Bedtime

Establishing a proper and regular bedtime is extremely difficult. Right now, G's bedtime is at 7-9 pm. This means that we wind things down at 7, give her a bottle at some point and hope that she's asleep by 9. This is really not a great method. I was talking to my cousin whose baby is about a month and half older than G, and she has his life down to a science. He eats at the exactly same times each day and goes to sleep on time every night. I don't know how she did it. Maybe if it was just G and I alone I would be more strict, but as it is B is home too and there's no real need to stick to a regimented schedule.

In the early, breastfeeding days, everything was on me. Every two hours I had to wake up and feed G. Once we started supplementing, B and I took turns sleeping. I would go to bed around 6 or 7 pm and wake up at 3 am so that B could sleep. At the beginning of October we began to sleep together again, waking up at the same time when G started fussing. That method meant that both of us were exhausted all the time, but G had to learn to sleep at night and taking turns sleeping meant that B and I were keeping her out of her bed, thus training her to only sleep in our arms. Thank goodness those days are done.

Lately, G has been sleeping through the night. She'll typically wake up around 3am to fuss a bit, but she either self-soothes or we pop her sucky back in her mouth and she's back to dreamland. The bad thing about this, is that after she goes to bed we want to stay up and hang out and do all the things we can't do when she's awake. As a result we've been staying up far too late and getting far too little sleep. I've noticed that I am feeling the effects of lack of sleep much more keenly than B. I think it has to do with being a woman, honestly. I've got that monthly visitor and am just starting on birth control and I feel a wreck. B and usually get the same amount of sleep, but I find myself crashing midday, begging him to take G so I can nap for an hour. B doesn't mind of course, but I always feel a little bad leaving him alone so I can sleep. We take turns hanging with G during the day so that the other can have some lone time, so when one of us has to cut into what could have been the other one's alone time, we always feel a little badly.

G's pretty tired today so we're hoping she goes down pretty quickly tonight. She fell asleep at the dinner table tonight after filling her diaper, and we played with her for a few hours this afternoon. She's rolling over! :D I think it'll be a good night. I'm planning on going to bed early, and hopefully I get enough sleep for once.