Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Sleepy time

Well, I had to do it. I had to start putting Gracie to bed in her crib in her own room.

Before she was born, my plan was to put her in her crib from day one. And I did, for two days. But after being home for two days, I went to stay at my parents' house for a few days so I could get some sleep and recover, and while I was there I had her in a bassinet by my bed. And it was so nice to just be able to look over and see if she was waking up or needed something from me, that when I went home I kept doing it.

And then, after awhile, it just seemed strange to be that far apart from her. I couldn't stand the thought that me and hubby and the two cats would be all cuddled in our bed in our room, but my sweet baby girl would have to sleep all by herself in her own room down the hall. So, in the bassinet by our bed she stayed.

But nobody was getting any sleep.

For one thing, she was uncomfortable in the bassinet. She tossed and turned all night long. When I put her to sleep on the couch or in the bed with us, she slept great. But as soon as I put her in the bassinet she wiggled and fussed. And when she wiggled and fussed, I woke up, because I am the world's lightest sleeper. And when I woke up, hubby woke up. So all three of us were awake.

Then, there was the issue of both hubby and her talking in their sleep. First, she would make a noise, and then hubby would answer in his sleep. It was very cute, but they would do this all night long. And when they did that, I woke up. Because, like I mentioned before, I am the world's lightest sleeper.

And then, there's the issue of my snoring. I snore very, very loudly. Sometimes I snore so loud I wake myself up. So it stands to reason that I would wake up Gracie, who would then wake me up, because, did I mention I'm the world's lightest sleeper?

So, I decided to bite the bullet and try putting her back in her own room. I have a very good monitor, and her room is really only a few steps away. I thought I would try it for one night and see how it went.

In a word, it was great.

She doesn't fuss or wiggle at all anymore. She hardly makes a sound, and I don't have to wake up to re-position her. She just sleeps. In fact, last night, she slept 7.5 hours straight. She might have slept more, but I had to wake her up to eat so we could get to the Mom & Baby class on time. How weird is that?

I still feel a little sad about her being so far away all night long, but I feel so much better and I think she does too, because after the first night sleeping in her crib, she started being much more alert in daytime and taking way fewer naps. So, I guess I should just get over it and enjoy the sleep! Speaking of sleep…

3 comments:

Redneck Mommy said...

You do realize that there are many mothers out there with small infants who would KILL you if they found out Gracie was such a good sleeper, right?

Denice said...

Yes, yes I do. I know I'm very, very lucky.

However, I jinxed myself. I wrote that post before bed, and she didn't sleep hardly at all last night. We went to bed at 11 p.m. and she slept until 2 a.m. and we've pretty much been awake ever since, give or take a 20 minute nap here and there. It's now almost Noon, and she's STILL AWAKE. She's got to fall asleep soon, right?? Mommy needs a nap! At least she's not crying or anything. Just awake and ready to play :)

Jacquie said...

When we moved here to Edmonton our thing was where to put everyone? So in the end we put our 2 DD's in 1 room the 2nd bedroom was for the baby and the 3rd a spare bedroom. We moved into 1 of the bedrooms downstairs. It all worked well until I had our 3rd DD and we came home and went to put her to bed and went downstairs well I tell ya it felt like she was in China. LOL. But it really only bothered me as she slept well like a baby.