Thursday, August 19, 2010

Sleep

I spend a lot of time thinking about sleep. I've never been a great sleeper so feeling tired is nothing new but having a child, my child, is different. I do not exaggerate when I say that I haven't had a full night sleep in 26 months. On the very rare occasion that Flora does sleep through the night I am so programed to wake that I still don't sleep well. I hear parents talk about their amazing bedtime routine that keeps their 6 week old child asleep for 6 hour stretches and I laugh. There is nothing magic about their sleep routine; they just have an easy child. I don't know why my child doesn't sleep but I like to tell myself it's for the same reason she started talking at 10 months, charms everyone she meets and goes swimming at the beach in the middle of our living room. It's all just part of her being amazing. You can't always have the good without the bad and my bad is that Flora doesn't want to sleep for fear of missing out. So, i will soldier on knowing that someday my girl will learn to sleep through the night and then my husband and I will re-learn how to sleep through the night. Until then, I will just enjoy her amazingness and try not to get too frustrated when she uses me as a human trampoline at 630am after allowing me only 3 hour stretches of sleep.

Goodnight, little girl. I can hear you back there singing when you should be asleep.

Ready for bed?


2 comments:

  1. I agree! It is a scientific fact that babies don't sleep very well, when they are learning new things (crawling/talking/even just reaching for things) The fact that Flora doesn't sleep could be because her brain is constantly processing! (at least that's what I tell myself after a night of waking up every two hours :) )

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  2. Same here. I'm pretty sure P is no good for the sleep. I mean, she's GREAT for sleep for a baby. It's all about reprogramming ourselves to accept this new way of life.

    She went from turning on her side and waking herself up to rolling over and waking herself up to rolling around and waking herself up to now she's learning to crawl and waking herself up. With no sleepful nights inbetween.

    One day, I finally said, "She might be my only baby, so I'm just going to enjoy these next two years of no sleep."

    Attitude, I tell you.

    But you know this.

    In the vein of mommyblogging, I read this the other day: http://www.sundrymourning.com/2010/08/17/reasoning-with-a-toddler/
    and it made me laugh. You might also find the humor in it.

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