That 5 Letter Word

Sleep.

As moms we start worrying about sleep before our baby is even born.  It starts in the 1st trimester when we're so exhausted we could sleep standing on one foot while eating a double cheeseburger.  By the 3rd trimester we are flopping between not being able to sleep because "the baby is moving too much, we're too bloated, we're too hot, we're to anxious" to being able to sleep standing on one foot while eating a triple cheeseburger.

Once our new bundle of joy has arrived, we're so head over heels in love we would rather sit and watch them sleep then sleep ourselves. We are told to "nap when baby naps"; but instead we find ourselves cleaning the house, writing thank you cards and again watching the baby sleep.  At this point we would give anything for baby to fall into our adult sleep cycle; but alas baby is not an adult.

Our desire for our children to sleep as we sleep, if not longer; never seems to go away.  As toddlers they are up at 6am (or earlier) on Saturday and as teenagers we can't get them to bed before 2am.

As parents out battle with sleep in an on-going one.

With Turkey I was blessed, he slept through the night from an early age.  And while I admit I may have blocked out the memory I don't recall him ever having a "sleep regression".  I have however dealt with night terrors and sleep walking with him (all blogs for another day).

Monkey on the other hand is a different child, and perhaps my memory is better as these events are recent....

Monkey started sleeping through the night (via the technical definition of 5+ hours in a row) early on, 6 or so weeks.  By 8 weeks he was sleeping nearly 12 hours in a row.... and them wham-o he drove that sleep train straight off the bridge, and I don't think he's even found the wreckage yet.  Right around 12 weeks of age (he's 14 weeks today) it seemed like Monkey forgot how to sleep through the night.  Some nights he was up once around 3am, but most other nights he would start waking hourly beginning at 2am.

At first we thought it was teething.  He had all the classic signs; fussing while nursing, drooling, low grade temp, chewing on everything.  But the "experts" are split on whether or not teething causing sleep issues.

My next guess was a growth spurt, as it seemed like all he wanted to do was nurse when he woke up. But I've come to realize he would nurse around the clock if I let him.  He doesn't care if it's been 5 minutes or 5 hours since he last ate, he'll take the boob whenever offered.

After that I blamed it on me going back to work, and him not having unlimited boob access.  But I know Husband feeds him, and feeds him well while I am gone.  Not to mention the sleep problem don't go away when I am home with him during the day.

So then I started thinking it was the "4 month sleep regression", which has been cited to happen between 3 months and 5 months.  Again; all the classic signs.  And again the "experts" on split as to whether or not this is a real phenomena.

Oh but wait, maybe he's not sleeping because he was acquiring a new skill (babies and kids alike do this, I have witnessed this first hand) - he has learned to roll front to back AND back to front.  Both in the same day; today  Maybe, just maybe, he'll sleep through the night tonight.

What I am sure of is that sleep begets sleep.  His lack of good nighttime sleep is now affecting his daytime sleeping.... he is starting to get into that vicious cycle of sleep deprivation.  It is time to take action.  Wish us luck (plan of action to follow later.. as I am still working on that, but I do know consistency is going to be key.)