Sunday, February 17, 2013

Brennan gave up sleep for Lent. Which is funny, because I had no intentions of sacrificing my sanity.

First babies get stressed out, anxious mothers - mothers standing over screaming infants saying, "What am I supposed to do now?!" But the one advantage first time mothers have over the rest of us is Resolve. I was so very determined not to create Bad Habits when Asher was a baby. I carefully thought through every detail. Was I interrupting his schedule? Was I creating a Bad Habit?

By baby number four, the only thing I consider carefully is, will doing this help me keep sleeping?

This is not the best strategy for creating good sleep habits, friends.

Brennan was in a pretty good little routine. He ate about 7, went down about 7:45-8, then either slept through the night or woke up around 3 a.m. to eat. Okay, so he's only slept through the night three times. But it has happened! It is possible, anyway.

Then last week, our familial crud finally made its way to the baby, and Sunday night he was up all night with a double ear infection. Which is sad, but really shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? You would assume it was an isolated incident, easily remedied with an antibiotic, right? Me too.

Except that Brennan has not slept on his own since Sunday night. Since then, unless he has some sort of skin to skin contact, he hasn't slept at all.

I am afraid he has formed a Bad Habit.

And so far, my remedy has been to do whatever it takes to get through the night. Which mostly means letting him sleep on me, and is most certainly reinforcing his bad habit.

But now it is the sixth night, and I am beginning to feel a little desperate. I am no good at letting babies cry. I have also lost my first-time mom resolve. But I need my baby to sleep!

Alas.

Here is what happens when your mom puts you on the couch to kick and coo so that she can blog after six nights without sleep.

Happy Sunday, friends.

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