I know it was my fault.
I was laying in bed thinking about my friend who recently
had a baby. I told myself that I needed to journal about what it was like to
have a newborn because I am starting to forget.
Now that we have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old, things are
different than they were, well, 2 years ago. They eat solid food, they can tell
me what they want or need (although they don’t make the distinction), they are
not wearing diapers (except at night), and they play together without my
supervision without killing each other (most of the time). And, my children now
usually sleep through the night.
Usually.
Well, sure enough, about 20 minutes after I said those fateful
words, my daughter started crying. So, I went in to soothe her and get her
tucked back in. I was back in my bed for about 20 minutes – you know, long
enough to just be starting to fall back to sleep – when she started crying
again. And coughing. Ugg. My husband fled the room in hopes of getting some
sleep in a quieter part of the house. So I brought M&M into bed with me. I
thought that if she could sleep with me that she would be so comfortable that
she would sleep soundly. That didn’t happen. I was constantly being kicked,
rolled on, nudged over, and then there was the coughing and snoring. She is
only 2 years old, how can she make so much noise?!? So I don’t think I really
got any decent sleep all night. I now totally remember what it was like to have
a newborn. Thank you very much; I’d rather forget.
With babies back-to-back, it was about 3 years of little to
no sleep. That is something the books don’t tell you. They like to lure you in
with the promise/hope that your baby will sleep through the night by 6-8 weeks
old. I read that even if you have a ‘needy’ child he should be sleeping through
the night by 10 weeks. Well, I either did something wrong (I tried everything), or the books are wrong (I
have met more families with similar scenarios to ours than those with good
sleepers), or my expectations were wrong (8 weeks, really???) because my
children didn’t sleep through the night until over 14 months old. That is
MONTHS not weeks. And it is still not
a guarantee that they will sleep all night. Every night we talk (plead, beg,
lay-down-the-law) to our daughter about staying asleep all night. We even got a
clock, which changes color in the morning when they can get out of bed. It helps.
I can often hear her wake up, but she doesn’t usually cry anymore, she just
stays in bed until the clock turns green.
I’m glad for this new phase of life. A life with a little
more sleep. I didn’t say a lot more sleep, I know that is not likely to happen. Just a little more...
