Sleep Talk.

 Alice amidst the laundry. July 2012.     

It seems just as soon as we conquer one thing, Alice throws a wrench into the mix and we regress on something else.  My awesome little sleeper, who was consistently sleeping in eight-plus hour stretches, is now waking up every two to three hours at night.  Sometimes she'll wake just an hour after she's eaten!  Every time she wakes, I go through the checklist of what could be wrong.  Her diaper is clean.  She's recently fed.  No burps to be belched.  It's a mystery.  Because we co-sleep, I bring her into our bed to nurse if I can't pacify her with some tummy rubbing or with her binky.  And, a few nights this past week, she's been in our bed by 11PM whereas before she slept peacefully in her crib till 4AM or even later.  What gives?

I have a few ideas as to why this is happening.  Lately she hasn't been napping all that well during the day leading to an overly tired baby, which can mean a restless night of sleep.  Alice is also breaking out of her swaddle every night and, when I find her awake in her crib, her little arms and legs are wiggling all over the place.  And lastly, she has a spot of diaper rash that came about over the weekend and I think it may be bothering her even though we pile on the diaper cream before bed.  Or this could all be blamed on a growth spurt.  

Who knows.

But there is some good news.  Last night she slept in her own crib from 8PM till 3AM.  She hasn't done that in over two weeks!  As I was on my run this morning, I went over what we did differently so that I could recreate it tonight.  I did manage her naps a bit better yesterday to combat the over tiredness and I put a touch of hydrocortisone cream on her rash before bed to help with potential itching.  She was, of course, out of her swaddle by 3AM but that didn't seem to be bothering her.  So maybe now she'll start back to the long sleep stretches once again.  

But if she isn't, we'll still love her anyway.

One more thing.  I think sleep is probably the most discussed topic between moms with young babies.  And I think it's also the most worried and fretted and obsessed over issue especially when you hear a mom say Well my baby sleeps 12 hours every night without a peep! making you feel like you are doing something totally wrong.  All babies are different just like all adults are different.  There isn't one all-encompassing sleep solution.  I just keep reminding myself of this when I start to doubt my own parenting skills.

Any sleep advice from you seasoned moms?  My husband and I aren't really sold on the cry-it-out method (to each their own!) so I wanted to find a book or some information to help support that.  This looks like a good one.  I one-clicked it in the wee hours of this morning and by the miracle that is Amazon Prime, it'll be here tomorrow.  And you better believe that I'll be reading it straightaway.    

It never seems to end! July 2012.