September 29, 2009

The Vagaries of Sleep

A shocking development today--a post with no adorable pictures of the babe. I had some on my camera--new ones from his four-month birthday yesterday, but I forgot to load them on the computer prior to heading to the library, so this post will merely be words. If you are still reading, thanks. If you are cursing the lack of adorable baby photos, I'm sorry. More will be coming.

I'm adjusting to my new life fairly well--I miss school a bit, but I'm letting myself enjoy the relaxed nature of my days. Our goal everyday is to play, do laundry, dishes, and other household tasks, and try to catch The Price is Right. One of the more difficult things as babies age is sleep.

The newborn babe sleeps a good bit--not always at night, but he does sleep. Now, at 1/3 of a year old, he struggles a bit with sleep. We've had to move into our bright blue IKEA crib with elephant sheets from Target, as we got too big for our basket and chair in mommy's room. We don't seem to love that. See, and some parents will hate me, but for the last two months or so, I generally got 6-8 solid hours of sleep a night. Now, I get about six, but it's broken up into 2-hour chunks, interrupted by solid screaming, that is almost impossible to comfort. I like to think he just misses me, but I could be wrong. The books, and my pediatrician, all tell me I'm doing everything right, that babies have to learn to sleep.

This seems a bit odd, as all a newborn does is sleep, but no, they have to learn it. When you begin to observe life from a baby's perspective, you realize how much changes. My baby doesn't quite know how to go to sleep--he may be dead-tired, but he'll still cry and cry, not just lay down and close his eyes. His mom, on the other hand, 30 years older, would love to just lay down and close my eyes.

This rambled a bit--I haven't been getting a ton of sleep--but I wanted to put down my thoughts on our latest adventure, the final frontier--sleep.

I promise to post pictures later this week.

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