I wonder who coined that phrase "Sleeping like a baby"?
Yes, many people have babies who sleep well, soundly, through the night, peacefully and plenty of other adjectives associated with a good nights rest.
Aaron definitely isn't one of those and never has been. And, the more I read about it, the more I find out that there are plenty of other babies like him in the world. Its comforting to know that we're not alone.
At the beginning, it was as if he didn't have an 'Off' switch. He'd try and try to sleep but it just seemed like he didn't know how to. We got through that stage and he's good at falling asleep now. Its the staying asleep that we still need to work on.
The problem now is with what happens in his little head while he sleeps. Last year, we had many instances of night terrors where he would scream, sometimes with his eyes open, yet not see me and not respond to any form of comforting. Thankfully, those have subsided.
These days, its his normal dreams that interrupt his sleep. Sometimes, its really funny. There have been a few instances where we've heard him laughing and chuckling in his sleep. Other times, he has pushed himself to a sitting position, then actually stood up before flopping back down again. There must be some unpleasant dreams in there as well because he also whimpers and seems frustrated with whatever he's dreaming of. Very often, I find his head wet with sweat and the sheets around his head soaked through. This is with the air conditioning on quite cool.
I've noticed that his good/not-so-good sleep is somewhat cyclical with a couple of weeks of sleeping soundly followed by a couple of rough weeks. Maybe its to do with his normal development cycles. Who knows?
I've often been told that I made the 'mistake' of co-sleeping with him (and therefore teaching him to rely on me) but I actually like having him there. Of course there is the odd night when he's woken me up one too many times but on the whole, its probably just once during my night's sleep and I don't even remember it in the morning. Nothing beats being woken up by a fresh little baby grin and leftover words from his last dream. He literally jumps out of bed each morning and is full of energy and enthusiasm to face his day.
6 comments:
You are not alone! Our granddaughter Leya is tremendously alert and active, and actually fights going to sleep. Her mother considers it a victory when she sleeps more than 45 minutes at a time during the day, or as long as 3 hours at night. On top of that, she's a very light sleeper...almost anything can wake her up instantly. None of my children were quite that bad, although my oldest son had a switch that would activate once I'd walked him to sleep and tried to lay him down...
I just hope that our daughter stays as well as she is when it comes to sleeping. She doesn't fight it and doesn't even cry when we lay her down. She has been a really good sleeper and now I am spoiled and hope that doesn't change :)
Both of our kids were great sleepers. We didn't know what all the fuss about sleepless nights was all about.
If you are really interested in Aaron's cycles, perhaps you could keep a log of activities, television shows and foods along with his sleep patterns to see if there is any connection between them.
They do have a lot of energy, don't they? ANd, they do love life and living each moment - maybe that's why he doesn't want to sleep - he's afraid he will miss too much of life - nothing wrong with that.
TAke care - Kellan
You're SO right Amanda! Whomever named the phrase 'sleeping like a baby' surely must have also named 'taking candy from a baby'.
Every time I say my son is sleeping well he proves me WRONG the next night. :O
Our twins are just starting to sleep better, and it only took 2 1/2 years! The first year was the worse with constant waking and crying every 2 hours around the clock. It was truly exhausting. It made me feel better to think of it as a balancing factor for them being so good during the day. Like all parents we just grew accustomed to it and hoped one day the sleep thing will work itself out.
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