Before the time change in April, Alex was getting up really early (5:45-6:00sm). With the time change she started sleeping a little later but she still gets up early. What’s funny is how getting up has changed so much. When she first got her bed she would wake up and cry for us. The she would get up and come in bed with us. After that she would come in our room and play. The last two weeks, however, have been very different. Last week she got up and started playing and I didn’t even know she was up until I heard her talking in the other room. One morning she was getting into my desk, which is a major no-no, and I got up and told her to leave my desk alone. She looked at me, put her hand out and said, “You go back to bed Mommy.” It’s like she was telling me to go back to bed so she could continue getting into my stuff. This week when Marc gets up (around 6:25am) she is already up and is laying on the couch with her blanket and pillow as if she is patiently waiting for us to get up. We’ve been wondering how long she has been laying there

This morning, however, was horrible. I was sleeping in the living room because I’ve been sick and she came and woke me up at 5:20am - it was still dark out. I tried to get her to come to bed with me but she played instead and I drifted in and out of sleep. Marc said that she first came and woke him up at 4am! She hasn’t been feeling well but I have no idea why she was up so early. Ugh!

Well, once Alex got better I got sick It must have been from sleeping with her for a couple of nights when she didn’t feel good. We are both doing better now. We have kind of been trapped at home - between our illnesses and the weather it’s been hard to get out an go anywhere. So, there isn’t too much to write about.

Almost everyday this week Alex got up at 6am or earlier. She used to sleep until 7:30-8am so this has been a little disconcerting. And since she doesn’t sleep in a crib anymore she gets up and comes into my room and wakes me up - I get up early but not that early. The first thing she says to me is, “I’m tired”. And everyday I think - if you are so tired, go back to bed!!! Children are such strange little creatures.

Alex has been very sick since Friday night - it came out of nowhere because all day Friday she was fine and we hadn’t really been anywhere or around other kids for her to get sick. She was up almost all night Friday - Marc and I took turns with her - so Saturday all three of us were exhausted. Alex looked terrible. She’s doing better so I think the worst is over. The time change didn’t help either - last night she had a really hard time going to bed because I think her internal clock was saying it was too early to go to sleep. And she’s been sleeping late in the morning. I had to go to Palm Sunday mass by myself because she was too sick to go - it was nice to not have to chase her around but I felt lonely being there my myself on such an important day.

Alexandra and I got back from Vermont late last Wednesday night. And after we returned the weather was SO hot so we didn’t really go anywhere - we just stayed in and played and watched Teletubbies (Alex really likes this show - I guess there is something about it that babies really like). On Friday morning around 11am Alex was playing in the living room and I was working on the computer. I turned around and Alex was passed out on the floor with baby doll as a pillow. I scooped her up and put her in bed and she slept for 3 hours. I think she was still worn out from the trip and recuperating. Alex, however, NEVER falls asleep anywhere except in her crib and sometimes in the car seat so I was shocked.

Since we returned I have also noticed that Alex has become a lot more independent. She will wander off and play in a different room by herself, play with her toys alone, and she doesn’t cry when I walk out of a room. She’s become a lot easier and a lot more fun.

Alexandra has slept through the night the past 5 nights!! I really hope that this is a trend that stays. Before when she was sleeping all night she would still get up around 5am. Now she is going to bed between 7:30 and 8pm and is sleeping until 7:30 or 8am!! She isn’t napping as much during the day but I think this is a great trade especially since she is going right to bed without any fuss. It is so great to go to bed and sleep all night. The first couple of nights this happened I woke up in a panic because I thought something must have happened to her

Yesterday, March 15th, Alex woke up around 7:30am and was in a great mood. By 9:30am, however, she was really cranky and I thought that maybe she was really tired and needed to take an early nap. By 11am she was unable to sleep, crying and fairly inconsolable and that was I finally realized that she was getting her 6th tooth! I also have a bad cold and didn’t really feel up for it but then decided that she might as well be miserable at the same time as me - that way we wouldn’t ruin a good day for each other

I was also a beautiful day (in the 50’s) so after she had lunch and still couldn’t sleep Marc and I took her to the park in her stroller. She thought this was really fun and distracted her from the fact that she didn’t feel good. We stayed for over an hour and when we got home around 2:30 she finally slept for about an hour and a half. By the time she got up and had dinner she was feeling a lot better. She woke up a couple of times during the night but did a lot better than I thought she would. This morning when I got up I realized that this happened on the Ides of March, which is a strange coincidence since she hadn’t had a tooth since February 1st.

For the last week or so Alex has been sleeping through the night - she goes to sleep sometime between 7-9 and sleeps until 5:30 or so. If she wakes up early - like 5:30-6am she goes back to sleep until 8 after having some milk. This has made my life so much better - I’m not in an exhausted fog all of the time. The first couple of times it happened I jumped out of bed in the morning convinced that something had happened to her - I guess I had gotten used to seeing 2:30am.

She was, however, still having trouble going to bed until a couple of nights ago. She would fuss and cry and want to get back up. But now she seems to be doing better with going to bed after having a bath, drinking milk, and then saying goodnight to the kitty, Daddy, Mommy, and her room. I hope this isn’t just a fluke and that she is finally going to go to bed and stay in bed. Of course, once she gets another tooth or gets a cold or something her sleep schedule will be messed up again. I think that part of the reason she was having so much trouble recently was that she kept practicing her new pulling up and standing skills in bed and then she would get stuck there.

Alex has started going to bed without too many problems - last night she passed right out but sometimes she fusses for a little while until she falls asleep and she is pretty much sleeping through the night or just getting up once around 4am. What a difference this makes - I finally feel somewhat rested and haven’t been spending my days in a dazed fog. For awhile she was getting up every two hours and I thought I was going tp die from lack of sleep. She really is growing up so fast.

Alex gets a gold star for the day! She has been perfectly wonderful from start to finish. She played and laughed and didn’t fuss all day except for a tiny bit after her bath - she usually gets crabby after her bath because she is tired and she doesn’t want to wear clothes. And she went to bed without any problems - she even played in her crib for over an hour, didn’t cry at all and finally fell asleep on her own. After struggling in October to get her to learn her bedtime she was having trouble again the last couple of weeks - she would go to bed and then within an hour she would be crying and would get back up for a little while. And then she had the bad fever last week and the teething problems. Marc and I didn’t know how we were going to get her to go to bed again without problems and even talked about it quite a bit last night. And tonight - no problem … the only thing that is different is that Marc isn’t home (he is at a Christmas party for work) so maybe since it is so quiet she doesn’t feel like she is missing out on anything. Anyway, it has been a great day …