Baby sleep styles

Somewhere along the pregnancy journey, most people buy a crib. We did that. It’s been sitting in a bedroom untouched for about eight months. Both of my babies spent the first few weeks sleeping in our room in a bassinet. Maximus moved to his own room much earlier than Quinten did. {Maximus 1, Quinten 0}

At 11 weeks, we moved Quinten into his crib! We’ve had a long journey getting here. We’ve had problems figuring out his swaddle style. We struggled again when he got too big for the bassinet and he had so much space in the pack ‘n play. Then there was the sleep itself. He spent A LOT of weeks getting up every two hours, regardless of day or night. He slowly moved to a better sleep schedule. At first waking three times, then twice, and now once at night. He teased us a lot along the way, going one great night followed by a really bad night. Once he went three or four days with only one wake up, we decided to move him to his crib. {Naturally, that meant making his room into the nursery instead of just having furniture thrown in there. :)}

Well, it’s been a success! At 11 weeks, he’s sleeping in his own room! We still can’t get him to go to sleep earlier than 10:30 because he’s wide awake from 7-10. And he sleeps until 9 or 10 am, but he’ll soon figure out that he can’t sleep in every day! His average schedule is 10:30-4. Depending on the noise level in the house, he’ll wake again at 7 or 9. I’d love to push his bedtime earlier so he wakes in the middle of the night instead of it being so close to my wake up time, but I’m hoping that will work itself out once we start our new routine next week.

It shouldn’t, but I’m surprised that I have different feelings this time around. Once Quinten reached six weeks, I realized I was no where ready to move him into his own room. {Maybe because he was getting up every two hours…} I’m not sure how I did that with Maximus. It must have been because he was basically sleeping through the night. {I think he was actually sleeping Quinten’s current schedule.} I had these panic attacks of having him be on the other side of the house. I wasn’t ready to not hear his sleeping noises. I was also nervous about the noises associated with the boys sharing a wall. A crying baby would wake Maximus in the middle of the night or a crying toddler would wake Quinten in the morning. So far, Maximus hasn’t heard him and Quinten goes into the pack ‘n play after his 4 am feeding. Parenthood is full of compromise. 🙂

We’ve had a hard time with the baby monitor. We still had it in Maximus’ room. We were used to his noises and it has come in handy many times. We know when he’s waking up vs. actually ready to come out of his room. We hear him when he’s upset and we know when he actually falls asleep. Now, it’s in Quinten’s room. It’s taken some getting used to. The sleeping noises are that of a baby, but our mind tells us it’s Maximus. With a toddler, you don’t worry about him unless he needs you. With a newborn, you stop at every noise. Ok, maybe not everyone does that. I do. It’s hard to wake up in the middle of the night when there are noises over the monitor. Then all of a sudden you remember that’s a baby, not a toddler.

Using that “other” bedroom as a nursery is one of those moments that slaps you in the face. I HAVE TWO BOYS. Two boys who each have their own room. I am almost used to checking on sleeping babies in both rooms. That was weird that first time I went in there to check on Quinten.

Now that Quinten is in his own room, I remember how peaceful a bedroom can be when there isn’t a newborn sleeping in there. No more tip toeing around. When I fall into bed at night, it feels lighter. I didn’t realize there was a weight associated with a baby being in the room, but I know I’m sleeping better now that he’s in his own room. And he appears to be doing just fine in there also!