New Sleeping Positions

In order to combat new bedtime battles, we now have new sleeping positions. :)

My girl is happy as long as she gets to sleep with her head near me. She likes to sleep horizontally on the bed with her head next to me so I would place a pillow/bolster next to my waist for her to rest her head. This creates a small space at the top on her side of the bed (beside me as well) for baby.

Baby still insists on sleeping on his sister's side of the bed so we let him be. That way he plays happily on his own until he falls asleep contented.

I can identify 3 stages of sleepiness for baby:

1. Stage 1: Not very sleepy - He likes to come near us and play with our faces.
2. Stage 2: A bit sleepy - He likes to play with his little toy car, holding it in his little hands and rolling it over the pillows.
3. Stage 3: Sleepy - He likes to do his tumbles, twists and turns ie he rolls about practically 360 degrees until he falls asleep quite suddenly.

When he is at Stage 1, his sister would sometimes push him away if he disturbs her too much. At Stage 2 and 3, he is in a world of his own, playing and rolling till he sleeps while I tell bedtime stories and chat with his sister.

So far this new sleeping position is turning out well. Even my girl is amused at her little brother's antics. "Mummy, why he sleep here, there and there then fall asleep already?" she asks. "Shhhh. I tell her." as I gently put him back on his side of the bed. After that we sometimes chat a little or I fall asleep, or I tell her "Mummy wants to go and make some supper for daddy" to which she would say "Ok." and ask for a kiss and tell me to leave the door open. :)

I just love to watch the little ones sleep. They sometimes need to tumble about to release some pent out energy, I suppose. The fact that baby is now falling asleep on his own is also a good step towards my weaning which is going very, very slooooowly. At least now baby no longer needs the breast to fall asleep. ("Don't breastfeed baby to sleep or they won't learn to sleep on their own" says some parenting gurus. Nyek! Nyek! Who says so???!!!)

He is also starting to take some formula now (about 3 ounces) before bedtime though he still rejects it the rest of the day. I will do the weaning slowly as I have no heart to do what my sil did ie cold turkey. She says that when she weaned baby at 9 months, she did it abrubtly and he cried till he vomitted for a week and after that was completely weaned. Oops! Don't think I will be able to do go through that! So slow and steady it is for us.