Day 6 (yesterday)
Mins spent in crib awake: 8, while drinking bottle
Mins spent in crib asleep: 2, but then the bottle ended. Damn.
Nap in bed: hour and a half (!)
Nap in arms, at dinnertime: 20 min
Bedtime routine started: 7:30
Finally fell asleep, after much (silent) cursing: 10:00pm
Day 7 (today)
Napping in crib: one hour!!!
Who put her there: Daddy
Screaming: none, fell asleep in sling and actually transfered!
Would she ever, ever do that for Mama: no
Napping in arms: 20 mins
Bedtime routine started: 7:15
Aborted: 8:15
Fell asleep in wrap ("wearing her down"): 8:35
Nursed down in bed for the night: 9:45
So, now I am starting to get annoyed with this bedtime trend. She seems to get sleepy right at dinnertime, dozes a little and then gets a second wind that lasts for hours. She is tired, but crazy and crawling over everything, impossible to get still long enough to fall asleep. I didn't expect the wrap would work so well, but I put her in it in a front carry after I got tired of corralling her in the bed, and she fell asleep within 15 minutes as I did dishes, without even nursing! I kept her in it until she stirred and then the nurse down in the bed was quick and easy. I probably should try getting her to sleep earlier, when she first shows signs of sleepiness around 6:30 or 7:00. That means we are going to have to change our dinner time, earlier or later. Doable, and definitely worth it if we can get her to sleep a little easier and quicker. I think it is becoming a struggle because she is so overtired at that point. I don't know, maybe I'm just overthinking this a bit? Ya think?
I am reading an interesting book right now about the concept of ethnopediatrics, the study of child rearing across cultures, and it discusses the obsession with sleep that Americans/Westerners have. I have heard of this before, how parents in other cultures just don't obsess about their baby's sleep the way we do, partly because they sleep with the baby and are therefore not as disturbed by wakeups, etc, or wear them more and so they nap that way, in the sling. Sleep just isn't that big of an issue elsewhere! Jeesh, thats a novel idea. Supposedly Italian mothers obsess more about what and how their babies eat (I think I do a little of that as well) and parents of the !Kung tribe of Botswana worry more about motor skills and development. Interesting book. Must stop obsessing about sleep. Ha.
The online forum I belong to for ethiopian adoption includes lots of new moms and one of the recent threads was about sleep, and one of the things that lots of moms said was that they have had success getting their kids to sleep when they start their bedtime routine 'before' their child gets sleepy. In your case, it seems that would be quite early, but maybe she needs lots of sleep at night. I know you've done a ton more research on this than me, but I've also heard that kids often have a pretty routine wake up hour in the morning, but their bedtime hour is more flexible...so you can increase the hours they sleep by putting them down extra early? Anyway, good luck!! I'm learning a lot from your experiences.
Posted by Sarah on January 07, 2007 at 04:01 PM PST #
Posted by Kateri on January 07, 2007 at 07:40 PM PST #
Posted by Kristin on January 09, 2007 at 03:22 PM PST #