Evidently, it's getting up early. Who knew? Legions of morning people, apparently. So that's going to have to be the routine. :P
I am an evening person. My most productive hours for writing have traditionally been between 11 P.M. and 2 A.M. Even if I get up early, I can't go to bed before 11:30. In the mornings when my toddler was smaller, I would drop my husband off at work (one car) for somewhere between 8 and 8:30 (which required leaving the house between 7:45 and 8:15), then return home (most mornings) and climb in bed with her & snuggle. This was also her favorite time to nurse until after she was a year. The pattern (minus the nursing) remained constant while I was pregnant, and since the baby was born, I have not really had to get up; I merely relinquished the car. Since I allowed my permit to lapse, however, parking has been rather pricey for my husband, and we can't really afford that. Sleeping in is a hard habit to break. And yet. . .
This morning, I wasn't necessarily planning to get up & take the car. Yesterday I was planning on it, but my alarm clock (aka husband) didn't know the plan. I was also exhausted from a busy day on Tuesday. But this morning, Chiclette woke up to eat, and Doodle, who was in our bed after a Post-Nemo Traumatic Stress Nightmare (we have to be very careful what she watches or she wakes up yelling "Help! Help! Momma! Daddy!"--very sad) woke up, too. So I figured, what the heck? I knew it would be a challenge if Doodle fell asleep on the way home to get both babies in the house from the car, but I did it! Carrying a 35 lb. or so toddler with an infant car seat over one's arm is not the easiest thing in the word, but it is doable! That is something I was dreading, frankly. But I now realize that I can get both children in and out of the car by myself under various conditions. (Small triumphs)
So I got home with both babies asleep, put Doodle in her bed, took a bath, ate a PB & J, sorted clothes, started a batch, pinned a blanket front to the fleece back & stitched around the perimeter, and sewed two 4-square rows of a Christmas blanket (adult sized) that I'm making--all before Doodle & Chiclette woke up at around 10 A.M. Yay!! Now I'm ready for a nap. :P I can see this being a good time to work on the dissertation. I don't do intellectual activity well in the mornings, but that's what Limited Edition bottled Peppermint Mocha Frappuccinos (from SAM'S Club) are for!
So there you go. Most of you caught on to the Secret of the Universe before I did, but I generally have to be dragged kicking & screaming into these things. I'm still not completely happy about this, but at least Chiclette sleeps from 6-8 hours in a typical night! (So yes, it is possible for breast fed babies. She'll make up for it when she hits a year, I'm sure.)
Incidently, the Secret of the Universe for Toddlers is different, and consists of two words said often in rapid succession: "NO! MINE!!"
13 comments:
I don't like the secret of the universe :p I'm like you as you know. I'm VERY much a night person and not at all a morning person. The people at my job had just started to accept the fact that 8:00 meant 8:30 for me. And they were fine with it :p It's ashame that I'm losing that plush job!
I was very disturbed at first as I kept missing the "and" in your sentence "Chiclette woke up to eat and Doodle...." Still very sad to hear the Nemo nightmares, though I'm glad I straightened out my confusion ;)
I'm so jealous! LilyBaby is almost 9 months old and she still does not sleep through the night. Of course, she also does not eat more than 5 ounces of bm in a given feeding (at least from a bottle). If she sleeps a 6 hour stretch, it's a good night. My mother insists that this is because of breastfeeding that this habit has been set. The doctor and LC say its just a developmental thing that probably has more to do with her birthweight than anything else. Who knows? She's thriving...who can ask for more?
And, I did know the secret of the universe ;). As a morning person, I get my best work done before noon and then am of no use to anyone. But I fall asleep by 10pm; think of all that opportunity I miss out on. Oh well. Glad to hear all is well. Merry Christmas!
Ha! You have reminded me of the importance of commas!! (That should help!)
I've had a bad affect on my family. Similarly, when Anton has to worry about me, he gets to work @ 8:30 rather than 8. P can't be dropped off until 8:05 now, too. Otherwise Anton would be there before 8!! (And in bed by 10--and we'd never see each other!) So collectively, we get less sleep than we used to. Aaah, the sacrifices we make!
It's really a shame about your job. I hope there is something just as good or better on the horizon. :(
New Orleans is definitely a city of night people, and a city of people to whom punctuality means no more than 30 min late unless you have a moderately fair excuse. ;)
Lilybug--In my experience, it is the pattern of the individual baby. I would bet it's also related to the reflux she struggled with. But it's not the breastfeeding (or at least, not solely)! Doodle slept pretty well when she was an infant, though not as well, and she did have a lower birth weight. But it seems that after a certain point birthweight shouldn't matter any more. *shrug*
Thanks for the well-wishes!
P.S.-My standards for "sleeping through the night" are different (night person). I'm perfectly content if she sleeps from 1:30 - 8, as is fairly typical. Does that count as "night"? ;) It might be better if she started that stretch a bit earlier, but not waking before 7 or 8 works for me!!
I'm with you on the night-person thing. Still dubious about getting stuff done in the mornings. I do notice that if I actually have to leave the house in the morning, then when I come back I can be more productive. But just getting up early doesn't do the trick for me. I slug about the house in my pajamas and bathrobe and not much productive happens. So maybe the real secret is taking your husband to work.
lilybug,
Our breastfed baby who had no birth weight problems didn't sleep to the night until 8 or 9 months. And I'm convinced that she only did it when she did because I finally put my foot down and let her cry herself back to sleep at night instead of going in to feed her. The first two nights she cried about fifteen or twenty minutes. Thereafter it quickly tapered off.
My theory is that my perennially wide-eyed girl was actually being aroused not by hunger but by habit and that my presence was impeding her ability to just roll over and go to sleep.
The thing is I have the same problem. I got into a bad habit (that I still haven't broken) back when I had 3 roommates and only one bathroom of getting up to use the bathroom in the early morning hours because otherwise I always woke up when my early-riser roommie went into the shower and I had to wait while she finished her half-hour routine. Now almost 4 years later I still can't get back to sleep in the middle of the night without getting up to use the bathroom.
I suspect infants get into the same sorts of habits. At least I think mine did. After less than 2 weeks of cutting her off cold turkey, she started sleeping through the night. I know many people don't believe in "crying it out" I certainly didn't and still don't like it a bit. But I got to the point of desperation and found it did work.
Getting up early is awesome--as long as you've had enough sleep! I agree that it's probably also taking dh to work that's helping you get motivated. I'm the same way if we leave the house early in the morning, when we get home I'm ready to work!
Glad things are going so well for you!
Thank you for the suggestion, Melanie. While I don't think I'm brave enough to try it yet, I will keep it in mind as I've heard that this method really works. I think it would be hard to let an infant cry it out though when you're doing the family bed. But that's another (bad?) habit we're hoping to taper off soon.
-LilyBug
I'm not sure motivation is the right word, but I'll take it! And for the record, I had one of the worst headaches I've ever had this evening--and I attribute that to trying to conform to the Secret of the Universe. (Though the Secret of the Universe for Toddlers is probably a contributing factor!) I would have been significantly less awake (and so less active) had I not had the early bath. And I did have that mid-morning Frap I was talking about--on pain of passing out on the keyboard. WITH the baby. But I did get things done, which is highly unusual for me. And I figure I pretty much have to make this work. :P
I'm all for babies in beds (as long as the bed is big enough or the parents small enough). I also don't tend to let them stay there all night (unless I'm too tired to care). They crawl in for a while, fall asleep, then when I become too aware of their movements, they go back to bed. It has been our habit to have the "baby" in our room until almost 4. We'll see how that works with 2 who are 2 years apart. Both are in our room now, and the toddler needs to crawl in with us more than the infant. I also believe in pacifiers, so the crying in the night is not so much a problem (unless there are fears involved). I'm not confident that at this age "needs" and "habits" aren't linked in an important way. Being rocked to sleep could be considered a habit, but it's not one I think I need to break my toddler of, especially since she seems to need me to do it lately. There are many people out there who would scoff at a 2-year-old being rocked, especially when there is a younger baby. My son was never rocked, but fell asleep "cuddling" until he stopped taking naps (well after he turned 3). My siblings were not rocked, but someone (my mom or I) would frequently sit with them in their room until they fell asleep. So "crying it out" is pretty much foreign to my experience. If I was tired if nursing in the night, cuddling with the baby or patting the bottom or rubbing the tummy helped (with the pacifier). That's a definite advantage to having the baby close instead of in a separate room! Don't mean to sound preachy or anything! That's just what I've done. ;)
It is very true that if you get started early in the morning, lots more gets done... but oh! The Yellow Face! It hurts us!
I agree with Melanie on letting the baby cry it out a bit. At least in my experience, it really doesn't take that long for the baby to catch on to the new routine, and it's much more painless than trying to break a toddler or older child of the habit.
Of course, now we have older girls coming into our room now saying things like, "Daddy, can you go the bathroom with me? I'm afraid of the shadows." So basically, a parent is never going to have a good night's sleep -- I think it must be in the contract.
The Yellow Face! It hurts us!
Indeed it does, precioussss!
CAn't do it two days in a row! :P
My most productive hours for writing have traditionally been between 11 P.M. and 2 A.M.
Yes! I am the exact same way. When I was pregnant with my first child and not working I got on a schedule where I'd stay up until 4am and sleep until noon. It actually worked really well for me. But, alas, with little ones those days are over.
It's funny, just this week I've been thinking that a big key to getting things under control around here is probably going to be to get up early. It's terrifying to me for some reason. :)
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