No sleep 'til Brooklyn.

Husband: Sweet lord, it's like a thousand degrees in here.

Me: I think I've lost 5 pounds since midnight.

Meanwhile, baby is a wailin'.......

Husband: I knew this would happen. It's 4:30 in the morning. He's been screaming for an hour and a half. Why won't he settle? (he says in his ultra-annoyed voice)

Wife: His head is wet and we are beyond hot in here. Obviously it's the heat. He won't even take my breast. This is going to be a hell of a weekend. In Hell. With this heat. Jesus, open a window!

That was the first night I dreamt of Edward Cullen. No wait, wrong story. That was the first night Jackson woke up and nothing, (and I mean nothing) would make him settle. I cringed everytime the next wail would become louder than the next; my poor family in the next room. Although we had traveled to northern Ontario, the heat in the room felt more like we were vacationing in Mexico, which would have been awesome aside from one sweaty and very angry little boy. Not that I could blame him. Hell, I was a little cranky myself. Oh, who am I kidding? I was beyond cranky. And hot. At 5am, baby finally settled (the window had been opened for the past half an hour, allowing for the cool night air to infultrate our stiffling room).
The next morning, right on cue, baby awoke at 6:30am and before I could even groan, Nana was at the door, rice cereal already in her hand. God bless Grandmothers. Seriously, this child lacks for nothing when Grandma or Nana is in the room.
Both my husband and I slept for another blissful 2 hours.

Me: Ok, what is with the bloody heat in this joint?

Sister: Oh. My. God. I was freezing last night.

Nana: Was there a draft near the door?

Husband: I woke up thinking I was in Cuba.

Grandad: You opened a window?? In winter?? That's wasteful.

Sister's BF: Ah, I had the best sleep last night.

Us: Groan......

The following night, my husband went skiing. I was nervous about putting baby to bed, but my dad seemed to have fixed the heating debacle and I hoped that would mean baby would sleep "better" than he had the previous night in Dante's Inferno. I laid baby down after our nightly routine of bath and a story. He put his head down right away and I started the bum shooshing thing. Since he was in a playpen, I had to lean right over the side. Doing this longer than 30 seconds and I literally felt my back seizing. I knew baby was fed, was tired, and was ready to fall asleep. I gently reminded him I loved him, apologized for the blazing heat the night before and left the room. I shut the door behind me, heard him cry for 2 minutes and then slilence. It was the first time I had listend to him cry and not gone rushing in. Physically, I knew I couldn't shoosh him to sleep. Emotionally, I knew he'd be ok.

2 minutes. That's all it took. And he really wasn't even crying; it was more moaning than anything. 2 minutes and then quiet. 2 minutes and I released a breath I didn't even realize I was holding. 2 minutes and my baby had fallen asleep on his own. My mom high-fived me and I couldn't help but plaster a massive grin on my face. He had fallen asleep without the shoosh.

At 4am, I startled awake and lunged across the bed to the playpen and dove my arm in. I immediatly checked for breathing, a pulse, some indication that baby was ok. He had never, I mean never, slept this long. It was 4 am and my body was confused, refreshed even. Of course baby was ok. He was sleeping soundly until my intrusive arm woke him up. I gently patted him and he fell back asleep until 6am. Wha???

Several things happened that weekend:
1) Baby began crawling. And I, of course, went crazy with delight. And then 10 minutes later internally groaned about the lack of baby proofing we had done back home.
2) Baby swam in the pool every day and loved it. I am open to Nike endorsements and am declaring 2024: Baby's Olympic year.
3) Baby slept through the night for three nights straight.
4) I felt ok leaving baby to moan, knowing he was fed, changed, tired and ready to go to bed. When he wouldn't settle after a minute, one of us would go in, reassure him that everything is ok, and then leave the room again. We never had to go in more than twice.
5) We had support from my fmaily and were less stressed and less tired than we normally were.
6) We slept with baby in between our bed so when he briefly arose, we were able to calm him right away with a simple touch to the back.
7) I started to feel like 'me' again.

When we left, we had no idea what to expect at home. Would baby keep this up? Could this be the turn around we've been waiting for?
One thing was certain: we were installing a pool in our downstairs den.

Sleep and the City.

Me: Baby, this is curry spice. Mama adds it to your rice cereal so that when Daddy and I are able to take you to a restaurant, we won't be limited to Swiss Chalet and Wendy's.

Baby: Mmmmmmmm......

I have to say, what the sleepless wonder lacks in sleep he certainly makes up in eating. He has an amazing appetite and has been such a great eater ever since that tiny spoon entered his mouth. I'd like to think it was all the curry and spices I ate during my pregnancy, but I don't sit around wondering why; I just enjoy the fact that he loves food. I can deal with bags under my eyes if it means that we can at least find joy in this.

Baby: Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! (shakes his little fists in a fury and kicks legs excitedly in his chair where he sits with us at the kitchen table)

Me: (quickly mixing a new batch of food as baby screams at me for more) Patience, my sweet thing....who clearly inherited his mother's lurve of food. (I whisper that last remark under my breath

We make baby's food and he has yet to turn down any concoction we whip up. This is a great sign as we embark on our first winter road trip. My mom has agreed to take baby in the morning and fix him breakfast thus giving my husband and I a few extra hours sleep-god bless her. We arrive at the resort eager and ready. First thing on our agenda: check out the pool and get baby swimming. I am convinced that if he tires as much as I do after a swim, then perhaps we won't keep the entire hotel up all night. Before I swim, I plop down on the couch for some 'light' reading: Ferber's Sleep Solution. I must admit, I thought I had this guy all figured out, but there is more to his theory than I knew (and clearly the 200 page book is not simply 'let baby cry until baby falls asleep'). The idea behind his work is that babies need to learn to fall asleep on their own. This process takes time, encouragement, compassion and patience, but if consistent, baby and parents can have a full night's sleep fairly quickly. The method itself is actually quite simple: follow the sleep routine that we have (bath,book,crib), place baby in crib, say 'night night', walk away, and then wait. If (and in our case, when) baby cries, wait one minute, go back into the baby's room, reassure baby that he is ok, that you love him, say 'night night' and walk away. Wait 2 minutes if baby continues crying. Repeat this process and enter room at 3 minutes, then 4 minutes and so on until you reach the maximum time you are comfortable with-for us,we decided we would not let him cry any longer than 10 minutes at a time.

I was skeptical and 6 months prior, I would have been horrified at the thought of allowing my little one to cry, even for a minute. But the fact of the matter was, baby was crying for way more than a minute, even in my arms, even in my bed beside me. I was determined to finish the book and get down to business when we returned to the city.

It turns out I didn't have to. I only had to read to chapter 5.