Sleep Saga - Part Two

When Jamie was born he slept beautifully. The nurses at the hospital thought he was a delight and practically begged me to let them take him to the nursery at night. Well, okay, that might have been the other way around, but he did sleep for most of the night the first few nights.

Once he came home he woke every three hours for a feeding but that was alright with me. At 5 pounds 13 ounces, he was a tiny little boy, and he needed to eat fairly often. But he was so different from his sister. When it came to nursing this boy was all business. No lingering one hour feeds for him. He could finish a feeding in 10 minutes flat. By 2 weeks of age he was sleeping through the night.

I was certain God had blessed me finally with a sleeper. He knew I couldn't handle two more years of sleeplessness. All those stories I heard about boys being better sleepers must be true. It was a dream come true. And I didn't even have to wait for the 3 month mark. That was when I heard most normal babies begin sleeping through the night.

We don't do normal here.

In a perverse twist of irony, Jamie began waking throughout the night almost precisely on his 3 month birthday.

But this time I was ready for him. Armed with 5 different "How To Get Your Baby To Sleep" books, I was on a mission. I kept sleep logs and charts. I measured steps to the doorway. I had timers set for certain amounts of fuss time. Strangely enough all this charting and logging took up a lot of time I probably could have spent sleeping.

And Jamie was a puzzle. I was used to a baby that would be happy as long as I would let her come to bed with me and snuggle up. From day 1 Jamie liked his personal space. He preferred his crib thank you very much. He didn't necessarily want to sleep there, but he sure as heck didn't want to co-sleep with me either. Putting him in bed with me was and is like trying to sleep with a bag of worms.

Through very hard work and determination and adherence to my own version of a "How To Get Your Baby To Sleep" system, I was finally able to give Jamie a kiss good-night, place him in his crib where he would talk to himself for a little while before peacefully falling asleep on his own.

But like his sister before him, he refused to stay asleep. Again he didn't seem to grasp the hang of sleeping through the night until right before his baby sister was born.

Thus ensuring my streak of not getting a full night's sleep could continue unbroken.