Sleeping - another update

We have become increasingly frustrated with Judith's napping only 45 minutes at a time. It means that she doesn't get a full sleep cycle, and wakes up tired, and then doesn't sleep as well the next time, but I've been holding off doing anything about it, because I don't want to put a lot of work in and have it just get messed up by the trip to Michigan next week. But Lance pulled up a couple websites that commented on that sort of thing, and we're deciding to try to do something about it anyway. It could be that she'll fall pretty easily back into sleeping 1 1/2 hours, and if that's the case, we want to get her into that routine as soon as possible. (Yes, I know, it might not be easy, but she's transitioned pretty well to other things, so we'll see.)

Basically, we're thinking that she's just having trouble putting herself back to sleep during her transition from one sleep stage to another. So the plan is for me to "help" her back to sleep when she wakes up after only 45 minutes. And to help that along, we're going to try "scheduled" naps instead of putting her down once we notice that she's tired (on the theory that babies are often tired before they show any symptoms). So for now, because she's still on a three-hour feeding schedule, she'll have one hour of waketime and then go down for a nap. (A direct quote from one of the websites "Most babies will protest loudly [being put back to sleep]" :-) Today is the first day of trying this, so we'll see how it goes!

Baby's First Christmas(es)

Honestly, I have to say that I really didn't expect Judith to have much "fun" this Christmas (she's growing by leaps and bounds, but she's really not aware enough to know what Christmas is, or even what presents are), and that's about what happened.

On Christmas Eve we went to River Rock's candlelight service - and I dressed her up in this dress that we got from a friend at Judith's baby shower. She looks very cute, but the dress is so big that I took it off as soon as we got home, and she probably won't wear it again :-).

On Christmas Day we drove to Oakland (as usual) and Judith got to meet some of the cousins and extended family that she hasn't seen yet. She didn't have a good day, but she didn't have a terrible day, either. The two hour drive to Oakland was fine, except that she was pretty hungry by the time we got there. And for the first few hours she was pleasant, as long as Lance or I was holding her. But she didn't get nap time (just a little time in the front pack during dinner), and there were so many people in a strange place, that by the end of the day she wouldn't even let Lance hold her! Actually, that's not quite true, because as we were packing up the car to go home, her Auntie Christine took her for a few minutes, and Judith was smiley and happy with people. On the ride home she was pretty over-tired again, and I had to sit in the back to help comfort her.

Our second Christmas happened on Sunday night (12/28) at Grandpa Tim and Grandma Sandy's in Roseville. Lance's sisters and their families were there. For the most part, Judith had a better day than Christmas (she's a lot more familiar with that house and those people), and she even got involved in opening one of her Christmas presents (see picture), but once again she didn't get any nap time (about 20 mins in the front pack, and maybe 15 on Grandma's shoulder) and she was pretty exhausted by the end. It took her about an hour to settle down to sleep when we got home.

If Judith could talk, I figure she'd probably say that Christmas was overwhelming. But next year - that should be lots of fun!