The short follow-up

11 hours last night, 2-hour nap this afternoon, no crying when being put down for naps or bed...we are back on a routine and there should be no more multi-page sleep-centered posts (hopefully).

Greco-Roman Finals

I just got back from a big trip to Rainbow Grocery (I could really learn to love this grocery-shopping-on-a-weekday-morning thing) and upon my return I found that Emmett was asleep (Andrea had the morning off). I am now waiting for him to wake so we can go for a run together, and this is what I just saw when I checked the monitor:

It appears that in the battle to fall asleep the sock monkey pinned Emmett. Emmett will play around with the monkey for a little while before going to sleep each night and I have seen him in the monitor grab it and move it about when he wakes up for a second during the night's sleep. There is a video from a few months ago on Andreas blog (link here) where Emmett had the monkey on top of him, but now he is much more dexterous (he has increased +2 dexterity points since June and is now a level 2 halfling) and will grab it, play with it, etc. We have another monkey that is more monkey-like, and it is amazing how strongly Emmett reacts to both---moreso than other toys, for sure. It is clear to me that Emmett sees the relation between the monkey and himself and has now positioned himself firmly in the evolution camp. It is good to have that out of the way.

The end of the burrito

Last night Emmett was put to bed in just a sleep sack, completing his first full night unswaddled. We have been sort of inching toward losing the swaddle playing games like leaving an arm out of the swaddle, but last night he moved to the sleep sack (think sleeping bag with arm holes) and he slept like a superstar. Well, sort of. He is still doing this thing where he gets put down at around 7pm and wakes up at around 9 (speaking of, it is almost time) and then wakes up once during the night (last night was 4am) before waking for good at 7am. It was good to have him back on a more normal sleep schedule as the night before was pretty painful.

Day two of doing the stay-at-home thing went pretty swimmingly. Andrea still is coming home to a not-nearly cleaned up house after our day's adventures (today it was folded clothes on the bed that needed to be put away and a half-cooked meal), but we are getting closer to having things done. We got out for another run today (picture of the ride to left) and walked around the neighborhood some. I have been waiting for the landlord to come home from his vacation as he and I have to devise a hanging mechanism for the tandem kayak that I purchased secondhand a week ago, so that will be tomorrow's project with a boys' trip to the hardware store and everything.

I have to admit that I still get a little jealous of the huge smiles that Emmett gives Andrea every time she shows up. He gets so excited to see her, although I have to say that he gets a little whinier when he is around her as his mind seems to leap to food pretty much immediately.

Today's big events were multiple succesive roll-overs (back-to-front) and about 5 caught pees. Most important, Andrea got home at a decent hour and we got to go for a walk together in the park on a weekday! I really like this stay-at-home stuff.

Mother knows best

We returned late last night from our trip to see grandparents in Susanville. Andrea, Belinda, Emmett, and I (B was going to see her sister and family who would be in town for her 20 year reunion) headed out on Thursday evening around 7:00 and Emmett passed out immediately. He slept pretty much the whole trip making it very painless. Pretty good kid, that Emmett.

The weekend was filled with garage sales, barbequing, Emmett's first trip to the Susanville bar "The T&A", etc., but mostly hanging with family. It was a nice visit but went by very quickly. Yesterday afternoon we headed home (sans belinda---she went to yosemite with family) around 4:00 and Emmett again slept most of the trip. We have both (Andrea and I) become very talented in our ability to climb over the passenger seat in the front-to-back or back-to-front direction at highway speeds to either address Emmett's needs or once again have adult conversation when he falls asleep.

Once at home last night Andrea put Emmett into his crib, which is still in our room, but while brushing my teeth I saw her checking out the co-sleeper which was in what is to be Emmett's room. Andrea then told me to grab Malcolm as she was going to move Emmett to his own room, and at 10:45 last night that is what she did. After completing the move, Andrea asked me how I felt about it and I told her that I was a little saddened because I like having him in the room with us, but she stayed strong and we went to sleep. And sleep we did. I woke up to the alarm and got mostly ready to go to work before I heard Emmett stir, and when I handed the happy baby off to Andrea just before leaving she told me that the one time she had gotten out of bed was to pee, not because of Emmett, meaning that he slept the whole night through (we woke another time as Malcolm crawled all over our faces excited at his first night of sleeping with both of us since Emmett was born). I guess this means that Emmett is a big boy now.

The big 03

Tomorrow Emmett turns three months, or in modern-parent-speak: the end of the fourth trimester. It is pretty interesting to think how different things would be if Emmett really could have hung out inside Andrea for the fourth trimester and popped out where he is not developmentally---maybe giving one of his big smiles right after birth. He definitely seems much better prepared for the world today than he was right when he arrived (not that he is ready to start foraging for food or anything like that, but he can hold that head of his up).

It was kind of funny that I had a first this evening that I was surprised was a first: tonight I filled out my first form that had "number of children" as a box to fill. I found it hard to believe that this was yet to happen, but I guess I am not filling in forms all that often.

We are trying to figure out how to improve Emmett's sleep patterns these days and we have yet to hit on a solution. Our pattern of late has been that Emmett hits the hay around 7:00 or 7:30pm, sleeps until somewhere between 1-2 AM when he wakes, is fed, and goes back to sleep. He then wakes at 2 hour intervals repeating the above at each waking until 6 AM when he and I get up together and spend an hour or so hanging out giving Andrea a little more shut-eye to prepare for the long rest-free day of Emmett care. He will normally go back to bed with Andrea when I leave for work for an hour or two until he is really ready to start his day. We are trying to figure out if we (we meaning Andrea) should be feeding him at each waking or if he is reaching the point that he should be able to sleep longer stretches between feedings and we should be letting him settle back to sleep sans food. There are so many competing theories out there and it is definitely not easy to let him complain when he is inches away from us (and knows we (read: Andrea & breasts) are there). Apparently the woman who leads the parents' group that Andrea attends is of the opinion that 4months/14pounds is an important milestone where one can start working toward sleeping through the night. He is a month short and about a pound light, so for now we are sticking with feeding him when he wakes.

Andrea said that Emmett is getting close to the back-to-front roll (expected ~ 3 months) and is scooting himself in circles on his back using his legs. Not really all that exciting, but I guess it doesn't stop me from reporting it.

Sleep-challenged weekend

Friday night we had one of those nights that all parents of a two-plus-month-old dream of: eight-to-nine hours of uninterrupted sleep for the little one (without the aid of any "dream feeding" tricks, too). Yes, this was something to be very happy about, with the exception that his night's sleep started just before three in the afternoon and went to past eleven at night. Andrea and Laura (in town from NYC for a visit) had gone out to grab a bite to eat and I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed when Emmett woke up ready to eat and be entertained. I fed him a bottle Andrea had just pumped, struggling to stay awake the whole time, and the night, then, turned into what a typical day is for him: sleep for an hour-and-a-half, wake and eat, stay awake for a while, repeat. We have not had nights like this for a while and we didn't like the return of one one bit.

The next night, Saturday, would be more of the same, but would be even more painful as we stayed up well into Saturday Night Live as we had guests over (unheard of late night for us). By yesterday we were all dragging. I finally took Emmett for a walk to check out Bay to Breakers, which passes only a few blocks from our house. For those who don't know it is supposedly a race (there are runners at the front, I think, but you have to show up early to see them), but the primary attraction is the fact that thousands and thousands of people walk the course (from the Bay to the ocean) dressed in costume (or undressed)----it is basically a moving party through the city. Emmett wasn't sleeping so well on Sunday morning so I walked him over and the constant drone of loud voices and music served as perfect white noise and he slept in the Ergo carrier against my chest. It was a little worrying as there were drunk people all over the place and I didn't know when one was going to stagger into me, so I spent most of my time propped against a tree for defense.

Last night, he got back on a more reasonable sleep schedule and I feel a ton better. It seems that much more than anything else, our lives completely revolve around Emmett's sleep schedule and we spend a lot of time wondering what we should be doing to improve it or what we have done wrong when it goes astray. It is kind of funny, too, that Andrea and I both know that when he first starts to squirm at 2 AM any diaper change or the like that needs to take place will be easier if done immediately rather than waiting for him to wake up completely (which usually brings the tears, crying, and misery for all involved). Part of the waiting is hopes that it is just a squirm that he can go back to sleep with (rare), and the other part is hopes that the other person is going to get up (less rare). Yes, it is much easier to see the rational choice in the daytime.

Cry, baby, cry

I am going to do my best to avoid a long rant about vaccines here this time. What I will say, though, is that Emmett has been crying significantly more since the shots, and I really don't think that we are just noticing it more. There is more intensity and there were some pretty tough nights, but it seems that he is starting to settle back into his old routines and crying less. More intense crying is a typical side effect of most immunizations so there is nothing to worry about, but it is no fun to have a crying baby who won't settle for any of the ol' standby tricks.

Last night Andrea talked me into trying this thing that she heard about through some other mothers called "dream feeding" or some other name along those lines. Basically what it is is a trick to get your kid to sleep more by putting a bottle in their mouth while they are asleep. They start eating without really waking, get their belly topped up, and as a result sleep longer without waking for hunger. It was about midnight last night when she tried to talk me into this (she can't do it because a mother is not supposed to feed by the bottle and breastfeed at the same time as it might confuse that young, 25th percentile head), and after a little consideration I figured I would give it a try (I was working on a talk for today---anything to get out of work). I snuck into the room, bottle in hand, and what do you know: that kid will eat while sleeping, and eat quite a lot. While feeding him I had these grand plans of to do a little "dream feeding" to Andrea to see what she thought of it (not believing it would work), but as I was thinking about this ploy I was reminded of a basketball trip in high school when Jay Garnier fell asleep with his mouth open and someone kept feeding him food which he would promptly chew up and swallow---so dream feeding is not just for kids. Luckily, for Andrea, she sleeps with her mouth shut. Oh, net result: Emmett didn't sleep any more than normal. Dream feeding gets zero stars for results but four stars for strangeness.

It was hot, hot, hot here in SF today. Andrea, Emmett and I just got back from a trip at dark to the store where we were all dressed in short pants and t-shirts. The city is really alive with many people on their stoops after dark, so Emmett has to have his white noise machine extra loud tonight.

I will do my best to post with pictures next time and avoid any topics that cause me to rant.