One time is random, twice could be an accident...

three times makes a pattern.

That's what my teacher Stan Plumly says, and although he is talking about patterns and form in poetry, I think it could also apply to sleeping through the night.

For the SECOND night IN A ROW Amelia has slept from 7-4:30, at which point I fed her, and she went back to sleep. I suppose I could try to avoid the 4:30 feeding but sleeping through till 4:30 seems super luxurious to me right now, and I don't mind feeding her then, because by then she has gone over 10 hours without eating. As you can see from the time of this post, I could not go back to sleep after she ate; I was lying there writing in my head and listening to another early bird, a real one, chirping outside. Rather than toss and turn and keep Dean awake, I got up to spend some QT with Suki, who is curled up beside me, and sip coffee in the pre-dawn twilight. (That seems oxymoronic, but I can't think of the word for the light before sunrise. ?)

My life is already remarkably better than it was one week ago. Although there are still signs of sleep deprived adults in the house (the container of grated cheese I found stashed in the Tupperware drawer (yuck), the running faucet I came downstairs to this morning (of HOT water--YIKES)), I feel much better, and since when have I been able to get up and write? So, I am hoping twice turns into the 3 times tomorrow, and 3 times melts into many.

Now--of course--as I write this, Amelia has begun to coo and call from her crib. I am going to give her a few minutes and see if she goes back to sleep. We put her down 15 minutes later than usual last night so it'll be interesting if she wakes up this early (the books say, although it's counterintuitive, that if a baby goes to bed too late she will wake up too early: "Sleep begets sleep").

As I wait her out, I'll note that I spent Amelia's entire nap writing poetry yesterday. A poem I started when I was pregnant with her has suddenly found its form and its pathway. I am finally not-pregnant enough to write about pregnancy with some reflection, and the form was inspired by my fling with the project that was triggered by Caroline's forty forts (thank you again, Caroline, a zillion times over. And to everyone else, if you haven't been reading about her forts, you should!)

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So now Amelia is awake and I am trying to finish this post while she sits on the floor and takes toys out of a bin. She is in an excellent stage in which she can sit up really well, without you having to be there to catch her from tipping sideways or forward, but she can't crawl away. If we put her down on a soft blanket surrounded with pillows (just in case she does tip over), with a bin of toys in front of her, she will sit there for like 20 minutes taking toys out of the bin, chatting with the toys. Right now she is alternately waving her toucan back and forth saying "gaagheebababa" and enthusiastically biting the toucan's beak. We have been able to get a lot of packing done this way. It is a stage in which I could easily pause for a while. Although we are trying to give her lots of tunny time so she can learn to crawl (she is now able to push up on hands and knees and rock back and forth), I kind of dread the crawling, because it will shatter this calm and peaceful world of sitting still.

Here she is:





Now I will join little A on the floor.