Calla is not a fan of sleeping, I'm told she is what is known as a "Spirited Baby". Whatever the hell that is. She's extremely energetic, but gets overstimulated and freaks out when I've put too many toys around her. Like her indecisive mother she is overwhelmed by choice and then gets frustrated. She can't stay in the same position for long either, sitting on my lap is fine for ten minutes, but then she must stand or be put down or given something new to look at.
She is a beautiful, happy and highly adaptable baby...until recently. She's still an angel, but I have been looking forward to getting more than two hours of sleep at a time since she was born. Apparently in the next few weeks this is supposed to happen. Well...I got some books out from the library, spoke to a few parents...and I decided to impose a longer routine on my child. My hippie approach to parenting has allowed a natural two hourly cycle to emerge and I'd never heard her cry much through the day or night. However, I could get nothing done during the day and often felt trapped in one location by the short intervals of her cycle. So I started with the recommended 3 month old routines...
IN SUMMARY
Three hourly eating, activity and sleep cycles are not agreeable to my hungry little child. I know that I am quite able to produce more than adequate supplies of milk for my child off a single breast and she often gorges herself on both...so why can't she sleep for more than 2 hours at night? Why only 10 minutes at a time during the day???
I've reached the conclusion that there are two babies inside of Calla and I am feeding them both. No no no, that's ridiculous....she must be some kind of super baby and requires more sustenance to feed her super powers. That is the only solution.
Well the books have pointed out that I can try getting her back to sleep if she wakes up, it doesn't necessarily mean that she is hungry. Okay, that's one point for the books. Seems to be working. The books insist that I try to settle her in her crib, or at least calm her and then let her fall asleep in her crib...one point for accidental parenting. Several days and multiples hours at one awake time have let me to the crucial conclusion - DO WHATEVER IT TAKES!!! She just gets overtired and then the problem just snowballs. The kid likes to be bounced to sleep, she's going to get the bounce, I don't give a flying f%#^ what the books say. They certainly don't mention that baby that starts squirming and scratching at her eyes until they bleed while mum tryies to comfort using their "tried and true methods", which do not take between 25-45 minutes to work. It should not take 2 hours to put a child down for a 10 minute nap, which I thought would at least double to 20 minutes since she'd skipped a whole cycle.
Well, all in all I have come to the conclusion that whatever I do, it is going to be a slow progression. I've not hammering anything too strict on her yet. Why was I trying to ruin my sweet, happy little angel baby just because I want three or four straight hours of sleep at night or an hour during the day to clean up, read, write a blog etc. etc. What was I expecting?
