Monday, December 04, 2006

Fred VS Bed (Part III The Snooze Parade)

I know what you are thinking.
No we have not got him to sleep in his bed the full night yet.
Yes we are still trying.
Yes we understand he is almost 9 months old.

However we did figure out that noise is not one of things keeping us from our goal of being baby-in-our-bed-less.

Every night we lay Fred down in his crib and we turn into mime’s.
We tiptoe through the house. Turn the TV way way down so we can barely hear it. If we have to go outside, the doors are gently eased closed so as not to make their usual banging noise. The phone always gets answered on the first ring when baby is sleeping. Conversation is kept to a minimum and a game a charades breaks out every time somebody needs something from the other person.

Saturday night we took Fred to his first Christmas parade. It runs right in front of the Mimi’s and we were sure he would love all the fire trucks and clowns etc. The whole family on Lucy’s side comes over that night and though Thanksgiving was only two weeks ago a ham is cooked and everyone acts like it’s been ages since we last ate together. After the food and a little college football (go Gators!!!), it’s time to step out on the front porch and enjoy the parade/ pick up all the candy that is thrown.

It gets pretty loud. The fire trucks lay on their sirens; air horns are going off, kids screaming for candy. Clowns, cheerleaders, Santa Claus, horses, motorcycles…I could go on describing the parade but you get the idea. So anyway Fred is wrapped up like Randy from A Christmas Story and I think he is having a wonderful time. I can’t see his face through all the scarfs and head gear, but I hear Lucy ooohing and ahhhing to him so to me it looks like he is having a blast. Apparently Lucy thought so too since she kept bouncing and oohing/aahing the whole time. The parade was half over when Lucy shifted him around and realized he was asleep. An entire parade passed within five feet of him, he never woke up. I flush the toilet and you’d think I was in there shaking him.

So this is where we are at: Doors closing, television up so you can hear it, phone ringing, people talking, and a head hitting a pillow are just some of the things that will wake Fred up. Fire trucks beeping, police cars blaring, horses, motorcycles, a full high school band, kids screaming, and cheerleaders shouting put him to sleep.

Good yaaaaawwwwnnnnn Grief!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've always been told it is a big NO NO to tip toe around a baby. It's better for them to have a "ruckus" going on so that you dont have to play charades while they're sleeping. One time Skylar slept through a whole movie and another time a whole concert. You're right, I dont understand but they sleep best when it's extremely loud around them.
Honey

Peter said...

We do not tip toe around our house either.
The boys share a room. Thomas will scream his head off and David will be snoozing, undeterred three feet away.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the advice above of not tip toe around the house. It can make things difficult in the long run. How will he sleep when you fly, bring him to a party at a friends house, or you have noisy visitors at home? That said, I know exactly what you're going though. Perhaps when he starts sleeping better you can gradually increase the noise around him again.

You should not be worried your son hasn't slept though the night yet. It's still early. I've friends who have gone years without a full nights sleep. Our son didn't sleep a full nigh until he was 2 years old since his metabolism was so fast. He would sleep from 7-4 am. Then wake up, ask for some warm välling (kind of like formula), drink it and fall asleep in one minute.

We never felt like it was a problem. Many times he would fall asleep in our bed and wake up with us around 8 am. Worked like a charm

Good luck

AD