Synchronized sleeping

When I got pregnant with Fiona, Jim accurately predicted what our life would be like when she got here:

"Baby's up. Danny's up. Baby's up. Danny's up."

Apparently, the children take turns sleeping. And they even have two-stage sensors that go off first when our heads hit the pillow and next when one of us (usually me) dares to drift off to sleep.

In Fiona's first few weeks, I was able to synchronize naps. Now that she has woken up a bit and Danny seems less interested in naps, it's getting a bit trickier. Fiona is usually asleep after lunch and while I rush to get Danny settled in his room. It takes him almost an hour these days to get settled. I try to sleep as he's winding down, but can't. At this point, Fiona's still wriggling around, nursing on and off and fussing. As soon as Danny finally settles down and Fiona slips into a sound, drama-free sleep, I'm too wound up and frustrated to sleep. Fiona then sleeps until dinner time and Danny sleeps until about 3:30 ... and me? No rest. Time for another Diet Coke and to get started on dinner.

Nighttime is a different story. Danny goes down to bed beautifully these days, but does chat with himself and his stuffed menagerie for a while. Fiona just nurses on and off for hours while I watch TV, surf the Internet, write or try to clean up the kitchen and toy room. I try to put her in the crib before I go to bed. Last night, I told Jim after putting her down, "This should last of all 10 minutes." More like 10 seconds. I go back to her room, put her in the bed with me and sleep for about 45 minutes until Danny wakes up crying. I go in there and he's asking for Daddy. No problem kiddo ... I'm going back to bed, thank you very much.

Luckily, last night Fiona was back in "I'm too tired to nurse" mode. After two nights of the 3 to 4 a.m. feeding, burping, changing and booger suctioning routine (by the way, this girl has the biggest boogers I've ever seen), I needed a break. She slept from 12:45 to around 4:30. Jim took her downstairs, brought her back around 6 a.m. and she slept until about 8 a.m.

This post made possible courtesy of a ring sling, PBS Kids and my top desk drawer which Danny is sifting through right now.