Theory #4 - tank him up

So as you guys may or may not know, I've become kind of a dork on sleep theories as I've been reading everything I can get my hands on. A couple gems I've come across lately are courtesy of The Baby Whisperer. Tracy Hogg, the so called whisperer, advocates for a more closely monitored, more rigid daily schedule. She teaches you how to read your child and see the cues for fatigue. I have to say, once I knew what to look for naptime became SO MUCH easier. Remarkable really.

What leads me to my latest "Theory in Parenting" is that she talks about "tanking your child up" if he's waking frequently in the night. The idea is that you really fill him full of calories during the day to sustain him overnight - makes sense right?

So yesterday I really focused on getting all good feedings which is easier said than done. Henry is starting to be more aware of his environment and thus, much more distractable. But we stayed the course and the result was positive. He was only up twice! I'll take that!

So here's to pudging out my little boy in exchange for a good night sleep :)
I guess I'll be a food pusher mom.

Theories in Parenting

One thing I wasn't at all prepared for was the enormous amount of guesswork that is involved with parenting. Before Henry was born, in those blissful daydreams of one day having a family I imagined myself with a crying baby on my hands and somehow just knowing what to do about it. "Oh, he's hungry" or "Oh, he's tired." While some level of that is true, more often than not you have to go through the laundry list of possibilities before hitting the nail on the head. Many times the ailment is not even on your laundry list and that's when you need to get creative, which leads me to the thoughts of this post.

Humor me.

1) The latest theory revolves around what I'm told Henry could hear in utero. They say, "they" being the experts on child development, that Henry was able to hear certain tones while in the womb. This leads experts to hypothesize why a newborn baby will instantly react to his parent's voices, having heard them already for many months. However, I'm inclined to think that somehow the sound of the dogs clinking dog tags did not make it through the barrier of amniotic fluid because I swear that sound is piercing to Henry's baby ears. He will sleep through the dogs barking their heads off, but should the dogs shake their head causing a jingle bell effect anywhere near his sleeping head, game over. Sweet naptime is cut short. Solution: tag silencers (yes, they sell these) for the dogs, maybe?

2) Finding the perfect sleep temperature and sleeping outfit. Last night Henry slept like crap and I'm inclined to think it might be because I had him in a fleece shirt and fleece swaddle. I want to believe all that fleece was just too hot for him, because this morning during our bleary eyed first morning diaper change I noticed his hands were clammy. Sorry baby! Tonight we'll do less fleece, more cotton.

3) Bath time equals awesome napping. For the last two days Henry and I have done a mid day bath, as a result of Henry no longer screaming bloody murder during his dunk (thank you GOD!) Yesterday we just had a soak in warm water, no soap, because I don't want to dry out his skin. I swear the "spa treatment" resulted both days in a monster afternoon nap.

I'm going to keep adding to this list as I discover new theories, because I'm sure it will be hysterical to look back on them months from now and laugh at what a dough brain I was for thinking them. Should I theorize about something that might be detrimental to my son's health, please speak up, okay? Sleep deprivation makes one think funny sometimes.