The Extra-Hour Challenge
Lucia’s sleep has improved dramatically over the past week or so—she can generally go for about four hours now before waking up for a feeding. Now and then she’ll even surprise us with a five- or even six-hour stretch. Our strategy is to give her a bottle (of breastmilk) as her last feeding before bedtime—she seems to eat more this way, and it’s that first stretch of sleep that has improved so drastically. She’ll then wake up once more, around 6:00am or so, before we get up for the day.
Unfortunately, Lucia’s idea of a good time to get up for the day and our idea of a good time is about two hours off. When Lucia wakes up at 6:00 to eat, she’s usually wide awake, ready to play. She is not ready to go back in her bassinet. We, however, are determined to get at least another hour of sleep—and so the extra-hour challenge begins. Andrew usually takes the lead on singing, dancing, and playing, sometimes lying with her on the floor for half an hour or so while she kicks and coos. When, after being rocked and sung to, she seems amenable to sleep, we pull out all the stops—her white-fleece swaddler goes back on, and we employ a pacifier, the white-noise machine, and the vibrating function on the bassinet. Though she tends to be wide-eyed when we put her down, the combination of these sleep-inducing tools usually does the trick, and she’ll go back to sleep until around 8:00am or so. Today she was extra-sleepy and slept until 9:00am.
It would probably be less painful for all of us to just get up at 6:00am and get the day started…but we will continue to fight for that extra hour, for now. I choose, at this point, not to think about what our trip East is going to do to our developing schedule.
Unfortunately, Lucia’s idea of a good time to get up for the day and our idea of a good time is about two hours off. When Lucia wakes up at 6:00 to eat, she’s usually wide awake, ready to play. She is not ready to go back in her bassinet. We, however, are determined to get at least another hour of sleep—and so the extra-hour challenge begins. Andrew usually takes the lead on singing, dancing, and playing, sometimes lying with her on the floor for half an hour or so while she kicks and coos. When, after being rocked and sung to, she seems amenable to sleep, we pull out all the stops—her white-fleece swaddler goes back on, and we employ a pacifier, the white-noise machine, and the vibrating function on the bassinet. Though she tends to be wide-eyed when we put her down, the combination of these sleep-inducing tools usually does the trick, and she’ll go back to sleep until around 8:00am or so. Today she was extra-sleepy and slept until 9:00am.
It would probably be less painful for all of us to just get up at 6:00am and get the day started…but we will continue to fight for that extra hour, for now. I choose, at this point, not to think about what our trip East is going to do to our developing schedule.
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