The first 3 months after Eirik was born were spent adjusting to life with a baby. Having very little baby experience before it was a huge learning curve! I remember that first month and those sleepless nights... Eirik being awake until midnight refusing to sleep. I thought I would never sleep again! We would try everything to get him to sleep... the swing, rocking, swaddling, feeding... and then the moment he would be put down he would be awake again. Slowly over time however things got better. He slowly moved his bedtime up till he was regularly going to bed about 8 or 9pm and I was become more and more skilled at figuring out what he wanted. By the time he was 3 months old I could read his sleepy ques and know when nap time was eminent.
Of course this is when I had to return to work which just threw a wrench in the plans. I had spent 3 months figuring Eirik out and getting used to one schedule and now I was going to have to learn a completely new one. Me getting up 5 days a week for work, picking him up from my friend after work, getting him to bed so I could get stuff done. To say it was rough at first would be an understatement... with Eirik still waking up very regularly at night and not going to sleep easily I was up till all hours of hte night trying to get everything accomplished. It didn't help that it was summer so it was difficult to keep Eirik in any sort of night routine... we tried as best we could be those scorching summer nights just made everyone miserable.
But today I realized that for the past week or so we've had a good little routine down... one that seems to work for everyone. As I put him down for his afternoon nap I realized I am a pro at knowing when he needs to sleep and can now get him down for a nap fairly quickly... well, most of the time. He's not on any sort of schedule per say... but typically he gets up at the same time, naps at the same time, and every night we do bedtime at the same time. The past few weeks my husband and I have actually spent time together talking or watching a movie... something we haven't done together since before Eirik was born. I have been knitting... and I don't feel completely overwhelmed. We have found normal!Well... at least until Eirik changes it again. ;)
Being in those first few weeks of a newborn's life, it's so great to hear about you really hitting your stride and a routine with Eirik. It gives me hope when it seems like sleepless nights are going to go on forever!
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