Sleeping

So every time I tell someone that Ben and I sleep in the living room so our little bundle of joy can have his preshus little privacy, they look at me like I am completely stupid (which? okay, maybe I am, but not for wanting my sleep however I can get it.) Then they suggest that we try to put him in Harry's room and reclaim our space, man. And we totally would if we thought, you know, that they would both sleep for 12 hours straight like they do now (well, okay, Jack is a 12 hour man, but Harry sleeps from 7:45-5:50 in his room and usually from 5:50-6:30 on the couch with Ben). But what if they don't sleep well together? What if Harry has a bad dream and wakes up screaming about monsters? What if jack craps his pants at like 3 a.m. and wakes up for a change? What then? Hmmmmmm-- you know, as I type this I realize that in that case, we could probably deal. And what's the worst thing that would happen? We'd sleep someplace crappy like a recliner? Hmmmm....

Harry takes a while to fall asleep-- I wonder if his talking, asking for water, reading books to his stuffed animals, demanding that someone come spray his closet for monsters, etc, would keep Jack awake. Unbeknownst to us (because we never gave him the chance to demonstrate his skillz) Jack is quite the self-soother. He has a bath, cries from shampoo-pajama time, listens to a story, and then eats and eats (lately, he is not satisfied nursing before bed-- he eats both sides and then drinks 8 ounces of the devil's powdered cow's milk-based infant product). Then we dim the lights, put on the rainforest tunes that play on his swing, and put him in the Pack and Play. He sits up, grabs his Uglydoll, chats with it for a few minutes, and then fall asleep (presumably-- we turn on the bathroom exhaust fan for white noise and get the hell out of dodge, so I don't know when he actually drifts off).

Do you think these two routines sound compatible? If we put them in the same room, will Jack never sleep through the night again? Will Harry climb into the crib and kill him in his sleep? Will they both wake up at 5:50? What do you all think?

And I gotta say, I thought I would feel bad if I didn't make it through Jack's first year nursing exclusively, but I really don't. I am stoked about buying new bras-- bras with skinny shoulder straps, for example-- and we still nurse before naps on days I am home (and I will try to keep this up for the next couple of months-- at least through cold and flu season). Here's the thing: to me, nursing is really important because of the lifestyle it suggests-- be with your baby 24/7 for most of the first year (to me, this is really important), follow your baby's schedule instead of feeding by clocks and ounces, attend to your baby in the middle of the night (although Jack is old enough to leave me the heck alone between 7:30 and 7:30, and I am so cool with that), etc. I understand that immunities are important, but other than that, it's not so much the nutrition for me, if that makes sense. Also, I am still carrying 7-8 pounds of extra weight, and I blame nursing (not all the shitty food I have been eating).

Oh! Speaking of shitty food-- the mercury in HFC of course freaked me out (Of course it did, right? I mean I chucked the BPA stuff before you could say Nalgene and certainly before I thought about the fact that the new plastic that's being used in baby products is probably also an endocrine interrupter-- and one that hasn't been tested yet), and I am no longer buying food with HFC, which means my grocery list just got a lot shorter. Dang.

Apropos of nothing:


Untitled from sarah on Vimeo.