Countless Memories and Daily Blessings: To Sleep or Not to Sleep

When you have young children it's amazing the things you spend the most time discussing and wondering about. Pottying and sleeping have always been two big topics for us. From the time someone first mentioned to me that I should start trying to potty train Melanie at the age of 22 months until she made it through her first week of preschool accident free which was at 36 months we talked so much about peeing and pooping that I thought I was going to scream if I had to think about it one more minute. The issue of sleep takes a close second in the amount of discussion time it has been given.

Melanie has always been a good sleeper except the first six weeks of her life was pure hell in the sleep department. I seriously think someone needs to invent some machine that runs from mom to baby in bassinet so that newborns can self feed because being up every two hours is insane. Six weeks to three months was better. We slowly increased the amount of food which meant she slept longer at one time. At three months we turned the corner and I no longer felt like a zombie. If feeding was timed just right Charles could do the final feeding of the night and she would sleep for 5-6 hours which meant that I could get a WHOLE night of sleep and she took two naps a day. HEAVEN!!!! Since being a year she has slept 11 hour nights AND takes a 1 1/2-2 hour nap EVERY day. I thought that was an awful lot of sleeping but then again she does not stop moving when she is awake so it's a pretty fair trade.

Lately she has been getting up earlier and earlier and earlier. This doesn't bother me so much during the week because I am up but it is killing me on the weekends. I thought it was because of summer and the stupid time change and the light pouring through the window and I was considering buying the thickest curtains I could find or even bricking up her windows if necessary, anything to sleep past 6:00 on a Saturday morning. Until...........one day when she didn't get a nap and then slept the next day until 7:30 and it hit me that maybe she has reached the stage where she no longer really needs a nap. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I count on that time on the weekends. I NEED a nap and it is the only time I can get one.

So, the discussions and contemplating have begun. She can easily still fall asleep for a nap but it does mean if she gets a good one in she will not sleep past 6:00 the next morning. I have considered maybe only naps every other day which is what I believe she converts to at preschool this August. I have also considered a "quiet time" at the same time as nap time where I put her in bed but give her a basket of books or her V-Reader and set the timer for an hour. If she is asleep after that I will let her sleep a little while longer, if not, she can get off her bed and let the madness continue.

Thoughts? Experiences? Feedback? Certainly not the biggest dilemma I will face but gathering input is always good. Now off for a nap....... :)

A post would not be complete without pictures so here are some of my favorite sleeping pics....