ungodly sleeping habits

Oh sure we had read the grizzly books & heard the horror stories regarding how mythical parental control over the lil doods sleep-wake cycles. We had thrust upon us all sorts of texts describing ways to get your child on a sleep schedule, or ones specific to baby diets, and even one on how avoid what we were horrified to learn as the barbaric yet commonly practiced “cry to sleep” method [dont even get me started].

Oh sure we had read the grizzly books & heard the horror stories regarding how mythical parental control over the lil doods sleep-wake cycles. We had thrust upon us all sorts of texts describing ways to get your child on a sleep schedule, or ones specific to baby diets, and even one on how avoid what we were horrified to learn as the barbaric yet commonly practiced “cry to sleep” method [dont even get me started].

But it is an understatement to say that anna & i lacked a plan for establishing good sleep cycles. in short, our plan consisted of pumping the lil dood so fulla boob & formula that he’d pass the hell out never so much as stirring until noon the following friday. This method is solid gold, yo.

A bit rocky at first given how we struggled with exactly where his food supply was coming from. As well, the fact that he was sleeping right inbetween us & as such, every wee grumble or stir snapped one or both of us into some reverse feeding frenzy or another.

But right about the time his bed transitioned from between-the-pillows in mom & dads room to in-the-crib in his own room, right about this event his sleep cycles shot up & up & up. What began as every 3 hours at time at 4 weeks old, has now risen to 6-7 hours thru the night at 7 weeks old.

There were a few sleepless 1st nights using the monitor, where i’d hear nothing & therefore have to go in there & make sure the lil dood wasnt blue. There were other rocky mornings where he;s get up at 5 and be blazing to go for the day. But in general, he goes down around 10-11pm and sleeps all the way thru to early-early morning.

Night after night he snores 4-lanes-wide striaght thru mom & dads 2am shift-change. Anna has been instrumental here. No longer to grunts & groans qualify for heating-up a bottle. We would assume these sounds were proof of oncoming consciosness, thus pick him up & begin feeding. When in fact they are now clearly just sleep-sounds of a vocal monster baby. It now takes a full-on concussive cry in order to be sure he’s awake, but usually long before that.

COMMENTS

Dear Sir,

My son, let’s call him…oh I don’t know…Austin, is not a fan of sleeping through the night. My wife and I, let’s call her Liz for sake of argument, have started to let him cry. Instead of crying himself to sleep, he seems to enjoy crying. I’ve gone so long as to let him cry for 45 min. When I finally break down and go in to put the binky in his mouth (which is the reason he is crying 99.99% of the time) he ususally just looks at me and smiles. One of those big happy smiles only with tired puffy. eyes. Then he quickly rolls over and goes to sleep. I guess my question is, is this kid messing with me or what?

Yours Truelly
Let’s say my name is..oh I don’t know….Warren
Posted by: Warren at July 29, 2003 04:51 PM

(Originally Posted: 2003_0722)

testing the waters of public interest

this is a first. always have the audience to my words been somewhat capitive. at least known. but this format lends itself to the anonymous soapbox. who’ll read this? who’ll know, if read, if it will be digested? who’ll care? herein lies The Folly of the Blog: who really cares?

this is a first. always have the audience to my words been somewhat capitive. at least known. but this format lends itself to the anonymous soapbox. who’ll read this? who’ll know, if read, if it will be digested? who’ll care? herein lies The Folly of the Blog: who really cares?

i suspect that its more important, in some situations, to be heard then to have the meat & potatoes of your words be digested accurately. got to let them go eventually; once spoken, you’ve little control over how they are digested. thus we seek as desireable an audience as possible. so as to minimise confusion or to ease the palletability of the subject.

but when a petty author has a literary tailwind such as Archibald Jude for inspiration, its little wonder how/when shit will come to the surface. I mean, i talk to him, and he does listen. he means well. but he’s got an attention-span that last about as long as a yellow traffic light.

(Originally Posted: 2003_0719)