Day 3 - back to square one

Well, last night was terrible. Manuk went down OK at 9:45 but for some reason I had insomnia and couldn't fall asleep until 1 am. This woldn't have been too bad except that at 2:30 Manuk woke up hysterical and screaming. I went in and put his soother in, rubbed his back, told him I loved him, sang our bedtime song and left again. 5 minutes later while he was still screaming, I went in again, repeat. 10 minutes, o in again, repeat, 15 minutes (this is what you're supposed to be doing right, 5 minutes longer each time?!?). I stay in little longer this time. Jacko and I are both up, me on 1 1/2 of sleep so things seem a lot worse then they really might be. the screams are louder, our walls between us and the neighbours, thinner, the hours until you have to get up,less and less. Finally at 4 am, after an hour and a half of screaming, Manuk came into our bed. I know, I know, Back to square one, but after that little sleep and that much cying you would do it too.
Anyway, I spoke to Manuks doctor today and he said that I should put him down before he falls alseep, then let him cry. If it is for 20 minutes, fine, if it is for 2 hours, fine. He said that every time you go into his room , you let him know that if he screams for __ amount of time, then someone will come in. He said that he has to figure out that he can't ry to get mommy.
I am very stressed about tonight. I am worried. He is down now but I am worried that Manuk is going to wake up in the middle of the night and I will have to let him cry and cry. This means that I am lying in bed crying and if anyone knows me well enough to see me the day after crying lots, I can barely open my eyes and it is not a good idea to go out in public.
Anyway, here we go. We have switched the music to soft jazz and we'll see if that helps any. Wish us luck

Day 2

Well, Manuk was up at 7 am and ready to go for the day, so we get up and by 10:30 he is falling alseep in my arms. I manage to get him down for a 20 minute nap (I was hoping for more but no such luck). He is up by 11 and really happy and playful. I read online that at his age babies should be sleeping 12-15 hours a day and wondering why he doesn't want to do that. Is it because he just isn't tired? He is truly Jacko's son who can live off of a few hours of sleep? Then around 2 Manuk is asleep again but only, again, for aobut 20 minutes. By this time I am sort of wanting to keep him up so that he'ss sleep through the night. When Jacko gets home, we start to set up Manuk's room for sleep. We pick out a night time CD, which is hard, we were debating between Bob Marley and techno house music, but as Manuk really likes to dance, we decided both would be a little too "upeddy" and found an old CD of ours that is Gregorian chants. Jacko got our diskman set up with some computer speakers and got the room ready. Manuk and I went out with mom to go to costco and walmart and by the time we got home he was feeling ready for bed. We had a bottle, sang a few songs and started talking about how it was going to be bedtime soon. I put my nightshirt which I usually sleep in, in bed with Manuk by his face so that he could smell me in his bed and by 10:15 he was in bed and asleep. I was so excited. I went to bed as well and fell asleep. Manuk woke up at 2:30 am and I went in and sang a little bedtime song and rubbed his head, put in his soother and he was back alseep. Yippee. Then I crawled back in to bed and realised that I had had 3 and a half hours of uninterupted sleep. This is a little unusual and my body went, "you're done, you've slept a lot, you're awake". Needless to say I was up until 3:15 when I finally fell back alseep again. I woke up when Jacko got up for work at 6:45 and then fell back alseep unitl 8:30. Manuk slept the whole time. When he got up we had a congradulatory dance, told him how good he was and we started the day.
Now naptime waas a different story. I don't know if I am crazy to try both things at once but we are trying. I got Manuk in his bed for a nap aound 2pm. I le him stand in his crib and hang out. I closed the blinds and turned on his music. He was good for about 10 minutes then cried. I went up and talked to him and layed him down. He DID NOT like that. Screams. I left him for 5 minutes, then went back up. We talked again and sang our little song then I left him again. 5 minutes later I went up again and did the same thing. This time after 7y minutes or so I couldn't hear anything. He is alseep. Yippee. I just hope now that he doesn't sleep too long and not go down tonight. Oh well, one step at a time.

Day 1 - Manuks new sleep routine

Wel, I am going to keep track of how this goes because I think it is both good for me to get this off my chest and if any other mothers read this they will know that someone else is in the same boat.
I want to start of by saying that Manuk has been a great sleeper from day 1. He has been in his own bed (when we have had one) and in his own room (again, when we have had one) pretty much from the beginning. Then about a month or so ago he started not sleeping very well, wakin gup lots in the night and not falling alseep unless he was in our arms. Once we would put him down he would wake up and the only way for us to get any sleep at all was to bring him into bed with us. Bad habit to get into.
We made the decision, now that he was feeling better and getting over his ear infection, to move him back to his own bed and try and get him to stay there all night long. Harder than one might think. I first wrote to a few cousins who gave me some much appreciated advice. It is so hard to hear your baby scream and not know weather to go in and get him or not. I hate to think that he is crying himself to sleep and he would get so worked up that I don't think he would have been able to sleep even if he was super tired. I really appreciated hearing back from my cousins about their experiences and we have decided to give it another go. Here is how it is going . . .
DAY 1,
Well, we decided that it ws the day to try. Jacko is not working nights now so we are around to support each other. We also realised that we bought a new matress (finally) and we don't want Manuk to get used to our matress (which we get on Saturday) because we want it all to ourselves. LOL.
We got Manuk wound down and put him in bed. After a few minutes we woke up and realised that he was no longer in our arms. SCREAMED !!!!! We left him about 10 minutes then went up to say that we loved him but he had to sleep. Got him down again, for about 20 minutes, then he was up screaming again. After a few times we got him to sleep until about 2 am. At 2 he woke up and was awake, wnating to play. We could not get him down again and gave in and brought him into bed with us. I know, I know, big mistake. But, in my defense, you don't really think too clearly at 2 am when you have not really slept yet. All you are thinking is, can I still get 2 or 3 hours of seep if he comes o bed with us and you think, "yes, I can". Little did we know that, no, we couldn't. He has gotten so big that he is hitting us in the face and kicking us in the bum. Even though he is asleep, Jacko and I aren't really. The next morning, I read a few email s from my cousin and decude to give it another try the next night. It's funny too, since I have been thinking about this, 2 or 3 days or so, I have been receiveing all these parting email (from a weekly email I get) and they are all about sleep habits and ideas. Well, we are up for the day so I will let you know how day 2 went

Feeling better

Well, Manuk is feeling a bit better I think. He has more energy now and it getting back to himself. He is vomitting a lot though which is a little abnormal. We did have some trouble with his medication though. He reacted to it and had a diaper rash like I have never seen. We are using a cream for yeast infections and having lots of baths and things seem to be improving.

Another new first

Well, after 2 days of a very cranky Manuk and constant crying and not wanting to be put down at all. After two days of him sleeping in our bed because it was the only way we could get some sleep (sort of, he is big enough to kick s and hit us in the face now, lol) I finally took him into the doctors today and the poor little man has an ear infection. We are going to get his antibiotics today so hopefully in the next two days he will be feeling better.

Easter Cake

Here is a picture of the Easter bunny cake I made for both the Garcia gathering and Thomas gathering.

What a day

Well, do you ever have those days when you know you shouldn't have gotten out of bed. Today has started out like that. I am hoping things will improve. I got up wih Manuk this moring and got a call from my boss. We have a semi crisis at work and I needed to get on it. I brought my computer into the living room so hat I could work because Manuk was not happy in my office or in the kitchen. Low and behold, Manuk doesn't fully understand the meaning on "no" (which, I guess at 8 months, what can you expect) and got his hands on the computer and erased a few emails of mine. Needless to say I did not react like I would have wanted to and lost my cool a bit. We had some stern words and both cried. I know that Manuk will not remember what happened because 20 minutes later he was curled up in my lap, but as a mother, I remember and feel bad because he doesn't really know any better. Oh well, live and learn.
I then have been dealing with Autopac and the mechanic about the car, so that's an ordeal in and of itself. Hopefully things will work out for the best.
Well, now I am going to try and get some work done, I just got Manuk down for a nap.
Talk to you soon. Betty, I will get some photo's up this afternoon.