Musings Of a Cat Burglar Sleep Coach

Modified Sleep training.

It's about as fun as it sounds! I know that with TLC, patience, and consistency it won't take long but in the meantime every minute feels like an hour! I can practically feel the numbers on the red, Ikea digital clock tick-tock.

So here's what we did - and I'm not saying we did it wrong because if I had to go back I know we'd do it the same way all over again. It's what felt right at the time - and what continued to be a good fit for us - but isn't anymore which is why we need to rearrange. When Tee came home from the hospital we wanted to be near him every second. We had to be near him every second. He'd left NICU on a monitor because of his frequent bradycardia events only to come home and have them spiral out of control. For two weeks I dealt with really bad bradys - he'd have at least 10-15 per day with half of them needing stimulation to come out of. He'd only turn colors once or twice/day. We thought it was normal! We'd heard the lines so many times that we'd become buried under them. No, this wasn't normal, and back to NICU he went. If you've been there you know the line all too well, he just needs some time to grow out of it.

Our monitor was constantly going off. Not only for real apnea/bradys but all the false alarms and loose leads. Beep, beep, beep. We had to keep him plugged in because if ever there was an emergency we'd need him to be fully charged. I never thought I'd say that about my baby. I need my baby to be fully charged. We kept him in a cradle on wheels that now acts as his changing table in the living room. He was still so tiny when he came home that the cradle looked like a crib in photographs! We'd pile all his parts in with him then transfer rooms as little as possible.

He was just with us.

But then he got big...and really, really alert.

Keeping him in the living room until our bedtime was becoming a really bad idea. The trolley would send his eyes flying open, the laughter after a really good Alex P. Keaton joke would capture his interest, and if I was updating his YouTube channel and he heard either of our voices he'd wake up to watch a repeat of his day.

It just wasn't working anymore.

Which is where my sudden obsession with sleep books came from.

We need him to fall asleep in the bedroom. That's how it would have been if the circumstances hadn't been what they were. Some of my best memories of being little come from bedtime routines. My mom would rub my back until I fell asleep. Other nights my dad would tuck me in and then play his guitar in the next room.

It is time to adjust.

Now I'm tracking his naps. Noticing his pattern closer than ever. We have kept our nightly routine the same except for one major detail according to Tee: his sleep location.

He helps me prepare dinner from inside the Moby wrap.

We hold hands as Papa prays over our meal.

I clean the dishes while Bee plays with him and strips him down.

I bring two droppers with two medications. He hates one, likes the other.

The bath is warm and ready when Bee places him into my arms.

Bath is a calm time. It's one of my favorite times. I talk to him. He sucks on his [own] washcloth. We have a different rubber sea toy visit each night. Sometimes I sing about a teddy bear's picnic, other times about a baby beluga. I Sign to him. He watches. He stretches. He loves the water.

He cries when I take him out but he's always getting wrinkles and the water is cooling. It's just a whimper.

I dry him off and Bee tucks him into jammies.

He smells so good with all the traces of reflux washed away.

...

Everything until now has been the same for weeks.

Our routine.

Then I take him into our room, lay him down with Rabbit-In-a-Hat and giraffe snuggly. It's time to nurse. I read sleep books over his shoulder and wait for him to enter a deep sleep cycle and then I cat-burglar-it-outta-there! However, it's not always that slick. He wakes up after one sleep cycle and then I return to do it all over again. I'm not a professional. I've never done this before. We're learning about each other and figuring it out. We'll get it. He's great during the rest of the night. It's quiet in there after NICU and then the television and trollies for months. He'll adjust. I miss him when he's in the other room. It sounds silly - even to me - but after so many nights apart I just want to soak every baby moment up.

I love being a mom.

I love being a wife.

I thank the Lord every morning, noon, and night for bringing me my gentlemen.

This is where I want to be.

If it means being a cat-burglar for a while that's OK.

I'll wake up to a beaming smile and dorky laughter tomorrow morning -

just like I did today.

<3