March 8, 2009

Don't recognize this date, do you? If you have small children I know you are still feeling the effects of this day. I didn't know at the time, but it turns out that March 8, 2009 would be the cause of stress and dark under eye circles. Let me remind you, it was Daylight Savings time. Now I know all the reasons behind the changing of the clocks, and I should mention that I used to enjoy the extra sunlight that this "spring ahead" change granted. However, little C, has not, in the least, adjusted to this new schedule. How does her little body know there's a difference? How in the world is it still effecting her WHOLE day?

At five months I read the sleep books, you know the ones. Dr. Ferber, sound familiar? I kept a log, I did the sleep training thing. I sat with a timer and followed "Progressive Waiting Approach." I toughed out the agony of the crying, all alone. I wrote in C's baby journal all about it. The entry looked like a formal lesson plan for an observation day for crying out loud! I had goals and objectives written for her short term and long term sleep schedules. I took and still take this sleep thing very seriously.

So it comes as no surprise to me that I am absolutely FREAKING OUT over this deviation from our old schedule. I know that kids change all the time and you can't count on the "perfect schedule" because once you have it down, it's bound to change. This is obviously no exception. I just thought after this many weeks we'd be doing better with it. Could it be at only 9 and a half months she's converging her two daytime naps into one? Except that if it's one, it HAS to be longer than one hour.

All the extra sunlight means now is that I'm trying to put C to sleep with a beam of sunlight in my eye. The school aged neighborhood kids are out playing and we're singing "Twinkle, Twinkle." She's been buying the act because she's exhausted from not taking proper naps, but every mother knows that a child that goes to bed at 6:05pm is bound to awake before the sunrises the next morning. Which brings me back to my point that Daylight Savings time was invented to torture parents.

Little Quinn has been sleeping just fine. He's taken up residence in the basement during sleeping hours. I felt terrible putting him down there, but it turns out that he likes his little bachelor pad. The hum of the dehumidifier really does the trick form him. Now if I can only get him to stop peeing in the house...

Dare I say that I slept semi-well last night? My husband ended up working overnight which means I could sprawl out across the bed and I took the scary plunge and turned the baby monitor off. Gasp, I know. Remember, this is a small house. If I can hear the dog whimper from the basement, I can certainly hear baby C from one wall over.

Last year during our first grade grandparents' day social, a parent, Mr. S., stepped right up to my very pregnant belly and said, "Get some sleep now." I've heard people say that your sleep changes once you have a child, but there was something in the urgency of his voice that really struck a cord with me. I did an about face turn and was no longer thinking of the delicious refreshments that I was about to devour, I started becoming increasingly anxious about my future lack of sleep. I think that man cursed me.

Anyway, today I decided that I was in charge (chuckle, chuckle) and that C was going to take two naps. I dusted off the 'ol Ferber book and back to Progressive Waiting we went. I checked in on her after 3 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes and...

I'm happy to report that just almost 30 minutes later, the baby monitor is no longer rattling with the sound of my screaming child. Silent. Asleep, at last. Maybe we are turning a corner here. I think I just might have some laundry, dishes, or dog walking to do. OR I could watch last night's DVRed Medium... I choose the latter.

I am really fearing November 1, 2009. Can you guess what happens on that day? You got it, fall back in time. Oy vey.