Night Time Routine

Needless to say, with a little 7-week old baby, I'm not getting a lot of sleep. She nurses every 2-3 hours and I'm up several times during the night. Right now, I'm on maternity leave and Jorge is working, so during the week I do the night shifts so he can get some rest. After all, I can at least nap during the day if I have to. It's starting to take a toll on me though, I feel like I'm always catching up on sleep! I barely get 2 hours of uninterupted sleep and I'm on the verge. I try to nap during the day, but it's not easy. On the weekends Jorge helps out with diaper changes during the night so I can have a few more minutes of sleep. It doesn't sound like much, but it helps!

Last week, our friend Amanda came over with her little baby Mia that's 2 weeks older than Mila, and she told me about her night time routine. She says during the week she'll feed the baby around 9pm and she leaves the baby with her husband and then goes to bed at 9:30pm. Her husband does the bedtime feeding with pumped milk, and then puts the baby to bed. She sleeps until the next feeding around 2am or so. Although she does have to go to bed early, it's the only way she's gotten a bit more sleep during the week. I thought her routine was a good idea, although I admit the thought of going to bed so early didn't sound so great. I'm a night person and I'd rather stay up late than get up early, and I wanted to still be able to spend some time with Jorge. I would stay up until 11pm or midnight with the baby asleep on my lap watching tv with Jorge, but then I'd be up until 2am trying to get her to go to sleep after her feeding! I found myself very sleep deprived if I didn't nap until noon the next day trying to catch up on sleep. I was becoming very cranky and grumpy and knew something had to change.

So Monday, we started a new sleep routine. I would feed her and then I would try to go to bed at 9:30. Then Jorge would feed her around 11:00pm and hopefully he'd make it to bed by midnight, the latest. Worst case, if she didn't fall asleep then he would wake me and I'd nurse her to sleep. Apparently, no one gave Mila the memo of the new routine. She gave Jorge a really hard time the first couple of days. He'd play with her, rock her, walk with her, sing to her, but she was very fussy and seemed to be starving and wanted more than the milk we'd defrosted. Around midnight, poor Jorge had to wake the reinforcement! At least I got a couple of hours sleep though -- and then after that feeding she was out until 5am and I got 4 hours of sleep! Sleep, glorious sleep!!!

The next night it was the same thing. Jorge had to wake me up because she needed to be nursed a bit before being able to fall alseep. Seems like she pacifies at the breast before drifting off. Fortunately, since Jorge had done the tough work, she went right to sleep after that and again she was out for 4 hours.

Last night Jorge was fantastic -- he was finally able to get her to fall asleep and I got 5 hours sleep -- IMAGINE THAT!!!

I don't know if this is a fluke or if it's a growth spurt or what, but she's sleeping great at night time and I'm sleeping so much better now. I know Jorge is working a bit hard to get her to go down at night, especially as we make this transition, but it's so great to have some help! I still wake up around 4 or 5am and then again at 7am, and every 2 hours after that, but it's not so bad now. I miss being up late with him, but I don't know how I could continue the way we were going before. I was literally a walking zombie. I find I'm a much better mother during the day and a much better wife when he comes home. It's still a bit hard for both of us, but it's getting better. We're just taking it one day at a time.



(Mila fighting sleep, on daddy's shoulder... do you see that big drop of drool hanging from her lip? haha! Click to see it larger.)