It sometimes seems that the first few years of being a parent revolves around sleep. How do I get my kid to sleep on her own? How do I keep her asleep after the first few hours? How do I sleep when I have so much to do after the kid is safely in bed? Where should my kid sleep? What wakes my kid up?
I'm in the thick of sleep disturbances at the moment. W has been refusing to sleep on his own and we've let him back into our bed because honestly, he's going through a lot right now and we don't have the stomachs to make him sleep in the crib by himself. E sleeps, but she's got a perpetually stuffy nose and I haven't found a good place for her to sleep yet (crazy, I know...she's three months old and she's sleeping in a bouncy chair. And E also has really bad gas, so she screams in pain every hour starting around 2:30 a.m.--she's not awake, but she's not peacefully sleeping either. I think the bouncy chair is making it hard for her to release the gas and it builds up, thus waking us all at 2:30. And 3:30. And 4:30. You get the idea. Sleep is eluding us and I'm feeling completely stuck on how to solve any of these problems.
I'm not asking for advice because I know by now that there is no magic answer. Kids' sleep patterns are variable and unpredictable. I'm going to try putting E in the pack n play for sleep. We don't have a crib for her and are trying to avoid buying one, but W is not ready for the toddler bed, so there we are. Maybe the pack n play will work. The arms.reach co-sleeper is just not working no matter how I try it. I love the idea of the co-sleeper, but it didn't work with W and it hasn't worked with E. Does anyone have a good experience with them? Sigh.
I'm feeling a bit like a walking zombie these days and I'm really back to work the week of the 16th because I'll be teaching a class of 35 students. I'll need to be somewhat sharp in order to not feel completely embarrassed doing so. *yawn*
I am feeling incredibly lucky. So so so so lucky right now as things have been going (cross fingers, knock wood, throw salt, etc...) pretty well sleepwise for the past few weeks. But I am stressing (getting ahead of myself) about what our permanent sleeping arrangements will be.I am NOT ready to take B out of the crib since he seems to like it just fine, and L is still in the newborn napper thing in the pack n play in our room. We don't have a spare room so they'll have to go in together eventually & we'll likely end up buying a new crib from IKEA for L. I'm putting it off because...well why mess with what ain't broken.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I hope its OK...I was going to quote you and link to your post re: your resolution on marriage.
Ana--thanks! I really like your resolution on marriage post. You can link to me anytime (and I'll try to return the favor).
ReplyDeleteIt's really good to hear that you have the same stresses about how to organize sleeping arrangements...with two kids this close in age, it's quite a challenge. We may end up at IKEA, too. Bah.
I'll knock on wood here for you, too--I wish you much continued good sleep!! I know it will return for us, too. I just hope it returns soon.
Oh yes. My MIL has asked me about 3,000 times where our new baby is going to sleep. I have absolutely NO IDEA. All I keep thinking is please please let this baby be a "good sleeper". We may be totally out of our rockers but I can see us end up as 4 in the bed - for space reasons just as much as anything else.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you find a decent solution by the time you have to teach because sleep deprivation and work are a terrible combination.