Crazy little thing called sleep
Cereal, squats and the national anthem. Carrie will do anything for a little shut-eye.
By Carrie Linder
Pic: Shutterstock
Article originally in
Parent24
What would you do for a solid night’s sleep? It’s all relative I suppose, but after 5 months of horribly interrupted sleep I don’t think there’s much I wouldn’t do for just one solid night…
But little Joseph has other plans. At 5 months old (and already weighing over 8 kilograms) he actually isn’t such a ‘little’ Joseph, but rather a ‘healthy’ Joseph (euphemism for chubby), which prompted me to start him on solids last week. Perhaps the 5 or 6 wake ups a night are hunger-related?
Six nights and enough rice cereal to feed a small Chinese family later: no difference. In fact, instead of starting the day officially at 3:45am, he now seems to think 1am is just as good a time to rise and shine.
So what do I do? I do what any desperate mother would do. Squats. Him over the shoulder and half an hour of squats worked a charm when he was a colicky newborn so I figure it might work now. I’ll try anything. But after two hours of squats and 396 refrains of Nkosi Sikelele (the only song I can think of at 1am) he is still more awake than a bush baby on a caffeine high.
After a weekend visiting my parents, my mom advises me to cut out the singing. ‘Do you think he will fall asleep faster if I don’t sing?’ I ask hopefully.
‘Uh, no, but the rest of the family would probably fall asleep faster if you don’t sing,’ she says. I wasn’t refused a position in the choir without reason.
I know that Joseph should be able to put himself to sleep by now. I know I shouldn’t be squatting, rocking, pacing, lulling, patting, and apparently I definitely shouldn’t be singing. But the fact remains that he doesn’t put himself to sleep. So, if 2 hours of rocking equals one hour of sleep, well that’s just a bargain. I’ll take it.
I just hope he eventually does learn to fall asleep on his own. I don’t know how I’ll manage to squat with him over my shoulder when he gets to high school. I’m not saying I won’t try though; like I said, I will do anything for sleep.
What will you do for a good night’s sleep?