The Good and the Bad

Last night was a mix of sleeping issues...both good (possibly) and bad....

Apparently Aiden does sleep much better on his belly. He actually let Ryan put him to bed, something he's been boycotting for the past couple weeks, and he went to sleep on his belly. That child slept from 8pm until 1:15am... Without waking! He always wakes shortly after being asleep - waiting until 10pm is usually considered good. We noticed he did lift his head a few times and he moved around quite a bit, but he went back to sleep on his own, another thing he never does. So, a little before midnight, I pumped some (because I was already way overdue for a nursing session) and we headed to bed. Yes, that late. It's become a rather bad habit of ours - one we keep saying we're going to break and have yet to do.

I was still awake or had just fallen asleep when Aiden woke up. Insomnia on top of the different feeling from not having him there with us, as usual...a mix of things keeping me awake.

The above was the "good" part of the night. (I say "good" because I'm not sure how I feel about him sleeping so long on his own like that. Yes, it's good...but at the same time, we missed him being with us and worried about him because we're used to having him next to us where we can check him and know he's ok. Don't bother telling me he's fine in his room. Logically, I do know that.)

From that point on, both Aiden and I got pretty much NO sleep. I could tell he was tired and really struggling. He was tossing and turning all night and all morning. As soon as he would get comfortable and you thought he was falling asleep, he would start all over again. And he would whine because he didn't like it. It's got to be the teeth that are popping through because he NEVER does this. At one point, we got one hour of sleep. Other than that, it was a few minutes here and there, but that is all. He did sleep for a half an hour this morning after Camden and Ryan had left, and he still wasn't ready to wake up but couldn't go back to sleep. I hate it for him. He was clearly in pain from his teeth. He cried for a while, and there wasn't anything I could do for him because I had already given him what medicine I could to help. (He's doing ok now, with the help of some more ibuprofen - playing and having a good time on the floor next to me. Chewing like crazy on all his wooden teethers or any other wooden toy - which he prefers far more than any of the other teethers.)

But man...we are BOTH tired (that might be quite an understatement). Since Friday night, we have spent HOURS at a time awake in the middle of the night. But this past night was definitely the worst - with less than two hours of sleep and most of it spread out. I blame it all on the teething. This is not normal Aiden behavior. I think we'll both be quite happy when they are all through!

And in case you are wondering...no, we don't regret not putting Aiden to sleep on his belly sooner. I'm not kicking myself and thinking he would have been sleeping longer all along. Not at all. We weren't ready for him to be on his belly, and even having him in his own room on his belly for a while last night made us a tad nervous (those bumpers are coming back down today!!). We've enjoyed having him sleeping with us. So, no regrets. Whatever he does from here on out will work just as well, but we don't wish we had done it sooner. It has worked for all of us just fine.