Well it's been a week so I last wrote... and so much has happened since then! Over the past two months in the States, Finn developed the, well, inability to sleep anywhere but in our arms. At night he'd sleep in his bassinet but during the day, it had to be arms! And it's important for babies to get sleep, so I held him a lot and when it was time for him to take a nap I even helped him fall asleep. So then, he learned the inability to fall asleep. This is very common with babies. In America though, though it was a little bit of a hindrance, we had grandmas who loved to hold him too :) Plus, I love to hold him close and smell him and delight in him! However, coming back to EA, it was my number one goal to buckle down and help this sweet baby learn--we were here two days and not a THING was unpacked! Once he'd wake up from a nap in my arms, I'd put him down and run around like a mad woman trying to accomplish something...but that's time I want to spend with him! So it was time to figure out a plan. Oftentimes though, teaching your baby how to sleep comes in two forms--either letting the baby cry it out or them not learning. But he's still so little and the crying it out was unbearable. But God has been so gracious to show us an in-between! It goes like this... when it's naptime, we have a naptime ritual, the same every time. I swaddle him and then hold him while I walk around the room and sing him a song. This calms him down because it's hard for babies to go from lots of light and stimulus to boom! nap! So we have that calm down time. Then I put him in his crib and sit beside him. I pat his belly or let him suck my finger (he hates pacifiers) but ONLY to the point of drowsiness, not sleep. Then I stop. A lot of times, this almost asleep baby will wake right up at that point. So then we do it again. And then again. But I really think he's learning, and he has for the past three days actually slept in his crib! However, around halfway through his nap, when the sleep cycle changes, he wakes up like clockwork! I try to get him to fall back asleep in his crib, but if he simply can't, I hold him. That has been what we've done today and yesterday and I feel a lot better about it than him simply not getting enough sleep at the cost of learning to fall asleep. God is giving me strength each day...it's like our daily bread. He gives us enough to get through each day and allows us to lean on and rely on Him. So that's been what's been doing on at home this week. It has been full blown baby sleep boot camp...I write everything down...and am really trying to help him because how much would it stink to only be able to fall asleep if someone patted you on the back while rocking you and sticking a finger in your mouth! Still a work in progress!
I left my camera in America (thankfully, it's on the way!) so I don't have any pics yet to post, but I do have these amazing pictures that were taken by my super talented (and wonderful) friend Kristin Moore when Finn was maybe about...5 weeks old? Enjoy!
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