The Sleep Saga Continues

So, last I wrote, Jordyn had slept fabulously on Wednesday night.

Thursday night... not so much. She pulled her old shenanigans of being up a good part of the night. She slept ok from 8:30 or so until 11:30, at which point she woke up and cried, waking me up. I gave her motrin in case she was in pain from teething, since she really did seem to be uncomfortable (no fever though). I brought her into bed with me, because to hell with what's "right" and what all the books say - that's what works best, and she has just really seemed to need her mommy lately! Plus, I do like cuddling with her (although, more so in the morning after a GOOD night's sleep, but whatever). We slept some, but she was restless even when she was sleeping, so I was up quite a bit.

Friday we were at lunch with a bunch of moms and babies, and one of my friends held her while I went to the bathroom. When I got back, my friend said, "I'd bet money that she's teething". She said Jordyn had leaned over and started to chew on the handle of her baby's bucket seat. I told her that she'd gotten a new tooth about a week-and-a-half ago, but that I didn't think there were any more, unless one had *just* come in overnight... That's when I put my finger in Jordyn's mouth and discovered a new tooth! Her first one on the top.

So, that explains a lot, actually. Apparently each tooth can disrupt a baby's sleep for up to five nights. This completely sucks - it would be one thing if it was five nights for ALL of the teeth, but five nights for EACH tooth? Holy shit - I won't sleep for a year!! So, between having a bad cold and teething at the same time... it's no wonder she hasn't been sleeping well. I'm hoping that will change now that the cold is gone and the tooth has come through the gum, at least for a few nights, until she starts on the next tooth!

Last night, on the eve of two 12-hour-until-midnight workdays in a row (yep, I'm working ALLLLL weekend!), I gave her tylenol at bedtime for good measure. I'm not totally convinced she *needed* it in terms of pain, but I wasn't taking any chances when I have to work two long, late days in a row and her sleep has been so inconsistent lately. As it turns out, she fell asleep easily, and slept great. We'd taken a nap together yesterday from 5 to almost 7pm, so she went to sleep later than usual, probably close to 10, and slept until about 7 this morning. The only reason the nap yesterday was so late was because although she was tired earlier, she fought tooth (no pun intended!) and nail to not fall asleep. That's the other thing she's been doing lately - fighting sleep with all she's got!

So now I'm at work, and my dad just texted me at 9:30pm, saying, "Jordyn took a nap at 6:40pm and never woke up. She is sleeping in her crib, on her stomach under a blanket. What should I do? Wake her? No late bottle?".

OMG. Where do I even start??? First of all... never say "never woke up" to a parent! That's some scary shit! Second, is he freaking kidding me that he let her sleep for THREE HOURS that late in the evening?!? Her usual bedtime is between 8 and 8:30, sometimes a little earlier or a little later. This is because while she probably would/could have an earlier bedtime, I've gotten her used to a slightly later one due to my late work days. This way, when she sleeps well, she sleeps until around 7 or so in the morning - not 5 or 6. This allows me to get 6 hours of sleep (approx 1-7) on the nights I work til midnight. That's the absolute minimum I can function on, and it's really not nearly enough. I try to make up for it on the nights I don't work.

I texted him back, saying, "Oy!! You let her sleep 3 hours that late???" and then I called him. I didn't know what to tell him, because there's no precedent for this. I would NEVER have let her sleep 3 hours that late in the day! If she was completely exhausted at 6:40, I would've let her sleep until 7:15, 7:30 max. Then she'd probably go to sleep for the night by 8:30-9:00. Why, oh why, did he wait until 9:30 to ask me if he should wake her up??

So now, even if she stays asleep through the night, she's probably going to be up no later than 5:30, raring to go. That's great - since I'll be going to sleep at 1! With another 12-hour-until-midnight work day ahead of me! And really, it'll probably be earlier than 5:30, because she didn't have a bedtime bottle, so she'll be hungry, because she didn't get as many calories today as she normally does. Plus, she's not in her sleepsuit. My dad was planning to put her in a sleepSACK tonight to see how it went, but now she's not in that either, so she's under a blanket. A big no-no. And she's on her stomach, another big no-no. So... what to do??? He said he might try to flip her over onto her back. She may stay asleep (although I don't care if she doesn't!), but I think it's ok to let her sleep on her stomach now that she's big enough that she rolled onto it by herself. But she has to stay under the blanket or she'll be cold. And my parents' house is generally pretty cold, especially at night.

UGH. My dad did say that since he "did this", he'll deal with her wake-up, whatever time it is, so that I can sleep. So that's good. But still. This is going to get her all "off", and I hope she'll quickly and easily get back "on", because 6:40 is entirely too early for her to be going to sleep! She could wake up at any time, even before I get home from work, because again, there's no precedent for this. And then, of course, she'll be up for at least a couple of hours, I figure, because she'll have had a REALLY long nap. And those couple of hours? Oh, maybe 10-12? 11-1? 12-2? Who knows!! At least my dad will have to deal with it, and not me! If she sleeps through the night, he'll probably have to feed her sometime in the early morning while I'm supposedly still asleep, and I need to nurse her in the morning before I leave for work. So, hopefully that will somehow work itself out. This messes up our usual routine of me bringing her into my bed in the morning and nursing her right when she wakes up. And that's one of my favorite parts of the day (as long as I've had a decent night's sleep!).

I told my dad in no uncertain terms that if there was a next time, to let her sleep no more than 45 minutes that late in the day. He said he thought you were never supposed to wake a sleeping baby, and that he kept thinking she was going to wake up, but then she never did, so he finally decided he should let me know what was going on now, before I got home later and saw and heard about this, and freaked out.

I'm hoping there will a positive in this... That she'll realize she can sleep just fine without her sleepsuit, and never need it again, and I'll be off the hook from trying to figure out how to wean her off of it! That has totally moved to the back burner lately, as I've been more worried about both of us just GETTING sleep, rather than what she's sleeping in!

Stay tuned...