Sleep allows me to love my family more...
Sure, I love them unconditionally, but the sleep conditions my love to be silky and smooth.
Cdubs has been a pretty good sleeper after the first two months. She nixed her night feeding after 2 months (ok, we nixed it for her). And we have been pushing up bedtime earlier and earlier to where she was getting 8-9 hours of sleep without waking up.
And then, teething happened and napping more regularly and well a mouse pissed on a cottonball somewhere in the hemisphere and began disturbing her rest....regularly.
However, last night was as close to nights of yore as we've had in a week:
no late night feedings, no inconsolable crying, just a little fuss at midnight that a bit of snuggling cured and nothing else till 6:30.
I have become better with dealing with less sleep...but not by much. I have always needed sleep. It is actually the most selfish thought I had when I found out I was pregnant: great, there goes my sleeping habits, esp my naps. I used to be able to nap at a drop of hat, but now I stay up analyzing random things and/or hearing her noises. So when I finally do fall asleep (after an hour of getting to a good sleeping place), SOMEONE is ready to get up. Now, Kdubs, God love him, offers to let me sleep in or take naps and he'll handle her for a couple of hours...except IT NEVER WORKS.
I'll hear her fussing from the next room or not hear her and worry about why I can't hear her and then there goes any progress I had towards deep sleep.
I know, I know that this will be life until she is 30...
However, I have come up with a genius idea: a turkey timer in the baby that goes off before bedtime that tells you "hey, i'm not sleeping tonight." I think if I knew she wasn't sleeping, I could steal myself for it...like cramming for a test or pulling an all-nighter. It is the lure of sleep lost that kills me.
This all being said...when she lets me sleep (esp. when I haven't had it in a couple of nights), oh she is gorgeous! Seriously...beauty sleep with her works transactively...her letting me sleep makes her more gorgeous.
As if that is possible. (I know I need to take better pictures! But I am either tired or in spending too much time kissing those cheeks!)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
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4 comments:
Oh, she is such a cutie :) That's one of my big fears about becoming a mom...losing sleep! I guess I'll learn to deal like you have ;)
Happy Thursday!
Get a loud fan in your room to cover up her crying. If you've fed her and changed her she should sleep at least 8-10 hours. I just turn off the monitor and roll over and turn it back on later and she's quiet!
I can SO relate to the lack of sleep with young babies! I NEVER had a child that would let me sleep consistently. Like you, I really need my sleep too. Ugh. Not a good combo. The good news is, better days are coming for you! Now that eldest is 5, middle is 3, and youngest is 1, I usually get decent sleep 6 out of 7 nights a week :)
You are so right! I cannot function on little sleep either! I love, love, love the timer idea. It's always when I'm surprised by no sleep that it hits me the hardest. I always think, "If I had just known, I wouldn't have watched The Hills the night before; I would have just gone to bed at 6:30 when Spencer did."
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