Snip Snip

If there's one thing we learned with Eli about having children, it's to chop off that wild baby hair as soon as possible. I nearly shed tears when we cut Eli's hair for the first time. After going back to look at pictures of our whispy haired baby, I wish we would have rid him of his hair problems a good three months earlier.

Even though the first haircut tends to take away the newborn look, we knew it needed to be done sooner rather than later this time around. Before:

Still before...he's looking slightly appalled at the thought of us cutting his hair. Don't worry Carson, we know what's best for you.

Still before. Baby hair is impossible to style. So it ended up looking like this 99% of the time.

The first cut. Carson's still skeptical.

I think this is where Jeff started doubting his profession and began wishing he'd gone to beauty school. He's a natural.

I have to include a lot of pictures because I forgot to save a chunk of his hair. *cough* secondchildsyndrome *cough*

He hopped in the bath with his fresh new haircut and actually enjoyed the water for the first time.

Now his hair is short enough for a cute baby fauxhawk which I think you will agree is just about the cutest thing ever.

When I went in for Carson's two-week check-up I asked the doctor what I should be doing to begin instilling good sleep habits in Carson. The doctor said, "Oh! Just rock him and love him. You can't spoil a newborn. You don't need to worry about sleep habits until they're about two months old." Okie Dokie Doc.

I spent the next four weeks rocking and rocking and rocking Carson to try to get him to sleep. Nothing. We would be awake at least two hours for every feeding at night. Then, during the day he would only take 15-30 minute naps and look like he was up and ready to go again. It was ridiculous. I thought the boy just didn't need sleep, and I felt like I was spending half my life trying to put him to sleep.

In desperation, I turned to (perhaps the more trusted doctor?) the internet. I read up on laying babies down to sleep while they are still awake, but drowsy. I remembered doing this with Eli and he was such a good sleeper, but I couldn't remember when I started doing this. I decided to give it a try on Carson.

Carson laid there swaddled, with his binky, and began grunting. For some reason the grunting made me think he needed to be held, but I withstood the urge to pick him up. After about 5 minutes of grunting, he was out for the longest nap he's had since he's been home from the hospital.

Then last night I just laid Carson down after he ate and he calmly put himself back to sleep every time. Hallelujah!

Anyway, I wanted to document this because I tried to go back and read what Eli's sleep habits were like around this age and I didn't really say much. So for future reference, this is a reminder to myself to swaddle and lay the baby down because oddly enough, all my efforts to try to put Carson to sleep at night seem to be the very things that were keeping him awake.

Has anyone else had this happen with their kids?

Hopefully the past day of using this method hasn't been a fluke and my six weeks of sleep deprivation will all be solved by simply laying Carson down while he's awake. Hmmm. One can hope, right?