Sleep and Poop

Another fun surprise for us...Gus has been sleeping right through the thunderstorm that we have been having tonight. Joel and I were wondering how he would do with thunder and lightening and if we would have a fussy baby on our hands. Luckily, all went well for his first big thunderstorm.

We have been having a lot of sleep issues with the Gus-man and things have been getting much better this week so we were hoping the storm wouldn't set us back. We think we have a couple of things pinpointed.


#1- Gus is cutting some teeth. Clearly not happy about it either. I keep trying to tell him that if he just toughs it out he will be much happier because he will be able to eat so many new foods with new teeth. He currently has 4 teeth. The two on the bottom have been here for quite awhile but within the past few weeks he started to grow a "fang" on top. Just in the past few days we have been able to see the other "fang". So I may have a little vampire on my hands but aren't vampires popular right now?

#2- Lack of bedtime routine. We have made a strong effort to have a more solid bed time routine. In addition, we used to lay down with him until he feel asleep but now he goes right into bed. Each night, the blood curdling screams have shortened. Tonight it was only about 7 or 8 minutes. It was about 20 minutes this past weekend so hopefully by next week our little guy will start to get the hang of it.
#3- Naps. We knew that our son was getting a couple of naps a day but we weren't sure as to when they made the most sense and not only that but at what point do we put him to sleep?  It is hard to make a point to put him down for a nap.  We read a book that my sister-in-law, Sarah gave us a long time ago.  We read parts of it before Gus was born...but we really should have read the whole thing.  We also did some reading online.  We discovered that our little guy does need the 3 naps he takes each day...and he stays up at night just a little bit later.  We think that this could work quite well.  Over spring break he has been taking a morning nap, a nap after lunch, one late afternoon and then going to bed around 8ish.  His naps aren't really that long and that is why it is okay to have 3 naps.  (Little does this kid know...he is living the life!!)

In addition to our sleep issues, we have been trying to figure out his pooping issues.  With help from his doctor, we learned about apple-prune juice and we have adjusted his food.  Things are MUCH better now.  (And yes, I know that someday my son will be mortified that I share so much with you!)

This has been a week of adjustments for our little guy but so far all three of us are surviving our spring break week!