I have heard that once you have kids you never sleep the same again. Well, so far this is true for me. Lilly has slept 11+ hours through the night since she was 6 months old (knocking on wood here), but I haven’t. Some nights I wake up at 4:30/5 am and can’t fall back asleep, other nights I wake up in the middle of the night and it takes me awhile to fall back asleep – a frustrating thing to happen considering she sleeps so well! I am getting enough sleep and feel rested – just look forward to uninterrupted nights of 8+ hours of sleep somewhere in the future!
Lilly’s afternoon naps have been quite interesting lately. After reading and singing together I put her down at the same time each day, and now she takes up to a full hour to fall asleep – usually while sitting up! I think she’s waiting for me to come back in so it may be a bit of separation anxiety, but she doesn’t cry for more than a minute or so. Just sits there talking and playing with the breathable bumpers. I think she’d be a bit more comfortable if she were lying down – hopefully she will learn soon!!!
Whenever Lilly is working to master a new skill it seems as though her sleep is somewhat disrupted. The last few days she has been working really hard at crawling and pulling herself up, and her naps have been rather eventful. Yesterday was the first time EVER that she didn’t take a morning nap – she decided to move around in her crib for 1-1/2 hours instead. In the afternoon she slept for awhile but woke up several times and sat up. I had to go in, lay her back down, and remind her that it was nap time. Today she wriggled around for 20 minutes and then started to detach the mobile from her crib! Once removed, she fell asleep while sitting up (woke up a few minutes later, confused, and fell asleep on her back).
Thankfully her evening sleep has not been interrupted (yet). She still sleeps from 7:30pm-7am.
We have been in Arizona since Christmas Day and are enjoying our time here. It was so nice to spent time with my brothers, cousins, and niece. Lilly adjusted to the time change immediately – I was actually surprised. Her naps were on schedule and she slept right through them. She was also mostly sleeping through the night. I’m certain that watching Leela wore her out!
Leave it to our little girl to change her sleep patterns on us once everything settles down! The past three nights she has been up several times a night. She isn’t hungry – just needs some help settling back to sleep. We think she has hit her 6 months growth spurt or has a little bug (Todd and Bill have both been sick. I’m sure it will work itself out shortly. Meanwhile I’m sleeping better than I have since she was born, which is wonderful.
We have taken advantage of the weather each day. It doesn’t get any better than 72 and sunny – which it has been every day this week! Bill & I visited Scottsdale Sunday and sat by the pool and Lilly & I have taken daily walks and even played pickle ball. I have made it to the gym every day and started running again. Bill has done a lot of intense bike riding as he continues to heal from stress fractures. I have been riding bikes a lot as well. Actually, I’m kind of upset that I let my mom take my old bike to AZ with her!
Bill and I woke up at 6:25 this morning to Lilly crying out for us and quickly realized this was the first time she woke up! Normally she wakes up once between 2 and 4 and then is up for the day around 7am. This meant that I got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in 5 months! It was absolutely divine. She has definitely been sleeping better in general – still has the occasional night where she wakes up and wants to be soothed several times (once or twice a week), but she is always easy to put back down.
I thank Heidi Gee for the fact that Lilly slept through the night. Just before putting her to sleep Jerry, Karen, and Heidi were over (Ethiopian carry-out…yum!) and Lilly was absolutely enamored with Heidi. She became really quiet and didn’t want to take her eyes off of her. I think watching a toddler run around really wore her out!
The past few days I have been trying to push her schedule back by about an hour so that the transition to Mountain Time is easier on all of us. She now goes to sleep around 8:45 and has been waking up at 8am. The plane ride will likely mess up all the advanced work we are doing, but hopefully she will adjust to life in Arizona quickly!
What a difference a day makes! Lilly has changed so much these past few weeks. Sunday she had her first ‘belly laugh’. Bill was getting her ready for her bath and tickling her tummy when it happened. I could hear it all the way from her bathroom with the water running! Monday I got a good laugh out of her as well…too cute.
We have been working on ‘unswaddling’ her for awhile now. Mission accomplished! We left one arm out for about a week. Towards the end of last week she began rolling over onto her stomach during her naps and waking herself up doing the same thing at night, so we began leaving both arms out. It has been several days now and she is sleeping well with her arms out. Finally! We are slowly working on weaning her off the pacifier as well. We only give it to her for naps and take it out once she is relaxed and in her crib.
Since being unswaddled, Lilly is rolling around like CrAzY during her naps and at night time. She has begun sleeping on her tummy as well. I was a bit worried about this at first (SIDS), but have been told that once they do it on their own there isn’t much you can do to stop them. She is strong enough to move around, lift her head up, etc., so there’s nothing to be concerned about. She can flip herself onto her tummy really easily but gets frustrated and has a hard time flipping back. She’s almost there…we’re working on it a lot.
It seems as though we are nearing the end of ‘4 month sleep regression’. Apparently it is quite common for 4 and 8-month-olds to go through this, and Lilly certainly has. For about a week and a half she went from waking up once or twice to eat to waking up twice to eat and 3 or 4 additional times. We partially attributed this to her pacifier use, but can’t be sure. Now she is mostly back to waking up just once a night to eat. Keep you fingers crossed for us!
Nap time is MUCH easier now. She is fairly consistent at napping from 9-11 and 1-3 with a 30 minute catnap at 5pm (and wakes up no more than once). We’ll see how long this lasts…
Lilly is VERY focused. Yesterday at my ‘moms’ group she looked at each individual very intently as they were talking. The group leader even made a remark about it. She loves watching the other babies and the moms as well!
Our four-month-old is suddenly sleeping like a one-month-old. The past week or so she has woken to eat once at her usual time (between 12 and 1:30) but wakes up every 10 to 30 minutes (usually eating once) from 4:30 until her *official wake-up time at 7am. The problem seems to be pacifier related – when I put the pacifier back in her mouth she usually falls asleep quickly. Bill and I have considered pacifier weaning for awhile now. I’m meeting with the pediatrician tomorrow and plan to make some changes later this week. Keep your fingers crossed for us – mom needs more sleep!
Bill felt sick Monday morning and Lilly woke up in the middle of the night on Tuesday with a stuffy nose. In the morning I noticed that it had gotten worse, and she continued to be congested throughout the day. She acted a bit grumpy during the day and I was concerned about her stuffiness in the evening, so Judy brought over a nasal aspirator for me. Tuesday evening Lilly woke up every 15 minutes until 3am, and 3 times after that. She didn’t seem terribly sick or in pain, just wanted to be comforted.
Her stuffy nose lasted until the next day. Last night when I was feeding her and putting her to bed she inhaled 6.5 ounces and proceeded to projectile vomit all over me and the glider. Aunt Terry brought over pedialyte in case the vomiting continued. Thankfully it was an isolated illness and not because she was sick!
This morning I woke up with a sore throat and earache. Apparently Lilly gave me whatever illness she had. I guess I should get used to it!
Thanks to Judy and Aunt Terry!
Sleeping through the night is a milestone that most babies reach between 3 and 6 months of age. The term is a bit misleading because ‘sleeping through the night’ is defined as sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch, and most babies sleep 10+ hours in the evening. Lilly first slept through the night on October 4th. She went to sleep around 7:45 as usual and didn’t wake up until 2:45. It was wonderful! Since then she has had several more nights like this, but still continues to wake up twice most nights.
Whether she ‘sleeps through the night’ or not, I am definitely feeling more rested. I wonder when she will actually sleep through the night…on Saturday we met a couple whose 7-month-old still wakes up 2x every evening.
Here is a video of one well-rested baby waking up from her morning nap.
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