Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Sleeping Beauty

Today I rode my bike to the video store. If you would have asked me a week ago if I would ever be back on the bike I probably would have said 'no way' but the movies needed to go back, it was too rainy to take Gemma in the stroller, and I just felt like it was possible. The human body is an amazing thing!

Gemma is good. She has started having fussy time in the evenings, I think she has gas, and so we've been trying to burp her better and bounce her around. Last night she slept from midnight to 5am, then up at 7 and back to sleep until 9:15 so that was awesome. Today she has been sleeping all day, probably not up for more than an hour since 10 am. I don't know if I should wake her up so she'll sleep tonight or just let her relax and enjoy it. Ideas anyone??? It is only 8:30, so she may wake up yet for a bit before her usual bedtime. Hopefully, I like sleeping at night.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you rode a bike! I am wincing just thinking about it! I don't think I could have even looked at a bike for like 6 weeks! But, good for you. (Hey! Maybe my co-worker in the horseback riding story wasn't so unusual after all!...)

My opinion on Gemma sleeping in the day is if she's tired, let her sleep. She's still a newborn and needs lots of sleep. In my experience, as long as she doesn't sleep the hour or two in the evening before bedtime, she'll probably still sleep properly (or as usual) at night. Hopefully if the bedroom is dark enough she shouldn't have an alert period at night.

I always find that every time I wake the kids up (intentionally or not), they are so grumpy, it's not worth the effort. I would rather let them sleep and push their bedtime back an hour. But, that's just how my kids are. Plus, you probably don't really need to worry about establishing a rigid bedtime quite yet -- most newborns have semi-regular bedtimes for the first little while.

Anonymous said...

Let her sleep!!!
She will develop a routine soon enough.
Give her kisses and hugs from BABA

Anonymous said...

Let her sleep!!!
She will develop a routine soon enough.
Give her kisses and hugs from BABA

Allison said...

I'll be the stick in the mud. I like routine and strongly encouraged Jared to get into one. Having said that, I believe it needs to be a flexible routine, otherwise you will go crazy! And while she is still very young, if you don't ay least somewhat start how you mean to go on from the beginning, when will you? I guess you will find out whether or not you should let her sleep that much in the day, depending on how her night goes. That's my theory, anyway. And, of course, it doesn't always go the way you plan...(note to self: moving creates sleep problems in 4 month old!) And your routine will change as she gets older.
As you can see, you are going to run into all sorts of opinions!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I agree with Allison -- a flexible routine is good.

I think every family is different, and every child is different. You have to do what works for you, your lifestyle, and what suits the baby.

I've noticed some drawbacks to either extreme (and the middle road) when it comes to routines: if your baby has a very rigid routine, you are bound to that too. For example, if you are out visiting and having a good time, but your child has a rigid (or super early) bedtime, you can't push by an hour. Or you could be shopping in the afternoon, and you have to rush home for naptime. On the other extreme, if your child has absolutely no routine, well, I'm sure you can guess the problems what come with that.

As you can tell, I lean toward the middle road. I think a loose framework for the day is healthy for my kids, but it's nice to be able to have flexibility when needed in certain circumstances.

I know some people's households work well on a exact nap & bed times, but I guess I did too much babysitting in high school -- I hate fighting with kids to get them to bed! I'd rather lay them down when they're good and tired than fight with them for an hour. (Of course, this varies on the child; some kids need to go to bed before they're overtired...) Anyway, I figure there's lots of other things to have conflicts over, and I want sleeping to be something to look forward to. And really, 20 minutes, or even an hour doesn't make a big difference in the whole scope of things (for our household anyway).

But now we're getting into specific bedtimes conversation, so I'll just stop there!

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