Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Do you have any idea how many songs have sleep in the title?  There are 12 songs just titled "Sleep!"  Anyways, this one was my favorite option I haven't used...as I've already referenced Bare Naked Ladies, "Who Needs Sleep?" a much more appropriate title every time I talk about sleep...

I digress.


Kayla was ALL about dancing to this this morning!

The lion may sleep tonight, but mommy doesn't.

I honestly have pretty much given up on getting any sort of good consecutive sleep, and I'm ok with that.  Kayla was just waking up once a night to eat and going right back to sleep, and last week she even gaves us glimpses of sleep until 4 or 5 2 nights in a row.  However, since then, the proverbial s**t has hit the fan. Last night she was up four times, and she sort of refuses to nap for longer than an hour most of the time (this isn't always the case however.) And we are still struggling between 2 and 3 naps, and we really don't have any sort of schedule whatsoever.

Let me tell you something.  I've read at least 3 sleep books.  I've read a ton of discussions online.  I've heard about 100 people say that "this" is the magical tool.  "This" being: a bedtime routine, not using any sort of crutches (pacifiers, breastfeeding, movement), letting baby cry, singing to them, or them being able to self soothe.  And let me tell you something else...this is all BS.  I have physical evidence that not one of these things is a magical cure for Kayla waking up in the middle of the night.  Granted, I'm sure these things work for someone, unfortunately that someone is not me (or Kayla).  We have a bedtime routine, and most of the time we lay her down fully awake in her crib without her pacifier, and we let her cry a little bit (but not out of control screaming cry), we sing to her, and more often than not, she falls asleep for naps and bedtime without much crying or coercion.  So she does self soothe.  But I can't for the life of me get her to stay asleep.

Whatever, I guess she needs to eat.  I would say that I'm done talking about sleep on this little blog because I'm kinda tired of the responses I get when I post anything about sleep.  It's one of two things:

  1. My baby "perfect, most amazing advanced baby", sleeps 14 straight hours and we do this and it works like a charm.
  2. OMG, my "little terror baby" is soooooo much worse than your baby.  Just get used to not sleeping forever.
Here are my responses:
  1. My baby is not your baby and your bragging makes me want to wish your baby turns into a terror shortly after this conversation.
  2. OMG, I highly doubt your 1 year old is waking up every hour at night crying because he/she is hungry...but fine, you are worse off than me.  Good to know, wish I cared.  Thanks for the vote of confidence about getting some sleep.
Why can't moms be less preachy or one-uppy (not a word I know), and more just plain supportive?  I know I'm exaggerating here, it's probably the lack of sleep! :)  Most of my mom friends are great and not like this, but sometimes that's what it feels like, because my baby isn't like yours.  I was telling a friend yesterday, I'm a little frustrated because Kayla was a good sleeper as a newborn.  She would usually go 5-6 hours at night and some nights even longer.  I made it a point to NOT brag about this fact, but Kayla just slapped me in the face at 3.5 months.

I've come to the conclusion that it's alright that she needs to eat in the middle of the night.  She just does. She's a happy baby during the day.  We have a lot of fun and she is crawling and pulling herself to stand all over the place (advanced for her age if you must know.)  My Nanny got her a onesie she probably needs to start wearing:  Dad's the king, Mom's the queen, but I'm the boss.  And she is.

Who me???

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