Sleeping Routine

We have been blessed with a baby that has been extremely predictable.  In fact, we have started a bedtime routine with Clay.  Every night he nurses around eight o'clock then Ryan puts Clay in a "night-time" diaper (disposable) and snuggly pajamas.  He gives him a kiss and hands him off to me to be swaddled, kissed, told he is loved, and put to bed in his vibrating, bouncy chair with his special monkey.  Yes, I know it is a little weird that he sleeps in a chair, but it reclines and acts more like a vibrating hammock.  One thing we quickly learned as parents is sometimes things are strange and unorthodox, but if your baby is safe and happy, who cares?!

Well, the reason I am telling you all this is because today I had to let Clay cry himself to sleep at nap time because nothing, I mean NOTHING, would satisfy him and he was so tired.  Thankfully he cried for only a couple of minutes before passing out.

Unfortunately, when it came to bedtime tonight all hell broke loose!  Clay screamed and cried for three hours straight.  We tried everything! Swaddle, no swaddle, right boob, left boob, football hold, cradle hold, crying it out, dancing, rocking, laying with mom and dad... the list is endless!  We even resorted to giving him medicine for the first time!  Myself, Edna, and Arabella have been feeling yucky lately, so we thought maybe he feels sick and we just don't know it!  So we pumped him full of baby tylenol and slathered him in baby vicks.  None of this did the trick.

Eventually, it dawned on us that these symptoms (drooling, irritable, refusing to nurse, not sleeping) make sense in a baby that is teething.  While it is a bit early for that to be happening, its not impossible.  We also realized that despite rejecting eating, he was probably starving.  So as last resort, Ryan made up a bottle.  Clay screamed bloody murder while I dripped breast milk into him mouth, but after a couple seconds he clamped onto the bottle and didn't let go!  Right after that he was swaddled, kissed, told he is loved, and put to bed in his vibrating, bouncy chair with his special monkey and quickly found himself in dreamland.

I wanted to share this story because as Clay was sucking down the milk, Ryan looked at me and laughed.  I mean really laughed.  When I asked him what was so funny he said, "I'm surprised we didn't rush him the the ER too".  We both laughed pretty hard at the way our evening was spent passing Clay back and forth, trying an array of crazy ideas, when all we had to do was make a bottle for the little guy.  Thank goodness he is so cute and we have a good sense of humor.

Hopefully tomorrow night will be better.