Logging Life

I used to think my son Nelson was different.  I thought he had problems.  I couldn't find a pattern in our crazy ever-changing days and I thought I was one of the unlucky parents with a "high-needs" baby.
Then I started logging his activities.  I stopped trying to give him what I thought he needed and instead tried to figure out what he wanted and logged it in a notebook. I found out I was wrong.  Nelson (or Tuco as I might call him since it means Junior in Spanish) likes to do things in a certain order and at a certain time. 

It took some trial and error.  I don't always know what he wants when he's crying, but it turns out he will wait and cry patiently while I figure it out. 

Here's what he likes, on about a 2 hour cycle: 
0 min - Wake up
Minutes 1 - 15: Drink, drink, drink, yum, yum, yum, Got Milk?
Minutes 15 - 75: Be entertained, check out new world, smile, coo, vomit, and generally be content.
Minutes 75 - 90: Discover that I am tired, get angry at everything that just made me smile, cry for no reason, fight moms attempts to get me to sleep, frown.
Minutes 90 - 120: Sleep, not always well, and sometimes wake up every time mom puts him down, but sleep none-the-less

I find that I used to try to get him to sleep after eating and then would give up and try to play with him right when he started getting tired.  The result?  An unhappy baby. 

To reiterate, I did not find this out by accident.  This isn't something I finally noticed one day.  I truly thought that Tuco was different and started logging things to make sure he wasn't going to die from sleep deprivation.  I thought he was eating too many times a day.  I thought he was "special." 

Turns out he's sleeping about 13 hours a day, perfectly normal.  He's eating about 11 times a day, normal again.  But he is still "special!"