Asleep in the New House

R has been taking to the new house like a dream. When we first got our furniture in and officially "moved" there, we would pick her up from day care and tell her we were going home. She'd then shout, "NO! Go to the NEW HOUSE!" and we would explain that "home" and "the new house" were the same place.

The first night we stayed in the new house, we decided to go ahead and have her sleep in her twin bed (which, incidentally, is the same twin bed I slept in until I was nearly finished with graduate school) because we had the crib in the baby's room and we wanted her to sleep in her own room.

I was a little nervous about how the new bed would work out. We have a bed rail for her in case she rolls over too far, but we were still not sure how well she'd sleep or if she'd try to stand up in the bed or figure out how to get out of the bed or whatever.

Turns out we didn't need to worry. She was snug as a bug in her big bed with all of her stuffed animals all night long. Not a peep until 6 a.m. the next morning. And since then she's been excited about her big bed. When we tell her it's time to get ready for bed, she says, "go to sleep in the BIG BED!" and we say, "yes, in the big bed!"

J taught her how to climb out of the bed because he was worried about her trying to lean too much on the crib rail (which is fairly sturdy but still!) and because well, it's just good for her to know how to get in and out of the bed.

So, now in the mornings she sometimes crawls out of the big bed and J wakes up to her rattling her doorknob. The other afternoon for her nap, she, for whatever reason, didn't want to sleep in the big bed, so J pulled out her nap pad (remember that thing?) and laid it on the floor, along with all of her stuffed animals and blankets (of COURSE). She slept like a log-- in fact, taking a longer nap than usual. We peeked in on her a little after 4 (she is usually up around 3) and this was the scene in her room:

Trouble Getting Back To Sleep

J told me this story when I got back from Massachusetts. Apparently one night, R woke up in the middle of the night because she wanted some water... then she wanted to use the potty... then she wanted something else that I forget. After the third wake-up she had a really hard time getting back to sleep, and proceeded to drive J crazy because she kept narrating--very loudly-- all of her efforts to get back to sleep.

"I sing bye-o."

"I close my eyes."

When J asked if she wanted him to sing to her, she said, "No, R turn sing bye-o!"

J's reaction: Okay, then, sing bye-o and GO TO SLEEP!

Sleep Issues Update--Cautiously Optimistic

We visited Grammie and Grampie this past weekend and had a GREAT visit. While we were there we were paying pretty close attention to R's wake ups. The first two mornings we were there she woke up very early (2:30ish, 3:00ish) but J was able to get her back to sleep by rocking her for a few minutes and then laying her back down, and both days she woke up close to or after 6.

The last morning we were there, I think J said she made some noises in the early morning but he didn't get up with her and she eventually went back to sleep, and woke up close to 6:30.

Today was our first morning back home and she did not wake up until actually close to 7!

It's been really weird for our room to be lightening up before we have to get out of bed. Kind of nice, too.

So you might be asking: what did we do to "fix" things?

Nothing, really... I would say the biggest change has been J giving her more time to get back to sleep on her own. We've also been giving her a little bit of Tylenol before bed because she is OBVIOUSLY working on her eyeteeth. She sticks her fingers in her mouth and bites on them, and has been gnawing everything in sight (including once, the wheels on her stroller, EW!) so our theory is that maybe she was up early because of teething pain.

At any rate, we don't plan to keep giving her Tylenol every night but we do suspect that that might have been at least part of the cause of the wake-ups. We'll keep you updated.

Sleep Issues. Help?

So lately R's sleep patterns have been a bit wacky. For the longest time, she was in bed between 6:30 and 7, and all it took to lay her down was, well, laying her down and leaving the room after the bath and story.

Lately-- as in the last month or so, maybe longer, since I haven't really been keeping track-- she's wanted a song, sometimes 5 or 6 songs, while being held or rocked to sleep.

We thought at first the sleep stuff had to do with her being sick and not feeling good. That certainly seemed to be why she was waking up so early and having a hard time falling asleep. We all know how hard it can be to sleep with a stuffy nose and snot pouring out.

The stuffy nose and snot have all but disappeared. I haven't needed to follow her with a tissue for a week or more now. She's not sniffly or coughing.

Yet, she continues to wake up ridiculously early. Yesterday it was 3 a.m. J held her until around 4, when he woke me and I held her until she fell asleep with me in the bed in her room around 5, and we stayed in there until shortly before 6 when she woke up and started calling for J.

We rarely-- read, almost never-- have a day where she wakes up close to 6 on her own. We consider it a good morning if she doesn't make us get her out of bed before 5:30. It's really tough when she's up at 2:30, 3:00, 4:30, etc.

Is there *any* way, dear readers, to try and encourage her to sleep later?

We've already pushed back her bedtime to around 7:30, and this hasn't changed anything. In fact, the night before she got up at 3 a.m. she had gone to bed at 8 just because the nighttime routine ran late. Going to bed later doesn't seem to result in a later wake-up. And I hear about other babies the same age as R who sleep 11 to 12 hours at night. I realize all kids are different, so I'm not necessarily saying she should sleep just like them. Just that it's not ridiculous for us to think that she might sleep from 7 p.m. to 5:30 or 6:00 a.m.

We also have dark curtains in her room. They're not attractive, just curtains we had in our bedroom when we lived in Texas, but they definitely make her room darker and block morning sunlight so the room is not super-bright in the morning.

This is kind of driving me crazy. Why is she up so early? How can we encourage her to sleep a little bit later? And how can we wean her from needing us to rock and sing her to sleep for 20-30 minutes every night?

Jinxed?

So you know how I posted yesterday that one of the things that made me think R was getting better was the fact that she was waking up around 6 a.m. instead of 4:30? Well. Today she woke up at 4:30! Gah! And never really went back to sleep-- I held her for about an hour but she fidgeted a lot and didn't settle down completely. J eventually got up with her a little bit before 6 (well, actually, 7, because of Daylight Savings Time) and I slept for two more hours (!!!!!) Can you believe it? Sometimes I am a total lazy bum.

Anyway. We shall see what she does tomorrow. We're pulling for 6 a.m. instead of 4:30!

On Sleeping: A Few Thoughts

Some of you may remember our sleep experiment, where we tried putting R to sleep a little later in the hopes that she would sleep a little later. Overall, the experiment was kind of a failure. We often didn't put her to sleep that much later than her usual time since she was usually so tired by the time 6 p.m. rolled around (or even 5:30 p.m. for that matter) that keeping her up was mostly an exercise in dealing with a really really unhappy baby. And it didn't really result in her sleeping much later.

However, over the last few days, she's been waking up between 5 and 6, and today, she didn't get up until almost 6:30. As J put it this morning, why couldn't she sleep in this late on the weekend?

Anyway, my new theory is that she was waking up so early because she was so snotty and because she wasn't sleeping well with her colds, and that now that her colds seem to have gone away, she may fall back into a more regular sleep routine which (we hope!) will involve sleeping in until 5:30 or later.

I'll keep you updated, especially since we're still trying to push her bedtime back a little due to daylight savings time ("Fall Back") coming up soon. I don't think we could handle a 5 p.m. bedtime because it makes dinner and bath way too early.

Sleep Experiment: Mornings 3 and 4

For the last couple of mornings, R has been waking up after 5:00. We've been inconsistent at getting her to bed close to 7, though. It's safe to say that it happens between 6 and 7 but it's still often closer to 6 than to 7. I dunno. We're not that great at precise timing, and we've been so busy the last few days that I feel like I can hardly remember when what where.

We also haven't had a chance to look for infant toothpaste yet but I plan to look tomorrow while R and I are out and about.

Sleep Experiment: Morning 2

Ok, the sleep experiment isn't going that well. Mostly because R really wants to go to bed shortly after 6. She's so ready, that trying to keep her up longer is an exercise in her being really really unhappy until I just nurse her and lay her down.

But the good news is that today, even though she went to bed at 6:15 last night, she didn't wake up until 5:30, which is actually pretty close to perfect timing in the morning, especially when I'm up at 3:30.

So we'll just have to see what time she gets up tomorrow. Here's hoping it's 5:30 again!

Sleep Experiment: Morning 1

Today I heard R moving around about 4:45 but left her alone until a little after 5:00 I heard her through the monitor saying hi. hi. hiee. hhi. hi. as if she was talking to someone in her room. So I popped in there. But the good news is, she waited until 5:00 to wake up. In my last post, CraftyQueen suggested it might take a few mornings to get her to sleep later. Let's hope! I'm aiming for a 5:30-6:00 wake up-- I think that would make it a bit more rushed to get her to eat and get ready for day care, but definitely doable.

A Sleep Experiment

Tonight J and I talked about adjusting R's schedule to try and get her down to sleep a little later, so that maybe she will stop waking up at 4:30-5:00. So tonight we let her run around in her bedroom until close to 7, when we finally laid her down. (She's normally in bed a little bit after 6). We'll see how the experiment worked tomorrow morning. I'll keep you updated.

This Bites.

We kept R home from day care today because she was cranky as all get-out and we thought she would maybe recover better at home. I had her in the morning while J was at work and then he took over just before lunch.

Despite the fact that she took a good nap today, she's been soooooo cranky this evening, and right now is screaming in her crib. She doesn't want to calm down-- she doesn't want me to hold her, she doesn't want me to put her down, she doesn't want to run around, she doesn't want to do anything. I just hope she goes to sleep soon, poor baby, she's so tired.

UPDATE, Saturday Morning: I got her up and let her run around for about a half an hour and then tried to put her back down to sleep and she finally went to bed around 6:40 p.m. She seems to be much better today-- more chipper, at least!

Why? Why?

R used to get up at 6. Since school has started she's been getting up at 5. Or close to it. Sometimes it's before 5, even-- one morning this week it was about 10 til 5 when I had to go up and get her.

Her getting up that early makes it not so much the case that I get "work" done before getting her up. Mostly, I'm able to finish putting together her lunch and make myself some coffee and put away all the dishes that are drying on the counter and pick up some things and maybe run a load of laundry and assemble my school things and sometimes check my email.

The nice thing though is that it does make it the case that I drop her off at day care close to 7 and am off to work often before 8, sometimes around 7:30, even.

Yesterday I tried getting up at 3:30 to see if that helped me with having some more time where I could write instead of just putz around in the kitchen. It did!

But geez, getting up at 3:30? To make that work I have to go to bed around 8, and that feels kind of crazy. But if it works and I get writing done... I'm going to keep doing it. Of course, this morning didn't work out that way since my computer is a bit out of whack and our tech guy is looking at it, so I'm using J's computer to post this blog entry while I drink some coffee.

Whoop, there she goes. 4:59, right on the dot. Gotta go!

Teeth update

Two of R's top front teeth (the two on her right) are already through and the other two on her left will definitely break through very soon. She has been in quite a bit of teething discomfort the last few days. Cross your fingers for a full night's sleep for all of us tonight! Off to bed now!

Four teeth?

We think R is cutting four teeth (yes, four!) right now--all of the ones on top in the front. Poor baby! Two of them may have already broken through, and I hope the other two come through soon. It is no easy feat to look at a 1-year-old's gums, so I haven't gotten a really clear look, but from what I can tell, I really think each of those teeth are ready to pop out, if they haven't already. J's gotten a better look and he says the two on her right have already broken the surface, and that the other two are almost there.

I hope when they come through that it means the end of her night wakings the last few days. She usually gets right back to sleep, but we think the only reason she's waking up at all is because her gums hurt.

Summer... again

It's summer again, and lately I've been thinking about how different this summer is from last summer. Last summer I was hugely pregnant. This summer I have a 1-year-old roaming my house.

Since R turned 1, just two weeks ago (although because we had three different birthday parties for her, it felt more like a process of turning 1 rather than a single momentous occasion), I've been reminiscing a lot about what it was like last summer, being pregnant, anticipating labor, and looking forward to having a little baby at home.

This is R just a few moments after she was born and wrapped up in a blanket--June 12, 2007.


After R was born, we had tons of friends and family in town visiting. Some of those same family members--J's parents and my parents, for example--are coming to see us again this year. Last summer, though, they made last-minute flight arrangements to come out and meet R and help with new baby stuff. This summer, they're coming, of course, to see R, but also to help us pack up our house in anticipation of our cross-country move.

Last summer, early in June, we made appointments to meet pediatricians--one of whom, uncannily, predicted I would give birth within two weeks, despite the fact that I was only 35 weeks along. (I gave birth exactly a week after meeting with him). This photo was taken, I think, a day or two before we met with the pediatrician.


















This summer, we took R to get her 1-year shots amidst worries about autism and vaccines.

Last summer, when our families came to visit, we were in a sea of sleep deprivation, adjusting to a newborn, and trying to "follow the baby's cues". This summer, we're wrestling with establishing R's schedule and sticking to it, which is kind of funny since I have never been the most schedule-oriented person (although J definitely is a creature of routine and habit).

What a difference a year makes in terms of sleep. Last summer, I was nursing round-the-clock and J and I were lucky to get 4 straight hours of sleep. This summer, R has started sleeping through the night starting around 6:30 or 7:00 and going until 6:30 or 7:00 the next morning. We're now working on getting her naps to be consistent--we haven't been very successful on that front yet--she naps every day, and usually gets about 2-2.5 hours of nap altogether, but it's not consistently at the same time nor for the same length of time. Sometimes she'll have two naps, sometimes just one really long one, etc.