The Five Stages of Baby's Sleep Habits (Mom's View!)

So obviously, since my baby is only 4 months old, I'm not very far into this baby sleeping thing....but this is what I've been through so far, and my views on it. 


Stage 1:
Oh My God. Will my baby EVER sleep longer than 1 1/2 hours at a time?  I'm never going to sleep again.  Ever. I'm tired. Please just sleep a little bit longer buddy.  I swaddled you nice and fed you and your diaper is good. Please?

Stage 2:
Hmm...My baby has been sleeping for 2 1/2 hours.  Is he okay?  Why is he sleeping so long?  Oh good he is breathing.  I should just go to sleep.  
No.  No point in going to sleep because he's going to be up any minute now.  I'll just wait.  

Hmm...I'm exhausted.  It's been 4 hours and he's still sleeping.  I should really have gone to be earlier.  Wait, is he breathing?  Oh good. He is. I guess I'll go to bed now.

And as you slowly drift into dream land, wwwwaaahhhhhhhhh.  He's up.

Stage 3: 
Wow. My baby slept for 5 hours last night and the night before.  He is amazing.  I'm going to buy him a pony.  And a race car.  I feel amazing & refreshed. This is great.

Hahahha....that was just a joke. Don't get excited mom.  I'm going to go back to sleeping for 2 hours max for a few nights, just to mess with your head and remind you that I actually am the boss.

Stage 4:
Oh look, my baby really sleeps all night long.  This is not a fluke.  It's happened for a few weeks now.  He's goes to bed early, I have time to cook dinner, eat it while it's hot, and even relax for a bit in the evening.  This is great.  I can get so much sleep now!  I'm going to stay up for a little bit, but then I'll go to bed.

Hmm... I should read a book.  I should organize my dressers. I should do all the things I've been putting off.

It's midnight, but my kindle told me my book only has 40 minutes left and it's getting good now.  I will just stay up and read it, even though I hate myself every morning at 5 when he wakes because I've only slept for 3 or 4 hours.  But the freedom I have now.  Yay.  Freedom to do things I enjoy until whatever time I want.  This is great. 

 I'm tired. Really tired.  Every single day.  Why don't I just go to sleep at a reasonable hour? Why? 

Stage 5:
What the hell.  I miss my little baby.  He goes to bed so early and I sit here all night and miss him.  I wish I could get him to stay up later but he's very against it.  I think I miss him being awake at night with me.  It's lonely without his cute little smile.  What the hell?  Why does he sleep so much?

So yea...this is where I'm at. It's only been four months.  I hear that there's a 4-month sleep regression that should be affecting us soon.  I guess I'll wait and see because although he wakes up a few times, he puts himself right back to sleep so it hasn't affected us...yet!

Anyone else?? Am I the only one missing him now?

Video Games, Dressing Rooms, and 5 year old words of wisdom!

Hylan was here for a good part of last week because of school vacation.  We had a good time, and for the most part everything went well.  He got a bit sad when Justin finally came home on Friday after work and then got another call and had to leave again.  Hylan is so excited when his dad gets home and loves playing with him.  As much as I play and interact with him all day, I'm just not as cool as his dad.  It made me sad when Hylan cried because dad had to stop playing with him and go back to work.  He's at an age where he can't fully understand they "why" and I did my best to explain it.  During the day we had gone shopping and out to lunch, and I explained that for us to do those things, dad had to work and earn the money.  He kind of understood it, at least as much as he can, and calmed down.  Luckily Justin's call was close by and he wasn't gone very long.

I absolutely love talking with Hylan and spending our days together.  The things he says really make me smile and the innocence in what he says is beautiful.  And often hysterical. 

Here are a few favorites from Hylan:

While watching me put on makeup, which he does every day:  "You don't want to put on too much because then you look like a clown, and you don't want to look like a clown unless you have a funny hat too, right?"

He helps me pick out which colors to wear for eye shadow, which perfume for the day, and which outfit I should wear.  He also really prefers my hair when it's down and I put "Jello" in it because I look much prettier.  (His dad doesn't quite love the idea of him learning about makeup & hair so in depth, but I think the time and interaction together is most important, no matter what the topic is!)

While in the dressing room with me when I was shopping for a new pair of skinny jeans since mine are all too big now and aren't tight like they should be:   Loud Giggles, then "It's so funny how you have to jump up and down to get those pants on.  Giggle Giggle"

Thanks buddy, I was really hoping every other person in the dressing room knew that my pants wouldn't fit over my ass unless I hopped a bit to get them up!  But dammit, they look great and fit great and I bought them! Bonus points for the running commentary of the entire dressing room process.  People were wondering if the pattern on my underwear was cool (it was), if you could see my butt in the other mirror (you could), and if my tattoos looked colorful (they do!)

While telling me a story about how he knows that you shouldn't show your butt to anybody, he says, "I shouldn't show my butt in school right, because then I'd be abareassed?"  His version of embarrassed perfectly sounded like a bare assed and I tried like hell to not laugh and just help him say it correctly.  But he was actually correct in what he said too, he would be bare assed.

We had a fun week.  One day we went to my work and got a corn dog because he loves them.  Hylan is quite fascinated by my boss Brian, and he is somehow his new favorite person.  He told me that Brian is his best friend, and he loves him 100.  But have no fear, he loves me 107 because I take care of him!  Funny he said that though because as we were driving home with our corn dog, I was saying how big it was and was worried about him being able to eat it all.  He told me had plenty of room in his belly, which made me realize I hadn't fed him breakfast.  OOPS!  But look at that, I still got the extra 7 points for "taking care of him!" Even if I can't remember to feed him.

I'm still working on the video game battle.  I'm so up in the air about it.  I really think he's too young to have the DS attached to him at all times.  When he's at home with his mother, he can play video games all day and all night.  I don't like that idea and I feel like he should be doing other things that engage him more.  I try to have him look through books daily, color, and play other games besides just video games.  I want him to do things that help him learn and exercise his brain.  I use video games as a treat for him, or sometimes for me....when I need a break and need to accomplish something in peace.  I know he will leave me alone for a while if he's playing.  But that's also why I hate them so much.  He gets so entranced by them that he's oblivious to everything else.  Then I also contradict myself if Justin is home.  When he is here and plays video games WITH Hylan, I feel like that is better.  I don't know though.  To me, the fact that they are interacting with one another, showing each other things and strategizing, and just spending time together is better than when Hylan is playing alone.  I don't know though....I still would prefer if he was spending more time doing other activities.  I think it will be better in the summer.  We are pretty good about going outside still, even if it is cold, because well...he's a kid and kids play outside.   But it's been pretty cold, so we don't stay out as long as we do in the summer.  This leads to more time being stuck in the house, which isn't always as exciting.   I'm working on a solution that makes me feel comfortable.

That's my story for the day....Do you let your kids play video games?  Do you limit them? Do you have a funny story you want to share about your little ones?  Leave me a comment here and share it!  It's quite easy if you have a google account of any sort, and you can simply log in and share with me!

As usual, thanks for reading, sharing with your friends, and all of your comments, texts, and emails about my blog!  I'm trying to get everybody to comment here, on this blog, because when I go back and read them the comments make me smile too!  Give it a try!  Thanks!