Yet again, I’ve found myself up with Rowan at 6:00am. Its been happening a lot recently, and I’ve felt pretty zombie-like. However, this morning, I felt decently rested. Rowan and I had some great dozy cuddles. The kind where he’s fast asleep, but putting him down would wake him. So he slept in my arms and I watched a chunk of a movie. It was perfect. When I got up for the day, I did aaaaall the dishes that have been staring me in the face over the last few days while the older ones ate breakfast. Its been a good day so far.
I’ve been thinking about Rowans nights and how I can get him to sleep longer. Usually, he goes down around 8:00 or 8:30, wakes up at 1:30 or 2:00, and again between 5:00 and 6:00. It isn’t a bad sleep schedule, especially if I don’t require more sleep after 6:00. If I’m good to get up at that point, then he’s technically only woken up once in the night! Woot! I think I have to cut the kid a break. He’s 9.5 weeks old. I dont think he needs to be sleeping through the night just yet. I haven’t been able to shake the fact that the other kids slept better, though! Or at least longer into the night before waking up. But yesterday, I figured it out!!! The other kids took a lot more work to get to sleep at this point. Not lots or anything, but normal baby stuff. They needed to be rocked a lot, we’d do laps around our room with them, lots of shushing in their ears, etc. Rowan has been rocked to sleep less than a handful of times since he was born. And its not because we’re cruel. He hasn’t needed it. He put himself to sleep in the hospital! He’s just chill that way. Dekker and Laela would be awake waaay later into the evening (as in 11pm) before they’d go to sleep, so of course they’d sleep later into the night. Rowan goes down right after the other kids do at 7:30! If he goes down at 8:00 and sleeps until 2:00, thats six hours! If we kept him up until 11:00 and he gave us six hours, we’d consider him to be sleeping through the night! Crazy perspective for me, anyway.
Thinking this all through has made me actually really appreciate how well Rowan sleeps. I know I’m very lucky to have such great sleepers in my house. If waking up at 6:00am is my current reality, so be it. I genuinely enjoyed the early morning with Ro today. And likely will again soon.