Sleep

It seems to me that every new parent has an issue that they latch onto and intensely focus upon in their new baby. Before we had you, I would have said that the common options were poop, weight gain, eating, and spitting. Really these are all different ends of the same issue. There is usually some worry that a new baby is crying because their tummy is upset, hungry, gassy, or full of poo. I swore I wouldn't obsess over any of those. Really, with the exception of the one time you went a whole week without pooping last March, I managed to not give any of those things a second thought. I did not, however, escape the new parent obsessions all together. No, I just found a new one. Your sleep.

Your Dad and I feel like broken records. "No we can't (insert fun or worthwhile activity here) because it will mess up your schedule." "Sorry, he's just not very friendly/alert/smiling right now, he's really tired." "Maybe he'll sleep tomorrow and we can try again." It might be interesting to see how many posts I've written about your sleep or lack there of. Until we had you, I wholeheartedly believed that, given a consistent routine and a safe and comfortable environment, a sleepy baby would sleep. In fact, I believe the books that tell me that most babies don't sleep because their parents are doing something to prevent them from sleeping. Let me just say that your Dad and I have followed every rule we can find, we've been consistent (sometimes to a fault, in my case), we've set routines, you have a schedule. You are always tired, but you, my dear son, just do not nap well. It baffles me. It humbles me. I guess I'm doing something wrong, but I'm all out of ideas. Your Dad and I have talked about it until we're blue in the face. Then we've talked some more about it. Then we've promised ourselves to stop asking "why." Then we ask "why" some more.

Then, last month, I read in a throw away magazine an article by a mom who was looking back over her first ten years of motherhood. She had five or ten things she would have told herself if she was starting over today. The only point I remember is that "everything is a phase." Sounds simple and familiar, I know. The point she made, though, was that that means everything. So while I've been inclined to think of your weeks (going on a month now) of thirty minute naps as a bad phase. I always thought of your oh-so-occasional weeks of 45 min in the morning and 90 min in the afternoon naps as "the real you." Nope. The good weeks are phases too. Hmmm. That does make things seem a little different.

So nothing has really changed in what you're doing during nap time. Your Dad and I are still extremely grateful that you go down easily for a good 12 hours every night at 7pm. We'd like you to get two to three hours of nap time sometime during the day, but we're lucky if you get 75 minutes. The only thing that has changed are our expectations. We still have a few left, but they are getting lower all the time with regards to your sleep. Wouldn't it just have been easier if we'd started there to begin with?