Sleep, one of the things I feared most when having a baby. I’ve always struggled with sleep myself, unlike my husband who is aptly nicknamed big sleepy by his friends. So, when we found out we were expecting, the first thing I purchased was The Happiest Baby book. Thank goodness that I did, it gave me so much insight into babies and their sleep. My biggest fears around sleep were that my schedule would be totally wacky and it’d trigger a terrible insomniac response, making my waking/ working hours a haze. I also worried that my child’s development would be adversely effected if I didn’t get sleep right.
To my delight, my first son [Desi] didn’t struggle with sleep much at all. It only took a few easy tweaks to our life in order to get him comfortable and sleeping through the night. He was sleeping from 630pm to 630am, before he was 6 months old - and to this day [he is a month away from 2 years old] he sleeps a solid 10 to 12 hours at night.
My second baby isn’t being as easy. I’m not sure its necessarily his temperament, as much as I am juggling two instead of one, and I’ve forgotten much of what I learned initially [since we didn’t really have to use it].
That puts us squarely where we are, in the present, where my youngest sleeps a good 6-8 hours at night, but the daytime is a series of catnaps. This leaves me exhausted and without a second to myself, to do me focused things. Instead I find ways to do a small share of what chores I should be doing while my oldest takes his afternoon nap, and my youngest demands attention frequently.
I am actually sequestered to my room, having put my youngest down for the night, typing this in near total darkness. This is the first “me time” I’ve had today. If you even consider it that. [Oh gosh, I feel him squirming in his bassinet, uttering tiny coos and gurgles - I’m tempted to end this here, instead of risk it.]
Mustering up the courage, I’ll continue for as long as I can.
The whole purpose of this post is to announce an intention I have of:
a) relearning what I researched for my oldest
b) organizing a fairly detailed schedule, that hopefully helps my youngest sleep well during naps and even better at night, as well as supports my toddler through his current sleep regression [ a lot of screaming and crying before nap and night time].
c) recording my findings, shortcomings, and successes
So, stay tuned. My next installment in the sleep collection will be discussing the structure I plan to use [and resources that got me to that plan].
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