Sleep (or lack thereof)

The past couple of weeks has been quite a transition period in the Herman house. All 4 of us are getting used to new sleeping patterns! Though Macie and I spend the wee hours of the night alone together in her room, Dale and Ivie, too, are adjusting to middle-of-the-night awakenings. Macie is in a bassinet in our room for now (though I will probably move her to her crib in a week or so), so each time she wakes up hungry, Dale wakes up, too. I say that, but I'm actually pretty sure that he sleeps through it every once in a while. He's got quite a knack for sleeping through noise, including a few times when Ivie has cried out (and he's "in charge" of Ivie during the night now, since I'm feeding Macie). And though we try to be quiet as we walk to the nursery, sometimes Macie feels the need to let out a scream just as we pass Ivie's door - resulting in a stirred toddler (not a good thing, particularly for a sleeping daddy!).

Macie has decided that she will sleep GREAT from 9:00 pm'ish until the ~4:00 am feeding. She even slept from 8:15 pm until 12:45 am last night. 4.5 hours! She even gives in and goes back to sleep after the midnight feeding. But at 4:00'ish, something inside of her flips a switch. I don't know if it's because she's having problems burping and can't relax, or if she's just had enough sleep. But when I lay her in the bassinet, she will "act" like she's sleeping long enough for me to crawl into bed and pat myself on the back. Then the grunting begins. Not crying, not screaming. Grunting. And just loudly enough to keep us awake. But it doesn't really sound like an "I'm in pain, please pick me up and soothe me" grunt. Rather, it's an "I'm teasing you - I might drift off to sleep at any point" grunt.

So I leave her alone with her grunting, thinking that any second she will fall asleep (and then I can, too!).

Last night, well, that didn't happen. From 4:30 am until 6:30 am, Dale and I laid in bed listening to off-and-on grunting. At 6:30, I finally got out of bed and took her to her room to eat. Eating always seems to work.

So the moral of the story is that we all continue to learn more about each other every day (and night). Word has it that Mommy prefers to learn about Macie during normal waking hours... Someone feel free to slip that hint to Mac...!