Evenings are still atrocious around here and I’ve stopped trying to fight it. I don’t know what Kate is doing – maybe she’s teething, maybe she’s in the process of dropping an evening nap, I don’t know. I do know that when I put her down for bed at 9pm she needs me to put her back down half an hour later, and then maybe an hour after that she’s awake again and really fighting it. Drives me crazy. The last two nights I said “Oh screw this” and just got her up for a little bit. She’s very chill (and she’s not normally a chill baby, by any stretch), kind of zombie-ish, and she sits and watches us play our video games for an hour until we all go to bed.

However, the trade-off? At midnight she goes down EASY and then SLEEPS… only waking twice to nurse briefly. I’ve brought her back into our bed because I missed her and because she was sleeping like crap. So we all go to bed at around midnight. I nurse her, I move away and get comfortable, she rolls around a little bit and hums. Then she rolls onto her stomach, wiggles close enough to touch me, and falls asleep. Two nights ago she woke up 5 hours later (!!!) and last night I had to wake her up after more than 4 hours because I was stuck up against my husband and I was absolutely roasting (having a dream you’re stuck in a fire is not a good sign). This makes me SO HAPPY. Firstly because she hasn’t slept a 5 hour stretch in a LONG time (months). Secondly because I am not nursing her to sleep, or rocking her, or holding her even. Yes she has to be touching me, but she’s putting herself to sleep!

Granted that trick only works after midnight when she’s actually really tired, for naps I’m still snuggling her until she falls soundly asleep so I can creep out of her room. And if she’s overtired for a nap or cranky for some reason then she still sometimes fights me and I have to rock her to sleep in my arms. BUT I feel that things are improving… it’s getting easier.

We’re consistently waking up in the morning at 10am. Sometimes a little earlier, but I set my alarm for 10 so I don’t let us sleep until noon (god forbid her night times get any later!!). If needed I can start pushing the waking and bedtime earlier, but honestly right now I’m just happy that it’s predictable. It’s funny how having everything tossed to the wind can really make you appreciate predictability, lol! And I am REALLY loving actually getting some sleep at night!