Granny's magic chair?

So, hey, guess what I'm going to talk about... You got it! Sleep!

For the past, oh, week or so, I've been trying my best to stick to the same bedtime routine for Jordan. We do dinner, bath, read a book in his dim bedroom, turn off the light, sit in there and nurse (briefly. He usually doesn't want to) and then I put him to bed. Then, I stay in the room until he falls asleep (or he screams like a maniac and gets all worked up.) I put a CD player in his room and have been playing this Baby Magic lullaby CD I got when Logan was a baby. I think it was included in a set I got for one of my baby showers.

In that time, I've learned a lot about how Jordan falls asleep. It's kind of fascinating to observe. First, he runs laps in his crib. He literally walks around and around and around in there for a few minutes. then he stands there with one paci in his mouth and throws the other one at me and says "uh-oh." I toss it back into the far corner of the crib without looking at him. He might do the toss two or three more times. I continue to ignore him. He stands there gripping the edge of the crib, farts a bunch of times and heartily craps his drawers.

Every. Single. Night.

Within 5-10 minutes of being put in his bed.

So then I get him up and change his pants and put him back in his bed. He runs a few more laps. Then he kind of belly-flops and starts rolling around in there. He sticks his legs through the bars. He kicks the bars. He turns on his seahorse. He rolls over to his belly, he flops both his legs together like a fish, making a drumlike noise on the mattress for several minutes and then, eventually, drifts off on his tummy.

I had no idea, for one thing, that he was a belly sleeper. How could I not know that?! I'd heard the thumping before and thought he was on his back kicking but instead he's on his belly.

So anyway, we've been doing this and he generally is asleep within about 30 minutes after I put him to bed after changing his pants. Then I sneak out of the room.

Sometimes he wakes up 30-60 minutes later and sometimes it's 2 hours later. Then I hop in there and put him back to sleep. If it's only been a half hour or 45 minutes, no nursing unless he's hysterical. If it's been 2 hours, I have usually already gone to bed myself so I stumble in there and nurse and go back to bed once he's sleeping agian.

Then, depending on the night, he'll wake up every hour or every 2 hours or every 3-4 hours. Some nights are really rough and he doesn't want to go back to sleep, even after nursing. Sometimes it just takes a quick soothing to get him back to sleep. the past few nights have been not too bad. He's been getting up about three times total, including wanting to be up for the day at 6 a.m. (Um, no!) The couple nights before that were really rough and I was up all night because he wanted to be held.

Anyway, looking back I do feel like the routine is helping. Maybe it's the music. Maybe it's just me being in the room. Or maybe it's Granny's Magic Chair.

Back when I had Logan, I came into possession of my Great-Grandma Jo's rocking chair. I don't know much about the chair. I don't know if she used it when my Papa George was a baby, or how old it is or what. I like to think she rocked Papa in it. Jordan is, by the way, a pretty good image of my Papa when he was a baby.

Anyway, the chair has been sitting in my basement collecting dust and cobwebs since I got it. I never used it. Well, the other day I decided I didn't want to spend so much time on the hardwood floor in Jordan's room, so I brought the chair up, cleaned it off, made a little space for it (hard to do because J's room is SO small) and that's where I sit now to nurse, rock and read to Jordan and I sit there when I'm hanging out in his room waiting for him to go to sleep.

I swear, it's made a difference. Maybe I'm just more relaxed because it's more comfy than the floor. Maybe it's become part of our routine.

Or maybe Granny is doing what she can to help me out from Heaven.

Whatever. I'm not asking any questions. I'm just going to keep on keeping on with my routine and hope it helps. This morning, I took the boys to the library. Jordan fell asleep on the way home and I put his carrier in his room and turned on the CD and he slept for an hour and a half. A little while ago, he got cranky, so I took him in his room and put him in his bed. I sat in the rocker and turned on the CD. He cried for just a couple minutes and then... LAID DOWN AND WENT TO SLEEP! IN HIS BED!

I'm going to go ahead and get my hopes up that this is really and truly moving in the right direction. We still have work to do to get him sleeping well. My next steps are weaning him so he's not waking him at night wanting to nurse, and also moving closer to the door so I don't have to actually sit in his room as he falls asleep. After that, sometime, the paci will go, but I'm not going to push that until I get the rest of the issues resolved.

Here's a photo of Granny's rocker in Jordan's room.



And here's a photo of Granny holding Logan when he was just tiny. I always loved this photo of her and him together. She was in a nursing home and she really enjoyed our visits. I'm sorry she never got to meet Jordan, especially because he looks a lot like HER only son.



So, anyway, if it's you who's been helping me out, Granny, thanks!