Sorry for my lack of posts over the past couple weeks. The truth is, I've just been too tired! Growly Bear has decided she no longer finds it necessary to sleep, and would instead like to talk, and play, and sing, and kick at all hours of the night.
We were always the parents that all the other parents hated. Growly Bear has been an amazing sleeper since the moment she was born. Our first night with her in the hospital, she slept for 5 hours straight before waking up to eat and going right back to sleep. I remember the nurse laughing when I said maybe we lucked out and got a good sleeper. She said it was only because she was so new, and not to expert it to happen again any time soon.
She was wrong! By the time we were allowed to go home 2 days later, she was sleeping almost 6 hours stretches, would wake and get a new diaper, eat, and go right back to sleep. Over the next few months, she lengthened her sleep to 7 hours, then 8. Pretty soon we were at 10, and before we knew it, she was sleeping about 14-15 hours a night, with only 1 or 2 quick wake ups to eat before going back to sleep.
I always felt bad when other new parents would ask us how we were handling the sleep deprivation. The first few times we were asked, I kinda laughed and asked "WHAT sleep deprivation?" I quickly learning, that's not the ideal response to a new mom who's been awake every 2-3 hours, every single night, for the past 4 months straight. Tired eyes can throw the scariest stink eye I've ever seen!
So, I learned to be diplomatically down-play our jackpot of an amazing little sleeper, and would usually answer that we were very fortunate to have a pretty good sleeper on our hands, and we were all adjusting well. When in all reality, I was thanking my lucky stars for my 10:00am sleep ins that Growly Bear and I enjoyed every morning.
In January though, things started to change. One night, she woke up at 2am and refused to go back to sleep! That was a first. So, my hubby and I took turns walking her up and down the hall while singing to her until she fell asleep over an hour later. Then, a couple times, she woke up at 5am and refused to go back to sleep! Luckily, my hubby took that shift and got up with her while I went back to sleep. In my cranky, tired mind, I was thinking it was a good thing too seeing as I'd done all the night time feedings since she was born. Honestly though, I was very thankful for him!
Then, she gradually started waking up earlier in the morning. One day her 10am wake up turned in to 9:30am. Then a couple days later it was 9am. And within a couple weeks, our days were now starting at 7am! This wouldn't be so bad, except she took to waking up 2-3 times a night, and would wake up tired and cranky, and refuse to sleep, and didn't want to nap later either.
I blamed it on teething, so a couple weeks ago when a tooth finally popped through, I thought "Thank god! We're going to get back to normal!" NOPE! Far from it. Only different is, she's waking up happy now, and napping well, so I'm thankful for that, but I really just want a good nights sleep where I don't have to wake up at midnight, and 2am, and 4am, and then start my day at 7am! I did get this last night (the sleep in, not the full nights sleep - I was still up at 11:30pm quickly, 12:30am for an hour, 5am for an hour, and then she woke up for good at 7:08am!) But luckily, being Saturday, her daddy was home and got up with her. So, this mommy woke up feeling much more refreshed then I have been the past few weeks.
It's now past my bedtime though, so this sleepy mommy better head to bed. Fingers crossed we get a good nights sleep!
Love and Hugs