Well rested and blessed!

Ahhhhh...it's amazing how much more enjoyable mommyhood is when you are well rested! Logan's overnight sleeping patterns are pretty good now -to bed around 8pm, up for a snack at 4am and then morning routine around 7:30.

The soother issue is getting better. Logan is in 'soothie rehab' to help him with his addiction. Instead of taking it away I'm just limiting it's use -putting him to bed without one when possible, not giving it to him in the car or stroller...basically helping him see he can self-sooth without it. From what I've read there is a real need in babies to suck before 6 months -it makes sense evolutionary as it wasn't long ago that we didn't have bottles and formula and survival-of-the-fittest depended on this sucking reflex to get enough nourishment.

Okay, some book reviews....

The Sleep Solution is a good starter book as it reviews pretty much all the 'schools of thought' on how to teach your baby to sleep. However at this stage I didn't really find anything new but it is a good overview. On the loosing the pacifier in the night issue, the author just says if the baby is old enough put a bunch in the crib so they can put it back in their mouth...but nothing about what to do if your baby isn't old enough!

I found the Secret of Problem-Free Nights to be a nice fast read and helpful. The author talks about your baby's Core Night -the block of time your baby sleeps through each night. For Logan it use to be between 8 pm to 1 am, it's now stretched out to around 8pm to 4am. One piece of advice is not to feed your baby during this time as the baby has shown he can mange for these hours without food; if he wakes up just settle him back to sleep while keeping him in his crib. This works for us but I can image it's easier said than done for other babies. Anyways, there are tons of tips and a lot of information is given in quick bullet form - worth the read.

In Search of Sleep wasn't too helpful at all for me. Written by the editor of Today's Parent, it's a good read if you're feeling bad that your baby isn't sleeping through the night -she stressed that you are not alone, you're not a bad parent, etc. etc. but her 'grab-bag of tips and tricks' aren't really anything special and is repetitive of every other baby sleep book without any of the detail. Anyways, I'd advice a new parent to skip this one and take a nap instead.