How He Sleeps These Days

Step One: Keep an eye on the clock just enough to see that it's been about two hours since his last sleep. This is flexible-- we just read his cues. He'll often rub his eyes, yawn or just get grumpy when he's had enough.

Step Two: One of us takes him into his bedroom and turns on the blow dryer CD. We either hold Noah upright on our shoulder or horizontally in the cradle hold while patting his back.

Step Three: Sing him two or three songs. Joe and I sign the same songs so that Noah recognizes them as bedtime songs. My three are "I Am A Child of God", "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Joe sings "I Am a Child of God", "Families Can Be Together Forever", and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

Step Four: Lay him down in his crib. At this point, if we've hit the sleep window right, he'll lay down with the happiest look on his face and he'll kick his legs and flap his arms in anticipation. It's almost like he's saying, "Okay, okay-- I know how to do this! Just leave me to it and I'll get myself to sleep!"

Step Five: Hand him his "lovey"-- a green mini-blanket and lamb he snuggles with to sleep. He'll reach up for this lovey when we lay him down. It is SO cute-- he grabs for it, hugs it, rolls to his side, and is ready to get himself to sleep.

Step Six: at this point, we can just walk out, close the door, and let him go. Sometimes he'll chatter and/or kick his crib walls a bit to get out the excess energy, other times, he is out like a light within five minutes.

I love that my little man has become such a good sleeper. He will take naps that range from 45 minutes to 2 hours, usually on the longer end of that scale. At night, he is now only waking once or maybe twice. It is SUCH a relief to have this part of our lives pretty smooth by now. (Not that we won't have several episodes of regression before he graduates from high school... such is life.)

To finish, here are some photos to document his sleeping (he rolls around and moves throughout the night, and we can find him in some CRAZY positions when we go in to check on him!):

{tucked in the corner with his lovey}
{here he is, on his tummy, with his bum in the air and his lovey somehow on his BACK. Hmm.}
{let's look a bit closer...}
{How'd he manage THAT?}

{and lastly, what on earth am I supposed to do with THIS??}
...really, Noah? Wanna give Mama a heart attack??
*sigh*

He is so all-over-the-place!!!

(and a note-- Noah's bedroom is in the dimmest, darkest room in our apartment... so non-flash photos are virtually impossible! And since the flash runs the risk of waking him up, sleeping photos have become very rare in this household. Sad! Baby sleeping photos are always so appealing!)