Sleep

As anyone who has ever had a baby knows all too well, sleep becomes the ultimate goal soon after you bring the baby home from the hospital. The evasiveness of this goal, combined with the realization that I would have had a lot more energy had I had a child at 22 instead of 27, has made for a long 7 weeks. One of the more interesting facts about this topic is that mothers all over the country have told me how "lucky" I am in that Charlie slept from about 11:00 or 11:30 pm until 3:00 or 3:30 am (and then again until 7:30 or so) since he was about 3 weeks old, giving me about 6 or so hours of sleep total, divided by that one middle-of-the-night feeding. So the reality that I have been totally exhausted in spite of being "lucky" has made me literally live in fear for the time when he begins to sleep less (and fearful about having any subsequent children who might, horror of horrors, want to eat every 2 or 3 hours during the night). This fear has made the times when I should be sleeping difficult, as I often just toss and turn, waiting for him to wake-up, convinced at any moment that he will become a screamer instead of a sleeper.

And the story of sleep continues...last week-end we visited Ryan's parents in Carrollton, GA and on Friday night the little guy slept from the last feeding (10:30 or 11:00) until 5:45 am! I woke up scared to death, fearing he was dead! But no, he was in his carseat in the bathroom (more on that later) sleeping peacefully. On Saturday night, he slept until 6:45 am!! I woke up at 5:45 in total shock and laid in bed awake waiting for his cry. When it finally came, I responded with JOY, so thankful to my small son for the nearly 6 CONSECUTIVE hours of sleep. For most of this past week, the trend continued - Charlie would wake up between 5 and 6 am.

Then Friday night (as in the night before last) he slept until 7:15! I was again totally shocked. Now I did not get to take advantage of all of that time since he did take about an hour to cry himself to sleep and since Ryan was on call, which entails him getting paged for ICU crises and admissions all night long. But the fact that he showed the ability to sleep that long was worth celebrating. Last night he was back to the 5:30 am wake-up time but that's OK - my little son has showed me that he can sleep until 7am. And I am learning slowly but surely, that this time of sleep deprivation, uncertainty and chaos will pass and that one day, I'll go back to sleeping 8 hours a night...At least until I have another child or until Charlie becomes a teenager and I am awake worrying about his safety instead of his sleep habits. :)

PS - About sleeping in the carseat: Charlie has an aversion for lying down flat on his back and since the American Academy of Pediatrics frowns on stomach sleeping, he sleeps in his carseat. He has done this since he was 2 days old. We've tried the crib with positioners, the crib with sleep wedges that prop up the head, the crib by itself and all resulted in those horrific every 2 hour feedings. In the carseat, he sleeps like an angel, probably feeling cuddled by the small space. We are kind enough to put a blanket in the bottom so he doesn't have to lay on buckles all night long. And of course the carseat is in the crib, safe from the dogs.


Here are some pictures of Easter week-end at the beach (Charlie was 4 weeks old):

The sisters with their boys

"Big Daddy" with his grand-boys: