Saturday, May 15, 2010

Being awake at 3:34 am is not okay

Can't quite figure out why sleep is evading me, but I'm not liking it one bit. Sawyer and Matt are both zonked out next to each other in bed.  Yes, I take little s. into our bed most nights. It doesn't start out that way. He goes to sleep in his own crib, but usually in the early morning any time between 3 and 5 am he wakes up and I bring him back to bed with me. At first I felt like I would be judged by other moms if they knew, so it was like a dirty little secret that I kept. And let's face it I probably will be. I too once thought it was weird when moms would say their kid slept in their bed. I'd think, oh they are those kind of parents. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones who will have that same kid still sleeping in the middle of their bed at age three. But then my friend Ashley send me  this article that said

 "...infant responses to maternal smells, movements and touch altogether reduce infant crying while positively regulating infant breathing, body temperature, absorption of calories, stress hormone levels, immune status, and oxygenation. In short, and as mentioned above, cosleeping (whether on the same surface or not) facilitates positive clinical changes including more infant sleep and seems to make, well, babies happy. In other words, unless practiced dangerously, sleeping next to mother is good for infants. The reason why it occurs is because… it is supposed to." 


 I also read in my "What Smart Mothers Know" book (that I got in my swag bag at the Babies movie screening) that is doesn't matter where your kid sleeps just as long as they are getting enough of it! Ah. Nothing better than a big heaping dose of vindication even if it's just so I feel better about my parenting skills.  I can think of a lot of more important things to worry about than having a warm baby cuddled up next to me in bed. And it's true that he sleeps so much sounder with me, but of course he does because after all (like the Cornershop song says)
 "everybody need a bosom for a pillow." 


Well now that I've admitted that perhaps sleep will kindly grant me at least a few beautiful REM cycles tonight. In any case if I can't count sheep, I could always count toys on the landing. There are enough of them that before I were to add them all up I'm sure I'd be snoozing. 





3 comments:

Victoria said...

I often brought Samantha to bed with me when she would wake up in the middle of the night. Thankfully that's not the case anymore. Now if I bring her to bed, she'll just talk the whole time or stare at me. I'm sure Sawyer will get to that point too and then you won't want him in there ;).

Kim Allen said...

Wow he is adorable! Look at those eyes! Sorry to hear you aren't sleeping. I hope you find a way!

Sven & Trin said...

Sawyer is such a cutie.

I just came across your sister's blog and noticed that her husband is headed to Al Dhafra AFB and I thought that was funny because I just posted a youtube clip from some guys that were there. I don't know the guys, but think the video is funny. Anyway, that's a fun coincidence.