Things that go bump in the night

My daughter is a heavy sleeper. You might not think she would be since she's pretty sensitive to everything else, but she is. The night that a tree fell on the roof over her room, I bolted up out of bed and Daddy P was at the window before I could blink. (I think this is a byproduct of living with auntie em out in the heartland and scouting for tornadoes.) Although my reaction wasn't as drastic as Daddy P's I am usually hardwired for instant action in the dead of night. In the Northridge earthquake I was up and in the doorway before I was even awake. Literally. I woke up standing there. My dad tells me I was screaming as I was standing there before I woke up, but I don't remember that part. Anyway, genetically, you'd think Kate would be ready for anything in the dead of night. But when the tree fell? Kate cried out. Once. And never stirred other than that.

Last night, around midnight, the bed shook with the loudest, rip roaringness, LONGEST, thunder I have ever heard in my life. The dog bolted into our room and dove under the bed. Daddy P, again a good mid-Westerner, was up and at the window before you could snap your fingers. Kate? Oh, I flipped on the video monitor to find my little girl lying contentedly, cuddled with horsey, fast asleep.

She could be a doctor with the way she sleeps. She'll be able to sleep through anything anywhere at any time, this kid.

Oh, and on the "getting her to sleep later front"...

You know all those crazy sleep books that say something different in every book. Well, maybe that crazy doctor W is right... putting them to bed earlier makes them sleep later. Kate's cold has messed up her sleeping in big ways. Her 12 - 2 nap is now a 10:30 - 12:45 nap. And, as a result of the early wake-up, she wants to go to sleep earlier. Last night while I was at work she asked Daddy P for dinner at 5:30pm, asked for bath immediately after dinner, and asked for bed immediately after bath (thank you sign language). She's been in bed at 6 or 6:30pm this whole week, and here's the good part... she hasn't wanted OUT of bed until at least 7:15am. That's in contrast to 5:45am just a week or so ago!

Now, subsequently, last weekend we went to Ikea to buy a cheap plastic lamp to put on a timer. My thinking was that with her new very warm curtains, no light comes in her room at all. She has no sense of morning vs. night as a result, and I guessed that her circadic rhthym was all thrown off. So, now her light goes on at 7:20am every morning to let her know it's time to get up. She usually wakes around 7am now, rolls around and plays with her horsey, and when the light goes on is up on her feet and hollering to be taken from bed.

It's hard to know which of these really was the root of the sleeping-later, but man, I'll take it. All week I have had time to get up, get dressed, meditate, and grab a cup of tea before getting her out of bed. LOVE IT. Thank you, Ikea, and thank you, Kate.