Like you, Margaret and I were not sure of his feeding cycle and for a long time we (Margaret) would go in an wake him up to feed him on the cycle that we thought was correct. (3 hours or something
like that) I don't remember (you know my memory) but it seems like this went on for 3 or 4 months after he was born. Margaret was getting up every night on this schedule, waking him up and feeding him. (I kind of remember actually getting up a couple of times to feed him) Anyway, one night we decided to not get up unless he woke up and fussed. He slept through the night!! It was a revelation to us, that babies are on their schedule and that we should let him set the schedule and not us. Margaret started getting some more sleep after that.
Anyway, Max will let you know by his own actions on when he is ready to go longer. Maybe he is getting close but let him tell you and don't decide for him, if you know what I mean.
You two are doing great and you are one dedicated Mom. Ty is not too bad either, but can you explain how he is such a good Dad, doing all of this for Max and how I could never get him to mow the lawn!!
Love you guys,
Mickey
I can confirm that Matthew remains a sound sleeper to this very day; in fact, on the weekends it's all I can do to get him out of bed before 10AM. But then I'm hardly a morning person myself...*yawn*. I guess all of that goes out the window when you have a child, though! ;-)
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