The forty-first week

This week we've found ourselves re-evaluating many of our old routines. Just a couple weeks ago I wrote that Madeline's sleep schedule was "as regular as clockwork" - and it had been for months. But this week we've thrown all that out the window.

It happened suddenly - on Tuesday she napped normally and then on Wednesday she revolted. No more putting her down at the regular time. Now she protested forcefully - crying, squirming and being generally disagreeable (to put it mildly). And if we just put her in the crib to work it out on her own, as we usually would do, she would just stand up and cry. Once she was standing in her crib there was no hope that she would sleep.

The perplexing thing is that she was mostly fine when she wasn't being put down for a nap - she's been otherwise happy and friendly this week (and, thank goodness, she still goes to bed well at night). We extended the time between naps to make sure she was good and tired. So, while she's already tired at the "regular" nap time, she's really tired after an extra hour.

We did a little research and discovered that a disruption in sleep routines at this age is actually somewhat common - even babies who have been sound sleepers suddenly have trouble napping. There's even a name for it - "nine-month sleep regression." It could be related to all that's going on in their brains and bodies - they know how to do so much that it's hard for them to settle, even if they're tired. Kind of like when you want to go to sleep but something is weighing on your mind.

So, for now, we're letting go of the old schedule and just flying by instrument, as the pilots say. Just like everything else, we know this is just a phase. Hopefully it won't be a long one!