Sleep Begets Sleep...

This little girl is really starting to be awake and more alert in the last few days! I think some of our fussiness issues stem from her being awake for too many hours some days, so I'm trying to make a concerted effort to get her sleeping more each day. Too bad her big brother really doesn't understand or support this plan!

We still never know how each evening will go with her during the "witching hour." A few nights ago, she slept  like a champ all day and evening, calmly taking a bottle from Joe and going right back to sleep in the early evening hours.

Two nights ago, we had a good day, relatively sleepy baby, but after her 4 hour stretch at night, she was up every hour until 8 am. I figured she was maybe going through a growth spurt, but the rest of the day she was fairly calm and sleepy. Madeline gets lots of stimulation from her big brother, so I think it's more difficult for her to fall and stay asleep. Exhibit A: these pictures were taken during the late morning, when she was awake for close to 2 hours. Generally happy, but wide awake.

Yesterday, she slept great in the early afternoon, until dinner time. We get going and let the focus on keeping the baby sleeping slide, and when that happens, we run into "witching hour" issues. As in from around 6pm she'll eat, try to doze off, sleep for a few minutes, and then startle herself back awake. For hours. It turns into a wicked cycle of me nursing her to calm her down and try to get her to sleep, especially since she's not into pacifiers. She'll generally give it up and crash between 11-12, and then we end up with a super sleeper. Last night she went down at 11:30 pm, woke to eat at 3:45 am, fell right back asleep, woke at 6:45 to eat and stayed asleep for another hour and a half. She actually took her first nap in her swing this morning for 4 hours, giving me some much needed time to clean up and spend a couple hours playing with Joseph. It was great!

This afternoon she wanted no part of the swing, and is currently sleeping on my lap. I'm hopeful that if we can get her to sleep more, we can get past the fussy evening business, but at least she doesn't scream as much as she used to.

And when you get to stare into these eyes, it's kinda hard to wish that she were sleeping!

Even Joseph agrees. He's figured out the baby monitor, so when she's asleep in her room (which doesn't happen too often yet) and he hears her start to fuss, he grabs the monitor and practically runs up the stairs to go get Madeline. He really takes his job as big brother seriously, and wants to make sure she's always happy!

So here's hoping that the old "sleep begets sleep" rule holds true for this baby. It certainly worked for Joseph, although it was much easier to keep him asleep when it was just the two of us hanging out all day long!