The Progression

Before Anna came home I would day dream about our life together. I love watching Anna sleep, she snores like a train which is quite funny. I have written here many times how difficult getting Anna to sleep was in the beginning. Now we have that down and I am so thankful. One thing that I am sure I have not mentioned much is how she wakes up. I hope I am able to write this so you can see in your mind the progression.

The first day Anna was home. Gerard and I quietly waited for her to open her eyes. After a while I got up showered and got ready for the many visitors to come and meet her. That first week was very much the same everyday. I would wake up before her and watch her sleep. I was amazed that she was here in the same country as I let alone the very same room as I was in. Some times I would go to the living room and watch her on the monitor and at the first movement I would run into the bedroom to lay down with her. I imagined it would be pretty scary to wake up in a strange place with no one there to greet you "Good Morning" This stage lasted for about 6 weeks.



Once she was up she would go straight to "work" looking at everything. We limited the number of toys at first so that she would not become overwhelmed by the changes in her surrounding. The one toy that she played with for what seemed like forever was a little barn that still hangs in our kitchen. She would play with this barn for hours.

After the first 6 weeks or so I realized that others with my baby monitor could watch her and me sleep. So the baby monitor was turned off. Which brought us to the next stage. I would wake up before her and sit quietly in my dinning room. Occasionally, I would hear her move or cry and I would jump up and run to greet her "Good Morning."



This lasted a couple of weeks and perhaps a little longer some of this is a little gray in my mind and this is the reason why I wanted to write about this topic.



The next stage came about because Anna started to get up out of bed in the morning rather then cry. I was never so thankful to know that waking was no longer something that caused her to cry. She would wake up slide out of bed and slowly walk around the corner from our bedroom. I started sitting on the sofa so that I could see her. At this same point she started sleeping longer into the morning close to 9 am. Having that time to myself in the morning was a wonderful feeling. I so needed this time to collect my thoughts, I had so many feelings that I was feeling.

Then there was a small adjustment to this stage of waking up in the morning. Anna would wake up and run out of the bedroom usually clutching 2 things from my bedroom. They were always random things, a pillow, a box from my dresser, occasionally it would be a small stuffed animal. I loved this stage because it made me laugh. I never knew what she would bring me. This stage lasted for a while.

We are now up to our current stage which is by far my favorite stage. I still am up before her but now instead of her waking up and "working" or crying or clutching onto a random object she calls for me. She is not scared it is a soft little call for me. "Mama, Where you! Mama" I am now back to jumping up and running into greet her good morning. She asks for cozy time the minute she sees me. We snuggle and I just hold her now for about 15 minutes. Sometimes Anna will actually fall back to sleep which is very nice.

Each stage has been wonderful. I can not believe just how fast things change around here.