File Under Sleep, Lack of
Published March 15th, 2004 in Photos, Words
Ask any new parent what their biggest adjustment has been, now that they have a baby in their lives, and I’m willing to bet most of them will have the same answer: sleep, or more precisely the lack of sleep. Everyone seems to have their own ideas on how to “deal” with the sleeping problem, from “sleep when the baby sleeps” to “slip the kid some Baby Tylenol.” In my own experience, there’s only one way to live with such a drastic change in one’s sleep schedule: get used to it.
With all the other changes coming in my life, the last thing I need to fret over is losing a little sleep. I’m going to have runny noses to wipe, cuts to bandage, bobos to kiss, broken hearts to mend… My mind boggles at the enormity of what the future holds in my journey through fatherhood. I think missing a few hours sleep (in the big scheme of things) is going to be a small footnote in the record books.
Honestly, I’ve already gotten used to it. It’s just a matter of routine. Overnight Simon usually sleeps at least two-four hours between changes/feedings, which seems to be just about right for getting two good REM cycles per night. He goes to bed around ten o’clock, and I follow at about eleven or twelve. He wakes us up (cries of “Change me! Feed me!” coming from the air itself through the magic of the baby monitor) at about two. I’m up for five minutes changing his diaper while Angie gets ready to feed him, and then I get back to sleep. Simon wakes up again around five-thirty in the morning, giving me another five minute break in sleep before my final thirty minutes or so of snooze-button-mashing pseudo sleep. Then it’s time to make the donuts get up, take a shower, make my lunch and head out to the train station.
The hard part isn’t the not sleeping. The hard part is the not allowing myself to stay up and watch Simon sleep. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single living thing more at peace than my little boy sleeping.
Have you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth? Many swear by it. He believes that establishing a rigid consistent sleep schedule around 16 weeks of age is critical for a child. Unlike some “sleep experts”, he has numerous case studies to back up his claims.
No, we haven’t. I’ve heard good things and bad things about it. How is it working for you?
We’ve only begun implementing his techniques, but we’ve had mixed results. Megan might not yet be biologically mature enough to be placed in a steady sleep cycle, although other aspects of her show advanced maturity.
The book’s first edition is very harsh — so harsh that parents implementing his techniques could be called “sleep Nazis”. The first edition we have was a loaner, so we bought the third edition, which has toned down quite a bit. He’s no longer averse to parents trying to soothe the baby if he or she has trouble sleeping, so long as it is a consistent method. In our case, we have to check up on her if she’s screaming after five to ten minutes because she vomits very easily, and if she vomits in bed while screaming, her protest crying will increase in intensity.
She was overtired on Monday because she missed some naps that day and on Sunday. We had a very difficult time putting her to bed Monday night, but when she finally decided to crash, she slept 11 hours solid.