sleep deprivation and other odd occurances

The Animalia. Sigh. That girl. Animalia.

The last few nights have been a little... screwy. The Animalia's sleep pattern is off a little, a few nights of waking up too early gave us a few nights of falling asleep too early, waking up two early and here we are. That and my schedule has been a little nutty. Too many working evenings. Last night she was asleep in her camita and I was exhausted from a very long day. She was asleep but restless. The rustling noises started to get more obvious and I forced my sleepy eyes open to find her on her hands and knees, crawling like a drunken drunk. I whispered her name in that what-do-you-think-you're-doing mom voice and she just kept moving. It was an awkward crawl, more tipping over than she's been doing lately. Like a drunk hobo looking for a grain of rice. I don't really know what that means. ANYHOW, I whispered her name and she didn't even look up guiltily. She just kept moving. I looked closely at her face and that's when I realized that SHE WAS ASLEEP. SLEEP CRAWLING. WHAT THE HECK?! NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT THIS!! So yeah. Sleep crawling. It was the oddest thing. I picked her up, she cried a second and fell back asleep like a normal baby.

Her increase in competent crawling abilities is a very recent development. Was she dream crawling? Was her brain still practicing? I know that infants brains take a whole lot longer to cycle into the deep immobile sleep that adults know and love. Baby sleep cycles are different. Still. This was freaky.

I asked a friend and mom of a toddler if her baby girl did that. Her response? "Yes:) they have to practice their moves:) wait til she stands and then wakes up because she can't get back down:)" This response was by text message by the way. She doesn't talk in emoticons. I'm so happy to have someone to ask these random things. She reassured me when Animalia was having teeny tiny baby nightmares too.

So I'm not looking forward to Animalia pulling herself up in her sleep but I guess it'll happen at some point. Maybe sooner than I thought. I was just on the phone with my mom. Animalia pulled herself to standing while holding onto the couch! Thank God she was awake!