Those things that make Her... Her (sleep position)

My little Sarah is a unique little baby.  I'm sure every mom says this about their child, and they are absolutely correct.  No two people are alike and no two children are alike.  But I sincerely enjoy noting the little things that make her... her.  Lets talk about sleep since it seems to be a recurring theme on my blog lately.  (I have no idea why this is, maybe because I notice when I'm getting less... ha ha ha!)

Anyway, Sunday night something truly funny happened.  See our smart little girl has figured out how we put her to sleep and now resists it as much as she can, so her sleep routine has gotten all out of whack.  (We are working on getting more consistent with her nap routine and night time routine.)  But basically, she's on to us when it comes to bedtime.  It used to be that I would hold her a certain way to put her to bed. With her little head tucked right under my chin on my chest.  I would ask my sister or Mike if she was asleep sometimes, but they could never see her eyes.  She tucks herself in this way.  Well, the other night it was midnight and she wasn't in bed yet, (I told you we were out of whack) so I was tired and just laid her in the bed beside me to let her talk it out.  I know I shouldn't let her be in bed with me, but she was wide awake and sometimes she needs to talk to herself for a bit before she's ready to settle.  So anyways, she's laying there talking to her hands and my hand and daddy's hand.  Yes, she loves to hold hands.  When I decided to try to hurry the process along.  I know she needs skin contact to fall asleep.  So I slipped my arm under her head and pulled her closer to me.  Well this allowed my pillow to touch her head.  Now usually if I let her lay in bed with us, the pillows are no where near her.  But as this merely touched the top of the head I just let it go.  I was going to pick her up in a minute anyway to put her to sleep.

Well I'll be darned if she didn't nuzzle her little head straight into that pillow until it was covering her forehead and eyes and instantaneously fell asleep.  I mean instant.  Like mid babble. Done. Mike and I looked at each other, he mouthed a "Really... Really!!?" at me and I just shrugged before starting to giggle.  She was out cold.  Mouth hanging open, limp arms, legs done! When I giggled it briefly stirred her and she raised a little hand searching for another hand to hold, got half way up and gave up completely.  It was hilarious!!!

Now, we have seen a pattern like this before when she's falling asleep, it actually scares us a bit, because she always tried to bury her head in the mattress.  The girl loves having her face covered, or maybe it's the pressure on her forehead, I don't know.  But she will put that forehead to whatever soft thing she can find and turn as far as she can to get her head covered.  Now that she's a pro at rolling over she tries to sleep with her face flat against the mattress or mostly flat, in which we always reposition her.  (I think it's more her forehead that she wants flat against something) And yes, we are very vigilant at night to make sure she doesn't suffocate.  Even when she does get her face mostly into the mattress, she leaves her nose an airway, but we aren't comfortable letting her stay that way.  Thank goodness for video monitors and parent ears that hear every sigh and movement ~ ha ha!  But yeah, this is just another one of those things that make her uniquely her...  I didn't take a picture for fear of waking her up, but it was a funny funny sight! (Maybe I'll see if she'll do it again tonight to get a picture, if so I'll post it here...)  Gotta love my little Sarah and all her unique quirks!



Oh, and in case you are curious, her sleep schedule got off because of a little stomach bug.  The other night after she went to bed, she was changing positions in her crib, and couldn't settle.  When I went to check on her and give her the paci back if she needed it, she was covered in baby vomit, from the back of her head to her ear to her face, so I had to change the crib sheets, clean her up, change her pj's and put her back to bed again which didn't put her to sleep until around midnight.  Which then made her sleep in and she had her normal nap/awake time during the day, so we're trying to get her back to her normal schedule.  And yes, she got sick the next day every time she ate, but is feeling better now.  Oh! and the sick night was a "Murphy's Law" kind of night where she decided to pee all over herself during the diaper change, so I had to change the changing pad cover too... It got to a point where I just laid her on some cloth diapers naked while I got clean sheets, changing pad covers, pj's, paci ect.  Trust me she didn't mind ;)  She loves naked time...  And a big shout out to Auntie Bethany who snuggled and comforted Sarah when I was changing the crib sheets and then watched her during naked time while I changed the changing pad cover... I'm gonna miss her when she moves to Denver (A whole different story for another time...) (And for you curious cats, Mike was at work still)

Also, I need to say that she never sleeps in our bed.  She's allowed to lay there and have quiet time, or babble, but she always sleeps in her crib.  I'm not comfortable letting her sleep with me... And let's face it ~ I need sleep too!   She was promptly moved to her crib the night she fell asleep in the pillow.