Sleep

Brennan has been such a funny sleeper. Andy and I joked that she slept away her first three months, sleeping nearly 9 hours the first night we brought her home and another 7 to 8 hours during the day. Neither of our other two EVER slept through the night until after 6 months, so we weren't sure what to do with her. Do we wake her to eat? Let her sleep? Normally, we would let her sleep, but given that she wasn't gaining as much weight as we would have liked in those first weeks, we did wake her up after 8 hours for a few weeks. She slept like that (up to 11 hours a night) for the first four months. We LOVED it, to say the least.

But all good things must come to an end. Around 4 1/2 months, she started waking up to nurse a few times a night. She was still sleeping in our room at that point since she was such an easy sleeper. We didn't feel like we needed to move her since everyone was getting more than enough sleep! The waking up continued though. She got a little cold, so we thought it was because she was sick. Then it got a little cold, and we thought it was because her hands and toes were icy. She started to feel better and we got her warm jammies. Still she was waking up.

So last week we decided we probably needed to put her on a bit of a routine. Up until this point, I'd been very relaxed with what we did and when she ate/rested. We moved her upstairs to her crib (she LOVED it!), and started to figure out her schedule. Everything online says she should be asleep for the night by 7:30 or 8:30. She's not in to that. She likes her quiet time with just Mommy and Daddy after the other girls go to sleep and she's always been most active in the evenings. She's not ready for her night time routine until 9:00. I would love for it to be earlier, but we're going with what she likes for now. After just six days, we are back to sleeping through the night, with a solid routine that we like, but aren't strictly adhering to. Here it is:

7:00ish - wake up, eat, playtime

9:00 - mini nap

10:00 - nurse

10:30 - playtime

12:30 - lunch food then nurse

1:00 - big nap

2:30 pick up sisters

3:30 snack of fruit and nurse (sometimes a mini-nap now or at 6:30)

5:30 dinner

6:30 nurse, bath and playtime

9:00 bedtime routine