Sleep Perfection

I'm beginning to feel like my blog is actually more focused on sleep than cloth diapers...but it's not like I pigeon holed myself into one subject anyways. I titled my blog Letters from Momma because I planned to write about a pretty broad range of mothering topics. I'm the kind of person that can't pick one thing to specialize in.

Recently, I posted about having to teach G to fall asleep on her own--after traveling, illness, and kicking the thumb sucking habit. It took four days of hard crying and me having to go in at 10/15/20 minute intervals (nap time could take three interventions but bed time was just one or two). Since the Thursday before last (around 11 days ago), she hasn't needed me to come calm her down. Sometimes she even falls asleep after 'chatting' to herself for a while--with no crying at all. There are naps or bed times when she is too overtired and cries a little when I put her down. I hate that, because I know it's not her fault. My husband works until 6 every day, I feel like a 7:30 pm bed time is just not fair to either of them, so it takes serious commitment to get her to bed before 8 pm. However, she has been waking up around 6:30 am. I can't get her to go back to sleep if she wakes up past 6 am. Although on the off chance she wakes up at 5:50 am, I can get her to go back to sleep. If she's going to be this early of a riser, we've really got to work on a good bed time to make sure she's getting enough sleep at night so she's not crabby all day.

The main thing I'm proud of right now is that she consistently sleeps through the night. I know that since I'm writing about it, I'm sure to jinx it, but it is a really big milestone. She has slept through the night many times before, sometimes for a week at a time, but we've always fallen back into a pattern of night wakings. However, since she has recovered from her battle with a Coxsackie virus, sleeping through the night has become a habit! I'm so excited by this, even if it means she is ready for the day at 6:30 am. She used to sleep until close to 8, but that's because she was up some at night. She's now sleeping a bit under 11 hours at night--with about a two hours nap during the day. She's never been on the high-end for sleep needs, so she's right on par for her age.

She's a happy kid...a great girl. I absolutely love being her mom, and we have a lot of fun throughout the day. I just have this complex that forces me to aim for perfection. I want her to be on a perfect sleep routine so that she is never overtired. An overtired baby throws fits easier, whines more, and cries when you put them to sleep. Our life would be even better if we could avoid overtiredness. I know it's not possible all the time, so I just settle for whatever version of perfect we can get.

Sometimes sleep perfection is celebrating the fact that she sleeps through the night. It's also celebrating the occasional 2.5 hour nap. It's the fact that my baby can put herself to sleep without sucking her thumb, or nursing until she falls asleep. I also really appreciate when she is smiling when I go to get her in the morning or afternoon. Sleep perfection at it's finest, lately, is when I lay her down and she rolls over to cuddle Mrs. Bear. I drape her blanket over her and she signs peacefully. I love those days when nap and bed time are easy :-)