square one

Feels like we are back to square one with sleep. Eddie is just getting to be smarter and realizing that he can cry out to me and I will respond. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, all last week I was nervous that he was going to get sick, so every time he cried out, I went to check on him to make sure he didn't have a fever. Well now he has learned the meaning of cause and effect and he is testing me, or so it seems. So we are back to letting him "cry it out" per se. It sucks. They say that a baby's cry is one of the more horrific sounds that exists for a reason and it can stress a parent out. Well I would argue that even more stressful is a baby who will not sleep. Even though I try to get stuff done while he is in his crib fighting the sleep, I am simultanously stressing and probably losing a year of my life by the toll that such anxiety plays on my nervous system. Parents with babies who are good sleepers are just so so lucky.

Another new challenge to his sleep is that he is so mobile now and his new thing is kneeling in his crib and holding onto the railing, often chewing on it. And his cry is now more like a holler, which often startles me and causes me to think he has hit his head or something and so I run up to check on him. But of course peeking in on him just makes the matters worse because he senses my presence and then gets really pissed when I leave - note to all the soon to be parents: get the video monitor; it would come in handy in this situations to really see what your baby is doing in there. This morning when I went to get him up I found him kneeling with his hands on the railing, but one leg was dangling through the bars. Jeez. We might have to lower the crib soon.