Sleep

Baby Jane has always been a pretty good sleeper. She started sleeping through the night at about two and a half months and is also pretty good about going to sleep and putting herself to sleep (and, most importantly, putting herself back to sleep if she happens to wake up at some ungodly hour). She may cry when we put her down, but typically for no longer than a few minutes.

Last night was the rare exception.

We put her to bed at her normal time. Typically, the whole routine on non-bath nights takes about 20 minutes: she gets into PJs, I nurse her, then it's storytime if she's still awake, then kisses and lights out. Well, last night she wanted to nurse for what seemed like forever---she must have nursed for a good 45 minutes! She was still awake, so I read her a story, tucked her into her sleep sack, and said goodnight. All was quiet...for maybe 15 minutes.

Then, the wailing started. We waited it out for about 10 minutes, but it was clear that this was not the normal "I'm tired, but I don't want to go to sleep" complaining. It was definitely getting more insistent. So I went up there. Usually, that's enough to calm her down. But she was insistent that I pick her up out of the crib, at which point she *clung* to me. Mr. Jane and I spent the next hour sitting with her, rocking her, stroking her forehead, anything to get her to calm down enough to go back into her crib and back to sleep. It was bizarre. She finally went to sleep, but boy, was it a struggle.

Tonight, all is back to normal. We still don't know what that's all about.

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I haven't been sleeping very well lately. I had been very good about getting enough sleep (after the extreme sleep deprivation of the first couple of months post-baby), a habit I got into while I was pregnant, out of necessity. But last week, I had one late night when I was trying to meet a deadline, and I haven't been able to catch up since. Usually I can sneak a nap in on the weekends, but not so this weekend. To top it all off, my brain has decided that anytime I wake up during the night, that's the signal for it to go into overdrive. "Oh good! We're awake! We've got lots to think about, so let's get to it!" So I'm dragging, really seriously dragging. My brain is fuzzy and my head hurts. I just wish I could stop time for a few hours, just long enough to catch up on those few lost hours of sleep. Then I'd feel much, much better.