Monday, February 6, 2012

Be careful what you wish for....

My daughter was a beautiful baby but very challenging when it came to sleep. She didn't sleep longer than five hours at a time until she was well over seven months old. I only got eight weeks of maternity leave with her, so I was a very tired momma for several months until she finally learned to sleep at night.

When I was pregnant this time, I kept telling people, "I just want this one to sleep through the night sooner than his sister did." And, boy, did I get my wish. Little Man has been sleeping through night - and I'm talking 8-10 hours straight - for almost three weeks now.

But we all know the saying...

Apparently the trade-off, at least for now, is that Little Man sees little need to sleep during the day. Overall, I'm perfectly okay with this because he's happy and playful and easy. But after four or five hours, he starts to get tired and cranky and will generally fall asleep while nursing, only to wake up screaming within 5 minutes of me putting him down.

I finally got him down for a real nap after 7 hours of being awake, and only by letting him sleep on me. After 30 minutes, I moved him to his crib where he has been sleeping quietly for 40 more minutes.

I'm still on leave, so I'm happy to go with his flow for now. But I'm returning to work soon and am nervous that my mother-in-law might not handle the not napping so well.

Uh-oh... screaming from the nursery. I guess I'll be closing this post here. You mommas out there, any tips or suggestions for encouraging good sleep during the day?

No comments:

Post a Comment