[Mommy's Thoughts]Received 01/10/2005 03:00

Sleep Deprived No More!

After weeks of getting no sleep (or at least not much in one stretch anyway) I wondered how I would be able to go to work and get up with Hannah in the night. She has been a pretty routine sleeper ever since we brought her home from the "big house". Like clockwork (most nights! We had a few nights where she just didn't want to sleep!) she would awake every three hours in the night to eat. 12, 3, 6, etc... I could always depend on her to get me out of bed at least a couple of times. I often slept in the chair while she pigged out at the "mommy buffet".

Around the 6 week mark she gradually began sleeping from 12-5. Ricky and I thought we were in heaven! I no longer had to take naps in the afternoon and didn't feel like the walking dead in the evening. We were willing to take whatever we could get at that point.

When we went home over Christmas, the pack and play was her bed for the week. Apparently, it was quite comfy b/c one night Aunt Christina wrapped her like a burrito, put her in the pack-n-play and she slept from around 11-6! WOW! Talk about feeling rested! From then on we decided we would have to either have Christina come over every single night to put her down or just learn the art of burrito wrapping! So that is what Daddy did.... He is the BEST burrito wrapper of our little brown girl! I just can't compete!

Anyway, we decided that once we got home, if she kept being a "big girl" as we call it, that we would move her to her own room. For the past few months she has been sleeping in the family room in her little cradle that PaPa built as snug as a bug. It was so handy being close to her in the middle of the night since her room is on the other side of the house! Not the best floorplan for a newborn, but I am sure it will be nice when she is a noisy teenager!

I decided that we had better "finish" her room. Since she decided to join the family ahead of schedule, we just had not had a chance to get everything completely done in her room. So Daddy spent an evening hanging all of the shelves and making sure everything was just right. It looks really nice. I need to post some pics of course, but I will leave that to the Daddy.

So on January 1, 2005 Hannah made her New Year's resolution for '05: sleep in my own room. Now I was a little leary about moving her b/c I knew that if she awoke Mommy would be the one making the mile long journey to her "side" of the house. But we decided it was time for Hannah to "sink or swim". That night we laid her down about 10:00 pm and sure enough..... around 2:30 she awoke~ I made the way back to her room and thought "Maybe she... I mean...Mommy is not ready for this!" I fed her and put her back to bed and she slept until 6:00 that morning!

Gradually, Hannah began sleeping until 4:30. Daddy would put her pacifier in her mouth and then she would sleep until 6! A miracle no more middle of the night feedings!!! There is a God!

Needless to say her bedtime started getting a little earlier and she would sleep a little longer. On my first day back at work I actually had to wake her up to get her ready for "school"! Last night she went to bed at 8:45 and awoke this morning at 8:00 am.

We have had a break through at the Gode household. Hannah has once again proven to be a very easy going baby and extremely smart. My theory is that she knew that it was already hard enough on Mommy going back to work and she didn't want to add to my stress and heart ache.

I hope she is as considerate when she hits those teenage years....but for that we will have to wait a few more years!

Comments for post

Josh
2005/1/13 20:10

Great Pic of her sleeping. Chris got a good one of her cheesing in the swing today. She seems to really like that thing.

Aunt Lizzy eagode [at] yahoo [dot] com
2005/1/10 22:47

Baby Hannah looks so sweet in her crib. It looks as if she is having a wonderful dream! I am so glad that she is sleeping well in her own room! Can\'t wait to see finished pics!

Ricky ricky [at] cakevideo [dot] com
2005/1/10 03:14

No daddy didn\'t cheat. He used the fajita fold he learned at McDonalds. Where one side is left open and the other side is closed. (See attached Pic)

Aunt Chris and Uncie Josh cnd201 [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
2005/1/10 03:12

Did Daddy use the \"Cheater\'s Burrito Wrapper\"? (Just wondering if it\'s as good as the real thing.)