Chris has been away on a short work trip since Wednesday and won’t be returning until tomorrow, which means that I am basically on night duty. This means I am responsible for “stretching” the baby’s sleep and ensuring that if/when she wakes up in the middle of the night that I stick the pacifier in her mouth to soothe and get her back to sleep. Luckily for me, the first night was actually pretty good: last night, she didn’t stir and yelp until about 4am. I quickly put the paci in her mouth, and she fell right back asleep. Then an hour later, at 5am, she woke up yet again, except this time, her eyes were wide open, she was nearly kicking her legs out, and she was moving so rapidly that the entire bassinet was nearly bouncing. As soon as she saw my face, she broke out into a huge smile and started kicking even harder, indicating she wanted out.

Ummmm, no. I still need to sleep for at least an hour and a half. Mommy is NOT taking you out to hold and cuddle you at 5am.

I gave her the pacifier and told her that I needed to sleep, and maybe if she was good, I’d take her out at around 6:40. She ended up falling back asleep to then wake up again at 6:15 with nonstop babble. I heard her babbling from the bed and decided to let her babble to herself for about 25 minutes while I got some shut-eye time. I eventually took her out and plopped her onto the bed, which she absolutely adores being on. She just loves being on the bed with us. We snuggled and she kicked her legs, and I got her bottle ready for her feeding.

It’s hard to get mad at her for waking up early when she’s so darn cute. While I want to indulge her and spend time with her, I also need my sleep time to stay sane, so there needs to be some balance. I told this, but she didn’t seem to care what I said. Oh, babies. She will learn some day.