When Avery was a newborn, she slept in the same room as us in a little bassinet. In the first 6 weeks, I'd nurse her every 3 hours, and at night, Howard took the ungodly hour morning feeding shift (2-3am) and I'd take the early morning shift (5-6am). By the time she was sleeping about 4-5 hours at night at 6 weeks, we put her in her own crib in her own room, because I had come to the decision that I simply can not sleep in the same room as her. Every single baby noise - grunt, whistle, snore - would wake me up. I was not able to have a quality sleep with her in the room. And sleeping with her on the bed? Forget about that. I would literally have nightmares of rolling over on her, or for nights afterward, twitch myself out of sleep cuz I seriously keep feeling like I'm going to squish her. So out of resolve to reclaim our bedroom, and to have some truly restful sleep, at 6 weeks, we started putting her to sleep in her own crib/room.
Taking her first nap in her crib at 6 weeks. What a pretty crib/room. Daddy spent a great deal of time painting that room yellow. How can we let that go to waste? hehAround 4 months: She started sleeping through the night, going down at 9pm, waking up around 4am to nurse. Then sometimes she'd sleep til 8am. Ah ha - so she doesn't really need to eat at 4am, she'd just get up out of habit. I could tell because she wouldn't drink much at 4am, and want to go back to bed. So I started ignoring her at 4am, then she'd just cry for 5 minutes, play by herself for a bit, and go back to bed til 8am. That's how she started sleeping 10-11 hours without waking.
Around 6 months: was when she started to fight her bedtime. We'd put her down in her crib after her meal, and she would cry. Then the checklist: 1) Remnant burp? 2) Still hungry? 3) Diaper? Until we would come to the conclusion that nothing worked, and she just wouldn't sleep. So we had to let her cry it out. First time she cried about 30 minutes. If you picked her up when she first cried, then you're dead meat: she would cry longer and harder when you put her down. The next night, she cried for about 15 minutes and went to sleep. The next night after that, about 2 minutes. By day 4, no sound. She had re-learned to fall asleep on her own. Whew!
Around 9 months: She figured out how to sit up from tummy = bad news for bedtime. She'd sit up in her crib, cry/yelling for rescue, then roll around and seem to not know what to do with herself. "HOW do I fall asleep if I'm sitting up!!??" We tried going in and laying her back down, but she'd just roll herself onto her tummy again and continue crying, repeating until we just realized she needed to refigure out how to fall asleep again, this time on her tummy. And so she did. It took about 30 minutes of crying.
Now she is 10 months. Wakeup at 7-7:30am, Bedtime at 8pm. Bedtime routine as follows:
Around 7:30pm, we finish up our bath/wipedown, feed her 10 oz of formula/breastmilk mix. Say goodnight to Daddy (or Mommy, whoever is not on duty), walk upstairs to her room, turn on her iPod which plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on repeat continuously, turn on her humidifier (good for white noise and keeps boogers in check), put her in her blanket bag, lay her down in her crib. Turn off the lights. Night night! *daddy turns on his Xbox*
NapTimes. This is when I talk about Avery's nap schedules and bores everyone to tears. But it must be done.
Newborn: basically slept all the time, only waking up every 3 hours to nurse.
2 months: Awake for about 1-2 hours at a time, then naps ranging from 15 min (ugh) to 2 hours. Very unpredictable.
4 months. Awake for 2 hours at a time, then naps ranging from 1.5 to 3 hours. Three naps a day.
I let her nap on the bed with me a few times at my mom's house around 3 months. I'm faking it. Totally not sleeping.7 months. Awake for 2-3 hours at a time, then naps ranging from 1 to 2.5 hours. Three naps a day. On Average: Wake Up at 7am, Nap at 9am, Up at 11am, Nap at 1pm, up at 2:30pm, Nap at 4:30pm, up at 5:30pm, Bedtime at 8:30pm.
9 months. Awake for 2-4 hours at a time, then naps ranging from 1 to 2.5 hours a day. 2 naps a day. On Average: Wakeup at 7am, Nap at 9:30am, Up at 11am, Nap at 2pm, up at 4:00pm, Bedtime at 7:30-8pm.
We only get like, 2 hours of Avery once we get home from work, to spend time with her before she goes to sleep. I miss her when she goes to sleep, yet I really love having my own time too. This also answers the question - How in the world do I have time to blog every week? Haha. Either I will never get any work done, or my second-born child will be so pissed that his/her older sis has a library of records, while they have a few pictures. hehe
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment