Fri Sept 18 Day 36

Martha came to visit!
Patty is home from Thailand!

and we are trying to put Henry down for naps without rocking him or putting him to sleep first.

The good stuff:

Martha brought Henry the cutest pillow called an Animallow. It's a super soft turtle and he loves it.

Patty and Norman are home safe and they brought back lots of pictures and birthday prizes!! Hand painted fan and purse with my name in English and Thai! Wow!

Patty says that Henry is crazy bigger than ten days ago. I filled her in on all weight changes. He has been changing a lot. Phillip will be in the bedroom doing transcription all day, then come hang out with us for dinner and Henry looks different to Phillip too! And that's only about 8 hours away from him! This makes me nervous about going back to school. I don't want to miss anything and I'm gonna have to. :(

Now the "bad" stuff.

So I have been trying to catch up on my "how to take care of your baby" reading because they tell you that you should follow your instincts, but I don't have any instincts. I can't make a decision at all about anything. And when I do, I question it like crazy.

Baby Wise encourages parents to put their babies on a flexible Parent Directed schedule where the baby nurses every 2 1/2 - 3 hours. After nursing the baby should have some awake time and then nap for 1 - 1 1/2 hours before the next eating time.

We have Henry on a schedule of nursing about every 2 1/2 hours, but we are so flexible that the times are different every day. That is not good according to the book. In order to be consistent, you should feed him around the same time every day, then he is napping at around the same time every day and this will lead him to good sleep habits and then he will begin to sleep through the night. You can be flexible if he wants to eat earlier or you have an appointment, etc, but you should work toward keeping to that schedule.

AND you have to stick to the Eat, Wake, Nap order. Well, crap! AND you need to put the baby to sleep in his crib while still awake so he can learn how to fall asleep and soothe himself. Crap again. I haven't always stuck to the order and up until today I have NEVER put him to bed while still awake.

We have been trying it today and once in a while he will fall asleep on his own, the other times he cries for almost the entire hour. I don't know what to do. I don't go in there. I don't pick him up until its time to eat again. I don't know if this is going to work. I hate hearing him cry. I want to make him feel better. I don't want to make him a fussy baby. I don't know what to do.