Shuffling along....

Ignoring the fact that I’ve spent them on Jack’s floor somewhat covered with the previously mentioned cutesy lap blankets, nights two and three of The Shuffle have been really good (relatively speaking). It kind of makes me regret that I answered K-Harper's "How's the parenting gig going" question with a rather tart, "Awful". In my defense, sleep time was rather trying and, quite honestly, awful. He doesn't know me well enough to give him that type of answer, though. I think that it put him in an uncomfortable spot.

Each of the last two nights Jack only cried, stood, reached, and pouted for about 20 minutes. I put him in his crib at 6:49 on night two (he was really, really tired). He fell asleep at 7:10. Last night, night three, I put him in his crib at 7:24 and he was asleep at 7:42. I consider him “asleep” when he puts his head on the bumper and doesn’t move for a couple of minutes. Though last night’s crib-to-sleep time was actually shorter, it seemed like a lot longer. I think I put him down in a less drowsy state last night. Those were the slowest 18 minutes ever.

Nightly wake-ups have gotten much better. Night two, he awoke at 1:33 for about 10 minutes, and at 4:55 for 40 minutes. He woke up for good at 6:15. Night three (again, last night or this morning), he only woke up at 4:25 for about 10 minutes. He did wake up a little earlier this morning, at 5:40, but we left him in his crib until 6:00.

Last night, I thought that he was going to wake-up at 11:19 PM because he was stirring around. I moved to the ottoman - that is still positioned at station 1 - but a funny thing happened, he didn’t even look at me. He sat up, looked around his crib, found a pacifier (he obviously has better vision than me, which isn’t saying much, but still), put it in his mouth and laid back down. He’s a good boy.

Tonight is night 4, and I’m a bit apprehensive for a couple of reasons:

A.) It is time to move the ottoman to station 2. I’ve had to put some thought in to where station 2 actually should be, but I believe that I’ve found a solution. We can’t go toward the main door of his room, because in later nights we have to sit or stand in the doorway while he falls asleep. The problem with the main door is that it opens to the upstairs den, which is where Leah works at night and is, therefore, kind of noisy. We’re instead going toward his bathroom door, which leads to the Jack and Jill bath and provides an escape route for us without risking him being exposed to all the noise in the den. It also leads to the guest bedroom, where we’ll probably sleep for a few more nights in order to be responsive to his calls. I don’t want to break the little trust that we’ve built the last few nights. I’ve probably put way too much thought in to this.

B.) It is Leah’s turn to do The Shuffle. I’m a little apprehensive because I think Jack sees her and thinks “Ahhh, there’s a sucker.” I also think that he’s right. This is the same girl that threw newborn puppies off her deck when she was young for heaven’s sake, but now she can’t resist a little whimpering? She’s going to have to do it, though, because I’m going to be out of town in a couple of weeks and she’ll have to do it then. I must resist the urge to ask her to step aside and let me handle it.

That's enough about sleep shuffle. What else is going on? I saw where Steve Wynn poked a hole in a Picasso painting that he owns but had agreed to sale for $139 MILLION. He’ll now patch it with duct tape and put it in the basement with Britney Spears’ career.

Did you see where Britney was sponsoring a contest wherein the person that helps sale the most copies of Federline’s new CD “Playing With Fire” gets to party with the FederSpears on Halloween night during the release party? Second prize is a pair of sneakers worn by Federline at the Teen Choice Awards, third prize is $200 gift certificate, and 10 runner-ups will receive a replica hood ornament and dog chain like the one Kevin wears around all the time. That is 13 prizes in all. Do they really think 13 people care?

That's all I got. G’day.