18 posts tagged “sleep”
Sometimes I get a little boxed in by my routines. For the most part things work out really well and by sticking to my routines as much as possible I can keep control over my days. I had been "dream feeding" Chewie at 10--feeding her in her sleep so that she would make it until the morning (7:30) and not have her sleep interrupted. Lately she's been waking up at 10. Which is no longer a dream feed and pretty indicative of a habitual waking. The last couple of nights I fed her only one side, something that would have caused a 3 or 4 am waking a few weeks ago. She took it and slept until 7:30. Or well, 7:20, but we're not going to quibble. Last night I decided not to go up there at all. She woke when Vader took SkyWalker and the Princess to the bathroom. I grumbled but didn't go up. She wasn't screaming or crying but really just fussing. She went back to sleep after just a few minutes. I was truly shocked when my alarm went off at 5:30 and I realized I hadn't been up yet. I knew this had become a habit waking but part of me was afraid to not feed her. Not that she would wake me up later, but just because she seems so similar to SkyWalker--born early and small, not the easiest pooping, looks just like him--that in the back of my head I thought "I don't want another baby to stop gaining weight." But she is not SkyWalker and she is still gaining weight. She now has some chunky thighs like her big sister. And she is a week away from cereal anyway. I decided I didn't need to wait until EXACTLY 6 months, so I'm doing it just one week early--on Thanksgiving so my mom can be there. My mother was there for the other 2 and now she can be there for Chewie's first cereal tasting as well.
I am up before the sun and all the children and dogs and husband are still sleeping and it is glorious. I was only tired for a few minutes and now I am awake and wondering why I couldn't drag my lazy butt out of bed for the last couple of weeks. We have had a rough patch-- Chewie has been eating like a fiend and SkyWalker spent a few days throwing up. And when you have 3 the odds of you being woken up in the middle of the night aren't 3 times as great it's a MILLION times as great. Throw in Scratchy the dog who likes to scratch his skin off or lick himself ad nauseum. Literally--he threw up this week too.
Balance. People. The balance, she eludes me. I strive for it everyday and everyday it slips from my fingers.
I *would* have finished the second week of Couch to 5k but my ankles are starting to hurt and I think I need new sneakers. It turned out good that I did not since I forgot to eat lunch and probably would have passed out.
We're all done traveling and I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed again. I will be even more glad when Chewie is sleeping in her own bed (her crib upstairs instead of the co-sleeper in our room). She had a couple of really good nights on LI and I think they were both because she was outside in the heat for the majority of the day! We have yet to replicate it. I'm getting really tired of, well, being tired. Being up twice a night is wearing on me. Particularly since I know the Princess was sleeping all night long by now... it's not fair to compare but that's what's in the back of my mind.
It's funny, when your time is split into 2-3 hour chunks it goes amazingly fast. I close my eyes and it's a week later. We've been working really hard on our routine. And by we I mean me. Chewie has been on EASY (the baby whisperer) since I brought her home--I nursed her, changed her diaper to wake her up a little, and then put her down to sleep. Eat, Activity, Sleep. The Y is supposed to be You time, but with 2 older kids there is no You time. She's starting to be awake longer... and thus is now able to get overtired and then have to scream herself to sleep. Joy. In addition to the sudden and random blood curdling screams brought on by gas, she also enjoys crying in her sleep. I am so glad I got that video monitor because I would think that the Princess was sitting on top of her. Oh no. She's completely asleep. Crying. I do think she's been overtired and that I've been misreading her cues a bit and feeding her when she just needs to sleep. Ah well, tomorrow is a new day. She'll be a month old tomorrow and all things considered she's doing really well. I do remember with the Princess that I thought she would never go longer at night and settle into a routine, but she did her first 7 hour stretch at 7 weeks old, followed shortly thereafter by ALL night long. So I have hope.
My children alternated crying last night. For the entire night. And when I mean entire night, I mean it. I think I slept for roughly 2 hours. I finally just turned the monitor off at 4 but since I already had a splitting headache it really didn't help. SkyWalker peed his bed 3 times. They both have runny noses. SkyWalker is not that bad... I have to decide now if I want to send him to preschool or not. I hate to see him miss so early on when he's still getting used to it. But I don't want anyone else getting sick.
I've come back to work to two surprises. One I knew was coming but didn't really think I'd see it... a vending machine in the staff room. This will good. And bad. The second I also knew was coming but didn't think I'd see it so soon... the director is resigning. Crazy days at the library.
I know I'm pretty strict about our sleep schedule. I let the kids stay up for the wedding but that's it. No 4th of July or New Year's Eve. No staying up late because we're out at a friends or at dinner or something like that. Which is why it constantly amazes me when I see people bringing their little kids in at 8:30. Dude! And you wonder why your kids are having a tantrum now? Could it be that they are supposed to be in bed? Hmmm....
I called the doc today to schedule the deflux for the Princess. Hopefully we'll get a call with the date soon. Hopefully it will not be on a day I work or my boss will hate me forever. I think he does things on Tuesdays though, so it should be okay.
I cannot wait until I am just working one night a week. I may actually see my husband during the week! Woo-hoo!
I think my brain might be officially fried.
I went to bed at 9:30 and was asleep before 10.
Day 3 of no Daddy. I don't know how people do this all the time. Granted, their kids aren't sick all the time, and they probably don't have 2 dogs, but still.