And Then There Were Three: Vampire Baby Sleeps

I will take this version of Vampire Baby any day of the week!

Truthfully, Ryan and I are very blessed to have a baby who's been so easy thus far. We've had two sleepless nights (Vampire Baby's two brief appearances), and beyond that, she's been relatively content, sleeping well and eating easily. In fact, E.V.'s been sleeping six to eight hours a night since she was a month old, allowing us to be functioning adults during the day; I would like to take credit for her desirable sleep schedule, but the reality is that we'd be clueless without Babywise.

For those of you who've been reading along, before we even had E.V., we knew we were going to follow the Babywise/Baby Whisperer school of parenting, which advocates a flexible three-hour schedule of eating, activity and sleep. Although not everyone loves Babywise, it's been an UH-MAZING philosophy for us, and we credit Emma Vance's wonderful demeanor to it. (Plus good genetics, right? :) ) After six weeks of "practicing" Babywise, we can pretty much discern why Emma Vance is crying or being fussy at any given time and predict when she's going to fall asleep or be hungry. In fact, if we work really hard at her "activity time" (actually playing with her and making her exercise, not just leaving her to entertain herself in a bouncy seat--which I must admit is VERY tempting at times), then she's almost like a tiny baby alarm, yawning and getting tired at exactly an hour and a half after waking, then sleeping for another hour and a half. You could set your clocks by it!

You can imagine our surprise, then, when Tuesday rolled around and E.V. could barely keep her eyes open during her first activity time. I was a bit perplexed, but Babywise is also about flexibility, so I let her pass out--and yes, that's literally what she did, passed out like a drunk frat guy--after only 30 minutes playing. I was a bit worried that it'd just screw up her whole schedule, but to my delight, she just kept on sleeping...and sleeping...and sleeping. Throw in a few voracious feedings and it suddenly occurred to me: Another growth spurt!

I should've been able to predict it. Here we are at the end of her sixth week, when she should have a growth spurt, and like my little on-track lady, she hit the ground running (or, rather, "hit the bed sleeping"). In fact, Sunday night I dressed her in the footy pajamas she wore to her one month doctor's appointment and could barely zip them up. (Chubby bunny.) Chris Farley singing "Fat guy in a little coat!" came to mind as her tiny toes stretched out the bottom of the pajamas which had plenty of room only two weeks ago. When I realized how big she must've gotten to actually grow out of them, I was tempted to take her to be weighed, but one of my goals for Month Two was to worry less about her weight since she's been fine thus far. (I am, however, super anxious for the end of the month so I can see exactly how much she's grown!)

As you may remember, our last growth spurt was characterized by Vampire Baby's nocturnal schedule. At the time, I looked to Google to diagnose her spurt and read that either babies sleep like crazy or sleep, like, never during periods of growth (NOT the most comforting thing to hear when your baby is currently falling into the latter category!), and this time around we seemed to get the lucky end of the bargain. Like a little vampire sleeping in the light of day, we had 48 heavenly hours of Vampire Baby napping continuously. Tuesday and Wednesday were perhaps the two most productive days we've had since June 27th, and since Emma Vance was so sleepy, I didn't even really tried to coax her to stay awake. I mean, we went shopping, ran long-ignored errands, ate out--and not one peep! The only hitch was that, in true vampire fashion, E.V. seemed to grimace every time sunlight came anywhere near her sleepy eyes. Indulging her vampire tendencies, we simply draped a blanket over her car seat and proceeded with our normal daytime activities.

Despite the seemingly insatiable appetite that came along with it, Vampire Baby's six week growth spurt was heaven. Her daytime hibernation was so relaxing that I was sad yesterday morning when sleepy Vampire Baby disappeared and regular ol' Emma Vance showed up, ready and eager to play and exercise during her allotted activity time. Not that we mind because, of course, we LOVE seeing those little eyes alert, but, man, those were a couple of nice days off! Here's to the next spurt--and to sleeping Vampire Baby gracing us with her presence again (preferably during a UGA home football weekend)...