Babies. That is All.

Sunday mornings used to mean sleeping in as long as possible and hauling my hungover butt to the couch to watch Phantom Gourmet until the hunger took over to inform our day's plans. Now they mean rising at 6 a.m. (or later if we're lucky), with a prolonged family cuddle, coffee and CBS Sunday Morning. This is fast becoming my favorite time of the week. For one, we don't have to rush around because though Mike has to work, he doesn't have to be in until late morning. The CBS program is made for elderly dorks like me, with the corny, comforting bow-tie-wearing host and the bite-sized human-interest stories about squaresville things like fountain pen collectors. It's a nice gentle part of our ritual. And I think I mentioned the cuddling. Can't get enough of that, especially since some babies don't stay cuddly forever so I'm getting in as much as I can now just in case.

The nights are getting, um, interesting, I guess would be the word? It seems like we have a good night every other night, which is a hell of a lot better than no nights. HR's consistently going down by 8 p.m. and getting in at least four hours before waking, which is golden, but he does still wake at least once, often twice. I'm not ready to do the cry-it-out thing yet. Even if he's theoretically ready for it, I'm not. But we're still inching toward other bedtime goals. I'm trying my best to be consistent with my steps toward said goals, and even when my efforts seem to reward us only with less sleep. For example, when he woke up at 3 a.m. I really, really tried to get him to go back to sleep, first without taking him out of his crib (ha), then without nursing. At 4:15 I finally gave in and re-swaddled him and nursed and we all got to go back to sleep until 7. Maybe at some point the trying will pay off. Maybe tonight will be the night he sleeps straight on 'til morning. I just have to go in with that hope, and keep at it, even when it's frustrating. I do my best, with Mike's reassurance, not to worry about how much we might be screwing up, to keep in mind that it's not about success or failure but what's best for this individual family. It doesn't do me any good to compare him to other babies, even if I am a bit envious when I hear of much younger babies with more consistent sleep habits. I just have to remind myself how far we've come from the days when we couldn't even set him down. And his napping has greatly improved. So we'll get there. Maybe. As long as he's healthy and happy, we'll figure the rest out. That's the bottom line.

Actually, our niece is eight weeks old and finally got to leave the hospital to go home this weekend and that's the bottom, BOTTOM line in the scheme of things. Go go go little A!