Last night was brutal. My little man was up every couple of hours. Screaming for no apparent reason. It was tough. But, what made it even tougher was the fact that he had just turned a corner with his sleep habits, and had started sleeping through the night for like 5 days in a row. He is 13 months old.
Unfortunately, a baby’s sleep is never predictable. I remember my daughter having episodes like that too. And, she was my best sleeper. My middle child was the worst, not sleeping through the night until he was 18 months old. And, that kind of lack of sleep takes a toll on the whole family.
So, what to do? Books, and blogs, and articles have been written on baby sleep. So, I’m not sure I could shed light on whether you should sleep train or not. But, what I can say is that as a Mom to three little ones, I haven’t gotten any sleep in about 6 years! At least I feel that way sometimes. As my cousin, who is the father to twins recently put on facebook: Sleep is for the weak.
I guess I’m weak then, because I really, really want more sleep. But, when my baby (or big kid) is screaming in the middle of the night, you better believe I’m going in there.
When I think about my own sleep, it is unpredictable, too. I’m 35 years old, and I still have restless nights. I wake up and sometimes have trouble going back to sleep. Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep to begin with, and other times, I can sleep like a rock. So, why do we expect more out of our children when it comes to sleep then we expect out of ourselves?
There is a lot of pressure by society to make sure those babies are sleeping through the night. As some sort of measure of good parenting. But, the truth is, babies are people too, and they are allowed to have a bad night sleep just like everyone else. The only problem is that usually, as the Mom, I have to be the one to make it all better.
*Photo courtesy of Morguefile.com