I told myself I’d never be one of those mothers who lets or even encourages her child to wake up multiple times a night until he was three. Funny how what we tell ourselves about parenting flies out the window when our children are born. But you can—and will—sleep through the night again, and so can your baby.
My son was a pretty good sleeper—for the first few days. By the time he was two weeks old, he developed a 2 AM grunting habit. My mother took over for me one night, and even she remarked on his strange two-hour grunting spell. By eleven weeks, I was going crazy—I abruptly shifted my son from my bedroom (read: sleeping in my arms or in his car seat) to a crib in his own room.
And it worked. It really worked! For about six weeks, he slept through the night, awaking only once for a quick feeding. He was young enough to need it. I let it go on. One weekend, I was even blessed with three nights of uninterrupted sleep!
I was certain our sleep troubles were over. After all, I’d been doing everything right: I had him on a perfect nap “schedule,” our days were routine, he fell asleep on his own instead of in my arms. Surely those nights were the sign of a new era in parenting: one where I could feel rested in the morning and patient throughout the day.
Of course, I was wrong. Over the next eight months, my son’s sleep habits ranged from bad to worse. In his first year, he slept through the night less than twenty times. At one year, he was still waking up two to five times a night to eat. And let me tell you, he was getting quite a bit of food during the day—plus he was only in the twenty-fifth percentile for weight.
I called his pediatrician and spoke to a nurse. She summarized their resources for me: nearly every suggestion was something we were already doing. At his nine month appointment, his doctor shrugged. “Yeah, sometimes it’s just tough.” He has three children, and apparently not many theories on raising them anymore, to paraphrase Bill Cosby.
So if you’re desperate for sleep, I fully understand your pain. If I could hug you now, I would. I've heard good things about
Sleepytime Secrets: let me know if it works for you! Good luck to us all in our journey to sleep.
