Oh, little baby J. I love you. I really, really do. I love you so much, that I want you to experience the joys of sleep. I want you to rest your weary body and wake rejuvenated and happy. I want your little baby mind to be crisp and your smile to be quick.
BUT.
What you want is to wake up . . . every two hours. You want milk. You want to be in the bed between mommy and daddy (which I love, but being that J loves to FLAIL in bed now, it isn't the best situation, not to mention the awkward contortions your body must go through to get comfy). You want to cuddle (in the most awkward positions). You DO NOT want to be in the crib, with cute little Blue Bear or Quacky (yes, I thought you might like a lovey or two, but NO) . You want us . . . who can blame you. So, here we are, two sleep deprived parents. My eyes are twitching. My head is floating in a cloud. Your daddy, is now zombie daddy with Samsonite hanging under his eyes. We'll soldier on . . . We. Will. Survive.
And now . . . a poem . . . dedicated to J:
We read you a book and give a kiss and a hug.
We smile as we bid you a sweet goodnight,
We blow you a kiss and we turn out the light.
Goodnight sweet boy.
A move, a whimper, little cries,
We wait then go to dry your eyes.
We smile as we watch you rest your head,
We bid farewell and head to bed.
Goodnight little darling.
A shout we hear as startled we wake,
We slowly head to your room, "Boy is it late!"
A little while later we finally find sleep.
We pray that the restful silence will keep.
Goodnight.
Our attempts to sleep are to no avail,
As we wake to your whimpers, cries, and a wail.
A midnight feeding, a binky, your boo,
We drag ourselves back to bed hoping all that will do.
'night.
Not so much. You're up once again,
Babbling as if to ask, "Where ya been?"
We drag our worn-out bodies back to your room,
Mommy's secretly wishing she could put you back in the womb
. . . .
We rock you awhile and sing you a song,
But we know that you won't be asleep for long.
It's 3 AM as dad heads to bed.
But instead of sleep it's ESPN.
Mom goes downstairs, "No sleep for me."
Instead she dusts, washes dishes, and folds laundry.
And little baby all snug and safe in his bed,
Smiles as he rests his sweet little head.
End
The good news . . . daddy and I are figuring things out. Sleep still eludes us most of the time. But little J--he's only waking ONCE during the night now. To us, it is pure bliss . . .
55 comments:
Heh. My kiddo (who is 9 months today!) doesn't sleep at night either. Well, correction. He DOES sleep at night but only in the bed with me.
Yes, there are bruises on my spine from kicks. Yes, I probably have bald spots from having hair ripped out.
But hell, it's better than having to go in there 4 times during the night.
Getting babies to sleep through the night is so hard.
Our first was super easy. He sucked his thumb. Our second on the other hand, was terrible!
Finally, I read that sleep is something babies have to learn to do. Just like crawling. You can't do it for them they have to learn it own their own.
That advice helped me, but who knows. Part of the hard part of being a Mama! :-)
Good Luck, and glad to hear that he is only getting up once now!
things will get better (I think!) The poem is super cute
The only way I have EVER been able to cure this problem... is sleep training..... and the longer I've put it off, the harder it gets.
So, definitely, I wish you the best of luck with that.
It's some thing each of us Moms have to learn on our own. Sad, but oh so true.
He's learning! Once a night isn't too bad, right? Well, bad enough. Soon he'll sleep right through. Hang in there!
I LOVE the poem!
Ugh. Blogger just ate my comment!
What I wanted to say was that we did the CIO method by the time Christopher was 18 months old, and hadn't slept through the night yet. It was hard but it only took two nights, and he's slept like an angel ever since (he's 11 now).
I'm not suggesting you do the same, I just wanted to let you know that I understand the sleep deprivation. It is so hard.
But it will get better - so hang in there and enjoy those snuggles while you can! :)
Heidi
Love the poem. You are so creative:)
Now to the sleeping....what is that exactly?? HJ wakes up once at night now but she is still in the bed with us. I have embraced it. It is the only way anyone will get any sleep in our house. How long has baby J been in his crib?
Great poem. Sleep - its a wonderful thing. It took my youngest until he was almost 4 to sleep all night. Best of luck!
Once a night is FANTASTIC. Gracie was a three times a nighter til she was three. Just thinking about that makes my eyes droop a little.
The poem and the picture...adorable!
oh my goodness... look at that little sweet face! i loved the poem, but even more I loved the picture of J at the bottom of it.
waking only once is AWESOME!! it will get better and this too shall pass... I promise!
hugs, jenn
Oh, that's pure torture. I almost went postal at that stage. It will get easier. And, then, suddenly, you'll get 12 hours of bliss.
My lil guy teases me. He will sleep thru the night two or three times. Then BAM not so fast! Now we are up at 430ish and then up at 7ish to start our day.
He is so darlin'.... Good luck getting J to sleep through the night.
It does get better--and then they get teeth--and it gets worse. And then it gets better...and then they get sick....and then it gets better...and then you have another child. And it starts all over :)
It's a crazy sleep deprived schedule, this whole child raising stuff! :)
Hohpe you get some zzzzz's....you and me are in the same boat!
It's funny becuase during those non-sleep times sometimes you don't don't even know how bad you feel until you get a full night's sleep and you feel like you can conquer the world.
Somehow we all make it through this.
I remember those days, and THANK GOODNESS, they came to an end, sorta.
My four year old woke up in the middle of the night last night...
"mom, can I come to your bed?"
sure I yelled across the hall, hoping that he would just get up and walk into my bed so not a minute of shut eye was loss by me.
"can you come get me?"
*sigh*
My baby [2 1/2 years old] still sleeps with me. Usually, she falls asleep with me and then we move her to her own bed, which, around dawn, she leaves and ends up back with us anyway. Luckily, bedtime here is between 7-8pm so we get some peace. :)
... and just as you snap that picture, why hello sun! Oh the memories. Loved the poem. I could almost hear the irritation crescendo-ing as I read along.
Huzzah! Hope you can somehow get some sleep. I remember writing a poem in a sleep-depraved state one morning. It turned out pretty good, all things considering...
why don't they sleep anyway?? Isn't sleep when your body grows and gets refreshed.....isn't growing part of a baby's life??? I know that I would probably have more kids....if they slept. But mine never sleep and I can't handle that being up every two hours for the first six months and going to work. That was a beautiful poem!
Oh, I SO know where you are. What a great poem. And you're sleep deprived? And you can write? You're one of those super moms, right?
My little ones didn't sleep through the night until they were two and a half (okay three). I kid you not. And if they got sick in any way, with a cold or whatnot, that (oh joy) interrupted this sleep habit...... well..... back to the waking up at night thing again.
When my first one was 3 and I had my second, he would sleep on a mattress next to our bed.
Now my kids are bigger and have wonderful imaginations (good for school, not for night time) and are STILL scared of the dark. They can also imagine even MORE things that can scare them now.
There, my secrets are out.
So just know that this all will pass and be a lovely memory......... some day.
That was an awesome poem for a sleep deprived momma! :-)
More power to you on the sleep issues. Mine are 3 and 4, and we still have issues. It seems like they go through cycles. Since husband returned from deployment, they are not that great again. we are moving again this summer, so now doesn't seem like a good time to address them! Ugh....I figure I will sleep in about 15 years when they go to college! LOL
Terrific poem! I am so glad that he is sleeping more now, hope you get some sleep now too!
Hang in there...it will get better:)
Hey, you should post poetry more often. Well done. Especially for a sleep-deprived momnesia brain.
(That pic looks so much like my Chase when he was a baby. He even had those same Carter's doggie jammies...)
Getting babies to sleep through the night is so hard...well at least for some babies. My one year old sleeps like a champ, in his crib, from 9pm - 7am. My eight year old daughter on the other hand can not sleep by herself and comes in our room EVERY night.
Sweet poem! So true.
oh, the rites of passage of parenthood. this reminds me that the 5 year old crawling into our bed in the wee small hours isn't quite so bad as it used to be ;)
Awwww... just know that the sleep thing gets better!
Did you seriously write that? Too cool!
He is so cute. Glad to hear you are getting a little more sleep. At least I hope!
Love that poem :) Getting the kiddo to sleep through the night has been our biggest obstacle. She's 2.5, and still has a rough time. Glad to hear it's down to only once a night.
Good luck!
Such a little sweetie! He is gorgeous. Ok, here's the thing... sleep is a rough one. We had issues with Andrew after a particularly bad bout of Winter sickies. He was getting up sometimes 2 times a night. It was running me ragged. I got some great advice from a co-worker that worked like a charm. He now sleeps (minimum) ten hours straight every single night. If you're interested let me know and I would be happy to share the same info with you.
Very cute poem!
Hopefully he is just going through a growth spurt or something and will sleep through the night in no time!
Ooooh, come!! Let's have lunch!! I'm so there. Just tell me when & where! :)
By the way, that last pic is priceless.
Sleep issues are so rough. Little Elvis had rough patches, too. I don't really have any great advice, though. We just kept trying different things, until we hit on what works for him. It took us a while to catch on, though. And he still has issues, he's been cutting two molars for about a week now. It's not fun for any of us.
IT. GETS. BETTER.
Our second child did NOT sleep for over a year and even then still got up most nights. We eventually put a sleeping bag on the floor of our bedroom for our little girl to sleep in when she came into our room. This eventually stopped in -- oh - five years...
At eleven years of age, she loves her sleep. :-)
Oh that was such a precious point and I was so where you are now about 8 months ago
great poem! Eliza still wakes up once a night and usually ends up in our bed. It is so tough getting little ones to sleep though the night.
Have you tried swaddling? It was the key for both of my boys. We actually swaddled Aaron for way longer than we were supposed to but he loved it and slept so well. now he still needs to bundled in pretty tight in order to sleep well.
This is so sweet and funny. I totally can relate to wanting to put him back into the womb.
what a great poem!
i empathize. ben gave us a tough time when he was a baby. he didn't much like sleeping.
What a great poem!
Well, the good news is that they do eventually sleep through the night.... bad/good news is that they often wake up and at least my 3 year old, still comes in to snuggle with us every night. IF she doesn't flail, all is well. However, if she's flailing around in her imaginary moshpit, Daddy usually has to go to the guest room in order to avoid a heel to the head and get some sleep.
We didn't need a kingsize until we had kids!
Oh the joys of parenthood.
Trust me, you'll get a good night's sleep once he's 20! :)
Hang in there, it gets better!
Oh, poor mommy and daddy. Those kids are so stubborn sometimes, eh?
Hope he sleeps better soon.
Hang in there! If you can create a beautiful piece like that in your tired head you're doing better than you think :) Sweet read; thanks.
Oh yes the joys of them in bed wit you. Cute when they can;t move. Sucks when they can and kick you all.night.long.
Aw! I loved this poem. I'm sure so many parents can relate! I know I can.
Oh I hope you start getting more sleep hun, and that your hubby can get rid of that luggage under his eyes! :)
Aren't the moments of him peacefully sleeping so great though?! Not to mention so beautiful!
Hugs!
Hi, this is my 1st visit to your very nice blog. The poem is very well written..brings back those bitter sweet memories :) Take heart..the sleepless nights will soon pass & in time to come you'll be wishing that you can bring it back all over again (err..well.. perhaps not until he is like 3 & telling you "you can go now, goodnight mummy"). They grow too fast!
my turn... check out my blog... there is some bling for you!
With that picture, it's hard to believe something so precious could wreak such havoc.
Once a night? He's doing better than my three year old! That girl is wearing me out, it's seriously like having a newborn all over again.
Wow, he is SO beautiful!
I remember those nights. Just keep telling yourself, it's only temporary, it's only temporary, it's only temporary...although I know it's difficult to remember that when you're sleep deprived, and you may even be tempted to punch me in the nose right about now. :-)
Something someone told me once helped a little. She said that when you're up during those wee hours, try and think of all the other mothers and/or fathers who are awake at that very moment, trying to get THEIR babies to sleep, just as you are. At the time, it made me feel a little less isolated, and a little more understood, somehow.
Love the photo! And I can so relate.
Baby is 12 months now, and we still have night-time issues. But for some reason it doesn't bother me any more. So it will either get better, or you will get used to it!
congrats at hitting only one waking per night!
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