Party All Night!

Little Livi Lu has been been quite a night owl lately.  Most often, around 7, our very sleepy girl grabs her pink ba-ba, finds a book, and begs me to pick her up while she sucks her thumb, telling me she is ready for bed.  We read our stories, I turn off her lamp, give her a bottle, and lay her down in her crib.  After about 10 minutes of absolute silence in her room, we hear the first rumblings of a very awake Livi.  She usually starts by talking to herself and thumping her legs against the wall.  Within a few minutes it has escalated to a very sad and NOT sleepy baby girl.  (We have tried letting her cry it out with no luck at all.)

We usually end up bringing her into the family room with us, and she is just wild.  She plays piano and squeals and laughs and climbs, knowing full well that she is running the show and keeping her parents from having any semblance of kid-free, relaxing, off-duty time.  If you try to take her back to bed before she has gotten her wildness out of her system, she WON'T sleep.  Usually about 9 or 10pm, she'll finally say that she's ready for nigh-night, and will willingly and easily go to bed.  My theory is that she cat naps for those perfect, quiet 10 minutes when we first lay her down and that it energizes her for her evening party time.  

Last week, Eric and I tried for over 3 and a half hours to get her to sleep.  After numerous bottles, rocking, music, and letting her cry, we still had a girl that could not be put to bed.  So, at about 11pm, I decided to just bring her in bed with me.  She snuggled right into my chest and was asleep in a matter of moments.  I remember her waking up once in the middle of the night, calling out "Mama, Mama!" and then she realized I was right there, and she snuggled into my neck and sweetly went back to sleep.

Because of her late night escapades, she has been tired during the day time.  I usually live by the practice of not waking a sleeping baby, so I let her sleep in a few mornings last week.  The girl slept in until 12:30!  (I did her a few murmurs from her room throughout the morning, so I knew she was safe.)  I couldn't believe that she could sleep through two meals!  Imagine when she's a teenager!  

We've been working hard to get her sleep schedule back under control and transitioning her down to one daytime nap instead of two.  Hopefully that in combination with an earlier wake up time will help her be more apt to falling (and staying) asleep at night!