Since the day we met Noemi she has struggled to fall (and stay) asleep. I often wonder why she has cried so much surrounding sleep--and I'll likely never know. Who has felt whacko at times for keeping such a consistent sleep routine and schedule? This mamma. But she is now sleeping long stretches throughout the night without crying and she (usually) puts herself back to sleep when she does wake up. Night time has been great and we are not having the fight-or-flight pre-sleep episodes that we had when we first came home (thank God). Nap time, however, has always been the dreaded activity of the day. It's just been plain ol' exhausting to feel out-of-control when she screams herself to sleep--and no wonder she hates it too. It sometimes feels pointless to even try. Some days she sleeps for a solid hour and wakes up happy as a clam, others I spend over an hour helping her fall asleep only for her to wake up miserable 20 minutes later. Donovan and I were just talking last week about what to do--what could we change to help her regulate her body better? But since that conversation Noemi is starting to fall asleep much faster and with significantly less, if any, crying. Holy cow. At least in our house, a rested baby makes for an incredibly happy baby. So, I'm keeping my fingers, toes and eyes crossed in hope that she is hitting a new groove.Donovan and I sneak into Noemi's room every night before we go to bed and check out her sweet snoozing lips with our headlamp. It's very MacGyver of us. You'll see why she resists snuggling up with us while sleeping. She has always preferred being alone in her crib and now we understand why. This girl likes to spread out and use every corner of her crib. And so, some of her favorite poses for you to enjoy:
4 comments:
i'm so happy to read your post today. we have been home with Evyn for 2 weeks now and i seriously DREAD nap time and night time because it is such a tough time for all involved. With my bio son we just let him cry it out and he quickly learned to soothe himself and fall right to sleep. I'm not sure how to navigate these waters and help her to learn to calmly fall asleep. any advice? Evyn does the same thing as naomi...it sometimes takes an hour to get her to go down then she wakes up 20 minutes later. She almost always wakes up exactly 30 minutes after we put her down day or night. I'm praying that time will be best remedy.
thanks for the post. Your little girl is precious!
hilarious!!! i saw the rocket jammies!!! mekonen loves his! :) i love the last one where her stuffed animals are on top of her chest. hilarious. and the one with her sprawled out in the panda jammies is priceless. looks like after the wedding mekonen may only get a small corner of the bed.
Julie,
This reminds me of my daughter Robin when she first came home from China. She preferred sleeping alone and she would toss herself around wildly before falling asleep. In China she fell asleep easily in the hotel rooms. At home she realized she had parents that would respond:) Naps also were harder for us then nighttime.
Good girl, Noemi! Momma needs a nap, too!
I love the pic where she's all sprawled out. She looks like a little star:) Nora used to sleep on her knees and shoulders (turned slightly to the side) with her tush shooting up in the air and clinging onto her bear, Dee.
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