The myth

I almost lied on several occasions when people ask... "is she sleeping through the night?" It seems that after "What is her name?", "Is she sleeping through the night?" is the next most popular questions from strangers, relatives and friends of a new mother. And truth be told if your baby isn't sleeping through the night, you kind of want to murder the questioner. Because, you think NO she isn't sleeping through the night!! Do I look like someone who has had 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in the past 4 months!

The myth of sleeping through the night is something that every parent dreams of from the day your precious babe is born. You really start to believe that it will never happen. People always told me, "One day she will just sleep through the night." So every night before bed I would tell Mike- Lucy is going to sleep nine hours tonight! And she didn't. It took us a while to trouble shoot her sleeping better at night. A combination of things really helped. The main culprit was the night time diaper. We are cloth diapering (Bum Genius brand) and Lucy kept waking up wet around 2 or 3am-and rightfully so, when Lucy woke up wet, she was so angry from being cold and wet she also wanted a little snack from Momma.
I bought the Huggies overnight brand which helped but she was still waking up wet around 4 or 5- our girl has some awesome kidneys! Then my friend suggested the hemp inserts that fit into a cloth diaper. I used 2 inserts for Lucy and that was the trick! I didn't feel comfortable having Lucy cry it out before when I wasn't sure if she was dry but now with these magical hemp inserts, I let her cry for two nights (not longer than 10 or so minutes) and she did it!!!! Pure magic.

Now onto the next hurdle!

I'm back!

Okay so I have been a little busy for the past say 4.5 months. Our little overcooked bun finally came out 18 hours before her scheduled induction (a procrastinator like her Dada). Lucy Carolina Kessler was born June 23, 2011 at 3:13pm. She has taken our breath away along with most of our sleep and spare time! Kidding... kind of. Well, being a parent is definitely an adjustment. The first few weeks every night Mike and I would say to eachother before going to bed to "get your minute" of sleep. In the morning we would report to each other just how many minutes we got. Usually it was somewhere around 15. Luckily those days are behind us and Lucy is sleeping more. She takes three naps a day and sleeps a 6 or 7 hour chunk most nights. Mike was lucky enough to stay home with us until his NEW!!!! job started the beginning of September. It was such a blessing to have him home during this transition- I really couldn't imagine doing it by myself.

As the long summer days have turned to crisp fall days, the looming day that I go back to work is on my mind. I am so thankful to be able to take 6 months off and I know that I am SO lucky. But it is definitely going to be a transition for us. I started school in September- although it is only one day a week, each Thursday I come home from school and say, " Yay! I don't have to go for another week!!!"

This November, I feel I have so many things to be thankful for. I am truly one blessed woman.