I'm not sure why, but Dexter has been changing sleeping patterns. He's occasionally been down to one nap a day. Twice in the last 3 days, he just took one nap in the morning and then was up all day, until about half an hour before his usual 8pm bedtime. Does that make him sleep better at night? No! Last night, after being up for 8.5 hours straight, he still woke up every couple of hours. At one point he sat up, totally asleep. I waited a little bit to see what he would do because I could see that his eyes were still closed. He just sat there, doing nothing but tottering a tiny bit. I laid him down and he didn't even move. (Yes, he was back in the bed with me.)
The family bed lasted 2 nights. The first night, Mr. Cobra slept like a rock. The second night was a bad night for Dexter. It was so bad, that he scared dad back onto the couch. Since then, every time I've asked if he wanted to come back into the bedroom, I've gotten a resounding "I need some sleep". That's that, so I've been working on getting Dex to sleep in the crib. That was until more teeth are working their way into place, and it's impossible to tell whether he will sleep well or not. Sometimes I put him in the bed with me as early as 11pm and other times he'll sleep till after 5am in his crib. He knows I'll cave at 5am because I'm too tired to spend the half hour to get him back to sleep in the crib, when he'll be up only half an hour after that.
I have used the co-sleeper a little bit. Definitely not as much as I thought I would since Mr. Cobra decided the couch was better than 10ft from a ticking cry bomb. I tried to get Dexter to sleep in it instead of in the bed with me, but he just tries to crawl out on top of me. We'll be using it while we're on vacation, so I'll probably try getting him used to it again just before we leave.
We went to our first 1st birthday party last Sunday. It was the second one we were invited to, but we didn't make the first one due to some email issues. The next couple months hold at least a couple of birthdays of special little people in our lives. One is a little girl around 3 weeks older than Dexter and the other is a little boy about 3 weeks younger than Dexter. Here is a picture of them all playing together.
No one is planning a blowout party. The babes are just too young to appreciate even a basic party. We'll be out of town on the actual day, but we may have a small get together before we leave on vacation. I haven't decided. It feels weird to be even considering a birthday party.
A year ago, I couldn't see my toes because the baby belly was in full effect. I had just gone through Childbirth Prep class. Dexter was still just a abstraction, a shadowy figure on the ultrasound. Even though his frequent hiccups and keenness for kicking reminded me that he was really there, it didn't feel real until I brought him home. Even then, it felt like I was dreaming for a while afterward because it was so foreign to be caring for this thing that came from me, that now needed constant attention. Some people call it "bonding", I think it's more like coming to grips with the reality of this tiny baby being completely reliant on the mother. It's a rush of overwhelming responsibility. There's never another moment spent not being a mom. Even though we celebrate a child's birthday, it's a special day for mom too.
