Just like Mommy

I have an awesome sleeper. Seriously, amazing! I think my one biggest fear when I was pregnant was that my baby wouldn't sleep well. During that first month or so I thought I would die when she woke up once or twice every night - usually she would sleep from about 9 - 12 on the couch with us, then from 12 - 4 and 4 - 6ish. But, honestly, I do know how lucky we were even back then. Since then she has been sleeping all night (11:30 - 6:00) and so have I! I know this is rare with such a young baby, and I'm just thankful that she appreciates sleep as much as I do!

Just this week she's started sleeping until 7:00 or 7:20 every morning and going to bed about 11:00 or 11:30 for good. That's about 8 hours - which is more than I got when I was pregnant!! She actually falls asleep between 9:00 and 10:00 most nights and sleeps until I feed her before putting her in her crib about 11:00 or so. Then she sleeps all night, eats when she wakes up, and then usually naps for another hour and a half or so from 8:30 until her next feeding about 10:00. Then there are usually 3 more naps each day! I think that's why she's such a happy, fun baby - she's super well rested. I think we may try to drop her late night (11:00) feeding in the next little bit and see if she'll sleep through from 9:30 to 7:00. I definitely wouldn't mind getting into bed a little earlier, so I'm cool with that!

I know not all babies do this (ahem, LONDON!) and I'm thankful mine does. I'd love her the same if she woke me up every 30 minutes.....but I'm sure thankful that we seem to have this sleeping thing down pat. Oh, and don't ask me for advice. I don't think it's anything we did - except maybe trying to keep her on a pretty consistent schedule. We're just blessed. SO blessed!

The good, the bad, and the beautiful....

Yesterday was a bad day. It just was. Brenna was up before Jonathan left for work and was already crying. Feeding her helped the situation, but she was still pretty fussy right after we finished - not typical. We laid back in bed for awhile, but she never fell back asleep. So, we were up for the day. And what a day it was! When the paci comes out before lunch, you know you have a problem. It was out before we ever got out of bed! It worked (some of the time) between feedings, but she just was not happy. I'm pretty sure it was gas - but even mylicon didn't seem to work this time. By the time 5:00 rolled around, I was crying as loud as she was and just needed some help. Unfortunately, when I called Jonathan (who gets off at 4:00 mind you!) he was still at work because something came up he had to deal with. Happens all the time - usually not a big deal. But this just made me lose it. I was so tired and just wanted her to feel better! When he did get home, I fed her and then he took her out driving so I could have a few minutes of peace. He took her to Panera to get us some dinner then to look at a house we found online that we seem to like. By the time he got back, she out like a light! Actually, he says she was out before he left our street. Poor baby! So anyway, she slept until bedtime, ate again and got changed, and went back down really easily.

So, I'm thinking we're in trouble since she slept so well all night. However, I heard from a wise mommy yesterday that "well-rested babies sleep better". So true! She woke up at 2:00 for a feeding, which worried me (again!) because she usually doesn't go back to sleep very well. However, the next thing we know, it's 6:30 and she has slept for another 4 hours. Jonathan gets her to me in bed, she eats again, and then we just spend some time staring at one another - no crying involved!! At this point I've slept from 10:45 - 2:00 and 2:45 - 6:45. Oh, but I'm not finished. We hang around here until 10 or so, eat a couple more times, and then I take her back up to our bed to rest since I saw her yawning. I even swaddle her - which usually I don't do during the day. We lie down about 10:30ish and she is pretty awake. By 11:15 we are both asleep. I wake up about 12:20 and thank the Lord for the 1,000th time today! I pump her a bottle for when she wakes up, eat lunch, finish laundry, and type this blogpost. It's 1:19 and she's still sleeping. Poor baby was exhausted! We had plans to head to stroller time at the gym, but it ends at 2:00. Even me, the mom who knows very little, knows that it's not a good idea to wake a sleeping baby. So, see you tomorrow stroller time!

My baby is beautiful. Maybe I'll go snap some pictures of her while she's sleeping so you guys can see it, too!