Last night was our first time putting Laela in Dekkers room for the night. I honestly think it went as well as could be expected. There are still some things to figure out, but for the most part, it was sooo nice! We had our room to ourselves and didn’t have to tiptoe around. We could watch shows on the laptop at volumes that actually made it possible to understand the words. It was great to be able to actually wind down at our own pace.
Dekker goes down at 8:00, and has for a while, so for the last several months, we’ve been putting him to bed, and then immediately afterwards, feeding Laela her bottle and putting her down. Dekker is great with us interrupting his naps, and sleeps through a lot of Laela’s daytime crying, so we figured it would be no problem to keep the same routine for now. So last night, we put him to bed, and brought Laela in after she had finished her bottle. It didn’t bother Deks at all. Totally seamless.
It was perfect until she rolled over. And over. She has a lot more space in her crib than she did in her cradle, and she figured it out pretty quick! I know a lot of people would say “Well, let her sleep on her tummy if she wants to!” Thats the thing, though. She really doesn’t want to! Even in everyday playtime, she finds herself on her tummy, and she just hates it! She can get back to her back, but often just gets so worked up and gives up, laying on her face, bawling her eyes out. Last night was no difference. A lot of people on Facebook suggested rolling up blankets and tucking them under the sheets to sort of shrink her available space. Of course, we forgot to do that and its kind of late, so hopefully we’ll remember to try that tomorrow night.
Lucky for us, Laela slept all through the night 🙂 It was a beautiful thing. She did, however, wake us at exactly 7:01 am, as usual. That is where I’m stuck. And I need everyone’s advice! (I know, gutsy, right?)
Laela happily sleeps from 8:30pm-7:00am. Dekker happily sleeps from 8:00pm-8:00am at least. I do take Laela out when she’s up, and Dekker hangs out in their room longer, but he doesn’t go back to sleep. Same thing at nap time. Laela has a nice long morning nap, and then they nap together from about 3-4:30. Dekker on his own would easily sleep another hour. I feel like I’m doing everything I can to get them on the same schedule, but it appears that Dekker needs his sleep more than Laela.
I have never seen Dekker drag like he did today. Don’t get me wrong! He was completely adorable and cuddly and wonderful. We had a totally lazy movie day, filled with cuddles unlike any other! But like, aaaaall day. He was exhausted. I’m not really sure what to do 🙁
These are the things I know to be true:
Dekker needs/wants more sleep than Laela does.
I don’t want Laela to think we will come running the second she makes a noise.
I don’t want to leave Laela awake and talking in their room too long, because it will wake Dekker.
Laela is awake for a good long stretch of time before bed.
Dekker is usually awake for less than two hours before bed.
I am at a loss.
So. Anyone? How do I get Laela to sleep longer in the morning, or for Dekker to get a longer nap somehow? It would be so weird if he, as an almost three year old, went back to two naps! But honestly, thats sort of how its looking :/ What do I dooooo?
