Month: March 2005

Last night Carolyn went to bed a little later than usual, a little before 10 PM. Normally she wakes up an hour after we put her down, and then every 45 minutes to an hour and a half after that. By 1:30, we usually give up and bring her to bed with us.

At 3 AM I woke up and thought “um, why isn’t the baby in bed?” This was followed closely by the thought “oh my God, I haven’t gotten up with Carrie at all yet!” That thought was accompanied by the sinking feeling of dread every parent probably gets the first time their baby sleeps for a significant stretch of time. I tiptoed quickly down the hall, heart in my throat…and there was my beautiful little girl sleeping on her tummy (I put her down on her back) with snuggle puppy tucked under one tiny arm.

She woke up at 3:30 and I brought her to bed with me, but she slept for close to 6 hours in her crib, on her own. Dare I hope for a repeat tonight? I think if I hadn’t rushed in there at 3 she might have slept longer – I have to confess, I laid my hand on her back just to make sure she was still breathing (I’m so paranoid!) and she was restless for that next half hour, while I lay in bed listening to the monitor.

I’m going to go to bed now and see how much sleep I can get before Carolyn wakes up – or before I wake up wondering where she is!

Today I took Carolyn to the car wash. Instead of upsetting her, it put her right to sleep. An hour and a half later, she’s still sleeping.

Do you think the car wash is open at 1:00 AM?

Dear Carolyn,

Today we went to visit Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa. Kathy and Benjamin were there, and as I put you down on your blanket on your tummy, I said to Kathy, “she still hasn’t figured out how to roll from front to back.” You gave me a Look, and in one smooth move you were on your back. Sorry!

(So if I tell people you still haven’t figured out how to sleep through the night, would you be willing to prove me wrong about that too?)

Love, Mommy

Yesterday I received an order from Amazon with three more books for Carrie. Two of them are, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, about puppies.

Here’s a list of the books she currently owns – the bolded ones are the ones we read to her nearly daily:

Her favorites really seem to be the Usborne books (Puppies, That’s Not My Bunny/Dinosaur/Puppy) – I think because the illustrations are simpler and more contrast-y than most of the others, and the pages are thicker and easier to grab. Out of 33 books, a whopping 11 are about – or have as main characters – puppies! Ah, well, I suppose she’ll eventually learn that there are other animals besides puppies, right? Besides, she gets so excited about her puppies, and the ones on the Baby Einstein Neighborhood Animals DVD we Netflix’d. (For the record, she also giggles at the bunnies and mice on that DVD.)

Oh, and before anyone gets on my case about buying so many books for a baby who can’t appreciate them yet, several of them were gifts. And she loves “reading” books. She looks at them, tries to turn the pages, pats at the touchy-feely bits, and tries very hard to eat them. (We’re working on the “no books in the mouth” rule. Now if we could just get Murphy to follow that rule – apparently, board books are quite tasty…)

…and Carolyn actually slept for four straight hours in her crib! I don’t know what was different about last night, or how to make it happen again. At least it proves that there are not, in fact, scorpions in her bed, and she is capable of sleeping more than 45 minutes in there. I would have thought that the wind howling past her windows would have woken her up, but maybe she needs one of those white noise machines to sleep?

I’ve made up new words to that song, because I really don’t like the whole mockingbird/diamond ring version:

Hush, little baby, don’t you cry, Mama’s gonna sing you a lullaby.
And if that lullaby is flat, Daddy’s gonna buy you a silly hat;
And if that silly hat turns red, Mama’s gonna knit you a scarf instead;
And if that scarf gets lost one day, Daddy’s gonna take you to the park to play.
So hush, little baby, don’t you cry, Mama’s gonna sing you a lullaby.
And if that lullaby’s in tune, Daddy’s gonna make you a macaroon;
And if that macaroon’s too sweet, Mama’s gonna felt you some Fuzzy Feet;
And if those Fuzzy Feet get chewed, Daddy’s gonna teach you a game called Snood.
So hush, little baby, don’t you cry, Mama’s gonna sing you a lullaby.

I haven’t quite figured out a verse for if the lullaby is sharp yet. Maybe something about a harp?

Now, if only the song worked. If I try to sing Carrie to sleep, she just watches and listens intently. Every night, our half-hour bedtime routine stretches at least another hour of trying to convince her to actually go to sleep. I don’t really get it – earlier this week she was falling asleep within minutes of laying down in her crib, but now every nap and bedtime involves copious amounts of tears. Oh, and Carrie cries too. I guess maybe we should remove the thumbtacks from her mattress?

I can’t even imagine trying the cry-it-out method of getting her to sleep – the tears are hard enough to handle when I’m right there comforting her. I’m really hoping this is just a phase. I think I read somewhere that when babies are learning new skills they tend to have problems sleeping, and so far this week she’s figured out a lot of new things – including how to grab things off a restaurant table faster than we can move them out of her reach! Now if I could just figure out how to function when I have to wake up every 45 minutes, life would be good.