Finding a routine and sleep schedule for McKamy has been a bit challenging so far. Yes, I know she is only a few weeks old, but we wanted to at least start some sort of routine with her to increase the chances of her sleeping well and longer at one time. And so I can have some sort of idea how to plan out my day. However, she has decided that it is MUCH more interesting to vary her plans daily and keep us guessing. Lol!
When we first brought Kamy home her days and nights were mixed up. She’d sleep really well in the early to mid afternoon and then be awake most of the night. Okay fine, I’ll sleep in the afternoons with her so I can manage to get some sleep too. Nope! As soon as I thought I’d figured her out, she changed it on me. I have a feeling this is going to be a recurring theme in her life. Hehe!
Fortunately she has been more of a night-sleeper the two weeks or so. She’ll sleep most of the night (in segments of course) and doze in the mornings. She’s awake or takes brief cat naps all afternoon and will go down for a longer nap between 7 and 9 pm. This schedule definitely works for me … I hope she more or less sticks to it. That also makes it easier to plan time with family who want to visit with her — she is a lot more fun when she’s awake!
One of her little quirks seems to be an uncanny ability to tell when Momma is about to eat — especially dinner. She can be dead asleep in her swing and as soon as I sit down with my dinner she decides its time for HER dinner too! I only had one uninterrupted dinner two weeks ago and two last week. I am definitely getting better at eating with my right hand (since I’m left handed) and multi-tasking while she is awake.
Initially we had McKamy sleep in the newborn sleeper attachment to her pack n play in our bedroom. Being paranoid first time parents, I didn’t want to throw her in her room all by herself from the start. Sure, people do it, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want her that far away from me. I’d planned on moving her to her bedroom starting around two weeks old, but that’s when we had a few rough nights of gas and I felt more comfortable with her closer to me. We did start having her sleep in her crib at three weeks old though, and it’s gone relatively well! Of course it is a HUGE bed for her right now and she looks so tiny in it all by herself.
This is our current bedtime routine:
- Dim the lights. Keller installed a dimmer switch in Kamy’s bedroom so we could control the light level in the room. I didn’t want to go from pitch dark to full light in the middle of the night. It’s worked really well and I’ve certainly appreciated having it there.
- Rock in the glider. We were fortunate because we were able to get a nice glider for free from a local Freecycle group. Kamy loves the gentle rocking motion and it really helps her little eyes get droopy and fall asleep. It’s also comfortable for me … I’ve fallen asleep in it a few times as well. I can just squeeze the Boppy pillow between the arm rests so it fits just right!
- Fill up the tummy! The fuller it is, the more likely she is to stay asleep. She’ll usually nurse until she falls asleep, then I’ll check her diaper and change it if she’s wet, and then nurse again if she’s up for it. If not, it’s straight to bed for her. I’ll usually hang around in her room for a few minutes to make sure she’s actually going to go to sleep and not wake herself up wiggling, but the odds are good she’ll be out like a light.
- Swaddle McKamy. It doesn’t necessarily help her fall asleep, but it does help her stay asleep longer. We love using the Swaddleme to keep her all wrapped up. Since she loves to have her hands by her face, it’s tricky to get a blanket tight enough to keep her from wiggling her hands loose. We are also only swaddling her at night so she learns that the swaddle means it’s really time to sleep and not just nap a bit.
Keller has been a huge help in making sure that I get enough sleep to function. He’ll usually stay up and have the monitor close to him at night for a few hours once I go to bed. Keller’s naturally a night owl, so he’s happy to watch a movie or work on a project at home. When Kamy wakes up while Keller is “on duty,” he can take care of changing her and any gassy issues before nursing. With this routine, I’m able to get around three hours of uninterrupted sleep before Keller comes to bed in the early morning. Combining this with shorter naps throughout the night adds up to enough for me. Hooray!
Kamy also surprised me with one blissful full night of sleep! I honestly got EIGHT full hours of sleep in one night. It was wonderful! It’s amazing what a difference solid sleep will make to your day. =) She also blessed me with six hours straight last night. I certainly don’t expect it, but it sure is nice when it happens. Thanks Kamy!
Sleeping with Daddy in the morning:
