Sleep. Something that all mothers can about swap war stories.
I’ve definitely gained my own stories in the last 4 months and I’m sure to gain
many many more!
Since the beginning Audra has been in our room with us with the exception of the week she slept in the swing at night and the 2 weeks her
and I slept on the couch every night.
Last week was the first week of Audra sleeping in our
spare/storage room. It was also the time we had to un-swaddle her and take her
off the changing pad. Enter the worst week of sleep in our lives. Audra was
waking up every 30 minutes, every hour, every 2 hours. The longest stretch of
sleep we both got that whole week was 4 hours. I was loosing it. Crying when my
husband left for work. Crying when she woke up. Crying when she cried. It was
miserable for both of us.
But it lasted a week. A hard and exhausting week but we
survived. Now we have made it to Friday of another week and this week sleep has
found us again and become our lets-get-matching-charm-bracelets best friend. At
least for night time. We put a CD player in Audra’s room and it plays the same
Celtic lullaby song on repeat all night. This seemed to deliver big bonus
points. We also raised her crib so the “drop” is less scary. That moment when
you place a baby down in the crib is serious business. Seems like the bottom of
the crib is 10 feet away and she was usually waking up halfway down.
But it’s not all easy breezy around here. Nap time is what
kills us. Audra never napped in her crib until we started it last week. She
always slept in her swing for naps. It was the best of both worlds. She could
see me, she could get lulled to sleep by the smooth swinging motion, she could
wake up and see me in the room. All that was taken away last week. Cold turkey
style. So naturally she had major issues with it. Since last Sunday we have
clocked 3 naps in her crib. 2. That’s not a lot. We’ve also clocked hours
crying it out in the crib which results in no napping period and the look on
her face when I place her in her crib is one of “you are not seriously putting
me in here, I WILL scream, do not test me”. I have come to the conclusion that for now I
cannot put her in there partially awake and let her talk or play until she
falls asleep. I need to make sure she is out cold and then stealthily maneuver
her into the crib and then do not breathe until I exit the room. This is the
only way I can think to get her used to the crib. And a pacifier in the crib is
not even an option at this point. She almost immediately rolls to her stomach
to sleep and the pacifier either falls out or chokes her. No Bueno.
Speaking of stomach sleeping that happened for the first
time this week! What a blessing that is! She sleeps so much better on her
stomach. She doesn’t put her patootie in the air yet but when it happens I
might just take a half dozen photos if I can. For high school graduation of
course?
So all this to say is we’ve had a good week of sleeping.
When Audra wakes at night I set a mental timer in my head for 10 minutes. If
she hasn’t whined herself back to sleep by then and she is getting worse I will
go pick her up. If her whining continues but softens I let her be. All it
usually takes is 10 minutes and she’s out again. Self-soothing is a magical
thing and this girl is on her way to earning a gold star for it.
Nothing much else has happened around here. We had her 4mth
appointment yesterday and the Doctor was impressed with how alert and let’s
face it “Into everyone’s business” she is but my girl is a people-watching pro.
Girl after my own heart. She continues to be slightly below average for height
and weight and above average for head size (thank you Daddy!) It’s hard to
believe that our next visit to the Dr she will be 6 months old and ready to
start solids. I’m already planning her first real food experience. I gave her a
finger dip of yogurt last week and she loved it so that may be on the menu. Or
I should probably start her on a vegetable seeing as I hate most veggies
because I didn’t eat them much when I was younger. I want her to love
vegetables. Mmmm…strained peas it is!
We took a family trip to a huge hardware store an hour away the other day. She enjoyed it thoroughly.
I enjoyed it too. Ice cream style.
Happy Weekend Friends. It’s garage sale bonanza around these
parts and we are super excited!
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