More on the sleep state

Those wonderful pictures of Madeline sleeping in the previous post are really a tease. Madeline doesn't know how to go to bed at a decent hour, and for a while there, she wasn't hardly napping. In fact, her naps are still weird for such a wee lassie. It really does wear me out! Her bedtime, from the time she was born, has been anywhere from 10:30 pm to 1 am. I'm not kidding. Recently, it's 11 pm, although I think she thinks 12 or 1 is the new 11 sometimes. Her naps in the afternoons last 30 minutes and she is awake from 12:30 until she is down at night. Wow.

I am tired.

Here's the real bummer. She was sleeping through the night, or at least giving me 5-6 hour stretches. Not anymore. I know the reason, too. November 11, the day she flipped over, we stopped swaddling her. That same night, and every night since, she has woken up every 2-3 hours. I was too paranoid that she would flip from her back to front and she wouldn't have her hands free to help move her head. I am probably being too paranoid, but it is what it is. She wants and needs the swaddle still. A friend suggested we swaddle her with her arms out and we tried that, but it didn't work. She does sleep excellently on her belly, but I only do that during the day. When she flips back to front, there won't be anything I can do to keep her on her back at night, but until she does that, I'll keep putting her "back to sleep" at night. I hesitate to even say she actually slept for about six hours last night. I put her on her side...so I'll keep trying that.

But, when Miss M wakes up in the mornings, she is incredibly happy. It's my favorite time of day, despite the fact that I'm exhausted. Smiles, smiles, smiles! And, she's starting to laugh a little.
And I'm throwing in this picture because I think it's cute. Her outfit didn't really match, but it was getting colder, so I put leggings on her. I love leggings!