The Gavinator vs the Jumper

As many of you are quite aware, Gavin is a ......special baby, perhaps better described as 'high maintnance'. He insists on pretty much constant bouncing and patting and attention while he's awake (which is not easy when there's 3) and then he only sleeps for 45 min-1 hour on average. He sleeps 7-9 hours through the night before feeding again and he demands that you stand and rock and bounce and pat while holding him in just the right position so he can scream at you for about 10 minutes before he will finally fall asleep no earlier than 10:00 (on a good day, but it's better than midnight which is what it used to be) This past week has been especially difficult with very fussy awake periods and very short naps, I have been exhausted by the sheer energy required to calm this teeny tiny little man, so it was much to my relief today when we discovered...the jumper.

At first he was a little unsure about this new bouncy thing

But then his brothers stepped in to show him all the many options this new toy offered. First Braden bounced him very gently. Jacob grabbed on and bounced him very un-gently and was asked to play with something else. Then Braden pushed Gavin to make him swing, he had to be told a couple of times to be gentle. Then he spun him like a tire swing and let him fly, he was very quickly told NOT to do this again. Gavin survived the ride and secretly I think he may have really liked it:) It was really fun to see the boys 'playing' together

After the help from his brothers, Gavin REALLY liked the swing and was actually bouncing himself. I'm really quite impressed for a 31/2 month old first time bouncer. I think this could mean trouble, but I'm not sure yet. Oh well, at least he's happy:)

But finally play time was over and the jumper came out victorious. I realized things had gotten quiet, too quiet, so I peeked over at Gavin and this is how I found him:I was so happy I almost cried. He hadn't screamed or even fussed, he had simply fallen asleep without any help at all from mom. So today I am thankful to whoever invented the johnny jumper that finally exhausted the fight out of our little Gavinater.