Fraser is now four months old and to celebrate he has decided to buck tradition and instead of following some boring baby code of conduct that says he should sleep through the night now, he has chosen to sleep in 45 minute increments. It doesn't seem to be doing him any harm (see picture) but, in the interest of not traumatizing the reader, I have not included a picture of myself looking like a deranged badger.

Fraser's march-against-sleep could have a number of causes, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what to do about any of them. First, we were away again last weekend and we left him for the first time overnight on Saturday night when we went to a wedding. If he was in any way traumatized by his first night alone with his grandparents I certainly couldn't tell when we got back and I received only the most perfunctory of nods to acknowledge my reappearance in his life. Second, last Thursday we started supplementing with formula. He was getting 2 ounces of regular old formula 3 times a day to get him used to it. At his four month checkup, however, I pointed out some blood in his diaper to the pediatrician. Now it looks like Fraser may be allergic to the milk based formula (which Andy thinks is crap, no pun intended) and we have started him on the soy formula. This seems to have really pissed him off. Third, the pediatrician also gave me a nice lecture on not having Fraser sleep in the bed with us, so we tried to have him sleep in the crib. This did not go over well, to put it mildly, and I think this is the most likely cause of the sleep strike.

Which leaves us with the question of what the hell to do now. Fraser does still like his swing (minus Mr. Darcey the would-be blanket) and I have seriously considered moving it up into our bedroom to have him sleep in it there, but I have to remind myself that he will outgrow the swing eventually, and this is at best a temporary solution. I'm sorely tempted to just let him continue sleeping in the bed with us until spring, when I think I may have recovered somewhat from the lack of sleep of the last four months and be able to come up with some logical solution, and while I am willing to adopt the attitude "Pediatrician Be Damned" it is the "Marriage Be Doomed" potential repercussion which send up red flags.

On a side note, I realize that I must have been completely mental and unrealistically optimistic to thinks that I could possibly update this blog daily, or even several times a week. Fraser, it turns out, does not think "Shhhh...mommy is on the computer" is a particularly good reason to shut up. But now that Fraser is actually napping (in his swing), and as it is still to early for a glass of wine, I suppose I should actually attempt to accomplish some housework.