Let's roll
Where my baby boy once expressed his curiosity by staring, he now expresses curiosity by making full body contortions to motor to the place where he is not and wants to be. Bobby can't crawl yet, but he can roll and spin himself in circles while lying on his belly (see Curly Shuffle). He seems frustrated that he cannot crawl yet. In the meantime he is turning into a ball of kinetic energy, especially when it is time to go to bed.
We worked hard to make Bobby a good sleeper, and now we're frustrated because we have taken several steps backward. For his first two months, we rocked him until he slept, then woke up with him in the middle of the night to do it again for as many times as he needed. Eventually, we started to let him cry for a while before we picked him up and soothed him. When we left Chicago for Singapore, Bobby was five months old and was a champion at falling asleep at nap time or bed time. During months three and four, he would sometimes cry for a little while before falling asleep, but in the last few weeks of month four, he would even fall asleep and wake up without crying. How lucky we were.
Bobby reacted to his jet lag with frustration. After a week of coaxing him to sleep, it seemed like we had him back on a good sleeping schedule. One day it took him only four minutes to fall asleep for a nap.
In addition to the new sleep time (i.e., 13 hours earlier in the day, now that we're in the Eastern Hemisphere) he's experienced a few other changes that may affect sleep. Yes, it is very hot here, but we are sleeping with the air conditioner on; I don't believe this affects his sleep. He's also in a new place, but he's sleeping in the same crib we were using in Chicago; I don't believe this affects his sleep. In Chicago, we bundled him up in thick clothes to sleep, and even in Singapore with the temperature controlled it's too hot to wear such thick clothes. The thick clothing helped to keep him from jerking around and waking himself up. I do believe this has an effect. Maybe he's a cold-weather baby after all and feels more comfortable in thick clothes.
But it is no matter because then he learned to roll. Then he learned to love rolling. And now he's moving onto proto-crawling. So now his crib is just a soft-walled room where he can roll from side to side and spin around. Some of you may know how hard it is to sleep when rolling. I like to lie still and close my eyes before falling asleep. I have provided this advice to Bobby repeatedly with so far little heed.
We are now starting week four of our Singaporean sojourn, and the time spent putting Bobby to sleep is getting longer. I guess it's a wave cycle where in week two we were in the trough and now we seem to be rapidly sloping upward; I will pray we hit the peak soon. Two weeks into our Singaporean sojourn, it took 15 minutes to rock Bobby to sleep; during week three, the time was climbing closer to an hour. If he's in his crib, he just wants to practice his push ups and roll from side to side. If I'm rocking him to sleep, he wants to cock his head to look around.
Fear not, however, we are trying several methods to try to retrain him to soothe himself to sleep. Soon, we hope, he will relearn what he apparently forgot -- that is, how to just hold still, close your eyes, and fall asleep when tired. It feels so good, Bobby -- why won't you listen to me?
We worked hard to make Bobby a good sleeper, and now we're frustrated because we have taken several steps backward. For his first two months, we rocked him until he slept, then woke up with him in the middle of the night to do it again for as many times as he needed. Eventually, we started to let him cry for a while before we picked him up and soothed him. When we left Chicago for Singapore, Bobby was five months old and was a champion at falling asleep at nap time or bed time. During months three and four, he would sometimes cry for a little while before falling asleep, but in the last few weeks of month four, he would even fall asleep and wake up without crying. How lucky we were.
Bobby reacted to his jet lag with frustration. After a week of coaxing him to sleep, it seemed like we had him back on a good sleeping schedule. One day it took him only four minutes to fall asleep for a nap.
In addition to the new sleep time (i.e., 13 hours earlier in the day, now that we're in the Eastern Hemisphere) he's experienced a few other changes that may affect sleep. Yes, it is very hot here, but we are sleeping with the air conditioner on; I don't believe this affects his sleep. He's also in a new place, but he's sleeping in the same crib we were using in Chicago; I don't believe this affects his sleep. In Chicago, we bundled him up in thick clothes to sleep, and even in Singapore with the temperature controlled it's too hot to wear such thick clothes. The thick clothing helped to keep him from jerking around and waking himself up. I do believe this has an effect. Maybe he's a cold-weather baby after all and feels more comfortable in thick clothes.
But it is no matter because then he learned to roll. Then he learned to love rolling. And now he's moving onto proto-crawling. So now his crib is just a soft-walled room where he can roll from side to side and spin around. Some of you may know how hard it is to sleep when rolling. I like to lie still and close my eyes before falling asleep. I have provided this advice to Bobby repeatedly with so far little heed.
We are now starting week four of our Singaporean sojourn, and the time spent putting Bobby to sleep is getting longer. I guess it's a wave cycle where in week two we were in the trough and now we seem to be rapidly sloping upward; I will pray we hit the peak soon. Two weeks into our Singaporean sojourn, it took 15 minutes to rock Bobby to sleep; during week three, the time was climbing closer to an hour. If he's in his crib, he just wants to practice his push ups and roll from side to side. If I'm rocking him to sleep, he wants to cock his head to look around.
Fear not, however, we are trying several methods to try to retrain him to soothe himself to sleep. Soon, we hope, he will relearn what he apparently forgot -- that is, how to just hold still, close your eyes, and fall asleep when tired. It feels so good, Bobby -- why won't you listen to me?
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| It's bed time! Let's roll from side |
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| to side |
 |
| to side. |
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