Thursday afternoon I was sitting on the picnic table, reading a book and pushing Molly in the swing when I noticed her head flopped to the side. She fell asleep. Silly girl. I stopped the swing and woke her up -- apparently too fast, she threw up all over herself -- motion sickness perhaps? So I gave her a very early bath and she immediately went down for, what appeared to be, a very late nap. I laid her down in our bed around 4:30 p.m. As the hours went by, we realized this was no nap. Around 7:30, her usual bedtime, I moved her to the crib and she stayed asleep. She didn't wake up until around 4:30 a.m.!!! (the usual time, sadly). That's 12 hours of solid sleep for a girl who almost never sleeps more than 9 or 10 a night.
So Friday afternoon we happen to be in the swing again around the same time. Molly falls asleep again. This time I let it come to a stop on its own and gently lift her out. She stays asleep on my shoulder, so I carry her to our bed and lay her down. It's about 4 p.m. She stays asleep again until bedtime, when I move her to the crib. No complaints, no waking up. I even changed her diaper this time and she never opened her eyes. She slept through until (early) morning.
Saturday morning I get home from pilates class and the house is quiet. I find Molly and Daddy napping, which I don't think has happened on a Saturday morning since Molly was a tiny baby. How did he do it? Molly wanted to swing shortly after I left. She fell asleep and allowed him to carry her up into the house and into our bed.
What kind of voodoo swing is this? Molly never cared much for mechanical swings when she was an infant. They certainly never put her to sleep!!!
And she hasn't been missing naps or anything. It's not like she's collapsing from exhaustion.
More likely, she seems to be on a less-than-24-hour daily cycle and trends toward earlier bedtime, wake time and nap time every day if you let her (I say as if I have some control over when she sleeps and doesn't sleep). She's been down to one nap for a while and it used to be an afternoon nap, then it was a late morning nap and now it starts around 8:30 or 9 a.m. most days.
Ugh!! At least she's getting a lot of sleep ... more than she ever has in her life! We were speculating that she's maybe going through some developmental phase that requires more sleep, but at this rate I'm a little worried about what she's developing -- invisibility? clairvoyance?
The interesting thing is that, perhaps because of all this sleep, Molly has cut back dramatically on her nursing in the past few days. On Friday she only nursed three times, and one was really short. Could we be headed toward weaning? Perhaps!
(odd, random photo)
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