I am laying here in my bed at 1am listening to the sounds of my 11 month old quietly talking to herself after being awake in her bed for an hour. This child hasn't woken up five hours after going to bed since she was, maybe, two months old! She has been sleeping straight through 12 hours at night for about two months now, with a few rare exceptions when she woke up about eight hours in. But five hours!? And not going back to sleep!? She nursed and was definitely done and I've left her in there to try and put herself back to sleep, because at this point with this child, human contact would most certainly be counter productive.
I'm sitting here thinking of all the reasons she could have woken up and then not be going back to sleep. She usually goes to bed at 7:30, but after waking up early from her nap, I put her down closer to 7. She normally eats dinner around 6:30 and regardless of what table foods she eats, I've always followed it up with a jar of baby food (which she usually scarfs down). Tonight, she ate only table foods: cauliflower crust pizza and pears and bananas. She seems to like it, but it was slow going. She ate a good amount, but it took so long and she got so fussy that I just called it good and didn't do baby food. So maybe she's hungry and she's even more hungry than any amount of nursing could satiate. Maybe she's too hot in her little room. Or Maybe she's bothered by the fan blowing right on her.
I keep thinking all these thing and am working out in my brain how to deduce a reason for this strange deviation from her routine, so I can avoid ever doing whatever it is again. But it just hit me that my child is not a machine. She doesn't do the exact same thing all of the time if all the variables are held constant. I mean, I'm not a machine and it would be impossible for me to hold all the variables constant for her every night. And she's definitely not a machine. She is just the opposite. She is a little baby lady whose body is changing and growing every day. She could be getting new teeth, she might be having some tummy issues like I am having from that yummy cauliflower pizza, she might be working on a new skill and wanting to practice it at this inappropriate hour. Who knows. But I'm just glad that she and God are reminding me that my baby girl is just that: my baby girl. Not my baby machine. I would hate having a baby machine. But my baby girl? I would take her awake, asleep, fussy, happy, teething, smiling, eating, or dancing any day.
And with that Ill confirm that my sweet girl finally put herself back to sleep. Praise Jesus.
Here's hoping we both get a solid few hours of sleep before anything like that happens again.
Good night.
I'm sitting here thinking of all the reasons she could have woken up and then not be going back to sleep. She usually goes to bed at 7:30, but after waking up early from her nap, I put her down closer to 7. She normally eats dinner around 6:30 and regardless of what table foods she eats, I've always followed it up with a jar of baby food (which she usually scarfs down). Tonight, she ate only table foods: cauliflower crust pizza and pears and bananas. She seems to like it, but it was slow going. She ate a good amount, but it took so long and she got so fussy that I just called it good and didn't do baby food. So maybe she's hungry and she's even more hungry than any amount of nursing could satiate. Maybe she's too hot in her little room. Or Maybe she's bothered by the fan blowing right on her.
I keep thinking all these thing and am working out in my brain how to deduce a reason for this strange deviation from her routine, so I can avoid ever doing whatever it is again. But it just hit me that my child is not a machine. She doesn't do the exact same thing all of the time if all the variables are held constant. I mean, I'm not a machine and it would be impossible for me to hold all the variables constant for her every night. And she's definitely not a machine. She is just the opposite. She is a little baby lady whose body is changing and growing every day. She could be getting new teeth, she might be having some tummy issues like I am having from that yummy cauliflower pizza, she might be working on a new skill and wanting to practice it at this inappropriate hour. Who knows. But I'm just glad that she and God are reminding me that my baby girl is just that: my baby girl. Not my baby machine. I would hate having a baby machine. But my baby girl? I would take her awake, asleep, fussy, happy, teething, smiling, eating, or dancing any day.
And with that Ill confirm that my sweet girl finally put herself back to sleep. Praise Jesus.
Here's hoping we both get a solid few hours of sleep before anything like that happens again.
Good night.
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