Monday, May 5, 2008

sleep



The two adult members of this household have really had it with the sleeplessness. Joseph has been waking up every two hours lately. Yes, that is a healthy sleep pattern for a newborn. Joseph is nearly eight months old. During the day he seems reasonably happy, it's just that he wants to be held and fed all night long. This stinks.

So now we're letting him cry himself back to sleep whenever he wakes up at night. You go into his room and he's standing up in his crib, holding onto the bars and screaming. It's terrible. Initially we had thought it was sadistic and wrong to let cry all by himself, but now it seems sadistic and wrong (not to mention pointlessly self-flagellating) to raise a baby who cannot sleep.

Sunday night was our first night with this experiment, and it turns out he doesn't cry for more than ten minutes at a time, usually more like five minutes. This morning he did not seem psychologically scarred or like he hated me or anything. Last night I took a benadryl and almost sleep right through the noise. I think I slept for more than four hours straight, which would be the first time that happened in a year. This morning I exercised. Really.

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