Babies don't have snooze buttons, I don't know whose oversight that one was, but they don't. Having a baby is sort of like having one of those alarm clocks that you have to get up out of bed to turn off, except it goes off whenever it wants to all throughout the night.
You know that painful feeling you have when your alarm clock goes off and you want to keep sleeping SO badly? But you know you HAVE to get up, so you drag your heavy-as-lead body out of bed and take those first few lumbering steps?
Now imagine that feeling, every two hours (or more), all night long, for weeks on end.
You know how that feeling sort of makes you hate your alarm clock, or your boss, or whatever is making you get out of bed at that moment? That fact that most mothers don't hate their babies is proof that miracles still occur.
But THIS morning, this morning I experienced something glorious: The feeling of drifting awake, alllll of my own accord. Sure it was 6:30 am (and I am NOT what you would call a morning person), but it was glorious nonetheless.
That feeling of hating your alarm clock? Well, when you wake up on your own, you instead have these blissful feelings of love for your baby who you know slept well if you woke up feeling this good.
What is funny about this story, is that my baby had only slept a four hour stretch, which apparently feels pretty amazing to me now.
She ALSO fell asleep on her own for two naps so far today. (CELEBRATORY MUSIC!)
I blogged a couple of days ago about my game plan to try and get her sleeping better, and here are the things that I've been doing differently, one or all of which must be helping (either that or this is another one of her dirty tricks).
- Nursing her on a three hour feed schedule throughout the day
- Making sure she's getting some solids every day, and trying to do that a little before bedtime
- Cutting off her night feeds a little bit sooner than usual (so she's getting less milk at night, hoping to shift her consuming those calories during the daytime)
- Putting her down at night feeds when she is about 95% asleep (really just a side effect of cutting off the feed a little early), so she's putting herself to sleep for that last 5%
- If her nap time doesn't correspond with a feed, I'm using The Nap Maker to get her to sleep instead of nursing her every time. (Although today, I haven't even had to do that. Wooooot!)
So do all of that. And then pray and cross your fingers and throw some salt over your shoulder. Just to cover all of your bases. And then YOU can sleep a four hour stretch as well. ;)
Is it just me, or is she cuter today?
I really really hope that these are signs that she's going to start improving her nighttime sleep, but she's tricked me before with one random night of great sleep bookended on either side by terrible sleep. She's sneaky like that. Don't let that adorable face fool you.
Of course I'M going to want to sleep long stretches, but it's hard to know what truly realistic expectations are for babies. Peter didn't drop his last night feed until 10 months, but he only woke up once a night from about four months on (with the exception of a couple short regressions). So I'm curious... when have your kids started sleeping through the night? (You know, like 10-12 hours through the night?)
Labels: Motherhood
