This morning, Sasha woke up a bit before 4am, as she usually does. Matt brought her back to me, where we snuggled up so she could nurse for a bit and fall back asleep with us until a more reasonable hour, as we usually do. It's a very good system, and one that has given us few problems.
Naturally, last night was different.
Sasha has become a, shall we say, very active sleeper. After she's done nursing, she flops around for a bit like some sort of landed sea creature, trying to find a comfortable position. What she has not yet learned is that no position is perfectly comfortable, and at some point, you need to pick something and just stick with it. So she lies across my neck, face up, face down; she sprawls across my stomach with her head hanging off the side of my hip; she crawls to the foot of the bed and splays herself there. Generally, this process of hers takes between five and ten minutes, and eventually, she falls back asleep (as do we).
Last night it took her a particularly long time to settle. She was all over the place. Nothing like a near-toddler to make you feel like a jungle gym at 4am. FInally, she flopped down and stayed down. It was only mere moments when the unfortunate occurred: Matt had to get up. As he left the bed, she lifted her head up, and then dropped it again. I had a tense moment, but still hoped she would sleep through this minor disturbance. Matt returned. Sasha lifted her head up again. "Hi, da!" she crowed.
Now, if Sasha is awake enough to talk, that means Sasha is very, very awake. She flung herself at daddy. She draped herself across his back. She hugged him and bit his shoulder. She rearranged his pillows. She sat up. She stood up! She told him very many exciting things that could not wait until, say, daylight. Matt and I tried very hard to repress our giggling, because it would only encourage her. "It's not time to talk, it's time to sleep!" we told her. "You should just lie back down!"
Eventually, she snuggled up with me and began the lengthy process all over again. She tried lying on the pillow above my head, with her feet kicking daddy's head. She tried down by our knees again. She tried head-butting daddy and kicking me in the ribs. (typically it's opposite that). I looked at the clock. She had been up for about an hour! So I stood up, took her back to her room, and tried to put her in her crib, where at least her restlessness would only disturb her. She began wailing.
I picked her up again, and sat in the rocking chair. We rocked. She tossed and turned and threw her limbs around in my arms, but her eyes closed, closed. After a short time, I put her back in her crib. She turned onto her stomach and was still. I lifted the gate; no sound out of her. I hurried back to bed.
And she was blissfully, quietly, peacefully asleep again, as were we all, for a shining and beautiful two hours. And then the alarm clock went off, and she was up like a jack-in-the-box.
My kitchen is: Surprisingly clean, but strewn with dirty dishes. I am unsure how this came about, since we have not had dinner at home since Tuesday.
Posted by andrea at July 25, 2003 02:25 PM