Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Santa's Late Arrival

Yes, I am Jewish. And yes, I am 34 years old. But I am beginning to believe in Santa. Why? Because last night, my little Rachel finally slept through the night!

I was spoiled with Anna. She basically slept through the night from the start. A few fussy nights here and there, but she'd easily do six hour stretches at night, and soon was up eight to ten hours. I knew there would be payback this time around, but I forgot how utterly exhausting it is to have a child who likes to eat every three hours. Especially going back to work and having to deal with grownup life on no sleep.

The worst part about getting up with Rachel isn't even the feeding. It's trying to get her back down to sleep afterward. Either she wants to stay awake or she wants to be held. Getting her back to her crib is nearly impossible. Sometimes she will tolerate the swing, but that isn't the magic weapon it was with Anna. The low point was two nights ago, when after three hours of crying, she finally fell asleep in her carseat on our bedroom floor with her pacifier. So, I asked the expert (my mom) and she suggested putting rice cereal in Rachel's bottle before bed. I did just that at 10:00 last night. By 11:00 Rachel had finished her bottle, finally burped and cuddled with Daddy for a bit. She was in her crib by midnight. At 6:00 this morning I woke up and found her still asleep in her crib and happy. I even had time to blow dry my hair before she woke up at 6:30.

After two months of fussy sleepless nights, I consider this a belated Christmas miracle!

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