Sleep woes

There's been a lot of challenges with sleep since we got back from the states, so I thought I'd give an update solely devoted to sleep :).

Carsten did amazingly well with jet-lag once we were back in Switzerland, but having done both recently, I'd have to say getting over jet-lag is easier when going west. However, after a few days, Carsten was still having some sleep issues that we were convinced were no longer related to jet-lag, and we were right. He was over jet-lag, but what was bothering him was the fact that he was teething. And it was not just any regular old tooth - it was a molar. Once we figured that out, we started dosing him with Tylenol and his sleep got better for about a week. And then we figured out that he was teething a second molar while still working on the first one. His teeth usually come in pairs, so of course he had to teeth 2 molars at once. So, that makes 10 teeth for him. Bring on the tylenol! :) 

About another week by and Carsten was just waking up in the middle of the night for about 2 hour stretches where he was just happy an awake. I figured out that these nights seemed to happen more often when he had 2 nap days as opposed to 1 nap days. We had been doing 1 or 2 naps depending on his wake up time. Based on this observation, we decided that Carsten could only have 1 nap a day in the afternoon, despite the fact that he was still tired in the mornings.  To our surprise, this fixed it. Since putting him on a 1 afternoon nap schedule (we've been on it for about a week now), he has slept through the night every night and has taken a wonderful afternoon nap. And when I say wonderful, I mean 2-3 hour naps. If you're aware of how much we've struggled to get naps in with this child, you should be just as amazed as I am at this wonderful, amazing change. Having him on 1 nap a day frees up our mornings and allows us to grocery shop, go to the gym, and go into Zurich which much greater ease. Also, having a nice chunk of time to get things done in the afternoon is nice too. I'll be able to be much more productive than previously, which will be a nice change :). So, bring on the 1 nap a day schedule because it is WONDERFUL!! 

One thing I'd like to add while we're on the topic of sleep is that he LOVES his blanket. LOVES it. Sometimes he'll ask to go in his crib so he can cuddle it. I try really hard not to let him bring it out of his crib because I don't want him to get that attached, but I do love it that he cuddles it and basically hugs it all night long :). Here's Carsten cuddling his blanket (thanks to Kayt for making it!):