Thursday, November 15, 2012

Sleep

Everyone warns you about the lack of sleep you will get with a newborn.  They tell you to "sleep now" when you are pregnant and "sleep when the baby sleeps" when they are first born.  I couldn't sleep now when I was pregnant.  I was often awake at all hours of the night, tossing and turning.  And now that she's here, it is really hard to sleep when she sleeps.  There is just so much joy in each day, and I want to be awake for all of it!
Luckily for me, I have a pretty good sleeper on my hands.  She gives us at least two solid three-hour stretches at night with a few other one-hour or two-hour chunks. 

Our key to making it work and (so far) not napping during the day is a very early bed time.  Most nights we start bed time at 8pm, but last night I was much more tired, so after she ate at 6:30, we all crawled into bed.  Eleanor slept in her bassinet, Alex worked on grades in bed, and I was fast asleep until she woke to eat again at 10pm. 

We had a pretty rough night last night.  She woke up again at 11pm but then proceeded to sleep straight until 2:30pm.  That wasn't so bad, but that is when our night took a turn.  At 2:30 we fed and we fed and we fed.  And then we changed a diaper and we fed some more.  And then we burped and fed and burped and fed and maybe even changed another diaper and then fed again.  It was endless.  After each feeding she would look all sleepy and we would put her down and then she would fuss and start mouthing a sucking motion and I would pick her up and she would latch right on again.  This lasted until after 4:30am! 

Finally I let her sleep on my chest instead of placing her in the bassinet.  Then she slept on my right side all curled up to me.  And then my left side.  And then I passed her off to Alex and she cuddled him for another bit until she woke up again at 6am!
We were up and feeding once again, and once again I just let her curl up in bed with me.  It meant I could get back to sleep faster, but it also means I didn't sleep quite as well.  We were both asleep again by 7am and that stretch lasted until 8:30 for me, and nearly 10am for her.  I just couldn't lay in bed any longer so I jumped up to shower while she kept snoozing.  
Look at that sly grin...she knows who's boss around here!

So despite the wild night of cluster feedings, I still feel relatively rested.  It helps that I was in bed for more than 13 hours, even if many of those hours required me to be awake.  We'll see how long this lasts!

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