So how am I sleeping these days?

We're well over a week into Genoa's new sleep routine and I'm happy (and a little apprehensive) to report that things seem to be going fine.  I nurse her, give her a kiss and a hug and then sit against the wall next to the bed while she falls asleep.  She mostly goes along with the plan just fine, often asking me in the middle of the nursing session, "When we done with milk, you gonna sit next to me?"  She gets it, which is nice, and when she has a hard time and starts screaming, I just tell her that it hurts my ears and I pretend to leave the room.  It works every time.

A week ago was the first night I spent in bed with Dave and it was pure and complete torture.  The mattress!  It killed me!  It took me 48 hours to unkink my neck.  The very next morning I dragged Dave to the mattress store, where I immediately picked out the same mattress we have in Genoa's room, the mattress I love and want to make babies with (or at least on).  Fortunately, it's also just about the cheapest mattress you can imagine.  Even more fortunately, after testing all the beds in our price range, Dave decided on the same darn one. 

So instead of two twins, we have one King and it all worked out.  We've been sleeping on the new bed for almost a week and it's still a winner.  Problem solved!  I even managed to get $150 for our OLD mattress on Craig's List.  (I realize I gave it away, but I wanted it off my porch).

Now if I could just get Genoa to give up her early morning wake up call!  She does fine all night and mostly stays in bed until around 5:30, at which point the sun is up and that's her cue that it's okay to nurse again.  So she barrels out of bed, usually screaming, tracks me down in bed with Dave and I have to take her back to bed, nurse her and do the routine all over again.  If I'm lucky, she sleeps another two hours, if not, like this morning, I just turn the TV on and let her watch Dora in our room until I'm ready to face the day.

The hardest part is that I'm getting less sleep.  Kind of a lot less sleep.  Two out of five of past nights, Genoa has been up at least once or twice in addition to the 5AM call.  Repeating the routine more than once a night gets unbearably tedious, but I'm slogging through.  I've explained to her that I'm not sleeping in her bed anymore and I'm not going to eat those words.  I feel like we've made amazing progress, but it hasn't been without work and unfortunately, I'm the only one who can do it. 

Comments

[laura]

okay i dont have any real advice but all i do know is that i still have sleeping issues with my 18month old boy and it is better but the first year of his life and mine was HELL. he slept never and plus taking care of a 18 month girl at the time was HELL. but the plus is i survived but broken sleep is the worst. wish you luck :)

[Procrastamom]

Awww, she's so peaceful looking! Great progress for you two this week. Does she have a blackout blind in her room? Then she won't know when the sun comes up and might sleep through. I wouldn't know this for sure though, as we never tried it with our youngest and he was up with the sun (5-5:30) every day of his life until last year when he started "sleeping in" until 6:30ish. Want to know the bad news? He's 10!

[David]

"The very next morning I dragged Dave to the mattress store, where I immediately picked out the same mattress we have in Genoa's room, the mattress I love and want to make babies with (or at least on)."

Is there something that you want to tell me because the baby making department was closed down by the sanity police after Genoa was born.

[Arwen]

I second the blackout blinds suggestion. We got heavy drapes for our room and it has made a huge difference in how long Camilla is willing to sleep in the morning. We know it's not just a coincidence either, because when we got to Grandma's house where the blinds don't keep the light out of the room, Milla is up with the sun! So try the blackout blinds; you might be surprised how well they work.

[yasmara]

If you don't want to buy blackout blinds, we are partial to the "tinfoil the windows" solution. Works like a charm...

[Rex]

Does she know her numbers through 7 or 8? When our first was getting up for the day between 5 and 6 in the morning, we started telling her that she had to stay in her room until she saw two sevens on her clock. It took a little while, but she and her sister are both trained now that they have to stay in their room until 7:07, 7:17, 7:27, etc.

And every once in while they freak out because they slept to two eights :)

[midlife mommy]

One look at the photo of that beautiful child, and honestly, I forgot the point of your post. It's hard to be frustrated with them when they are so darn sweet and innocent looking.

[Rachael]

What a gorgeous picture!