rockin' and rollin'

One thing I forgot to mention in the 7 month update is now proficient Eddie has gotten at rolling over both ways. When he first started rolling over it seemed like he would only do it in his crib - I don't blame him since he has this ultra soft organic mattress. And since he only sleeps on his tummy, whenever he seemed like he couldn't fall asleep and was being quite loud about it, we would go into his room and find him on his back waving his arms about, smiling like he wanted to play. So we would flip him over and sometimes he would start to cry or whine briefly and then shortly after he would fall asleep. We really didn't mind intervening in this way since it seemed to ensure that he would go to sleep. Now it is apparent that he is skilled at rolling over both ways and he does it all the time while playing on the floor. So gone are the days of going in to flip him over. And with that has come a whole 'nother chapter of sleep situations. It is apparent that when it comes to sleep, the saga continues.

Infant sleep, something that is perceived to be regulated and ritualized, just keeps constantly changing. Just when you think you have your kid figured out and you know his/her schedule, things change. For the last few weeks Eddie was teething and seemed to want to nap more, but every nap would only last 45 minutes to an hour. And 90% of the time he would fall asleep on the boob while I was nursing him before his nap...ah, such a pleasant way to drift off into sleep, for both him and for me since it signifies that, yes, I have timed the whole thing right, and yes, he is in fact sleeping and I can now go do laundry or make baby food or even go nap myself.

But for the last several days or so he has baffled me in the sleep department. In the morning he gets sleepy after being awake for only an hour or so, but then I do his nap routine and put him in his crib and he plays around in there for an hour or so. Since we are no longer going in his room solely to flip him over because we know he is capable of flipping himself over, I debate over whether I should intervene or let him figure it out and find his own way to sleep. Of course most of the time I go in to intervene and sometimes take him out of the crib to slip him some more boob to see if it will send him off to la-la land, but instead he often refuses it and just wants to coo and grab at things and play. Intervention failed; instead of helping him to sleep I probably recharged his batteries and made him hyper. At night it seems different though because often a brief intervention and some boob is all it takes to get him to fall asleep...or so it has seemed for the last month. The last few nights have been different and his crazy antics continue. The other day as I was putting him down he grabbed hold of my shirt and would not let go. And so I tried to distract him by offering him Blue, his stuffed pony, and instead he just laughed at me! Today also marks day three of him taking a longer afternoon nap - somewhere between 2-3 hours - which then means that he doesn't take a third nap but that he seems to get tired earlier in the evening and wants to go to bed around 5:30 or 6 p.m. But then, just like during the day, instead of falling asleep within thirty minutes or so, he stays up for another hour...or more. A few nights ago he didn't fall asleep until 8 p.m. Last night he was rockin' around in his crib for about 45 minutes before I was like, "Eddie, should I go to him?" and my husband responded, "well, it always seems to work," denoting that usually all it takes is a little boob and he drifts off to la-la land. And so I walked into his room and smelled the smell of his poop. Sure enough, he had a poop in there...no wonder he couldn't go to sleep! So after a diaper change and more boob and some singing, he was on his way.