Monday, January 12, 2009

The Seriousness of Sleep

As a mother of an newborn, I can't go anywhere without people asking me if I am getting enough sleep. It is truly something I obsess over. I can tell you that a lot of time during the day I am thinking about how I can get good night's sleep. Our first pediatrician said that wouldn't happen until Nature Girl was like 8 I think. That thought horrified me. When I talk with friends sleep is always discussed. My girlfriend just yesterday did a blog on her four kid's sleep schedules. So she has inspired me to share mine. My husband is a blessing in many ways but he does not/will not get up at night with the kids. Half the time he doesn't even know that I have been up. He is a very heavy sleeper and really never hears them unless I wake him. Which I have done maybe 5 times and that was with baby number one. I will say this, when Nature Girls was a newborn, she had her days and nights mixed up. While on paternity leave, he helped out as best he could. He was on night shift when he went back to work. I would call him at 3/4 in the morning in tears because we were still awake. He would come home as soon as he could and he would watch her from like 5-8 so I could get some sleep. I am very thankful for that!!

Nature Girl now is my night owl like her daddy and grandma. She fought sleep from the minute she was born. She would stay up all night if I let her. All the kids have the same bed time but she will read, play or listen to music quietly in her bed until 10 sometimes 11 o'clock. There have been nights I fall asleep on the couch or go to bed and she is still awake. This is one of the reasons she is homeschooled. The flip side of her late nights is she sleeps in in the mornings. I will finally wake her at 8:30 if she hasn't gotten up on her own. Last night she informed me she has her own schedule. She has a clock in her bed. She goes to bed when the clock says ten and then gets up when the clock says eight. Works for me I guess! She does not like to sleep alone. She likes having her sister in the bottom bunk.

Little Mama has always been a good sleeper. Very rarely did she "argue" about going to sleep. When she was a toddler we could travel and if she didn't get a nap she was OK. She will "read" or play or listen to music for a little while at night be she is usually asleep way before Nature Girl. She is also one of the first ones up. There have been mornings when I ask her to go lay back down in her bed because it isn't time to get up yet. When you look at her sleeping she usually is posed in such a way that she looks like she has fallen off a building. Legs and arms all spread out. Very rarely does she wake at night. If she does, you know she is getting sick. She is the cuddler. On the occasions that we have had to sleep together she is right up against me. And would probably lay on top of me if she could!

Boop has been the champ. He has never fussed about naps or night time sleep. I can name on one hand the times he has been awake in the middle of the night and that has been just recently. He falls asleep somewhere between the time Little Mama does and Nature Girl. That is because he still takes a little bit of a nap. He is always the first one up. The beauty of it is, though, he has been told not to get out of his bed until someone comes and gets him. So, about 6:45 most mornings you hear this moaning or singing or something over the monitor. I will let him lay there for a good half hour, 45 minutes and he is OK with that. I don't want him ever to know he can actually get out of bed - ha, ha!! Just recently at night he yells from his room to the girlies room just to make conversation. Last night he had to be told to be quiet.

EG is a work in progress. . . I subscribe to a theory that predictable day time feeding, wake and nap times promote good night time sleep. It worked with Little Mama and Boop (didn't know about it until Nature Girl was almost 7 mos old). I started this little schedule the minute EG was born. When she nursed I encouraged her to nurse and get a "full feeding." It takes a couple of months to get things worked out, to get some kind of loose routine going. I wake her every morning at 7 so I can nurse her before the rest of the crew gets up and going. Then she has a little wake time and then she takes a nap. In the beginning we do this every 2 1/2 hours. By 8:30 at night she will get a bath, nurse one last time and then put to bed for the night. I wake her at 4 to feed her. I do this for two reasons: 1. I need the milk supply stimulation and 2. Then I can sleep until 7. Eventually I won't wake her in the middle of the night - maybe when she is nursing better and I/she doesn't need that extra feeding. She is still in my room and will be for awhile. She can be a very active sleeper. She was wiggling pretty actively around 1 and 3 this morning. I chose not to feed her because she never was really awake. Some nights she does wake up and I do feed her then. She takes a couple naps in her bassinet but for the times when she is suppose to be sleeping and we are out or she just screams, I have actually bought a sling. Yes, that is right, a sling. I borrowed a friend's at ballet last week and it worked like a charm. (EG hates her carseat) So yesterday at crunch time (daddy just got home, dinner need to be made, kids needed to clean up etc.) I put her in the sling and she slept! When you have that much going on all the time, you need to be flexible and open to other options. I know when the time comes she will take a morning nap on her own and an afternoon nap. But for now we need to progress through this period taking everyone into consideration.

I am a morning person. I like to be in bed by 10 and ideally I would like the option not to get up until 8 although I am usually awake by 7. Daddy is the night owl. When work doesn't require him to get up at 4 AM he will stay up to watch the 11 o'clock news. He would love to sleep in and I try to let that happen occasionally but sleeping in is a thing of the past for now. Our day will come . . .

1 comment:

Katie said...

This is a great post! I really like your routine with EG -- I think that would've been helpful for me with Luke.
Too funny about Boop -- Leah's the same, doesn't realize she can get out of her bed without help :)