Sleep regression.

Yowza. This has been a rough week. I never knew about sleep regression before becoming a mom. In fact, I was blissfully ignorant for about the first three and a half months of my kiddo's life. Oh sleep was always a concern, but I figured it would get better with time and, for the most part, it did. My guy was and continues to be a...healthy...eater, so we were (and still are) doing nighttime nursings, but he would eat and drift back off without an issue. Sometime around three and a half months though, that all changed and we went from sleeping in three hour stretches to waking up pretty much every hour. Screaming. We could rock him to sleep, but forget about putting him down or the crying would begin again. We began co-sleeping. It was the only way any of us got any sleep. It was easier to nurse and to comfort him back to sleep when he woke. There were still regular occurrences of dad having to take him down to the couch around 2 a.m., but we were getting MORE sleep at least.

Due to a series of real life events over the course of the next several weeks and months, we kept up the practice of co-sleeping. We had our first weekend away, our first vacation, an illness and pretty much a solid month of teething. All those things disrupted little dude's sleep anyway, so we figured why fight a battle that would be impossible to win.

At about the six month mark, when things calmed down a bit, I decided it was time to get this kid sleeping in his crib again. It was a bit of a battle for two nights, but we went back to our nightly routine and he started getting put down in his crib AWAKE and putting himself to sleep at night. Yeah, I stayed in the room while he fell asleep, so what? I've come to terms with the fact that I am strongly opposed to the cry it out concept. I know it works for a lot of people, but it's not for me. The good news is that since that time he has been sleeping in his crib at least until his first feeding every night! Yeah, we still co-sleep the rest of the night. He protests his crib fiercely after the first feeding and I value sleep highly in life. :). Also, if I'm being entirely honest, although things get a bit cramped in our bed sometimes, I like sleeping with my baby. The fact that I am able to get him to sleep alone in his own bed for some part of the night, while I run around the house doing the chores that didn't get finished during the day, is good enough. For now.

The bad news is that, for the past week, baby is back to waking quite often. Every couple of hours typically. And dad has had to head to the couch with him on more than a few occasions this week at 2 in the morning as well. Turns out we are facing something that every kiddo goes through, usually several times during their early years. The monster even has a name--Sleep Regression. Dr. google and all the baby sites will tell you all about it, but basically at around 7 or 8 months, babies sleep habits are changing and their brains are trying to process a ton of new stuff. They may also be learning to crawl. So it's almost like their brains are too busy to sleep or they wake up and can't fall back asleep. Good times. Oh yeah and the first major sleep regression hits around 4 months. Whaddyaknow? That's when little dude was learning to roll over, we'd see him rolling on the monitor and it was usually when he had rolled onto his belly that he woke up. Now he sometimes sleeps on his belly, but wakes up in the night doing pushups. It's a good time to workout apparently. Crawling prep, no doubt, but still rough on the sleep.

So, consider yourself warned. There is a thing called Sleep Regression. It is real. It is not a joke. And it's kind of a bitch.

7 months.

Dear Beck,

You are seven months old and have 6 teeth.  Soon enough you'll have at least 8.  You poor kid. 

It's been a rough month.  Lots of sleepless nights for all of us.  Well, except maybe Lita.  Lots of baby ibuprofen.  You even learned to enjoy the flavor.  That's probably a bad sign.  Rough days too.  I'm hoping that with the eruption of 4 teeth at once, we are now through the worst of it.  But all those lovely parents I know assure me that molars are even more fun.  Something to look forward to.  :) 

Don't worry, we have had some fun times too!

We celebrated Father's Day.  We did end up going to the Chicago Fire game as planned.  It was still pretty warm.  We sat in the shade.  You mostly enjoyed yourself, only got cranky when it was naptime.  You snoozed briefly on dad and then slept in the car on the way home.  It was a late night out for you, but you did good.  And I know your dad had fun. 

You are LOVING your "solid" foods right now.  Again, "solid" is a relative term as you're only eating mush still.  I expect that will start changing now that you have so many teeth in there!  You LOVE yogurt, peaches, pears.  You've also had yellow and acorn squash, sweet potatoes.  Peas made you throw up.  That was fun.  We're slowly adding new flavors and we should really start meats soon too.  We cannot feed you fast enough when it is meal time.  You have also started drinking water at meals.  We tried a sippy cup for awhile, but that did not go over very well.  You are doing much better with a straw.  Although I do think that about 50% of the time you are blowing back just as much as you're taking out.  Silly boy.

Sleep.  Sleep.  Sleep.  Or lack of sleep.  I successfully re-established your bedtime routine.  Most nights you even happily go to bed now.  In your own crib!  And you'll stay there, again, most of the time, until your first night-time feeding.  It is after that feeding where we run into trouble still.  You are still finishing the nights out in our bed.  Most nights, I am okay with and even enjoy that fact!  Some nights though, some nights I just want to get some sleep.  I try to remind myself that soon enough I will miss having you to snuggle with.  Oh and night feedings?  Yes, you're still eating through the night.  Even though we've started solids, you are still wanting your milk about every 4 hours.  Yes, we are still breastfeeding and I'm actually really proud of that fact.  We have had some challenges along the way, including all those new teeth (ouch), but we've made it.  I have no plans to stop at any particular time, from here on out, I am following your lead in that department.  It would be nice to stop the night feedings though...  Just sayin'.  :)

Last month you were quite the babbler, but you have gone a bit quiet this month.  I am assuming that is because your mouth has been busy making all those teeth and your hands (or some other object) are usually crammed up in there.  Yum.  You are also busy rolling around and I think getting quite frustrated that you are not able to move around on your own just yet.  I often find you on your tummy facing the complete opposite direction of where I put you down.  You use your tummy as a pivot point these days.  :)  From your stomach, you are pushing up with your arms and legs, but not at the same time yet.  Soon, soon.  You love standing up while supported too.  And are just starting to sit for short stretches unsupported, but you cannot sit yourself up yet--the trials of that giant head, I'm sure. 

You are changing so much and so quickly.  Sometimes the days crawl by, but the months are flying.  I just cannot believe it. 

We love you, baby.