Can we take a minute to talk about the sleep I’m not getting?

Because it’s starting to be an issue.

Perhaps I should backup a little.  Hazeline has always been a pretty good sleeper.  Her second night home from the hospital she slept for 7 hours.  I woke up before she did, flew out of bed, and just about hit a sprint before getting to the bassinet on the other side of the room.  Needless to say, she was fine.  Despite a few rough patches here or there – after a trip or around a growth spurt – Hazeline was a remarkably good sleeper as a newborn.

About ten days ago, Erajh and I were woken up by crying coming through one of the monitors around 5am.  First, we had to determine which monitor it was, and were surprised that it was Hazeline.  I went into her room, rubbed her back until she quieted down, and then I left.  She was fine for a few seconds, but then lost it before I even made it back to our bedroom.  I know there are a ton of moms out there who regularly get up for the day with their kids at 5 or 6 am because that is when their kids naturally get up, but you see, mine don’t naturally get up at that time.  I really encourage sleeping at our house and never, ever want to get up for the day at 5 or 6 am.  So far this attitude has worked, but in those moments at 5 am on this particular day, not so much.  I tried once more to go in and comfort her, then leave the room, but it only yielded the same result as the first time.  What to do, what to do.

Erajh decided that we should go get her and try to get her to sleep in our bed.  Yes, I know this is highly frowned upon, but we were desperate.  Five in the morning is not a great time to be sleep training an infant, and I wasn’t sure it was the right time for that anyway.  We made her a little area on the bed between us, but she cried just the same as she did in her crib.  Finally, Erajh had the brilliant idea to give her a bottle.  Poor baby was starving.  Hazeline guzzled down a full bottle and went right back to sleep.  Problem solved.  We kept her in our bed for the next few hours, I slept in the shape of a pretzel to make room for her, but the problem was solved.

Until the next night she woke up 30 minutes earlier than she did the night before, and then 20 minutes earlier the night after that, and so on.  Each time, she guzzles down a bottle and eventually goes back to sleep.  It has actually become such a common occurrence that I naturally wake up at 5:50 am now, as if I have overslept.  Erajh and I started dividing the days so one of us could get some sleep, but once I hear her, it’s hard to go back to sleep.  I am so awake that I find myself getting up for the day even though everyone else is sleeping.  I have used these hours to make red velvet cake balls, finish up Hazeline’s costume (hopefully, I’ll have that posted soon), fold laundry, and catch up on the blogs I read.  Not all bad, but I’m exhausted by 2pm.  I miss sleeping like a normal person.  Perhaps I was just spoiled for too long?

And then I start to think, “Why the sudden change in sleeping pattern?  What went wrong here?”  I’ve tried adding more formula in her bottles, adding another jar of baby food to the schedule, and trying to get her to nap better, to no avail.  This has also gone on a little longer than the typical growth spurt.  She has no teeth in sight, her ears are totally clear, and she is not sick.  She is definitely tired though.  Here she is at 8:30 this morning:

Yes, I know she is just a baby and this is all completely normal (and could be much worse), but we had such a good thing going.  So if it isn’t asking too much, I would love if she would go back to being perfect.  Any day now.

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