After a brutal couple of days and some therapeutic fun with Photoshop, Riley did a 180 last night. Despite being fussy for most of the day and evening, she went down fairly easily at 10:00 and did not start screaming again 5 minutes later. Both Megan and I jumped in bed expecting to sleep for less than an hour before having to feed the beast. Oddly, both of us woke up around 2:30 for no other reason than our bodies aren’t used to sleeping that long. In fact, I actually got up to check on Riley and make sure she hadn’t been kidnapped. She was, indeed, still in the crib, but the possibility remains that someone switched her in the middle of the night with a child that actually sleeps. She did stir not too long after that, and after an easy feeding where she actually swallowed her food, she drifted off again. She didn’t even cry when I bonked her head off several of the bugs on her mobile over the crib. Riley next woke at 6:30, getting through the whole night with only one feeding! We don’t expect this to be the norm, but even a night where Megan doesn’t have to get up and I’m only up once is a wonderful thing.
The added sleep is particularly good because Grandpa Steve, Grandma Marie (“Grandparent” precursor subject to change, so I am told) and Great Grandma Sal arrive today for the weekend. It will be nice for them not to be greeted by two zombies thrusting a screaming child into their arms.
4 comments:
Hooray for more sleep!
After we vented about similar screaming/not sleeping issues to our doc at our 1 month appointment, she informed us that it's like a magic switch gets flipped around 6-8 weeks. Maybe Riley's switch finally got flipped? I know it is different for everyone and that not every baby sleeps through the night that early, but Leanor started sleeping for 6 hrs straight around 2 months and it has just gotten progressively better since then. (We're now maxed out at 12 hours straight. No kidding.) I'll keep my fingers crossed that Ri is on the way to letting you BOTH get a good night's sleep... I don't think anyone realizes just how important sleep is until they have a baby. :)
We've searched everywhere on her for this so called "switch" and haven't found anything yet ;) We've now been suckered into buying a few sleep books to come up with a better sleep strategy.
If someone did switch babies with you in the middle of the night, who was the true victem of that crime? Somewhere in the Maritimes there may be a sleep-deprived kidnapper re-thinking his life of crime. I will readily admit, the removal of a good night's sleep is one of the things we're most nervous about when our kid arrives. Maybe that's why we've been egregiously sleeping in each weekend, hoping we can bank the rest for the drought to come in a few months. Anyhow, sweet dreams!
ditto re the 8 week switch - like magic - of course then we had to reinforce her behavior. the sleep books are helpful - or... at least for us. we finally did a very soft and gental version of sleep training at 4 months and it literally was two nights and everyone was sleeping consistantly and happily - of course they start waking up again with every little bump (teething, a cold, switching from 2 naps to 1 etc.) but... one step at a time - ugh. WE MISS YOU GUYS!
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