20 posts tagged “sleep”

Petra had a busy day today.  She missed her nap time because we were getting our hair cut.  She was so tired that she just sat on the chair all by herself and went into a trance while the hairdresser snipped away at her fringe.  When it was my turn for the chair, Petra hung out with Carla and Olivia who'd kindly come down to look after her for me.  She didn't take much wrangling though. curling up on Carla's lap until it was time to go home.  I thought she'd go to sleep in the car but she didn't.  In fact she perked up enough to help Travis get firewood in from the garage.  She climbs the steps all by herself and proudly carries in the little pieces of wood Travis gives her to hold.  At the moment she loves to help us and to show off her rapidly increasing skills.  Once she's dropped her wood onto the pile, she holds her hands out to be wiped.  She didn't used to mind a bit of grime, but these days she doesn't like to have dirty hands.

We went down to the local Starbucks for tea and coffee (it's a nice reminder of life in Vancouver) and Petra walked along the street between me and Travis.  We hold her hands and let her set the pace - she stops to stare at loud boys and buses and veers across the footpath to look in shop windows.  When we reached the Starbucks she dropped our hands and rushed up to the door to try to open it, then walked confidently up to the counter.  We've been there enough recently that she knows the drill.

She was a very tired wee lass by the time we got home and was in her high chair eating tea well before 5pm.  She didn't make it through her food despite the early start.  She ate pasta, flicked tomato sauce all over my nice pale walls, then passed out in her seat.  We had to bath her to get her to wake up enough to last until bedtime.  (If we let her go to sleep too early, she thinks she's just napping and wakes up after an hour or so, then we have a terrible time trying to get her back to bed.)

Petra was a real star today.  Olivia spent the afternoon with us which meant that Petra didn't get her nap or her middle-of-the-day breastfeed.  She was too busy playing to stop for sleep or food.  Despite the lack of sleep, she was perky and happy all afternoon.  She's a very mellow baby.  We're lucky. 

She was, however, in danger of falling asleep in her tea time pasta - her head got too heavy for her neck and her eyelids kept closing.  I had to talk and sing and pat her face to keep her awake.  Poor thing.  I always feel like a horrible mum when she dozes in her chair.  She managed to put away quite a bit of food though and perked up for her bath.  She loves her bath so much that we can't even mention the word or she's off running down the hall yelling ba ba ba demanding that we fill the tub for her.  We have to spell it out instead. 

After her bath, she was very definite about needing to be breastfed.  And I'm not surprised since she'd gone about 10 hours between feeds - the longest gap ever.  She didn't seem fazed at all, but me and my breasts definitely noticed. 

Then she went happily off to bed just after 7.  It's strange and wonderful to have an early-to-bed baby after the randomness of the first year.  I'm still adjusting to the return of something approaching normality.

Petra slept all night last night for the first time in I don't know how long.  She went to bed before 8 and stayed there until after 7 this morning.  I'm hoping very hard that it wasn't just a one-off fluke happening but the start of a new sleep phase for her (and for me and Travis).

Daylight saving ended on Saturday night here. 

Costa Rica doesn't have daylight saving time (there's no need because there are 12 hours of daylight all year round - one of the benefits of living close to the equator) which means that Petra's never been through a time change before and Travis and I haven't had to deal with one for about three years.  As a result, we're all a bit confused about when we should eat and sleep. 

Here are Travis and Petra taking an unscheduled late afternoon nap.

Petra had been dealing with all the upheavals she's been through since we left Costa Rica by giving up on any kind of regular sleep pattern.  But now that we're living in our house again, she's started going to bed around 8pm every night.  She eats, bathes, has a last breast-feed, then goes to bed.  Just like those well-regulated babies in the parenting books. 

 It's an amazing, wonderful thing to have a regularly sleeping baby and some free time in the evenings.  Travis and I ate dinner and then played Carcassonne last night.  We bought the game mostly because we visited Carcassonne when we were in France a few years ago and thought it would be nice to play a game set in a place we'd been.  But it's turned out to be a fun board game as well as a good reminder.

 

We've been driving around a bit at night since we moved to Carla's house.  Petra has found it difficult to settle into a sleep routine in yet another new place so we've needed to drive her to sleep.  Before we packed up in Costa Rica, she went to bed between 8 and 9 most nights and got up around 8.  After the movers took away our stuff, the routine went all to buggery (as they(we?) say here in NZ).  Petra's a mellow, placid, amenable baby, who never seems to get really cranky no matter how tired she might be, but she's an accomplished resister of sleep.  She stays up and up until I feel about ready to fall over without ever showing much in the way of ill-effects.  It's impressive and rather daunting. 

We had periods in San Jose when we needed to drive Petra around as well.  We developed a regular route - along the old main road to Multiplaza and back home via the pista.  However, being on the road there late at night is not entirely safe.  We kept our doors locked and when we had to stop at red lights we watched for people behaving suspiciously because carjacking is a definite possibility.  In fact, after 10 at night, you can drive through red lights if there's no oncoming traffic so that you're not a target for thieves.  And Costa Rican driving is hazardous to your health at any time of the day, but especially on Friday and Saturday nights when everyone's been out drinking.  People drive drunk without compunction.

We haven't devised a route here yet, I've just been pootling around aimlessly showing Travis new areas of town.  We drove along the main street the other night, past bars and restaurants full of festive end-of-year students, and past groups of meandering pedestrians.  I noticed myself looking for the central locking in our rental car and being disconcerted when I didn't find it and had to leave the doors unlocked.  I've also noticed that I avoid the darker streets in our travels.  I didn't even realise that I was on heightened alert in Costa Rica, but I must have been, and I've brought that extra alertness with me.  

Something was said about safety in Costa Rica at our little party yesterday and Travis said that he feels a bit vulnerable being out at night in an unlocked car.  So it's not just me.  We're both still jumpy after our time in San Jose.  The Dunedinites were all very surprised.  Carjacking's just not a consideration here and it would never occur to anyone to feel unsafe.  I didn't think it would ever occur to me either, but it seems that I've got some newly-acquired wariness to shake off.

Barack Obama's daughters come onstage at the end of his speech and your first, totally unreasonable, thought (well the first thought after you notice how lovely they look in their pretty pink dresses) is that they're up late. 

It was actually quite early still, about 9 local time, but it seemed later to me because I was tired.  His girls are about 10 and 7 (not 9 months old like Petra) so they don't need to be in bed when Petra does.  And even I can allow as how having your father nominated to run for president is kind of a special occasion, one worth staying up for.

I'm just fixated on sleep and baby bedtimes right now it would seem.  I'm constantly in pursuit of an uninterrupted five or six hours of sleep and I usually don't get them.  I fantasize about going to bed when I want and sleeping until I'm done with the kind of fervour the childless get to devote to thinking about exotic sex and holidays in far-flung tropical places.

Petra's sleeping well again after a few weeks of disruptions, but even good baby sleep is not the same as good adult sleep.  Last night, she slept from 9pm until 8 this morning, which is fabulous.  I didn't get an uninterrupted sleep though since Petra's little baby stomach means that she can't last 11 hours without eating.  She woke for a snack at 4 and maybe at 1 as well.  I'm not quite sure what we did and when because I've developed the very useful skill of being able to feed Petra, make sure she's warm and comfortable, and get up to go to the toilet without ever waking up completely.  This half-asleep feeding is one of the great benefits of co-sleeping.  If I had to get up and go to another room to respond to Petra in the night, I'd be even more tired, and I suspect more grumpy about night-time parenting.  Just rolling over in bed to deal with her makes my life much easier.

Sunday afternoon at our place.

Petra's been very tired for the past few days - making up for all the sleep she missed while she was teething perhaps - and keeps falling asleep on our laps.  As for Travis, there's nothing quite like a sleeping baby in your arms to make you doze off, especially when you're a sleep-deprived parent.  I do it all the time as well.

Petra's nine months old tomorrow, which seems like a big milestone to me for some reason.  Perhaps because it means that she's been out in the world as long as she was in my belly.   I can't quite believe that she's as old as she is.  Now that she's mobile, teething, eating (albeit reluctantly) solid food, saying a few words, and most especially, now that she's standing up, she's not a little baby anymore.  She's well on her way to becoming a toddler.  I'm excited about all her achievements and am fascinated watching her reveal more and more of herself as time passes.  I am also wistful about the end of the baby stage.  Babies are lovely, so cuddly and snuggly.  They stay where you put them as well, something I'm learning to appreciate as I head Petra off at the tv, or phone cord, or vertical blinds for the umpteenth time.

Petra's delightful at the moment though, so full of laughter and enthusiasm about everything.  I talk, she gargles, growls and coos right back; I wave my arms around, she giggles; Travis and I talk, she loudly joins in.  She's been particularly fun today.  She napped well and worked hard on standing between naps.  She's worked out how to pull herself up, then let go and sink quite gracefully down onto her butt.  I thought she'd start cruising after she learned how to pull herself up, but instead she's intent on balancing without holding on.  She plants her feet, lets go with one hand and extends her arm for balance, and slowly lets go with the other hand, dabbing it down for support if she wobbles.

She's in a particularly good mood today because her teeth don't appear to be hurting as much and because she's not as tired as she has been recently.  We seem to be settling into a bedtime routine again after a few exhausting and chaotic weeks of random bedtimes and lots of night time disturbances.  I'm so relieved.  The broken nights and late bedtimes had me tearing my hair out.  I managed when she was a newborn, but I found the recent disruptions very stressful.  "It's not supposed to be like this now," was my cry, "we're regressing."  But we're not regressing after all, we're just moving toward a new arrangement.

After her standing efforts, Petra napped for an hour.  And she went to bed before 8 tonight.  Yay Petra.

Perhaps she's finished with the developmental shifts for a while and is going back to a more normal routine.