This morning Gwen and I hosted our first playdate, which was quite a success. We had 4 other moms and babies over, friends that we know from the drop-in, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Babies babbled, moms vented, it was all good!
So, after everyone left, I figured Gwen would be quite keen for a nap, as she'd been up for nearly three hours and had had a lot of excitement in that time. I changed her diaper, made her a bottle, got her swaddled and rocked her to sleep. She slept for twenty-five minutes. This is bad.
Lately Gwen has been having the "forty-minute wake-up", which I gather is pretty common among babies. She wakes up *exactly* 40 minutes after we put her down to sleep. Elizabeth Pantley ("The No-Cry Sleep Solution") recommends setting a timer for (in this case) 35 minutes, and waiting outside the door so you can go in at the slightest peep. I've tried this a couple times with good results, but my 35-minute timer didn't do me a damn bit of good with Gwen waking up ten minutes before it went off! Holy crap!
I rushed back in, nursed and rocked her back to sleep, and lay her gently in her crib. As soon as I straightened up, she started crying and fussing. I picked her up again, swayed back and forth trying to soothe her. No dice. I sat back down in the rocking chair and tried to nurse her. Not interested. Her eyes were wide open and she was ready to rock and roll!
So, fine, she's up. Fuming and grumbling about the annoyance of a baby who sleeps for twenty-five freakin' minutes, I let her be awake. She played in her crib for awhile, watching me fold laundry, and then hung out with me in the kitchen while I chatted online with my sister. When she started to get whiny and fussy, I figured it was naptime again. Changed the diaper, made the bottle, swaddled her up, and rocked her to sleep.
Once again, she woke up as soon as I started to put her down in her crib. Didn't even deign to sleep for 25 minutes, this time around. Bright eyes, wide awake, ready to party - after maybe three minutes worth of sleep on my lap.
Not adequate!
So to review, Gwen's day has been:
9:15am awake
10am - 12pm playdate
12:15pm asleep
12:40pm awake, rocked back to sleep
12:50pm fully awake
2:30pm rocked to sleep
2:40pm fully awake
2:45pm into swing because Mom is out of ideas!
By the sounds of things - or more adequately the lack of sounds - I think she has gone to sleep in the swing, which is nice on the one hand but not really a great solution. We had gotten away from the swing altogether and now its use is starting to increase again. She's going to be too big for it soon and we won't have it to fall back on ... what will I do then?
1 comment:
I put my swing in the garage on Friday. I miss it...
you know, sometimes I think its just the moon or something. And we fret and fret and the next day, or the day after, they go back to their thing. Maybe this is just the moon thing.
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