Semi-Schedule

Last night was rough. Up every hour and a half kind of rough. My girl had a restless night and her mama had a SLEEPLESS night. I'm finding it hard to fall back asleep after I wake up so I was getting an average of thirty minutes of rest before I was right back up again.

So today I was determined to put her on some sort of a schedule. A few of the books I've read recommend an eat, wake, sleep cycle that lasts 2 and a half to 3 hours. My planned schedule looked like this:

7:00 Wake up and feed her
7:20-8:30 Play time with mommy
8:30 Nap
9:30 Eat
9:50-10:50 Activity: walk around the neighborhood
11:00 Nap
12:00 Eat

I had more planned in the afternoon, but it all fell apart after the noon time feeding. She didn't want to nap anymore, but I NEEDED her to nap so I pulled out all the tricks I know: swaddled her, rocked her, shhh-shhhed her, turned on the white noise machine, sang lullabies, breastfed some more, and tried to imitate Lola's special dance.

Finally out of sheer exhaustion, I laid her on my bed where she promptly fell asleep. I was afraid to move her and have to start the cycle all over again so I just lay down beside her. The next thing I know, it's three hours later. I'm sure I committed all kinds of baby no-no's by letting her sleep on my bed, but I was desperate, people! I woke up from the nap refreshed and she was less fussy after that too.

After dinner with the Blews, Grace had a nice bath and feeding and then promptly fell asleep again. Much different scenario than last night. The one thing I've learned about having a baby is to expect the unexpected. Just because she gave me an easy time one night doesn't mean she'll be like that the next.