Waking up with Senor Sleepy

When Malachi was born I had a pack 'n' play set up and ready, and he slept there from day one. I would bring him into my bed and nurse him and then put him back in his pack 'n' play. I actually had the one end of the monitor in his bed and the other end on my nightstand, even though he was only sleeping right at the end of my bed. I just wanted to hear him breathing. He slept through the night at 6 weeks old and pretty much every night since.

Graham came along 20 months later and I employed the same method. To sleep in the pack 'n' play, in bed to nurse, back into own bed after. Sometimes I was so tired that I fell asleep nursing, but if I woke up I'd put him back into his own bed. He slept through at 11 weeks, which felt like an eternity compared to his sleepy big brother.

With Caris we used the same technique. Except this time we had a much bigger bed and I basically put her in her pack 'n' play to begin the night and once she woke up to nurse I'd just keep her in my bed the rest of the night. Sister started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks.

Baby Canaan came along and well, let's just say the pack 'n' play was ready but he didn't make nearly as much use of it as his bigger siblings did. I started out most nights with him in my bed and finished them that way for at least the first three months. He did start sleeping through the night at 6 weeks but not consistently like everyone else did.

Canaan's 16 months old now and he goes to sleep in his own crib, in his own room each night around 8. Sometime in the night he usually ends up in bed with us. He'll go a week or so sleeping all night in his bed sometimes, but for the most part he gets lonely for us and cries for us at some point. Last night he joined us at 2:00 am on the dot. I really don't mind this. I guess we're either more relaxed, more attached or just plain lazier.

I have to say though, that waking up with the baby is precious. I almost always wake up for the day before he does, so I get to admire his squishy face, his sweet, still legs (the moment he's awake that changes!), his bedhead. I marvel at how I wake up with about 6" of space - no exaggeration - to sleep in because of the way a 27-pound baby scrunches me all the way to the edge. 9 times out of 10 he's flat against me, but the other time he's completely horizontal across the bed, with his head on Daddy and his feet in my face.

Once he wakes up it's nursing time, and usually a sibling or two hear that we're awake and come upstairs to join us.

We open the blinds by pulling them way up, and we look outside and say, "Good morning, world!" Then he's ready to take off for the day!