First night home....

If Lincoln hadn't been wearing the hospital bracelet saying that he indeed belonged to us we would have thought we had taken the wrong baby home! Everything was fine and dandy until it was time for us to go to bed. Then... I don't know what happened. I mean, I've heard and been told countless times that there would be sleepless nights. But, nothing really prepares you for it. In the hospital Lincoln slept... well, like a baby. We could swaddle him, lay him down and he would be fine. Get home and he wasn't having it. We tried swaddling him, didn't work. There was a lot of white noise between the air conditioner and his photo machines so we turned on some white noise, didn't work. We walked around with him, rocked him, sang to him, changed him, fed him... didn't work. We couldn't figure out what was so different all of a sudden. We ended up sleeping in his room that night. Lincoln slept (finally) in his snuggle nest next to his bed, Brad in the rocker and I in Lincoln's bed. We slept several nights down there. Now, looking back... I'm not really sure why. I guess because we have the awesome rocker down there. Anyways, we did survive... on very little sleep.

Eventually, after a few nights, we moved upstairs to our bedroom. Lincoln slept in his snuggle nest between Brad and I in our bed. Yes, we're co-sleeping. We live in a three story town home... I'm not about to climb up and down two flight of stairs at all hours of the night to nurse!! Nights were still a challenge. But, we worked out a system to where I would take a nap around 9 or 10 at night while Brad had Lincoln. That way I was a little better able to handle all the night feedings. Things were actually bearable then. But, things got even better once we ditched the snuggle nest and I started to nurse Lincoln while lying in the bed. I no longer worry about getting him on a schedule or when he'll sleep through the night!! We wake, nurse and fall back to sleep. None of us lose much sleep!!