The Hardest Thing about Parenting So Far
We are going through some sleep issues here. It’s amazing how all-consuming and exhausting it can be just to try to get a baby to nap. I tried all day Friday and all day Saturday. Sunday things evened out because we spent a lot of time in the car driving to and from Milwaukee. Today, after reading applicable parts of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, I am determined to help Ze achieve a more appropriate sleep schedule. The AP part of me hates letting him cry a bit to sleep but the Montessori part of me wants to help him help himself to sleep. So far in his life we have only ever walked him until he is sound asleep and then carefully, carefully, carefully put him to bed. It has worked until now, but now he seems to want to be awake and take in the world. He fights sleep when he is clearly tired.
Sleep is THE area where every parent has their own opinion, and I have basically been feeling like a bad mama for walking him for hours to put him to sleep, like a bad mama for letting him cry, like a bad mama for having him sleep in his own bed, like a bad mama for letting him sleep a few hours in the morning in hour bed…I don’t want sleep to be a horrible thing for Ze. So I’m making in my goal to be very, very consistent with naptime this week and with the two or three things I do to soothe him to sleep. Hopefully these will start to become cues that it is sleep time. And hopefully we can slowly encourage him to fall asleep on his own without tears. 
It’s such a difficult line to walk: caring for your child that you want to protect him from pain but also helping him stay healthy and strong and hopefully preventing sleep battles in the future.
By the way, that thing he is sleeping in is called a Woombie, and it is the best swaddler I have found. Ze got out of every other swaddler, even the velcro ones by 6 weeks. I have tried to put him down without a swaddle but he is such an active baby that it seems he cannot keep himself from moving and waking up instantly. The Woombie keeps his limbs pretty secure but he can still move his hands around inside. He’s not stuck in only one position like other swaddlers.
