Best Advice Ever.

So for the past 5 months that Renner has been on this Earth I've been given so much advice on how to handle things. From sleep schedules, when to feed him, when to start giving him cereal or real food in general, when to stop breast feeding, why its bad to let him sleep in my bed, when to put him in his own room, etc. It was all making my head spin. The one thing that I've been trying to do and take the advice was sleep scheduling. It was hard to keep him awake during the times I wanting to be awake, and hard to put asleep when I wanted him to go to sleep. It was exhausting. He would be up at night, but hardly sleep during the day. I just didn't know what to do, and I NEEDED him to sleep because this mama loves and needs her sleep and was hardly getting any.

I put Ren in his own bedroom, and tried to feel out how he would react to it, and he didn't like it. So I decided to call my sister Stephanie, and get her advice on what to do. I was at a loss, and had finally just came to the conclusion of letting him cry to sleep one night because he wouldn't sleep when I rocked him, and I had been puking all day... Needless to say I had to sleep, so he had to sleep. And she gave me the most incredible advice I'd received. She said, "the more babies sleep, the more they sleep". Whaat??! Now I was always told that, "ohh if he is sleeping all day he will be up all night!"  So I of course tried keeping him up so he would sleep through the night because that's what veteran parents have been telling me, and they obviously knew what helped their kids fall and stay asleep. But knowing my sister, I figured I would listen. So that's what I did. I made Renner sleep all day that next day, which was no problem because he wanted too. He woke up to eat every 3-4 hours, and when 7 PM came around (his bedtime) I rocked him till his eyelids started fluttering, laid him down, and walked away. He cried for a little bit if we made a noise too loudly or he immediately woke up when I put him down, but he is learning to self-soothe and he eventually fell asleep. I tried the whole go in and soothe him, but I felt it just made him cry harder and it took longer for him to fall asleep. Where as if I did it cold turkey he was way happier to fall asleep alone. He was waking up in the middle night, barely awake, and cried for maybe 10 minutes and then fell back asleep, but the past few days he's just been sleeping through the night. Yay! I can't even begin to describe how amazing it feels to get a full 8-9 hours of sleep again! What wonders it does for the mommy body. 

I now have more energy to keep up with daily house work, and actually make food for my poor husband. Seriously I suck at cooking food, especially when he gets home at 9 or 10 at night. I was just way too exhausted from handling Renner and my thyroid being all out of whack too even think. But now that Renner is sleeping I can actually do stuff I want to do. Like laundry or clean or decorate our house. Even paint my nails! It's awesome. We also have family coming tomorrow. My brother and his family are coming. 6 more people in my house will be so much fun! (No sarcasm in that) I really am super excited. I just now have to actually finishing organizing! So yes, that is the "Best Advice Ever". If your baby wants to sleep - LET EM'. They know their little bodies. Except when they aren't waking up to eat. That's something to be concerned about. 

Now time to ORGANIZE! Peace. 

Here are some extra cute photos of that sleepy little boy.