sleeeep...

i started reading this book this weekend. i took it out of the library thinking, "yeah, my baby sleeps well at night but i need help on the napping situation." well...now i am all consumed with sleep habits. babies need a TON of sleep. yikes. the most interesting point so far is that parents don't want to put their babies to sleep "too early" for fear that they will wake up too early. what happens is that the baby is overtired by the time he goes to sleep and then will wake up in the night or still end up waking too early. so ben's been going to bed between 7 and 7:30pm but often he's really cranky and upset earlier and i'm trying to keep him up at least until 7pm because I thought going to bed too early would mean earlier waking. as it turns out...it doesn't. bedtime routine has started around 6pm the last two nights and he's fast asleep by 6:30pm. whaat? and he's waking up at his normal time. moms...i recommend reading this book.

so another interesting thought is how our culture these days is that having a baby isn't going to stop us from doing all the same things that we used to do. we tote our baby everywhere and keep trying to live the same life. (i'm using "we" to mean people...not necessarily tim and i) but let's face it moms (and dads), we have a kid. life has changed. and just as we wouldn't skip feedings for our babe or cut feedings short because we want to go out with a friend, we shouldn't be doing that with sleep. this kid depends on us to help him get the sleep he needs. the less sleep babies get, the less alert, happy, and aware they are. well, if you've hung out with me in the last month, you've definitely heard me say, "ben needs a nap" or "ben's tired". i've been slowly figuring out the importance of sleep for my son but now reading this book, it's kind of putting into words what i was vaguely recognizing. i found it somewhat reassuring to find out that i'm not just a crazy mother who's obsessed with her kid's sleep habits but that i'm somewhat in tune with this baby of mine. unfourtunately, i'm just realizing all the more napping ben could use and am about to become totally annoying to be around. haha. hopefully not but i am realizing that i've got to get this kid on a better nap schedule. and napping in his crib. i tried today and i didn't have the will to listen to the crying when i knew the swing would bring cry-less napping despite not as restful. so "disturbed sleep" it was.

the farther i read in the book and the more personal stories i read, the more i'm like, "i have to just let him cry it out at naptime." boo. (hoo) anyways...we'll call it "sleep saga" and i'm sure it's not the last you hear of it.

are there moms of babies reading this blog who are interested in mom stuff? or should i be skipping this jazz?