After hearing Da's documentary on baby sleeping, I thought, maybe it's time for an Amaya sleep update. If you haven't heard her documentary, you can find it on her blog, kitchencorners.blogspot.com, although I suppose most of you already check her blog regularly. It's quite good. I'm jealous that she can make something so cool! I may have to be an audio documentary groupie. Jake and I have started getting into podcasts, and I can see that this could be an endless barrel of time commitments. Didn't stop me from downloading all of the They Might Be Giants video podcasts, Word on the Street podcasts (thanks Bekah), Fresh Air (NPR), and Prarie Home Companion's the News from Lake Wobegone.
Anyway, Amaya has some new sleeping habits.
After weeks of hysterical crying at bedtime, my mom was able to get Amaya to sleep through the night in about two nights. She would go down around 8:30, wake up after 7 am (sometimes 8 am), and never wake up in the middle of the night. The second I showed up, however, that changed. She began waking up in the morning around 4 am, and crying until we gave her milk and let her sleep with us.
The good news? She falls asleep without fighting. She can actually sleep on her own, at night time. She still has no idea how to take a nap, but she has decided that she can lay down and close her eyes while hugging her rabbit pillow at night.
She rarely cries when I leave the room, and even if she does, it's usually fast.
The bad news. She wakes up in the middle of the night. Whether we are in the room or not, she will stand up and jump, cry wildly, and continue to do so. If it's a bad night and she wakes up pretty early (let's say midnight), she will continue waking up every 15 minutes to half an hour, cry for about 3 minutes, and the pattern won't stop until her usual morning wake up time. We don't get her (sometimes we're not even in bed yet), but it goes on anyway.
A couple of nights she has made it all the way until 5:30 am, which is amazing.
Usually, though, she wakes at 4 am. I get up, get her, get milk for her, and then lay her down in our bed while I go pee. She used to have to come into the bathroom with me, which was annoying, because I have to turn on the light, and I think that wakes her up more. Now, at least, she'll stay in our bed until I come back. Then she wakes up at 5 am, then 6 am, and usually that's the last time. She needs another bottle every time, and will get out of bed and scream, pull at my hand, until I get up and get her a bottle. She only drinks about 4 oz at a time (never went over 6 oz milk meals even as a younger baby), so it's no wonder she needs more, but I wish she had a little bigger stomach.
Some mornings I try to sneak out of bed to go running or get ready early. It never works. 9 times out of 10 she notices that I'm gone within a minute, even if she's cuddled over on Jake's side of the bed.
A couple of nights ago I tried to make her wait for her milk, and Jake ended up having to wake up because he couldn't stand her crying and climbing all over me, kicking him. Didn't exactly have the affect that I was going for. I tried to pretend I was asleep with her hitting my face and pushing her head into me.
The worst is when she decides to sleep in when we don't want her to. She loves to do that.
Her current napping schedule is 1/2 an hour for me, 1 1/2-2 hours for Jake. Meaning, on Tuesday and Thursday (the days I have her), she takes a very short nap. For Jake, she'll sleep the afternoon away. We put her to sleep in the exact same fashion at about the same time. She sleeps in the stroller only. We take her for a long walk in the jogging stroller and let her sleep in the house, in the stroller.
Today we had conference so we had to walk back from the CAC 2 hours after her usual nap time. She fell asleep in the regular stroller, so Jake tipped the stroller back, put a stuffed animal under her feet, and he took a nap too.
So, things are better. They certainly could be worse. My next mission is to get her to eat bread (sandwiches are just so much easier to make) and vegetables other than ultra-limp broccoli. I am willing to put in the work for the sneaky chef, but I really would like her to enjoy vegetables as much as I do. Is that too much to ask?
1 comment:
you would be a perfect audio documentarian. The sleep one was based on your initial post. Pitch me more ideas, I need it. I like your idea about food but because I am obsessed with the kitchen sisters I feel totally inadequate to even try producing anything related to food. By the way you MUST subscribe to their podcast. They just had a new show this Tuesday. I can't wait to go back where I have fast internet and I can hear it. Enzo decided that he hates his pacifier. I think he has that mouth thing again. He does not want it at all. I thought this would be a glorious time but instead it's miserable. It takes him HOURS to fall asleep, screaming none stop. yes hours. My mom has been the only one able to get him to sleep. I think Iĺl have to live here forever (which I am o.k with). The only reason why I am not as frustrated as I should be is because I'am on vacation and am homework free. If this continues when we go back it's going to get ugly.
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