Also, with Sarah here Monday through Friday while I work, it would be so helpful to her if Tatum were used to sleeping in his crib. We need a consistent place for him to nap during the day, and then to sleep at night. He frequently fights sleep as it is, and I’m sure it doesn’t help that he has no real naptime routine.
So I’m finally committed to transitioning him into his own sleeping space. My conflicted feelings about moving him out of our bed hampered my efforts to do this in the past, but now that it’s not just me to consider—it’s Tate’s safety, first and foremost, and Sarah’s ability to get him to take a nap during the day when he needs one—now, I’m ready.
The first thing I did today to prepare for the transition was hang a mobile over his crib. It has the cutest animals dangling from it, and given how much Tate enjoys his swing with the jungle animals (which was $10 at a garage sale vs. the $100+ we spent on the much fancier swing downstairs, about which he is lukewarm at best!), I just knew the mobile would be a hit. Indeed, I put him in his crib this afternoon for a bit of playtime so that he could admire the new mobile, and he squealed and babbled and wiggled and beat his fists on his tummy in excitement! He absolutely adores it. SCORE!
Then I put soft flannel sheets on his crib mattress, so that it would feel warm and snuggly like our bed. I’m also hoping to introduce a lovey as a transitional object for him to sleep with, though the lovies I have are sort of half stuffed animal/half blanky (I’m sure you’ve seen similar ones before—we have a monkey and a spotted dog) and I’m worried about leaving one in the crib with him right now because he pulls anything he can get his hands on up over his head. I doubt that he could suffocate from it…but again, I worry. That’s what first-time moms do, right? Well, it’s probably what ALL moms do, but I can only speak from the first-time-mom point of view, and I’m always fighting off fears of the various calamities that could befall my child.
Our bedtime routine has been going well for weeks (I emphasize the routine because while I’ve done a good job instituting a consistent routine, the “going to sleep” part afterwards has been anything BUT consistent!). Each night we do bath, nursing, book and bed. Tonight was no exception, and the little man was drowsy but awake when I put him down. He “protested” (don’t you just love the sleep books that say “your baby will protest for a while”—meaning he’ll scream his sweet little head off!) for about 10 minutes, rolled around quite a bit (I was spying on the monitor) and now he’s asleep on his tummy. This makes me a bit nervous—he never sleeps on his tummy in our bed! But that’s where he landed, I can see that he’s breathing, and I’m just going to have to sit back and relax and realize that I can’t watch him all night long. Here’s hoping that he sleeps peacefully in his crib for a number of hours, at least!
I promised Tate’s dad some photos of him, since Daddy is still on the road.
Tatum with his spotted puppy lovey:
In his crib (taking it for a quick test run this morning—emphasis on the "quick", since I think he was down for about 10 minutes, tops).
And with his sweet Sarah, who said she didn’t mind if I posted a picture of her. (Some of these came out really bright; I think I used a different setting on the camera. Tatum looks like he's glowing. I mean, he's a white baby, for sure—but not THAT white!)
Soooo big! (Twenty pounds, to be exact—I just weighed him this morning!)
This close-up shows the impracticality of us ever putting Tate in a dark-colored shirt. With a white dog in the house, it just makes no sense!
good job on putting him in the crib! don't worry about the nap time routine. i think it will just naturally evolve now that he is going to sleep in his crib and has a designated place for sleeping. and good for you letting him go to sleep on his own! i still have yet to really do that with my daughter! i rock her to sleep every night. sometimes she does wake up when i lay her in the crib and then she has to put herself to sleep, but usually i am just working on a bad habit! i agree with you about the lovey. i would avoid it as long as you can. i waited till naomi was a year old before i put some stuffed animals in the crib. actually around the same time i took her mobile down b/c i was pretty sure she was using it to climb up the railings. oh and naomi sleeps on her tummy too...it's hard not to worry but i think since they can roll over by themselves, it's ok b/c they can roll back. in theory. i still check naomi multiple times every night. also still put her to sleep on her back, every single time, and she rolls over before i have even finished laying her down!
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