The merit of a sleep journal

If I haven't already told you Madeleine is going to the sleep clinic at Children's Hospital on May 30th. Yes, it is that bad. Finally my pediatrician agreed that it would be worth a try. They sent me a log form to fill out, a sleep journal, if you will. I was afraid of it. I have tried to write sleep notes before but in my tired haze it never worked out. But this, well, this is for the doctor so there is no choice. It is homework.

I started recording about a week ago and let me tell you, that has been the best exercise. It is a very simple table with very quick responses so you cannot get too caught up in all the details but just give a quick one word response. They ask things like

• Describe any problems with your child's night sleep (and give you one square inch to do this)
• Bed time
• Estimate the time she fell asleep
• What is the clock time she got up for the day
• Total hours of sleep
• How did she feel when she woke up (one word only)
• How much nap
• Meds?
• Where did they fall asleep (bed, sofa etc.)
• caffeine products?

And that's it. After recording for 7 days I can see the average amount of time M sleeps at night (about 10 hours) how naps affect her (cannot sleep more than 2 hours). And that benadryl really doesn't do much.

I know that those of you with one baby are thinking that I should have known this already, but seriously, I have twins and half the time I cannot remember which child pooped that day. I get them mixed up, okay?

We'll see what the doctor says. I can honestly say that this past week has had her best and worst nights in it. On some occasions she has fallen asleep easily but then been up for 3 hours in the middle of the night (or two on two occasions) and then one night she was up every hour to hour and a half*. However, on Tuesday my little angel slept all night long for the first time in her very short life! 8 pm - 7 am, in her crib, without waking, without coming to my bed, without a peep. ahhh.