Sleep Fail!

This is what we call it when we go through a bedtime or naptime routine and Laurel appears to be getting drowsy or even falls asleep, but then -PING!- she pops back up, completely restored, smiling and ready for action.

Sleep Fail.

This is what happened last night, except there were hearty cries of protest prior to the smiling. Eventually, I brought her downstairs and gave her a cold pacifier to suck on. I kept all the lights off, and she played with that pacifier in her pack-n-play, in the dark, for half an hour, and then we tried sleep again. I think she's teething some more, so maybe her mouth hurt. She also learned to roll over, and it's very hard for her to lay in her bed without practicing this new skill.

It must be exciting to be almost six months old and learning something new every day.

But the sleep fail of last night, was followed by a sleep success this morning! I rocked her a few times, laid her down, awake, in her crib and said, "Shhhh." I walked out of the room, and closed the door. And she fell asleep!! She cried for a couple of minutes, but they were those whimpering, "I'm trying to fall asleep" cries, and not her usual howling at the top of her lungs.

It's weird that I spend so much time obsessed with someone else's sleep. If you asked me a year ago what parenting would be like, I don't think I would have predicted this. My prior experience with children involved kids old enough to be reasoned with. I was always successful in getting my students or babysitting charges to do what I wanted them to do by giving directions in a calm voice, never giving in to tantrums, and doling out hugs as necessary. Trying to figure out what Laurel needs or wants, let alone trying to change her behavior, is complicated by the fact that she doesn't talk.

Yeah, I hadn't really considered that I would be dealing with a person with limited verbal capacity for, like, two years.

It's not that she doesn't communicate, but we seem to hit an impasse every now and again. Mostly at night. Mostly on the topic of sleeping.