Should we buy a Vegetti?

Today I turned my son’s vibrating chair toward the tv. I am ashamed.

It turns out that at 13 weeks*, babies notice TVs and it keeps them quiet for a while. He’s literally watching The Chew right now. Eek. I have caved on this (formerly judged) pathetic parenting tactic, because in the last two days Austin has cried every time I put him down. He’s been really cranky one minute and then giggly the next. It’s been long days since we returned from New Orleans.

My theory is that he has learned to nap on the go – in a stroller, on an airplane, in a car. So hanging out in the house isn’t quite as exciting or filled with white noise. He’s watching a vegetti commercial right now – should I buy one? Terrible! Yet, I can keep typing AND I don’t have to feed him. Yesterday it was every two hours and not a minute more between feedings. Although he did sleep from 9:45pm until 3:45am, which is a miracle…a miracle that was sleeping in the bed with us.

I read somewhere that kids don’t sleep through the night until they are teenagers, so why am I panicking? It just seems astounding to me that there’s not a magic bullet solution to this sleep drama – I’m calling it a drama.

When we went to Cape May, NJ two years ago, I thought my friend Cora was a nutball about keeping her daughter’s sleep schedule. I said things to myself like, “I’m not a mom, so I don’t know, but I hope I can be a little more flexible.” What a jerk! Now I get it. One clings to one’s schedule as if one is clinging to a spindly branch dangling over a cliff for two chief reasons: it is good for baby and (this one may be more important) it is good for parents. It is peace of mind and it is a major accomplishment. Like a baby figuring out his hands, a parent figuring out a sleep schedule is the Holy Grail.

Perhaps if I keep writing about it, I will find the Holy Grail. Methinks not so much.

*He's 14 weeks today, but he started noticing the TV last week in New Orleans.