Sleep

I miss sleep. 

Sleep when your baby sleeps.

That seemed impossible for the first month of her life. I think I averaged three hours of sleep a night. I don't remember much except that I cried a lot. 

When she was a few weeks old, she started getting fussy every night around 9:00. Then she wouldn't 

settle down until 1 or 2:00 in the morning. She was nursing every two hours and by the time she would fall asleep, it wasn't long before she was hungry again. My mom suggested that we start keeping her up in the evenings when she would normally take her final nap before getting fussy. This was not fun. She would scream until she was exhausted but we kept her up for another 45 minutes after she reached the point where she would fall asleep sitting up. 

It sounds awful but then we would give her a bath and she would nurse, and she slept three or four hours! It was heaven. 

I can't remember how long this lasted but when she was seven weeks old, my mom came to visit and that week she got Quinn to take a binki. Binkies are from heaven. Gradually, her "fussy time" shortened. Now she gets fussy around 8:00 so she gets her bath. Then I spend the next two and a half hours in the rocking chair and she drifts off every few minutes before she is finally sound asleep around 10:45. Then she sleeps around four hours. Up until this week, I would nurse her when she woke up and then hold her for an hour before she was back asleep. Then she would sleep two hours, wake up and nurse, one hour later be back asleep, then sleep one hour. Still not enough sleep for mom. Now that she takes her binki more, I lay her down right after she eats and just give her her binki four or five times until she's asleep on her own. She still only sleeps in one four hour block and then does two or three, but at least I get to doze off while she falls asleep instead of sitting up and holding her. Before I started doing this I had spent about $20 in the iTunes bookstore so I could be entertained in the middle of the night. 

So that's where we are at now. I usually get a nap with her in the middle of the day, so life is good. 

P.S. Quinn sleeps in a rock n play. We got this when she was a few days old because she did not sleep well on a flat surface. The rock n play kind of cradles them like a swing, and it makes them feel more like they are being held. I'd imagine it's a hard transition to go from sleeping all curled up in mom's warm belly to sleeping on a hard, flat surface. She slept much better in the rock n play. They should give those things out at the hospital.