
Late one night in Tokyo, Steve captured as all in a content moment of sleep...
Sleeping has been a long running issue in our house; about 5 and 3/4 years long in fact. Before that, it was generally great with lots of Sunday mornings spent in bed and pretty much 8 hours solid sleep every night. But with the arrival of the little people it's been problematic to say the very least. And this Mama is getting tired.
We thought that Minnie was a 'bad' sleeper and she was always fed to sleep and woke every 3 or so hours over night for more feeding to sleep. This went on until she was 2 1/2, when I weaned her from the 'book,' as she called it. For day time sleeps, I drove her around the coast and spent a lot of time sitting in the car reading. But we eventually got her to put herself to sleep at night and to only spend 1/2 the night in our bed. I think Minnie was almost 2 before she slept longer than 5 hours in a go.
The boy though, that's another story. From almost day 1 we have co-slept. Actually is was day 2 as the first night he was in NICU. Day 2 in the hospital the midwives actually suggested (after going through the standard warnings they have to advise) that I sleep with him. We had co-slept with Minnie so it was no drama - I knew what to do. We thought that we would do it a while and he would get the hang of sleeping next to but not with us. Louis is almost 18 months old and has spent every night in our bed. Every night being fed to sleep, which would be fine if he actually stayed asleep for a few hours, like his sister did. But the LouLou only manages 40 minutes or 20 or 5 or if I am really, really spoiled, about 1 hour. Then he wakes and cries and I spend another 30 or 40 minutes feeding him back to sleep. As you can imagine this makes my evening less than relaxing. I eventually fall asleep, usually fully dressed, as this merry go round spins into the night. Steve spends his evenings talking to the dog and listening to me complain, during the brief moments I am actually in the living room. Some days I don't mind. We know that it will pass, one day, and that babies do grow up so quickly. We just smile as I head up the long hallway for yet another 'getting him back to sleep' feeding session. Other days I have had it up to my bloodshot eye balls and feel completely helpless about the situation we are in.
Just so you know - Louis does not have a dummy or softie or cuddly. He does not know how to self settle and he drinks as much or my milk as a new born (well not quite but he is very attached to his 'susu')
So what do you do? What have you done? Have you tried comfort settling?