Changing ways

A couple of weeks ago Doc decided that he didn't want to be rocked to sleep anymore. He would be so exhausted by the end of the day that he would just cry whether he was being held or not. I couldn't even nurse him to sleep. So I started laying him down to fall asleep on his own. We've made great progress although he still wakes up a few times in the night (much better than every two hours). We're working on keeping a schedule. He's down to two naps a day and we have a new nighttime routine. Bedtime preparation takes about an hour. This is kind of a long time, but it is one of my favorite parts of the day. We change into fresh jammies and diaper then lay on the bed and read stories for half an hour. Doc rolls over and over and plays with his penguin Astrid or a Candela. Every few rolls he stops and watches me, waiting for me to look over. He smiles and goes back to playing. Then I feed him one more time before we stand in front of the window and watch the cars go by while I sing American Pie (I only know four of the six verses). When he is sufficiently relaxed I walk to his crib and sway humming Pangur Ban from Secret of Kells until he lays his head 0n my shoulder. Tonight he fell asleep like this. If he has trouble falling asleep, the extreme bum massage usually does the trick.

These are photos of Astrid in Antarctica and New Zealand before she came to live with us.

Posing with Jampa

Posing with Baby Belle's penguin

Lounging at the hotel in New Zealand