We’re trying to figure out why HBomb seems to sleep better when we visit people. His two best nights’ sleeps have come, one each, at the grandparents. Now, this could be coincidence — grandparents, we’re sure this is a coincidence, so we don’t need to come visit more often — but there are certainly some things that both sets of grandparents homes have that our home doesn’t.
For one, it’s quite a bit more quite in suburban Western Mass and Connecticut. It’s also quite a bit darker. Boston, which has a ton going for it, can’t boast darkness. Then there’s the fact that both rooms we stay in at the respective grandparents have been quite cool.
So, as far as we can tell, that gives us four things (quite, darkness, temperature and coincidence) it could be, or a combination of them. I’m not sure what that works out to as far as our chances, but we’re trying everything.
Tonight we thought maybe he would like to sleep in his own room. I hung blankets over the curtains on the windows to stop the light from the building across the alley from making the room too bright. It’s also colder back there for some reason. Finally, not being directly on the street, it’s quiter. That experiment lasted all of 30 minutes. Now he’s peacefully swinging in the livingroom. Oh well. One of these days he’s gonna sleep!
(BTW, I just saw a preview for Alot Like Love the new Ashton Kutcher vehicle… when is this kids 15 minutes going to be up? I mean, to borrow a phrase, he’s a no talent ass clown.)
Bill Malloy says:
March 31st, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Your site is so wonderful. I wish I had logged on when Jeff first gave me the address.
Lee says:
April 1st, 2005 at 8:35 am
My son is now 20 months old. I think somewhere around 15 months I realized that nothing I said, did, had him wear, hear, watch, eat, drink, etc. had any effect whatsoever on his sleep. You probably don’t want to hear this, but you’re never going to sleep again.
In retrospect, though, swaddling did help a ton in the beginning…particularly with the naps. I trust you’ve got the DVD of The Happiest Baby on the Block?
Cameron says:
April 1st, 2005 at 10:04 am
You’ll sleep again, just sometime around 8 months. Oh, and anytime you change anything, like go on a trip or the holidays, you’ll take a giant step back. We got home from vacation on Tuesday, and Lucas’ first normal night’s sleep was last night.
Jason says:
April 2nd, 2005 at 3:46 pm
My wife have a schedual for our son. We follow the exact proccedure every time (even if the time of evening is a little off because of feeding times) and normally he will quite down and fall right off to sleep.
Elizabeth and Emily says:
April 9th, 2005 at 10:21 pm
my theory is that kids were meant to be raised by tribes and they know it and YOU know it, too. You and Jen do not have the energy to handle everything you’re going through but you have the drive and you have the determination and you are going to succeed but, I am thoroughly convinced that there is supposed to be a motivated tribe in constant contact with our kids. Emily is also happiest when surrounded by a group and it’s probably partly due to the fact that I, myself, am more relaxed when I know I can say, “Watch her for a second while I go to the bathroom.” Everything’s happening more smoothly when there’s an involved group who are baby-friendly and are just naturally pitching in… everyone’s more relaxed.