Patterns

Ahhh, sleep. For the past week Brianna has been on the perfect sleep schedule. I don't know how long it'll last but I'll take it as long as possible! For several weeks she has gone to bed between 10:00 and 10:30pm except in extenuating circumstances. But I wanted to get her into a pattern where she kind of knows what takes place before bedtime. So this week I started doing that. She gets her bath around 8:30 or 9:00, then we get her into her pajamas and I feed her one last time. She's out around 10:00 or so, and then sleeps for several hours. Two nights this week I had to get up twice to feed her (2:00 and 6:00) but every other night I got up one time, at 3:00 to feed her. Those nights are my dream and my nightmare. I love the sleep - it's awesome. But anyone who is breastfeeding or has breastfed knows that going 4 or 5 hours (or in the case of last night, almost 7 hours because she slept until almost 4:00) might be good news for the parents, but not so great for the mom's breasts. So normally when she sleeps that long I wake up after about 4 or 5 hours anyway just to pump because I'm in pain. But at least I'm waking up on my own and not to these grunts of hunger! Somehow, it does make a difference.

We (Brianna and I - Stephen's not involved in this since he's at work except for the weekends) normally start our day around 10:00am. We wake up feeling refreshed and then I feed her. After that feeding I put her in her swing and I do Wii Fit. Sometimes she takes a 10 or 15 minute nap, but sometimes she just watches me like I'm a crazy lady. I do that for 20 minutes and then bring her into the bathroom to sit in her bouncer while I take a shower. Normally by the time I'm out of the shower, dressed, and ready to go for the day, she's ready to eat again. Sometimes after that we play because she's in a really good mood. If she's not in a talkative mood, she lays in her swing while I eat lunch or do some articles. Sometime between 1 and 4 she will eat again and take her afternoon nap which normally lasts about 2 hours. Then she's usually up for the rest of the night until bedtime, with sporadic naps lasting 15 minutes or so.

This schedule is so great for us. Obviously I don't get a ton done around the house, mainly because during the day she still eats every two hours and it takes her between 30 minutes and an hour to finish eating. So practically every two hours I'm sitting down for an hour not getting anything accomplished. And then there are the days where she just doesn't want to be set down, so I put her in the Baby Bjorn so I can still be hands-free but she's happy too. And then there are days that this schedule is just thrown off for other reasons.

Yesterday Brianna and I went to lunch with Jenn and she was so good. She slept long enough for both of us to eat lunch, and then when she started getting a little fussy it was just because she wanted to sit up and see what was going on. So she sat there for quite a while (30-40 minutes?) while we talked and didn't get fussy again until I put her back in her car seat. She didn't want to leave The Chick! What a smart baby.

The three of us went yard saling today and Brianna wasn't impressed. Neither was I. I found one book for her with games in it, that's it. Everyone was so overpriced. We have no more plans for the rest of the day except getting some work done and housework done. With Stephen being home, plans probably include what's happening right now - the two of them sitting on the couch entertaining each other.

That reminds me what I was going to say about yesterday at Chick Fil-A. Jenn pointed out how easily Bri entertains herself and I took that as such a high compliment! So thanks, Jenn. I think it is pretty true. There are definitely times that she just wants to be held and played with but there are plenty of other times where we can set her down and she will just look around or listen to music for 20-40 minutes. I have definitely made it a point to not constantly hold her. Of course throughout the day we spend lots of time talking to her and playing with her but I think it's really important for babies to learn to be independent and entertain themselves as well. I think Bri is such a well-rounded baby and I'm really proud of her.

*This post is probably boring to most people but mom pointed out the other day where I don't need a baby book because I have a blog. So I thought I would post some of my thoughts on my 10-week old (I can't even believe that!!) so that I can look back at this and remember later.*