Settling In

We have finally made it and settled into our home in San Diego. There are a few loose ends to tie up with organizing the house, but for the most part we are unpacked. The trip was an "uneventful eventful" ride. Turns out that Brady HATES the car. Scratch that. He DESPISES the car. He screamed most of the way from Virginia to San Diego, which wore our nerves out tremendously. My precious, beautiful angel was a screaming devil child in the car.

At first I tried desperately to calm him - signing, toys, DVD's, silence. Nothing worked. Nothing even made a dent in his attempts to scream his guts out. Finally, after days of endless screaming the whole time he was awake, and futile attempts to calm him, I finally gave up and let him cry. I had to laugh while he was doing it because otherwise I would have gone stark raving mad.

I searched endlessy for reasons that he would be so upset. Was his seat belt too tight? Was his car seat loose? Was he sick? I worried myself to death with what could possibly be wrong with him until I noticed a pattern. When the little bugger would hear the seatbelt unclicking, or feel the carseat lifitng off the base, he was INSTANTLY a better baby. He went from lunatic to angel baby in a matter of nanoseconds when he was out of the car. The conclusion was that he just flat out hates the car. Unfortunately, I'm told this goes on for months and months at a time. I am dreading leaving the house.

Along with the unpacking, for the last week we have tried to get Brady into a routine - something he is not used to. With the routine came the unwanted sleeping in his crib, in his own room. It has been a plight to get him to nap or sleep at night on his own, and we have spent countless, endless hours trying to get him back to sleep. The vicous cycle continued daily when he wouldn't sleep enough during the day, and even less at night.

Ultimately, we have broken down and tried the approach we never thought we'd try - crying until he puts himself to sleep. Thankfully, it is not a horrid as it sounds. Noelle gave me the name of a program that several of her girlfriends tried and swear by. "The Sensible Sleep Program" helps you understand that it is your job as a parent to help your child learn how to sleep on his/her own. You do not have to close the child in the room and wait while he screams himself to sleep, you can be in the room with him to give him support and loving touches while he figures this all out. It was hard, but he fell asleep after only 28 minutes of crying. He woke up again 32 minutes later, but put himself to sleep on his own (I was in the room) in 18 minutes. Again, he woke up after about a half hour, but it only took him 5 minutes to fall asleep again.

I feel this method is "humane" and I can honestly say I feel empowered already by giving him the tools he needs to sleep on his own. I mean, come on, who really wants to have to rock a 25 pound 2 year old to sleep?

Speaking of size, Brady had his 4 month appointment on Friday and he continues to grow very well. He's 24 inches and 14 pounds. He falls within the 25% percentile, but the doctor said he's doing very, very well.

I am off to put myself to sleep and pray that the learning of sleep habits doesn't take more than a few nights to teach.