And 2 Becomes 3...: Who's really getting trained here?

As I briefly mentioned in my last post Lucas is NOT a good sleeper. As a newborn he was averaging 14-15 hours a day when he should of been getting 20. Now at 4 1/2 mos old he is averaging 12 when he should be getting 14-16. He has been getting 8-10 at night and MAYBE 2 hours during the day broken up into 4-5 "naps" of 40 min or less. If he was happy and thriving on that sleep I wouldn't care, but he ISN'T. He starts out the day happy and as the day progresses and he sleeps less and less he gets crabbier and crabbier to the point that before bedtime he is a serious crabass! It's not working so I picked up Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child and immediately started to try out some of the stuff. That night instead of rocking him to bed for what seemed like FOREVER we did our bedtime routine and put him down in his crib drowsy but awake. He "talked" to his mobile for 8 minutes, cried for 2 and fell asleep. He was up at 1 to eat and 5:40 for the day. WAY to early. So the next night I moved his bedtime from 8 to 7 because the book said the earlier they go to bed, sometimes the better they will sleep. I laid him down at 6:45 after his bottle and again he talked, but no crying and was asleep at 6:58. He slept until 12:30 to eat, was up 45 min and then fussed at 4:30 and 6:30. I left him both times because he was fussing, NOT crying and he went back to sleep both times within 5-10 minutes and didn't get up for the day until 8:10 am! Success!! Last night I laid him down at 6:52 and he was out at 7:14, again, NO crying. He was up for 20 minutes at 12:30 to eat, fussed a bit at 5, but I left him and he went back to sleep and up for the day at 7:10. I know he would have slept a little longer if that darn fire truck hadn't gone blazing by at full blast volume. UGH. But still, another successful night! So I think we have nights worked out for now. But naps. OMG THE NAPS SUCK. I am trying to watch his sleep cues but he really doesn't have any good early ones. Once in awhile I will catch a yawn but most of the time he is entering the "over tired zone" and rubbing eyes and getting fussy before I know he's tired. So for now I am trying to go by the clock. I know that awake time for his age is between 1 and 2 hours. I know that early morning awake time is less than afternoon. I am changing it up, trying to find the perfect number but so far no go. Today I laid him down for his first nap after he had been awake an hour because yesterday I did 1 hr 15 and he was over tired. He laid awake in there "talking" and playing with his toes for 35 minutes before he went to sleep so obviously he wasn't tired yet. Then when he did sleep he slept 35 min. Sigh. Got him up and kept him up 1 1/2 hours. I think I missed the window again because he was rubbing his eyes during his bottle which means he passed tired and is entering over tired zone. Dang it. But the he stayed awake in the crib for 40 long minutes, 8 of which he was crying. Then he fell asleep and woke up at 37 minutes. I left him because I KNEW he was still tired. He fussed for 4 minutes, cried for 8 and fell back asleep. He woke AGAIN 10 minutes later, rinse and repeat the last time except he only cried for 4 minutes. Woke up in 10 minutes AGAIN and cried for 2 minutes before passing out. Now he has slept 65 minutes straight since that wake up. So obviously he was tired, he just has trouble with sleep cycles I think. He doesn't sleep through the change, it wakes him and he has a hard time self soothing himself back to sleep. He is getting there though since he did it and did it shorter each time. It makes me sad though when it takes him that long to take a decent nap cuz that cuts into our fun playtime and it KILLS ME to listen to him cry but it IS working and nothing we tried before worked so I have faith it will get better. Dear god, please let it get better.

I will end this with a couple pics.. :) This first batch is his first Easter at Auntie Nancy's house. :)

Lucas and Auntie Nancy with his singing duck

Lucas with Gramma and Grampa

Lucas and his cousin Danny

Lucas and his cousin Jessica

Lucas in his Easter outfit, which yeah got drooled on QUICK.

Lucas with Gary and I. The ONLY family picture we have other than one Gary's Mom took at Xmas!

Lucas tried carrots for the first time on Easter. He is not a huge "eating" fan yet so we will be waiting a couple more weeks before we try again I think.