Mendolonium

I’ll let you in on a little secret…I have a magic baby.  You might ask, “What’s so magical about him?”…

He sleeps.

He sleeps on the changing table, he sleeps in our arms, he sleeps in the swing, he sleeps on the floor, he sleeps in the sling, he sleeps on the bed, he sleeps in the stroller.  He sleeps ALL NIGHT LONG waking up once – occasionally twice to nurse.  It’s amazing.  It’s also incredibly healing.  I’ve mentioned before that Thomas “isn’t the best nighttime sleeper”.  Let me be blunt – Thomas is a terrible nighttime sleeper and always has been.  At 2.75 years old he is still regularly waking up three times a night.  There was a period around a year old where he woke up an average of seven times a night.  Having a child who sleeps like that (or more accurately, doesn’t sleep like that) will make you question your sanity and your skill as a parent.  While I have always espoused the philosophy that children are born with a “sleep personality” that you cannot fully control as a parent and while I know that Thomas has had some significant physiological issues (reflux, allergies) that have hampered his sleep in the wee hours of the morning I would often wonder if we had done something “wrong”.   What if I had put Thomas down drowsy and let him fall asleep (Not that I’ve ever seen him drowsy, but perhaps I missed it)? What if I hadn’t nursed him to sleep for every nap and nighttime until he was eighteen months old?  What if we had never co-slept?  For all intents and purposes we are parenting Henry exactly the same way as we parented Thomas.  I nurse on demand.  I am happy to let Henry nurse to sleep whenever he wants.   We co-sleep as desired by mama and baby (for Henry that probably amounts to about 1/3 of his sleep time).  And Henry simply goes to sleep when he is tired.  Sometimes he needs a nurse or the pacifier, but more often than not he will fall asleep to the gentle motion of the stroller or the swing and about once a day will simply drift off on the floor or changing table if it is near his nap time.  After having such a difficult time with Thomas it does truly seem like magic to us and what beautiful magic it is.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Theodore, Thomas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.