Friday, November 16, 2007

"This Too Shall Pass"

When my friend Katy spent the year after high school in Brazil, she would often repeat the quote "This too shall pass" as she dealt with homesickness and all the other challenges and adjustments that come with living away from home.

It's something I've also repeated a lot to myself since becoming a mom. Reassuring myself that yes, colic does end and no, Silas will not always have to be rocked to sleep and yes, phases of multiple night wakenings do improve.

And yes thankfully, it did not take Silas another 4 1/2 months to get back onto our preferred sleeping schedule! It seems he has adjusted to eating rice cereal (although Josh and I are not comfortable with not-just-pure-breast-milk bowel movements yet). Thank God that Silas is again sleeping around 10:00pm, with a feed between 4:00 and 5:00am and a wake up between 8:00 and 9:ooam. There's often 1 or 2 soother replacements during the night and sometimes he joins me in bed around 7:00am so I can secure another hour or so of sleep, but our little guy is definitely sleeping in longer stretches and more able to soothe himself when he stirs.

I think Silas is ready for a second helping of rice cereal during the day, but we will probably wait until December to add that in. He and I leave Sunday for Dallas, Texas to visit my cousins there for a week. We'll be sharing a room with Grandma Doris and I don't think she'd appreciate a return of multiple night wakenings. We'll try to keep things as normal as possible for little Silas.

And speaking of travelling, I would totally appreciate prayers for patience (for both me and Silas) as we spend Sunday on planes and in airports, for quiet places to calm down in (Silas doesn't do too well with crowds for too long), as easy a transition as possible into staying at a new house for a week and then readjusting to life back at home, and for Josh, me and Silas as we have not been apart so long yet. Thank you!

PS- Yes, Silas is sleeping on his side. When he was 3 weeks old, I let him sleep on his tummy. I think it helped his colic and it was the only way to get more than a 2hour stretch of sleep out of him. When he was about 3 months, he suddenly objected to that position and his since preferred side sleeping.

1 comment:

theRachel said...

I like his oiler jammies. You are a wonderful mom, Karen. Miss you heaps.