Or is that Sunday Evening?
'Cause if it was Sunday Eve, it would actually be Saturday night, yes?
Anywho.
You know it's a good night when you've finished a round of marathon housecleaning (with only twenty thousand loads of laundry to finish now, instead of thirty thousand), and completed a 10-minute Total Body Blast video that lets you fake-believe that you've actually exercised.
So I'm gonna attempt to write a speedy weekend catch-up before showering and sitting my happy fanny down for a couple minutes of me-time before lights out.
First on the catch-up: it was a be-a-uuuutiful day today, which was double the pleasure, double the fun because we've had a string of pretty chilly weather lately.
So to celebrate the sunshine and soak in an ounce of Vitamin D, we sat outside on the patio of The Cheesecake Factory for a lovely brunch (don't judge, they have a fantastic eggs benedict).
Baby Girl was so freaking cute. And chill as a cucumber.
And smiley, when she wasn't too busy just lounging.
Except when she decided to make that "awesome" groan/croak/scream noise.
For those of you who don't already know (or in case I haven't mentioned it in awhile on the blog), Baby Girl has a little napping problem that consists of her only sleeping the length of one infant sleep cycle. Between 35 and 37 minutes on the dot. And I mean on the dot. I could time it with a stop watch.
She gets 35 minutes of shut-eye and that little head of hers pops-up like the done button on, well...the done button on something that actually has a done button. A meat thermometer?
Now, we usually cut her some slack when she only sleeps 35 minutes for her morning nap, because she's been a great nighttime sleeper for months now, so it's fine if she doesn't need a ton of sleep before midday.
But the afternoon is a whole different ball of wax.
When she wakes up after her 35 minute afternoon nap, she is NOT a happy camper. She's tired, cranky, and most likely crying, because--surprise, surprise--she's still SLEEPY. And nothing really helps her out except getting her more sleep--which I have to help her do.
Now, we didn't really push the issue and make her cry it out to get herself back into another sleep cycle before now, because all the reading we'd done (and the discussions we'd had with her pediatrician) indicated that her sleeping abilities would mature around the six-month mark. So we sort of waited and hoped that she'd naturally extend the naps at that point.
No suck luck.
Again, surprise surprise. Nothing is really ever easy with Baby Girl (except her smiles). When EVERYONE said it would take about four nights to make her cry it out to sleep through the night, it took two weeks. That's just our kid. Willful, one might say.
So it was also no surprise that Baby Girl put up quite a fight this afternoon when we made her cry it out after one sleep cycle of her nap.
Now, I'm not going to tell you how long she cried--correction, screamed--because: a) it still hurts my heart, and, b) I don't want any judgment. But it was a loooooooong time. And when she did fall back to sleep she only slept for...you guessed it. Another 35 minutes.
I suspect this is going to be a long week of training.
And perhaps next week will be long, too.
But the hubby and I just want the best for our kiddo, and the best is more sleep at a time. At least, according to our trusted pediatrician who said it would be best if Baby Girl had, "at least an hour in the morning; two would be better. At least an hour in the afternoon; two would be better." That's a direct quote, in case the quotation marks didn't tip you off ;)
Now, in other weekend related news, Baby Girl has started sleeping up on her knees like this:
You wouldn't think it would be very comfortable, but she can stay in that position for hours. And during the angry round of hissy pitching in her crib this afternoon, she got into that position and then used her head to leverage her bottom up even higher, so that she was almost straightening her legs beneath her. No joke. It was simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.
So we did what any parents would do, and made sure to lower the crib mattress to its lowest setting (since our pediatrician also told us to do that at her last appointment, we just hadn't gotten around to it).
It took the hubby almost an hour to do it because it required dissembling darn near the entire crib, but I suppose it's for the best, safety-wise, since our little booger could be pulling herself up any day now (especially if she gets mad enough).
I must say that it's going to take me a LONG time to get used to the look of the mattress so low. I mean look at this. Doesn't it look like I just dropped my kid down the bottom of a well???
Oh well (haha--well/well...get it?). One of those necessary transitions, I suppose. But I shall mourn the loss of the beautiful bedskirt, just as I mourned the loss of the beautiful bumper. And in the tough week of sleep training to come, I shall look back on as many smiling pictures of my kiddo as I can, so I don't worry every minute that I'm slowly breaking her spirit.
Wish us luck, peeps!
P.S. I know most of you are probably thinking: if she can sleep through the night, why can't she sleep through sleep cycles during the day? Well, the answer is: napping and nighttime sleep in infants are apparently controlled by separate parts of the brain. I know this because I've read more than I ever want to about infant sleep patterns. Just thought I'd throw that out there, 'cause I get that question a lot.
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