sleep 202

i'm liking the crew cut more and more everyday. except now it's starting to grow out and he looks like a tennis ball. back to the shaver, kid.
last week i had my own run-in with the shears, which this photo makes painfully obvious. my hair has been kind of a disaster in the making, with the bangs being the main object of my rage. last week i just started hacking away until i'd really made a mess and was sure i needed a professional to fix it. $60 later i walked out with what you see here. my hairdresser actually said, "it's the best i can do right now. you really should leave the cutting to me."
wow. ouch.
moving on.
my good friend ginny gill visited over the weekend and in between seeing the city, i picked her brain for parenting tips since she's mother to 4. there's a special place in heaven for her.
we've got the night routine, bedtime and falling asleep down pat. naps are happening on a pretty regular schedule. the next step is getting a solid 10-11 (12?) hours in instead of the 6 1/2 to 7 hours stretches he's doing now. ginny suggested really filling him up with his bedtime feeding. now i know that sounds like a no-brainer, but for some reason i just hadn't thought of that.
so that's what we're doing. stuffing the little booger full.
t2 seems to like this idea. he chug, chug, chugs the nighttime bottle.
and since we're making sleep changes, i'm leaving the co-sleeper behind, too. it's not for any specific reason except that it just feels like it's time to do it. and i want my bedroom back, which i guess is a pretty specific reason.
so down the hall, into his own room and in his own bed he went.
everything i read said ease into the separation easily. put the crib in your room. then in the hall. then in the doorway of the baby's room.
you gotta be kiddin' me. why would i want to give him all that time to realize something is changing?
he drifted off just fine and slept the same amount of time he does when he's in the room with us - 8 to 3:30. well, that's not 100 percent true. he woke up at 1ish and i got up, shhh'ed him and he went back to sleep until 3:30 when i fed him. but i think that was just an 'adjustment/ time change' waking.
anyway, over the next few nights we're going to try to get him back to sleep without eating.
everything i've read (why do i bother reading?) has said not to try too many things at once. but here's my logic - (a) these things are all sleep related and (b) baby has his own nifty bed, his own nifty room and since that change went just fine and dandy, perhaps he'll be open to one big doozie change.
i'm sure he'll thank me later for teaching him to be so flexible.
i'm prepared for this to not work. 7 hours may be all he can do right now and if that's the case well then we'll just try again later. this is not awesome news for tayloe the husband since previously there wasn't much he could do at night since i'm the feeder. but now since tayloe the baby associates me and snacks so closley, it might not be cool for me to be the one trying to get him back to sleep without feeding him. we'll tag team it and see how it goes. there are two tricks - keep our eyes on the prize (a baby that sleeps 12 hours) and knowing when to quit when it isn't working.
so .... it might be a rough week at our house. if you don't hear from me for a few days, don't worry. if the silence persists into a week or more, please call the police.
on to more interesting things like pumpkin carving, which we're doing tonight. we're going to a halloween party tomorrow, too, so i'll be sure to snap shots of the critter in his costume. boo.