sleep | iPattie

Category Archives: sleep

March 3, 2011 · 10:45 AM

The Beauty of Sleep

Song Lyric of the Day:

And now It’s always good / I fell asleep from day / And all the promises

Chemical Brothers featuring Hope Sandoval / “Asleep From Day“

When Coraline was first born, she didn’t sleep well. It seemed like she actively tried to sleep as little as possible overnight. Of course, newborns can’t tell night from day, but still. No sooner had I finished nursing her than she’d wake up again in 20 minutes wanting to be fed again. And 20 minutes after that. And so on. Needless to say, this did not sit well with my former insomniac self. Bad late-night TV only got me so far.

Snug as a bug in the hospital.

A few months in (three, I think), she finally started sleeping for four-hour stretches. Me being me, this first time this happened I woke up in a panic thinking something was wrong. By then I was so used to being woken up by her that when she didn’t wake me up, I still woke up. So I still wasn’t sleeping well, keeping my bat-like hearing on high alert for even the smallest peep from her. Seriously — I used to wake up in our ranch house in Virginia from the cats walking on the carpet. In the living room. Bat. Like. Hearing.

Swaddle Pod!

And on she slept. She could finally tell night from day and soon started sleeping up to six hours at a time. But she did her best to average four.

No Swaddle Pod can hold my arm in!

Coraline really started sleeping well once she graduated from her bassinet to her crib at the start of this year. I think the combination of more space and a firm mattress made the difference. Or else Rich and I were snoring while she was in the bassinet in our room and she relished the peace and quiet her very own room afforded her. (I admit: I tend to shout/chirp/mumble in my sleep. The spouse loves that habit of mine. LOVES it. I’ll bet Coraline loved it, too.)

All this room, this firm mattress — so luxurious!

No more swaddling, no more bassinet. Just a sleep sack and a big crib. Soon, even longer stretches of sleep followed. And finally, a couple of days before she turned five months old, the magical proverbial switch flipped: She now sleeps through the night, going to bed for the night between 8 and 8:30.

Sucking her thumb while she sleeps on her tummy.

And yet her mommy still sleeps with both her ears open.

6 Comments

Filed under baby, coraline, mommyblogging, personal, sleep

Tagged as asleep from day, chemical brothers, hope sandoval

June 14, 2010 · 9:45 AM

MmmBoppy

Song Lyric of the Day:

So hold on to the ones who really care / In the end they’ll be the only ones there / When you get old and start losing your hair / Can you tell me who will still care?

Hanson / “Mmmbop“

I’ve had hip problems for a while now. Specifically, I was diagnosed with bursitis in my right hip. Incorrectly, it turns out, although I still don’t have an official diagnosis other than a bum/moody hip. So for almost nine years now, I’ve had trouble sleeping on my right hip. Once I got pregnant, I quickly realized I’d have to start sleeping with a pillow under my hips or figure something out to balance out the weight on my right hip. (FYI: Having to sleep only on your side while pregnant is really hard when you’ve been a lifelong stomach-sleeper.)

A friend suggested I try a full-body pillow, so I hit up Babies ‘R’ Us to see if they had anything specifically for pregnant women with bum hips. They didn’t have anything that specifically niche (shocking, no?), but on the recommendations of a couple of different associates, I ended up choosing the Boppy Total Body Pillow. They had a few different full-body pillows, but this one seemed like it’d work best for me. Thankfully, it’s helped keep a lot of direct weight off my right hip so that when I do sleep on my right side for the better part of the night I don’t end up limping around the next day. (You’ll have to forgive me — having suffered from insomnia off and on for almost as long as I’ve had the hip problems, I have to sing the praises of good sleep when I can.)

Having used only a foam pillow for so long, I got used to my new full-body pillow pretty quickly. I can now turn over onto my other side, still asleep, hanging on to my pillow the way a monkey clings to a tree. Behold:

See? Like a monkey on a tree. That’s how well I’m sleeping now. Well, OK, most days (see: insomnia comment above).