Sleep

We’re still not getting much these days.  Mary continues to wake up every  1-2 hours all night long (and she doesn’t nap for more than 1-2 hours total during the day).  I really thought things would improve a bit as we started getting closer to her first birthday, but they haven’t.  In fact, several nights a week she wakes up around 12-1am and won’t go back to sleep for a few hours even when I nurse her.  She just wants to play around on the bed and acts like she is not sleepy at all.  I don’t understand how this girl is surviving on so little sleep, but she is not fussy during the day, so maybe she just doesn’t need much.  I don’t know what to do.  Once we move the rooms are going to be close together, so there is a much better chance little Alex will hear her during the night (right now our bedrooms are on opposite sides on the apartment) so I would really like to have her sleeping better by then.  But then, even if I did manage to get her sleeping better, the whole moving thing would probably mess up all our progress and we would have to start back at square one.  On the other hand, because of the frequent night nursing, I am still experiencing lactational amenorrhea, and have been enjoying the long hiatus from monthly periods and killer cramps.  Because I got pregnant with Mary the first time I ovulated post-partum, I have not had a period in almost 3.5 years!!  I think my body must be really sensitive to the hormones that suppress ovulation, because I had to almost completely stop nursing little Alex before my fertility returned.  So if we keep doing what we are doing I might have several more months of infertile time, which might be nice during this major transition where we could be without work for a short time.  I have almost zero experience with NFP, as I haven’t really had an opportunity to practice since we have been married, and am a bit nervous to start charting.  So I keep going back and forth, trying to decide the best way to move forward with her.  She NEEDS to learn how to fall asleep on her own, and it can’t be good for her to wake up so frequently.  As much as I oppose the “cry it out” method, I don’t know what else to do.  I guess there are modified versions we could try, that don’t involve just leaving the child alone and ignoring her.  I suppose we could explore some of those.  Even if I just nursed her less frequently or something, she needs to at least start sleeping in the crib.  Poor thing fell off the bed one morning after Alex got up and I didn’t hear her stirring.  Not good.  Luckily she is ok, but we can’t have that happen again.  So, we’ll see what happens.  Trusting that God will show us the best way to take care of our little insomniac!

Now for some of my fav January pics:

Isn't he an amazing architect?

Our Denver trip:

I was excited to meet my new nephew, Issac.  He is a cutie!

Visiting great-grandpa!