I got some great ideas...thank you. Unfortunately, most of them we've tried. The one thing I didn't mention that we tried was different diapers. I had a theory that her very wet diaper felt cold and woke her up early. Megan is a BIG drinker at supper. I mean she can down 6oz of diluted juice (in addition to her big appetite--she can eat 2 eggs, plus peas. She ALWAYS has room for peas!). Then she'd have her bottle--which she'd drink at least 6oz of it, sometimes all 8oz. Needless to say, the diaper was ALWAYS completely soaked by morning. I've heard that Huggies made some great overnight diapers. Well, I could only find pull-ups that were overnights. So, we tried them. They seem to be working. It seems they have a liner of some sort that keeps her from feeling how wet she is. But, maybe it's just happen chance and completely unrelated to the diaper. I don't know. It could also be because she's teething. One molar popped through during this time. She's got another one where the gums are simply bulging, but as of yesterday it still hadn't come through all the way. I also noticed there are a couple of other places where her gums are really tender, so I'm sure she's working on a few more.
At any rate, over the past week, she's slept until sometime between 4:30-5:55am. Although that can be deceiving. She's started having a "tough hour" typically between 11:30-12:30 where she is so fussy, it typically requires me to go in and rub her tummy or back. Often time, several times during that hour. She'll slip off into sleep, but then semi-wake up and then be frustrated that she is awake then throw her paci somewhere and can't find it. Some of the time she is awake and looking at me, other times her eyes are closed. She's really restless during this time as well. The morning she slept until almost 6am, she actually woke up at 3:30 and then fell back to sleep in the rocker with me after I gave her some tylenol. Since we don't have a clock in there, I simply rocked...and dozed off a few times. I couldn't believe it was that late!!! Needless to say, the rest of the naps were a bit late too, so thank goodness we have some flexibility in our schedule!!!
I'm not sure what we are doing to make it better. Or maybe it's nothing that we are doing and simply she's sleeping. Who knows! I can say that we have started putting her pjs on right after supper, then we play quietly (well, not rowdy games, which I have to remind DH!) for about 30 minutes. Then we read books a little after 6pm, have milk, then head to her bedroom at about 6:15. It's sure helped her to go to sleep easier (well, except last night when Dad put her to sleep for the first time since surgery). And she seems to be doing better. I don't know. Again, maybe unrelated. The other thing I'm doing differently is I pray while we're rocking that she'll have sweet dreams, fun dreams, happy dreams and that she'll rest well (and long!). So that's another change.
Afternoon nap--well, I decided I just couldn't always squeeze in the 30 minute video, so I've started reading books. I tell her when the last book is and what we will do after it and it seems to help her wind down and go to sleep fairly easily. We've had several 90 minute naps over the past few weeks. That's good. She's getting about 12 hours of sleep a day, and we're edging toward 12 and half hours. I'm hoping for 13 hrs very soon.
Now..the next area I need help...breakfast! She's apparently not a big breakfast eater (although she makes up for it at lunch and supper!). I've tried eggs, waffles, poptarts, various kinds of cereal. She pretty much was "no go" on all of it the except Kix. Oh, and sometimes Cheerios. Sometimes she'll eat some of my cinnamon raisin bagel with a little peanut butter. Otherwise, she takes one look at what I offer...drinks her juice...maybe takes a bite and signs "all done". That's her version of turning up her nose. Silly girl. So, I regroup and offer something else. Suggestions???
