So, prior to me going back to work, Logan had no set schedule. I would hope and pray that when he woke up to eat, somewhere around 5-6 am, that he would go back to sleep so that I could go back to sleep.
Some days he did, and some days he didn't.
Some nights, he'd go to bed at 7:30 and others at 10 pm. His naps during the day were all over the map, sometimes sleeping for 20 minutes here and then 2.5 hours there. The number of times that he ate was fairly consistent, but the times fluctuated pretty wildly. (Although interestingly, he has reduced his feeds per 24 hour period from 10 when he was born to 7 now. It makes my life much easier.)
This lack of consistency made planning anything next to impossible, and I'd just have to expect to feed him wherever it was we went, because I wouldn't know at the time that we made any plans whether whatever we were doing would be around a feeding time.
A week before I went back to work, I started setting an alarm for 5:30 am (the time I'd have to get up to feed him when I did go back.) Every day, weekday or weekend, we'd be up at 5:30. I'd feed him, and then we'd go downstairs, like we would when I went to work.
For the first two weeks, his days were still a jumbled mess, naps and feedings all over and random lengths.
But, in the past week, things have really started shaking out. He wakes up at 5:30 am and has pretty consistent nap/eat times throughout the day (not on-the-dot consistent, but within an hour.) His bedtime has been a very consistent 7:30-8:00, with his night time feeds at 11 and 2-:2:30 am.
I wish I had started doing this consistent wake up time a month before going back to work.
He's also started doing this thing at 4 am. Every single night. He wakes up and fusses a bit. Not crying, and not significant fussing, but enough that I can hear him. Mike sleeps right through it, but I can't. I've tried giving him his pacifier, but he spits it right back out and continues staring up at the fan making "eh" noises and slamming his feet down on his Pack N Play bassinet (doing his ab work out, we say.)
So, I usually just bring him into bed next to me. Little con man falls right back asleep in a blink, a smug smile on his face, being exactly where he wanted to be. He falls back asleep so hard, I usually have to wake him up at 5:30, when the alarm goes off, because he sleeps through the alarm.
Our plan is to move him into his own room when he's six months old (the AAP recommends room-sharing for the first six months.) I had planned to move him out of the co-sleeper and into the Pack N Play bassinet at the foot of our bed when he dropped the 2 am feed, but that was accelerated since he's getting really long and more mobile. More often than not, I'd find him sleeping diagonally in the co-sleeper, with his face mashed up against one of the sides. He's doing well sleeping at the foot of our bed, unable to see me, but he does that 4 am thing.
I'd like to think that he does it because he's just has a nice long sleep; he's more awake and aware and now he realizes that Mommy isn't right in front of him, so he fusses until I hone into view.
It's probably not even close to that, but I like the sound of being the center of his world.
It's now a more orderly world with some element of predictability. Definitely in line with this Mommy's preferred lifestyle.
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