A Lifesaver

So, Kate has been doing much better sleeping in her bassinet at night (she didn't like it when she was first born, so she's been sleeping with us for the entire time. We liked co-sleeping with her, but Dan was always so worried about rolling over on her that it was hard for him to get a good night's sleep). So, we transitioned her to her bassinet, and so far, our bedtime routine seems to be going well. We change her, put her PJs on, I nurse her, and then as she's drowsy, I rock her for a bit while singing to her. I put her in the bassinet just as she's about to fall asleep, but still slightly awake, so that she can learn to fall asleep by herself. (I keep my hand on her stomach for about five minutes as I lay in my bed so that she still knows I'm there--obviously the bassinet is right by our bed.) So, we've been very thankful that she seems to have taken to the bassinet so well at night.

BUT, naptimes are a different story. She doesn't seem to like to sleep unless being held by someone (usually me!), which can make it hard to get my work done. (As a weird side note, she'll sleep in her infant carseat carrier for HOURS when we're out in public, but for some reason that doesn't work at home. Maybe it's the background noise in restaurants that she likes, and it lulls her to sleep? Anyway...)

So we had heard great things about this Fisher Price swing with regards to getting babies to sleep, so we headed to Babies R Us last night to check it out. We put her in it at the store (no use in paying $$ for a swing she hates!) and she LOVED it. Right away, she was so fascinated with the mobile, and pretty soon the rocking motion was lulling her to sleep. So, needless to say, we purchased it (using a lot of the gift cards I got at my showers, which was helpful!)

We tried it out this morning, and voila! I was able to get a substantial amount of work done, since she slept in there from 7:30 until 9:15. Yay! Of course, she then woke up to eat, and now is sleeping peacefully on my chest (I don't mind; I love cuddling with her!) I don't have a problem editing while holding her; it's just when I have to work on my magazines' websites that it's a problem; it's hard to do html coding one-handed! Luckily, I got that all done this morning while she was sleeping in her swing, and now we can just cuddle while I work.



I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to work from home AND spend so much quality time with Kate! (Whenever she's awake, I'm not working; we're doing stuff like reading, playing on her activity mat, or taking walks). And, when I do have to go in to the office (usually about two mornings a week, for about 3 hours at a time), I can bring her in and she just sleeps, or Tracy can watch her, which I'm so grateful for. It really is the ideal situation!