In the continuing adventures of “Get the Baby to Sleep” I feel that I am beginning to understand cause and effect as it relates to Alethea and her sleep patterns.  These revelations began Wednesday afternoon when I took Alethea to Target.  To make a long story short, it took me longer to get out the door than I had anticipated and I was not as efficient in getting through Target as I meant to be, so we missed what should have been the beginning of nap time.  Alethea seemed to be taking it all in stride, enjoying looking at the colorful products as we walked the aisles and being the typical angel that she generally is in public.  However, as soon as we got to the car, she let out a giant wail and continued to fuss and grump the rest of the day, not sleeping for more than 30 minutes at any given point and didn’t finally give up until 11:00pm that night.  I did feel properly chastised for over stimulating her and getting to nap time late and resolved that in the future I should not attempt shopping trips without more careful planning.

Then Thursday evening, she started getting fussy around 8:00pm, but she was over-due for a bath, so I decided to go ahead and put her in the tub anyway since usually it helps her calm down.  She was the angel that she generally is in the bath tub, smiling and taking it all in stride.  However, as soon as Peter pulled her out of the tub, she let out a huge wail and continued to fuss and grump the rest of the night and into the morning, not giving up until 4:00am.  It was a exhausting night to say the least.

Now while I feel that the punishment Alethea dished out was probably not in proportion to the crime of keeping her up 1/2 an hour past bedtime, I have to say that the extreme nature of the punishment has certainly made me more vigilant since in getting her to bed at the first sign of tiredness.  We are doing much better now, nap time is easier, and she even slept for 10 hours last night with only one feeding.  I only wish I had realized earlier what was causing her extended napless crabby hours.  We could have gotten to this a lot sooner: