Tuesday, February 22, 2011

the in between *updated

Charlotte is "napping" now, at 5:15 pm. This is unusual for her, but she was sooo sleepy that she couldn't stop rubbing her eyes and yawning so I put her in her crib. Now, she's standing up, sitting down, standing up, babbling, tossing her caterpillar out of the crib, rearranging the blankets, lying down as though to test the position, then standing up and babbling again. If she does fall asleep, she's not likely to wake up until the wee hours of the morning. It's too early to go to bed for the night, but too late for a nap and she hasn't had dinner or her bedtime bottle yet.

What do you do with this in between time when your little one is exhausted?

* UPDATE:
I let her sleep for nearly two hours. Then, I woke her up, changed her into jammies and gave her 4oz of expressed breast milk- all while the dimmest light in the room was on. She dozed off in my lap while we cuddled and went back to bed without any protest. And, best of all, she slept through the night. I think she might be returning to her "dream child" self. As of 2/24, she has slept through the night three nights in a row. She still wakes 2 or 3 times at night and fusses (to an untrained ear, it sounds like crying), but then eases herself back to sleep. I suspect her recent daytime sleepiness is the result of her interrupted nights, and I hope her cold clears up soon so she can return to normal.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Ha, I could write the exact same post right now. Noah is currently standing in his crib, but he should be napping. Obviously I have no words of wisdom here. :)

You asked about his push cart thing. Well, it's kind of nice because with our carpeted floors the wheels don't turn super fast and he can mostly keep up with it. Sometimes it gets a little far ahead of him and he starts leaning way forward, but he can catch up most of the time. We supervise him vigilantly and stay within arms reach of him. He hasn't had any falls on it yet. It can also fold down and then he can sit and ride on it as we push him. Biggest smiles ever!

IrishNYC said...

I just read this and your previous two posts... she is absolutely gorgeous! It took us a while to get into a routine of having milk with a solid meal, so I would give milk then food and hour later for breakfast and lunch. For dinner I would give her a sippy with about 2 ounces before/with dinner, then give her a 6 ounce bottle at bedtime about 45 minutes later. She finally got that milk goes with food. Dinner was the hardest for her to get, but it's made bedtime so much easier.

When B got to the point that she needed a nap so late in the day I started to cup out naps. We went to one nap at about 12 months. I'll admit it was really tough on me at first. I needed that down time just as much as she did, especially because an hour long nap is a long one for her. Some days now she'll take a catnap in the car, or a longer nap, and then she goes down for the night at about 6:30, and she's up at 7:30ish in the morning. I know an early bedtime like that doesn't work for every family, but it does work for us. I guess it's a plus to the average 45 minute nap that she takes.