In the beginning Ty was not what I would've called a great sleeper. He religiously woke up every 3 hours to nurse, 4 if we were lucky. By the time he finished eating and we did diaper changes, I was only sleeping maybe 2-3 hours in between. By medical definition, sleeping through the night is considered 5 uninterrupted hours. He did that the day he turned 12 weeks. I seriously thought I was a new woman. If you would've told me that I'd have to settle for sleeping in 2-3 hour increments, while still taking care of a baby, keeping the house clean, and cooking dinner, for a solid 3 months, I would've thought you were crazy. Its amazing how the body adjusts.
By about 4 months, Ty was solidly sleeping through the night. We would even get 6-7 hour stretches, sometimes even 8! Then we started solids and that rocked my poor baby's world. I should've known that an infant with such a sensitive belly would have digestion issues when we introduced food. Sure enough, he was waking in the night again, this time with dirty diapers. Eventually that tapered off and I learned what he could and could not eat, and we were back to sleeping a relatively solid amount of time...or so I thought. Ty had a rather extended stay in our bedroom, until about 6 months. Neither of us were ready to have him in another room, so he slept peacefully beside me in his rock-n-play. When he'd wake up I'd easily place the pacifier in his mouth, shush, and rock him back to sleep. In fact, I had extras on the night stand for back-up. It wasn't until we bit the bullet and moved him to his own room that I realized he wasn't really sleeping through the night at all! Once in his own room, I was getting up repeatedly to replace his pacifier. At first I didn't mind...he always went right back to sleep, as did I. Over the next few weeks, he was depending on me a little too much, and I was up probably 6-8 times a night. One exhausting night, I was getting up for the 6th time before 3am and Cooter stopped me. That's the first time we let him cry it out. That night spurred a very difficult couple of nights as we let our son learn to self-soothe...a skill that we would praise ourselves for later. After that, Ty became a super sleeper, sleeping 10-12 hours a night. Talk about a new woman! I was even awake before him in the morning, enjoying a few minutes to myself, and loving that I wasn't awakened with a screaming cry.
Fast forward 5 months. Around his first birthday, sleep began evading my sweet boy. For my kid, bad sleep equals more bad sleep. So if he slept poorly one night, he had horrible naps, etc. until he'd eventually have a marathon sleep to catch himself back up. He's been like that since day 1. So, people think I'm the nap nazi with my kid, but I kind of have to be, especially since I'm the one waking up with him in the night. We blamed this lack of sleep on teething, which he finally was. Tooth #1 cut and made its debut without any warning at all. Sweet, I got this, I told myself! A full month later, Ty cut 4 teeth in just a couple of weeks. He was up every night, mostly wanting to be held. I complied because I hated to see my baby in pain. After it seemed that teething was momentarily done, but he continued to wake each night, we let him cry it out again. It does not get any easier just because he's older. In fact, he stands up now and whether he's doing it on purpose or not, he cries right into the monitor. Breaks my heart. Again, we praised our toughness, as the couple of weeks to follow were full of blissful sleep!
Now here we are again, waiting for Mr. Sandman to lull our baby back into a better sleeping routine. What's worse this time...sometimes he wakes 2-3 times a night. The only thing that keeps him asleep is being held. He's a big baby now, and its very hard to get comfortable with him, and he squirms throughout trying to get comfy himself, so I know he's not getting quality sleep either. This round of waking started with ear piercing screams in the middle of the night, like terrifying screams that make you jump out of bed. Thinking that maybe he was having night terrors, we went to him, comforted him, and put him back to bed, where he usually stayed asleep the rest of the night. Then teething started again. We can see the tooth, we can feel the tooth, but it will not cut. He wakes up, we go get him, comfort him, put him back to bed, and an hour later, do it all again. Last night he was out by 9, up by 11, I laid with him on the couch for an hour, put him to bed at midnight, and he was up again at 2. I laid with him again, but every time I tried to move him, he woke up. So that went off and on until 5:30am, when he thought it was time to wake up. Oh my. After we are certain that teething takes a pause (if it ever does), we'll have to let him self-soothe once again. I hate to do it, but none of us are well-rested. I just remind myself that the next day he's all smiles, and has no recollection of the night before.
Praying for peaceful dreams for my little guy.
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