Good nights, Bad nights

There’s just no telling what kind of night Alice will have. Thursday night she just wouldn’t settle down. Corinna and I took turns all night long, trying to get her to sleep. A typical sequence was:

• Alice begins to stir, sounds like she may begin crying, one of us gets up;
• Alice is making feeding cues; heat a bottle of formula, begin feeding/burping;
• after Alice has had half a bottle, change her diaper;
• diaper change goes poorly - once the dirty diaper is off, and a clean one beneath her, she starts peeing; once a second clean diaper is beneath her, she starts pooping; by the third diaper, she’s finished going to the bathroom;
• resume feeding;
• Alice begins to lose interest in her bottle, becomes sleepy;
• attempt to settle Alice for bed - once she’s asleep, put her in her crib;
• sneak back to bed, niavely thinking Alice will sleep;
• three minutes later, Alice begins to stir again; one of us gets up;
• her diaper is still clean, burping her produces no belching, she just wants to be held; thankfully, no actual crying;
• give Alice a little more formula - this seems to help;
• Alice begins making diaper-filling sounds; after she sounds like she’s finished, change her diaper;
• resume attempts at settling Alice down;
• Alice appears sleepy again; attempt to put her in her crib again;
• total elapsed time - 1.5 to 2 hours;

Alice would repeat this cycle approximately every three hours. Needless to say, we were pretty tired Friday. Last night was a totally different story. Alice was very relaxed all night - it would take less than an hour to feed/burp/change/settle her. She slept for over three hours between feedings. I even encountered a clean diaper at 2AM - that’s pretty unusual for Alice. She’s one of those babies that dirties her diaper at every feeding. I’m getting pretty good at diaper changes.