Sleep Challenges

Yet more sleep challenges in the Grass is Greener household. LM's stretches are actually getting longer and more and more he is up only twice between the time we go to bed and wake up. Absolutely heavenly. However, he has become more and more dependent on me for sleep. In the morning, we nap together - a luxury I love. We started it partly because I love the sleep and partly because he won't really nap otherwise, not for more than 20 minutes or so. But the moment I get up and creep away, his eyes whip open. That's not a real problem per se, but how does he know?

And one thing that always went right, or we thought, was bedtime. He always nodded off nicely to sleep after nursing him. Sure, he might be up an hour later, but with a few jiggles, a rock, maybe a nurse, he'd be back down. Now he just refuses to go to sleep in the first place. Instead of being a sweet, sleepy bundle as I place him in the crib, he's a live wire jumping and kicking his legs and smiling. And the second I leave the room there are screams that make my fillings rattle. At first we figured maybe he just wasn't tired - after all his schedule has been out of whack with all our travel, so we let him stay up. But then he did it again, and again. And he's clearly tired, rubbing his eyes, getting cranky and so on. But he just does not want to fall asleep in a room that we're not in. And yet, I treasure my evenings - I need them to keep some semblance of self and sanity. I really do not want my baby still awake at 9 p.m. So blah to that.

You know what's kind of hilarious? I think I may have to become the world's first co-sleeping cry-it-outer. You would think a child who has such positive associations with sleep - nestling into his mother's arms, nursing on demand, cuddled up all warm and cosy - wouldn't fight it so damn much.