3 months old

Isabel is three months old. She is growing up so fast. The last three months have been such a blur that I hardly remember anything about the college football season. I LOVE college football, but I just couldn't be passionate about it this year. I had too much other stuff going on. Namely, taking care of our newest edition and the cutest three month old you've ever seen. So, here's the 411 on 3 month old Isabel. She's on a pretty predictable schedule, wants to sleep all the time, is a GREAT nighttime sleeper, loves sleeping on her tummy, can roll over from her belly to her back, soothes by sucking on her hand and fingers, is a smiley little girl, already loves her brother and sister, and she's gonna be sweet and petite like her sister.

Note: The rest of this is really for my benefit--I would like to have an account of this so that I will remember this phase of Isabel's life. You might find it boring.

Sounds peachy, right? Well, it's not perfect around here. No one would ever accuse me of having low-key, laid back children. If you had told me I'd give birth to another hard-wired, can't tune anything out kid, I might have had second thoughts. If you had told me I would give birth to a kid who was more hard-wired than Madelyn, I'm not sure I would have gone through with it. So, it's a good thing I didn't know because we all just love little Isabel to pieces.

Here's the skinny, though. I've had to do some research on sleep for babies because I just couldn't figure her out, especially her napping. I bought the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby and it has been a God-send. Here's the gist of what I've learned: babies need sleep as much as they need food and oxygen for many reasons. When they don't get the sleep they need, they can never recover it, and major sleep deficits can result in problems, both immediate and later in life.

While I've always done my best to promote healthy sleep habits with my kids, I never took the time to understand the biology of it. I just knew that when my kids were well-rested they were happier and more well-behaved, and my job was a little easier. What I couldn't figure out was why Isabel was always waking up from her naps really cranky. After reading some of the book, I understand a little bit about sleep cycles. Basically, you go from a period of deep sleep to a period of light sleep back to a period of deep sleep.

Isabel really struggles with the adjustment of deep sleep to light sleep and usually wakes up (this usually doesn't happen at night; mostly during naps). Occasionally, she cries for several minutes and goes back to sleep. Many times, though, I have to go to her and help calm her down. The real booger of it all is that now she can roll over--she's usually a tummy sleeper. When she rolls over, she gets really ticked off. She just flails and screams, so letting her settle back down by herself is virtually impossible because she can't roll the other way yet. And when she's on her back, she can't suck on her fingers as easily because she still doesn't have great control over her arm movements, especially when she's so upset. So, I'm basically a "nap coach", and I help her get herself back to sleep. While it's frustrating at times, it's worth it because when she's ready to wake up, she wakes up happy and refreshed.

The other interesting thing is that one missed/late nap sets us up for a rocky few days. Just ONE missed/late nap! The last two Sundays we've tried to go to a worship service and Sunday school. However, Isabel gets exhausted because she is too into her surroundings to succumb to sleep. Do you remember my Thanksgiving post about how I spent my entire Thanksgiving holiday trying to get Isabel to nap? Well, the same thing happens after we've spent three hours at church. I spent all of Sunday and Monday trying to get her to nap. I was miserable and so was Isabel. I just held her down in her bed so she wouldn't flip over and I cried while she cried herself to sleep. Then we would do the whole thing over when she passed through her light sleep cycle. Then we would do the whole thing again when she would take her next nap. Yesterday was the first day that things went relatively smooth. That's 4 days of readjustment because of ONE missed nap. One thing Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child mentions is that "sleep begets sleep". That is so true for Isabel. When she naps well, she has a much more restful nighttime sleep. When she has a restful nighttime sleep, she naps well. It's a great/viscous cycle, depending on where you are in that cycle.

Now, I'm really nervous about Christmas. We are traveling to my parents'. I'm praying it goes better than Thanksgiving. I just don't want to spend my entire Christmas playing "nap tag."

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.