Friday, January 3, 2014

Sleep? What's that?

Even as high strung and sassy as our daughter is now, I will freely admit, she was our easiest baby.  She was sleeping through the night by a month old.
I thought our older two boys were bad sleepers.
......Until we had Gideon.
Oh my goodness.  This boy has had days and nights mixed up from the get-go.  His first night, even after the hard work of being born, he was up all night.  And nothing has changed.
Oh, he'll sleep at night.  On me (or Paul).  Or next to me in bed.  Just not in his bed, so I can get some sleep myself.
Now that Paul's back to work, it makes it seem worse because he can't help with night shift most nights.  On his days off, he does make sure I get a nap, but those blissful 2-3 hours aren't the same as hard middle-of-the-night sleep.
My life is kind of on standstill until he sleeps on his own at night.  Because I have no energy or motivation to do anything.
We're trying to keep him awake more during the day.  But even on the few days it seems like he's been awake more, he still doesn't sleep hard at night.
I keep telling myself that Gideon is only 3 weeks old.  He'll figure it out.  So for now, we do the Boppy pillow next to me on the couch (if I put him in it after he's asleep, he still thinks he's being held).  Or co-sleep.  (Despite it's vilification, it's the only thing to do when you're desperate for sleep.)  Last night, I put some rolled up towels under his bassinet mattress so it doesn't lay so flat - maybe that will help - it seemed to for the first 3 hours, after which we were back to the usual routine.  Someday, he'll come to prefer his bed.
Someday......

3 comments:

The Shupaloops said...

Oh I wish I could help! Our little darling is almost six months and we are still up quite a bit throughout the night? Ugh. Never had this with the other two. And we co-slept when we needed to also, don't feel bad about it! It will get better! It's got to, right?

~ April Darling said...

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/health-concerns/sleep-problems/co-sleeping-yes-no-sometimes

~ April Darling said...

We didn't start out thinking that we would be co-sleeping parents... but when our first baby wouldn't sleep without being on me we didn't know what else to do. Then we saw how wonderful it was. And we co slept with each one. Even now our almost three year old some times wiggles her way back into our bed now and again. I feel like it is a precious time. And there are many, many studies that back up how it is good to do. So relax and enjoy your cuddle time. They grow up too fast!!