Sleeping

Bedtime

I'm almost scared to write this for fear of jinxing myself. Actually I'm not even sure how we got to this point. The child who used to fight me to go to sleep, is now a dream and model toddler to put to bed at night. We are still nursing, but I think she is close to weaning. I have been able to put her in her bed still awake the last three nights. Tonight she didn't cry at all when I laid her down. The first time I tried it earlier this week, I was just so tired and I couldn't get her to go to sleep the usual ways. She cried, but wasn't hysterical like she had been in the past. The second time I tried it, I sat on the floor next to the crib for about 10 minutes and she laid down and cried but ultimately stopped and went to sleep. We had a couple of regular nights, and then I tried putting her down awake again two nights ago. I sing "You Are My Sunshine" and lay her down. She cried for just a second both nights until tonight. I still am in disbelief that she goes to bed so easily now. My next goal is to get her to bed earlier. I am going to try it a little earlier every night.

Night at Grandma's House

I let Piper spend the night for the very first time at Grandma's house last Wednesday. It was really emotional for me since she had never been away from me overnight before. Fortunately she did fine. I wasn't sure if she would go to sleep, since she is hard to get to bed at night. She does great taking naps with grandma though, so I was optimistic in thinking that maybe it would be similar. She resisted only a little bit, and I think grandma said she was in bed around 11pm, which I count as a major success!

Night Night

In the last few days Piper has started doing something new when it's time to go to bed. She will bring me her boppy pillow when she's ready to go to sleep, or if I ask her if she's is tired or ready to go night-night. I'm still nursing her to sleep, so that's why she brings it to me, but I guess I'm amazed that she has starting telling me in her own way that she's ready for bed and it's not so much of a fight now.

Bye Bye Bottle

We officially got rid of Piper's final bottle last week. She was still taking one at bedtime a lot of nights even though we are still nursing. So now she gets a sippy cup if she needs it at night. She has also been doing a lot better about sleeping all night. I can't even remember the last time she woke up at night. The one time she did cry recently, I just brought her to bed with me without nursing her, and she fell back asleep right away. I'm hoping this new trend continues, since I'm getting much more sleep lately.

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time means nothing when you are 13 months old apparently. Right on cue she was awake this morning at her regular time, which of course meant with the time change it was 7:00 in the morning. So much for me gaining an extra hour of sleep. Then tonight she was ready to go to bed at 9pm, which to her was 10 at night. Yay! This is great since I could never get her to go to sleep early before. I am thrilled with the 9:oo bedtime.

Here is a picture of her with a cup of goldfish. She is very particular and precise about filling and emptying her cups and moving the goldfish in and out of containrs.

Falling Asleep

I wish it were only this easy to get her to fall asleep at my house. Grandma has the magic touch.

An Eating Machine

I couldn't believe that my little funky munky slept for 12 straight hours last night. I'm used to waking up and feeding her in the middle of the night a couple times per week. Usually she will at least wake me up early- no later than 7am. Amazingly, she slept so well last night, and then when she got up she was ravenous. I nursed her and then as I was making breakfast she got in the refrigerator and got out her sippy cup of milk and drank it too. I've been keeping it on the bottom shelf for her so that she'll grab it and not one of the other items in there. So she drinks all of it and then is demanding more to eat. I wasn't ready with breakfast yet, so I microwaved two waffles from the freezer. She gobbled those up and then ate three pieces of bacon. She ate another waffle that I made for breakfast and another piece of bacon her daddy gave her. Oh, she also drank a cup of water too. Growth spurt? I don't know. I just hope she sleeps as well tonight.

Sleeping Beauty

My little girl is so much like her daddy in many ways. When she sleeps is one of them. Just like daddy, when she lays down to sleep, she kicks her one leg several times until she gets comfortable. She looked so sweet sleeping in her crib I went to get the camera. Of course the second I went to snap the picture, she woke up and looked at me.