Kry-Baby: Sleep Lite

After 7 weeks, I feel comfortable with officially declaring that our baby is not a napper. The kid just does not nap during the day. Instead of the two or three 2 hour naps I keep reading that your baby "should" take at this stage, Gwendoline seems to think that catnapping for 30-45 minutes once in the morning and once in the afternoon is sufficient. While I don't like it for obvious reasons (I want some naps, too!), I'm now more confident that she's not harming herself by not sleeping much during the day. According the the latest book I'm reading on the subject, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, not all babies are created equally in the napping arena and, thus, parents "cannot make short nappers into long nappers." So while I'm doing my best to get the kid to nap during the day, I'm a little less frustrated and worried when she doesn't. Did I mention she's stubborn? She's incredibly stubborn and will proceed to cry (off and on), kick, and flail her way through one and a half hours of a two hour napping period. She doesn't give up. Definitely her mother's child... And before anyone tells me I should try swaddling her to keep the kicking and flailing to a minimum, I already do that. But she has superhuman strength and busts her way out of a swaddle in five minutes flat. So instead of trying to force the poor child to nap during the day, I've decided to accept her for who she is and who she is not; and she is NOT a napper. She'll sleep when she's sleepy, and I'll probably get some rest sometime in the next 18 years. But be warned, Baby Girl... As soon as I see those eyelids dropping, we go straight to nap mode. Maybe one of these times it will stick.

The silver lining is that Gwendoline is a good little nighttime sleeper! Bedtime is around 7 pm, then after our late-night feeding around 11 pm or midnight, she usually only wakes up once to eat around 3 or 4 am and will then go back to sleep until around 7 am. Or in today's case, until 8:20 am and counting!

Back to the superhuman strength I previously mentioned... Gwendoline is crazy strong and super alert for 7 weeks old! She holds her head up all by herself for minutes on end. She also loves to "stand" on my lap and bounce herself up and down using her tiny feet. When she's fussy, this is one of the only things that will distract her and turn that frown into an immediate smile. And when we do tummy time, she pushes herself across the activity mat from one side to the other with her legs. It makes me laugh because one side of her face is usually smushed against the mat when she does this. Maybe all babies are this strong... But until I see or hear otherwise, I'm claiming Gwendoline to be superhuman.

We have a busy week next week that includes her 8 week appointment with the pediatrician and her follow-up hip ultrasound at Scottish Rite. Neither appointment will be very pleasant, especially with the pediatrician because she will be getting four shots. Please pray for us- that the shots would go as smoothly as possible with no side effects or reactions and that her ultrasound would reveal utterly and completely normal baby hips.

P.S.- It's now 8:44 am and she's still asleep! Though I am starting to hear some tell-tale grunts...