I really wish that Gabbie would sleep all night like she does right when it's time to wake up. Alas, no such luck. We're getting desperate, though, for her to sleep, or at least to sleep in her own bed. Our current nightly "schedule" goes something like this: Gabbie goes to sleep around 8 p.m., wakes up sometime between 10:30 and 12:00, sleeps on one of us until about 12:45 or 1:00, then eats. She'll then usually go back down to sleep in her crib until around 3:00 (sometimes we're really lucky and she waits until 5:00), at which time she wakes up and will not stay in her bed after that no matter how sound asleep she is when we put her back down. She eats again at around 6:00 and sometimes then goes back to sleep, or alternately, gets up for the day.
We're tired. She's tired. We have no idea what to do.
I know I'm nowhere near original in my problems here, but it feels like the biggest problem ever.
Did I mention she doesn't like to nap? She naps for about 2 hours max at day care and then another 30 to 60 minutes right when we get home. She's like her dad that way - he doesn't need much sleep to survive (but he certainly needs more sleep than what he's getting).
Other than the sleep issues, she's absolutely delightful. I can't believe my little tiny baby is 7 1/2 months old! She is everywhere lately, getting into everything. She is still just army crawling, but keeps getting up on her knees (and then typically face-planting) and if we put her on her hands and knees she'll stay there and rock for a little while. Sometimes she gets on her hands and knees all by herself, but then will drop to her stomach to creep where she needs to go. She usually needs to go to the DVD player to turn it on, to the blinds at the patio door to bend them, or into the kitchen to play with her favorite crawling dinosaur (it only works on the kitchen floor). I'm thinking it's time to baby-proof the cabinets because she can already get there and it's only a matter of time before she starts trying to open them. I'm also thinking we have a couple of weeks, tops, before she starts crawling for real.
Gabbie loves, loves, loves food. Well, some food. She's not huge on green vegetables (so far just peas and green beans), but we can get her to eat some of them before she clamps her lips together, refusing to let the spoon in any more. She does like carrots, squash, bananas, apples, pears, and prunes. I think this weekend we might start in on avocado, but I don't know what to introduce, vegetable-wise after that. Something that makes me feel really good is that she prefers my homemade baby food to any of the jarred stuff. In that way, she takes after both her dad and I, who only eat out of a box if there's absolutely nothing else to eat and we're desperate.
She's started having a little stranger anxiety, but so far it's been limited to the nurse at the pediatrician's office, Santa, and the lunch-time respite lady at day care. She does take a couple of minutes to warm up to most people, but will eventually go to them. Those other people though? She screams bloody murder until someone she knows and trusts picks her up. She also is doing the thing where she cries when I leave the room. Double that if dad also leaves the room - usually we're both just around a corner, still really in the room with her. That's when the tears start flowing.
It's nice to be needed and loved like that.
This week, tomorrow to be exact, I have to go on a business trip and she's not coming with me. This is another big first for us. It will be the first time I'm away from her over night, and I'm not excited about it. We considered her going with me, but it's just going to be so much easier to go by myself. I'll be gone for a day and a half, getting back at midnight the second day. Aaron is a little nervous too, as Gabbie prefers to fall asleep on me and searches for me when she wakes up at night. It should be interesting to say the absolute least.
I'll be counting the hours, then minutes until I can get back home and get my baby back into my arms.
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1 comments:
I'm sorry you're having such a rough time with the sleeping! I know everyone's situation is different so I'm not going to give assvice, but I will suggest two books that helped us: Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. We "ferberized" for night time, and then I read the Weissbluth book recently, to help Andrew sleep in his crib during the day, and it worked (he also was not a napper, but now he sleeps 1 1/2 hours in his crib in the morning, and about an hour in the afternoon). I hope those help!
It sounds like Gabbie is just delightful! I'll be thinking about you as you head off on your business trip; I can imagine how hard that's going to be.
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