As IF you have not all heard me talking about sleep enough right? Well too bad. It is CONSUMING my life and this is my blog, so I am going to keep talking.
I thought I’d lay out Everly’s OLD, completely acceptable sleep pattern for you all, and then I’d lay out what it’s looked like the last week. Maybe you have some insight. Maybe you don’t, but it’s worth a shot right?
Ok, so from about 6 weeks to about, oh I’d say 16 weeks, Everly’s night time sleep looked like this:
7:45-8:30pm – bedtime routine of PJs (which USED to be a peaceful experience), songs, snuggles and sometimes a bath.
8:30-9:00pm – head upstairs for a bottle with daddy. Eat said bottle, have snuggles, then be rocked in the bassinet until passed out. This could easily take upwards of an hour, and often involved a shit ton of screaming.
10:00pm-ish – 3:00am-ish – sound, blissful sleeping….ahhhhhh
3:00am-ish (really this could happen anytime from 2-4am) – up for a quick feed. Back in bed in less than 15 minutes, awake. Left to drift back to sleep on her own. (99.98% of the time, this was a total non-issue)
5:00am-ish – 6:00am-ish – sometimes a second wake-up, and totally dependant on how late the first wake-up was. Again, quick feed, back in bed to drift off alone.
8:00am-ish – up again. Into mommy’s bed for snuggles and snacks and mommy’s selfish need for another hour of sleep if possible (also trying to get her to sleep a full 12 hour period).
Now, at this point naps were a complete crap-shoot. Sometimes, I’d get 3 awesome ones, and sometimes? She’d stay up for 12+ hours at a time. Most days, there was some sort of catnap combination, taken at the breast or in the bassinet, totaling about 2 hours in a full day. I would spend an hour to get her to sleep on many occasions, and then 20 mins later (well usually 18) she would be up.
That was then, and this my friend? Is now (well, it WAS worse but this is the last few days, and a marked improvement over the every 45 minute waking):
*Last night I timed everything for research sake, so I can use actuals 
7:15pm – 7:45pm – Bedtime Routine. Into nighttime diaper, baby massage and change into PJs while mommy sings a song. Book with daddy. Upstairs for a bottle.
7:45 – 8:00pm – downs 6 oz. of breastmilk
8:00pm – 8:30pm – lays on bed with daddy; falls asleep.
8:45pm – Transfer to playpen; she wakes up but falls back asleep in there after 10 mins of kicking around.
10:28pm – Awake. Very upset. Sucking my shoulder, chewing her fingers. Crying. Tylenol and bfing (totally for comfort) back to sleep.
11:15pm – Bounced, burped and laid back in playpen awake. Seahorse on. Falls asleep.
11:30pm – Mommy goes to bed
12:45am – Awake briefly, sea horse back on, fell back asleep.
1:15am – Awake. Left 3 minutes to settle, got more upset. Picked up, bounced, calmed and laid down awake. Fell asleep.
2:15am – Awake, frantic. Night feed. Placed in play pen awake.
5:30am – Awake. Feed. Back in playpen.
7:00am – Awake. Soother back to sleep.
7:25am – Awake. in bed with mommy and daddy. Sleep.
9:00am – Up for the day.
So ya. It was long. And I know you are all going to say a few things, so I’ll address them now lol.
One, we are working on getting her bedtime earlier. She likes to go to bed at about 9:30pm but we’ve been slowly moving it earlier. We are aiming for about 8:00pm because the hubs doesn’t even get home until 7:30pm most times.
Two, we are working on getting her into her own room. It’s just that it is downstairs and we are trying to get used to the idea. The plan is to move her after labour day.
Three, I know that the co-sleeping might be messing her up in the mornings, but I like to try to get her to sleep a full 12 hour period, even if she wasn’t sleeping the whole time. I’ve tried to get her up around 7:00am and then she is just a fussy angry baby until she has a nap. So the co-sleeping gets us that extra time. Besides, it’s nice.
Four, naps. They are done however we can around here. Usually it’s a nap around 11:00am, that is almost always in the swing. We’re in survival mode people. Then the afternoon nap is usually in the stroller around 2:00pm. The later afternoon nap is either with me or in the swing again around 4:30pm. If she naps in her playpen or crib, they will only last 20 mins. It can take me 45 to put her down, and she’ll sleep 18. If she’s on the move, she’ll drift away.
So there you have it. That is how my kid sleeps. I am starting to just get used to it, and it’s not even that bad anymore. The anxiety about it is going away. We’re considering a sleep training plan that does NOT include CIO (but of course includes some crying). Or, it’ll magically get better on it’s own again, which is what I’ve been hoping for far too long.
Thoughts? Feelings? Suggestions?
*I reserve the right to ignore your suggestion lol
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