And then the rat dies!

Two days ago, Connor tasted rice cereal. He's been watching me eat for a few weeks now, and apparently he was learning how to do it. He's a total champ - and it wasn't even that messy, though there were certainly some messy moments. Today, I diluted the cereal less and he was even better. He eats two teaspoons of cereal mixed with four teaspoons of breastmilk. He seemed very pleased with himself after this morning's meal.

But, life is not all good in our household. Connor is sleeping less and less - which means Ed and I are sleeping less and less. Ed took night duty last night, and between 11:00 and 3:30, Ed got no sleep. Connor was able to sleep some because he seemed to fall asleep instantly when Ed would pick him up. Then, as soon as Ed would put him down, he was wide awake again. At 3:30, Ed decided Connor was legitimately hungry and I nursed him to sleep. Before collapsing into sleep himself, Ed looked up at me and said "I feel like I'm a rat in one of those experiments where every time it doses off, the researcher wakes it back up. And you know what happens at the end of the experiment? The rat dies!" Ed declared the he and Connor were no longer friends and then he passed out. I took over duty of waking up every half hour to calm Connor when finally, even mean old Ed relented and said if I wanted, I could just bring Connor into bed with us. So, here we are, Connor's back in bed with us and I'm hoping against all odds that he sleeps tonight at least a few contiguous hours so I can get some sleep myself.



But, lest you think that Ed and Connor really aren't friends, Ed purchased him a very cool exer-saucer that Connor enjoyed enough to give us a whole dinner without him needing us. Woohoo! We may not sleep, but at least we can eat. Though sleep researchers suggest it's an Old Wives' Tale, many people keep telling us that giving Connor cereal will get him to sleep. Hopefully that's true.

So there you have it. Another post about sleep. I never thought I could think about a topic so much. You should hear Ed and I trying to ponder this mystery throughout the day when our zombie like selves try and piece this mess together!

Elaine