Sleep

Newborns sleep a lot! They basically eat, poop, pee, and sleep.

But something amazing seems to happen every night, Leah has some internal alarm that goes off at 10:20 PM. I think it's the get up and play fussy baby alarm. Then another alarm goes off at 5:30 AM, be perfect and cute.

I don't know for sure but it seems quite a bit too coincidental that 10:20-5:30 are the exact sleeping hours I've followed for the past couple of years. For 9 months these were the hours when her environment was not rocking her to sleep. Therefore, these were the hours when she was awake to move around and it appears her internal clock has not changed.

Therefore, I am booking a flight back to New Zealand to visit some friends.

Oh wait... that won't work... It's not a good idea to have an infant on the airplane that long (germs, etc). I guess we'll just have to endure this adventure like the other parents out there.

For now we'll just go with the tried and true tricks:

Sleep when the Baby Sleeps: (oops, not doing that right now)
That's what Michael was doing in the picture above. He got in a 4 hr nap yesterday afternoon, the longest stretch he and Leah have slept in the past week.

Do Not Wake the Sleeping Baby:
I learned another valuable lesson last night, do not wake the sleeping baby just because you heard her poop. Last night I heard a big gurgle from her and knew there was a mess awaiting. I debated letting it go until she woke up naturally but felt bad about leaving her in a mess. I woke her up at 11:30 instead of letting her wake up on her own. By 3:30 I was wishing I'd given myself a few extra minutes of rest, next time I might wait to get her up.