Zzz

Disclaimer: This blog post will probably not be of interest to any average, well-rested person.

I will confess. I have spent an inordinate amount of time in the past 2 weeks thinking about sleep.

Not in a day-dreaming kind of way (although, believe me, I have my moments), but in a how-do-I-help-my-child-sleep kind of way.

Victor was in a real good groove with sleep up until he hit about 3 1/2 months. Big nap in the middle of the day. Little nap in the late afternoon. Bedtime around 6pm. Feeding at 10pm and 4am. Sleep until about 7am, play for a while, eat again, and then sleep until 9am. It was a comfortable routine.

But it seemed like he was out-growing it, so we shifted things around to 2 mid-sized naps (morning and afternoon), and he did super during the days.

But meanwhile, his night sleep was pretty rocky. He was waking up many, many times during the night, and we found shuffling into his room to pop the paci in his mouth was minimally effective. He'd quiet down until it popped out of his mouth (sometimes about 30 seconds), and then wake up and cry again.

I consulted some books. Ben and I decided that it might be time to help Victor sleep without the paci, and maybe we could give up that 10pm feeding (which I normally had to wake him up for).

We braved some pretty rocky nights of crying. But we felt like we were on the verge of getting things in order. Then we went on a 5-day vacation.

Naps were hit-or-miss (mostly miss). Long hours in the car stretched everybody's endurance. It was our first time sleeping in a hotel room with Victor, and my strategy was simple. The first time he woke up, I'd feed him. After that, I'd pop the paci in as quick as possible so he didn't really rouse. It worked like a charm (and I was up at 11pm, 12am, 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am (feeding), 5am, and 6am. At least.).

After more long hours in the car, we arrived home Monday night... and had Victor's 4-month check-up on Tuesday (including shots).

He had good naps after his shots, praise Jesus! But besides that little window of rest, his naps were off, his nights were off, and I was feeling like the sleep-deprived mom I always feared I'd be with a baby.

Victor was not his normal happy self... fussy when I put him down to play in his pack-n-play, crying long stretches after just 30 min of a nap. Not nice.

I read most of 4 books on babies and sleep, and gleaned something from all of them. (If anybody has random questions about the topic, I now have accumulated a substantial pool of information. :) )

And finally, after much, much prayer, Monday was rather a breakthrough day. Victor took 2 really nice naps, went to bed earlier than normal, and (besides eating twice in the night) slept until 6:30am. When he woke up talking happily.

And he's kept up the good work.

I am so thankful! (The verse I kept praying over and over was Psalm 127:2, "He gives to his beloved sleep."

[Side note: I think that possibly the interrupted sleep was starting to get to me. For example, today when I was out running errands, I stopped at a store to buy a couple gift cards. Paid the cashier. Rummaged around in my purse for car keys. No keys. Put my purse down to really dig through it. No keys. Finally gave up and went to check the car. There they were. In the ignition. With the car still running. And all the windows down. So anyway, if you see my car driving around without me, check on me, ok?]