Holy growth spurt

By Published On: July 16th, 2014

It’s official: Bea is sleeping through the night! I know […]

McKinley_BeaReads_7-16-14It’s official: Bea is sleeping through the night!
I know at some point babies sleep through the night. But, like so many other milestones, this one sort-of seemed like a faraway oasis: something you hear about or see glimmers of, but it doesn’t actually exist.
Then it just happened.
I heard her waking grunts through the monitor and rolled over thinking it was somewhere around 2:00 a.m.. When I saw it was 6:30 a.m. I had a mini panic attack … it was that same feeling of shock, disbelief, and dread I’d get in college when I woke up thinking I’d slept through an exam. In two seconds, a million jumbled thoughts bounced around my sleep-fogged head: “Is this real? Is she OK? Has she been crying all night and I just heard her? What if she almost smothered herself trying to wiggle out of her SleepSack? Is her pacifier poking her eye out? Can babies get too much sleep? Are my boobs going to explode? Is she starving to death? Does this make me a bad mom? A good mom? Wait … what just happened?” 
Of course, she was fine. But after seeing Bea’s sweet little face every few hours at night since she came home, it was a bit jarring when I realized we’d been apart for eight.
I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m thrilled. I’d forgotten how refreshing an unbroken night of sleep can be. It’s just that all of her recent changes, sleep included, take some getting used to. Thanks to one massive growth spurt, she went from a sleepy newborn to a busy 12-week-old baby in seven days flat. I can’t believe it, but all of these things happened in one week:

  • She sleeps all night.
  • She’s more alert, focused, and vocal, and she really gets particularly excited about books and mobiles.
  • More blowouts. Gross, I know, but all the sudden she went from teensy No. 2s spread throughout the day to one or two big, diaper-busting explosions. (It’s not my favorite phase, but Bea is enjoying the bonus mid-day baths!)
  • She’s getting too big for her britches—literally. The 0-3 month outfits that were too big a couple of weeks ago are now so short and tight I have a hard time stretching them over her diaper.
  • She’s stronger. She’s holding her head upright during tummy time and she’s thiiiis close to rolling over on her own.
  • Speed eating. Seriously, she takes half the time to breastfeed as she did as a newborn. It’s awesome.

I thought all of these things would happen gradually, but she’s changing so quickly I can hardly keep up! Case in point: I have no idea how to manage sleep scheduling. The all-night-sleep thing happened by accident, and officially setting up a naptime and bedtime structure is an impossibly difficult undertaking for me. I’m also trying to figure out an organized, non-hoarderish way of corralling Bea’s growing pile of too-small clothes. And, secretly, I’m dealing with the internal realization that I’ll kind of miss those nighttime feedings and the sleepy snuggles that go along with them.
But all of this change is exciting, too. Each day reveals a little bit more of Bea’s personality, and we’re having so much fun getting to know the new, bigger her!