Wednesday day care

Eli spent the day at the day care center at the YMCA. He goes there two days a week -- Wednesdays and Fridays. It is right next to the Statesman Journal offices so I can pop over whenever I want to get my Eli fix!

Today was a really good day at day care. Eli took a two-hour nap in the morning (unheard of in day care because it is so noisy!) and then slept for another hour in the afternoon. It followed the schedule I would like to get him on: a nap at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., so perhaps the day care workers will do the hard work for me and just put him on a good sleep schedule?!?

He spends some time in the exersaucers there and I think it is helping him hold his head up better and get stronger stomach muscles. Melissa, the head teacher, who is fantastic, said that he likes to be in the exersaucer and watch himself in the mirror. An egomaniac in the making?

I am glad that Eli had a good day at daycare because last night was rough. We decided to try the Ferber method for getting him to go to sleep by himself -- it involves putting him down for bed while he is awake, and going in at regular intervals to soothe him until he falls asleep.

Well, after an hour of Eli screaming at the top of his lungs, I'd had enough. I went in and nursed him to sleep. That is probably the absolute worst thing you can do, but I just couldn't stand it anymore. He slept for 51/2 hours after that. I nursed him again, but he only slept for 11/2 hours. According to the Ferber book, we should have made him wait a full 2 hours for a feeding again. But given that we both had to go to work the next day, Michael just brought him into bed with us and Eli slept next to his daddy for the entire night. That was a first also, because usually when he sleeps with us he is attached to my boob the whole night.

Michael and I figure that we can try the Ferber method again when I go part time. Until then we need our sleep too much to be letting him cry in the middle of the night.