Trudging Along

There really hasn't been much going on here the last week. At least not much worth sharing. Last weekend, I said to Libby, rather sadly, "I'm rather sad that I haven't been able to do anything to post to the blog lately." To which she replied, "Uh huh," in a distracted way and went about her business.

I AM disappointed that I haven't been able to stage stupid little stuffed animal theater spots for the last six weeks, but I've just been too out of it from the weird sleep schedule and the keeping Gabe from melting down. To put it simply, I don't have the means to be creative right now. It's a bit frustrating, really.

Anyway, Button is now a little over six weeks old. She's plumping up quite nicely--looking much more like a little baby and much less like Kim Jong-il. Really, all she needed was a ridiculous set of sunglasses and her costume would have been set for baby dictator Halloween. Now, not so much.

Her sleep schedule, however, is a complete mess. When she decides to sleep is almost completely random. She is proving, to my mind, at least, that humans don't NATURALLY fall into schedules. One day she'll sleep through the morning and stay up most of the afternoon and evening. The next day, she'll sleep all afternoon and evening. Then the next she won't sleep much at all. The only seeming constant in her schedule is that she refuses to sleep from about 8:00 p.m. until around 2:00 a.m. Or sleep much, anyway. She'll nod off, but as soon as we try to settle down as if she might sleep for the night, she wakes right back up again and demands our attention.

If anyone has any suggestions for how to shift a baby's sleep schedule from daylight to nighttime, I'd love to hear them. Since Gabe ALWAYS wakes up around 5:00 in the morning, and that's about the time she's starting to settle down for her longest bout of sleep, neither Libby nor I are getting all that much sleep these days.

Otherwise, it's looking very much like Button is Daddy's girl. This is great news, since Gabe has always favored Libby, both in personality type and in favoritism. He's a go-go-go type of boy, rather like Libby. He goes to bed early, gets up early, and is always on the move. His moods are subject to change at the slightest whim, he loves to be outside and has to be constantly entertained--again, quite like Libby. Well, she doesn't have to be contantly entertained, but she does tend to feel cooped up and unhappy whenever she's not being terribly productive.

Button, on the other hand, is pretty laid back--like me. She wants her food when she wants it, of course, but once that's out of the way and her diaper is fresh, she will usually just relax and watch the world go by. I can relate to that. Really, except for the apparent "sleep disorder" (I put that in quotes because it is how my body's natural sleep pattern--which puts me to bed around 1:00 and gets me up around 9:00--has always been referred to. I tend to disagree, preferring to think that the rest of the world has a sleep disorder, and I'm perfectly normal), she's a dream child.

Button and Daddy. On the same page.

And the sleep disorder we could easily deal with if our schedules (and Gabe) allowed us to sleep when she does. So, we're hoping we can coax her into at least a workable sleep schedule, just so we can keep our sanity until Gabe is old enough to understand the concept of "For the love of god, don't wake Mommy and Daddy until the clock says 6:30 or later."

On that subject, I'm actually conducting a little language experiment with Gabe. Every night, when I tuck him in, I say, "Do you remember what we do the first time we wake up in the morning?" He always nods as if he does, but I know he's just trying to get me to leave him alone. Then I say, "The first time we wake up in the morning, we go back to sleep. Right?" Then he nods again and says, "Right." "So be sure to go back to sleep when you wake up in the morning. If it's not light in your room yet, it's WAY to early to be awake." "Right," he repeats.

Then, of course, he starts crying for Momma and Dadda as soon as he wakes up at 5:00. So, EVENTUALLY, he will understand what I'm saying, and we'll have a pretty good idea of his linguistic development at that point. What development, specifically, I have no idea, but I'm eagerly awaiting it. And I'm sure I'll let everyone know when it's come to pass--somewhere about age eight, I'm guessing.