Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Learning from the past

Something about Kaylani was a little off last night and today. Last night, she nursed for a real long time before bed, slept for 7 straight hours, but then woke up and fell back asleep twice between the hours of 4am and 6am. Then, she was up at 7:30am for good, and didn't nap until around 4pm, no matter how hard Mommy tried. She didn't nap in the swing, in her arms, or even in the car. And when she finally did nap, it was only for 20 minutes.

Normally we'd think Kaylani was just being a pain, but she actually wasn't a pain today according to Mommy. She wasn't whining or crying, and wasn't overly attached to Mommy, but it was just a long day. There were no signs of new teeth coming out, and no fever to think she was getting sick. It wasn't until she ate up 6oz of food at dinner without a problem that we figured it out. Growth spurt. A quick Google search on growth spurts confirmed our suspicions. There is a 9 month growth spurt. And wouldn't you know it, Kaylani's 3 days away from her 9 month birthday.

They say the best way to make it through a growth spurt is to feed her more. That explains why Kaylani nursed for so long last night. It also explains why she polished off 8oz of food tonight (green bean casserole and apples), still had room to take in about 10 puffs, and drank an ounce or so of water all during dinner. It also explains why she woke up randomly through the night, and why she didn't want to nap during the day.

We were waiting for something like this to happen. Unlike the 3 month and 6 month growth spurts that snuck up on us, we knew this day would come at 9 months just based on the fact that things were going a little too well. She was starting to sleep for 10 hours at a time again and she was eating her food without fussing too much. Before we were the extremely experienced parents that we are now, we would think that she would last like that forever. Now, we're just enjoying it before it goes away. And all signs point to it going away soon.

Hopefully this growth spurt goes by quickly and we can get her back to her normal schedule. Some growth spurts only last a few days. Some last a week. Either way, I just hope it's gone in the next 10 days because that's when Daddy's 1 week vacation from work begins, and vacation with a growth spurt baby isn't what I'm looking forward to. So bring it on growth spurt! Now please?

2 comments:

ericdbolton said...

our daughters are almost the same age.. mine turns 9 mos on the 12th. She's had plenty of growth spurts i feel.. I was on vacay last week and not once did I get to sleep later than 7am.

oh well. it'll be over soon and they'll sleep till 8am..

JonnyTam13 said...

We're thinking food is the answer. We've given her 8 oz of food at every meal and she napped real well today (in addition to sleeping 10 straight last night). Full belly = more sleep!