Sleep Dreams

By the way, Dutch isn't sick anymore. She got nearly 15 hours of sleep in about 18 hours that night, though, and woke up more cheerful than we've seen her in weeks. Which brings me to the main problem we're having now - she's chronically sleep-deprived. She has not napped at home for a year (except when she falls asleep in the stroller/bus/car on the way home from somewhere, and sleeps through the transfer to her bed), but she was napping (short naps) at her daycare all summer, 4 days a week. When we switched to the new half-day daycare, we thought she'd just go to bed earlier and that would be that. She is getting to bed about an hour earlier, but she's also having to wake up earlier on the new schedule, and she's clearly missing the nap time. We're not sure if it's just the quantity of sleep, or if it's the timing of the afternoon nap. But she seems to be exhausted all the time, and we think (and hope) that her crankiness these days is due to that rather than a personality trait. The other day she fell asleep on her bed at 6:30 PM, about 2 minutes before we were planning to get her into the bathtub, in a weird kneeling prostrate position, like she was praying to the gods of sleep (Somnolia? Oblivius?).

Anyway, just as we started worrying about this, a study came out indicating that children's sleep deprivation is tied to likelihood of obesity. There's plenty of other data indicating that most American kids need more sleep than they're getting, to make them happier and healthier. We've got to figure out a way to get Dutch some rest. Come to think of it, we could all use some rest.