Ok first off… if you haven’t heard of it yet, that is the title of a very funny book for parents. And you can listen to Samuel L. Jackson read the book here. It’s pretty damn funny. I gifted it recently to a friend who just had her 3rd baby. She liked it.
Second, we all feel this way sometimes, right?? I have to say that baby C, my first and currently only child, is a good sleeper. Like… sleeping through the night since she was about 7-8 weeks old. Some people have said this is because she was a big newborn (9 lb, 14 oz — don’t worry, I had a c-section). Other people say I’m just lucky. Whatever it is… I’ll take it! We usually don’t have many sleep disruptions, though there have been a few, especially when she’s teething. But even then she usually gets back to her routine in a few days.
I think it must have something to do with not having her sleep with us. I know this is a hot topic for a lot of parents… but when I was pregnant a lot of my friends with kids warned me that if I start bringing the baby into bed with us, we’ll never get her out. I heeded this advice, but I also think it’s safer not to co-sleep, and not just because I like my sleep. So she sleeps in her crib and we sleep in our bed. I think there has only been 1 occasion when we’ve kept her in our bed with us: during Hurricane Irene, when I was afraid we’d lose power overnight. (That didn’t happen, but baby C did kick me awake about once an hour.) And there have only been maybe 2 or 3 occasions when she woke up in the middle of the night and wouldn’t go back to sleep, so out of sleep desperation I brought her into my bed to see if that would settle her down. I think once or twice that worked and once or twice I didn’t go back to sleep and I was a zombie that day.
But I digress. What I really wanted to suggest to parents in this post is to prepare for some sleep disruptions because of Daylight Savings Time. In my twenties, I remember loving DST in the fall because there was an extra hour to stay out and drink. As I got older, it meant more sleep. Now… not so much of either.
A co-worker’s mom (who raised 5 kids), suggested putting your baby to bed/sleep 10 minutes earlier every night the week before the time change. While I think this is a superb idea, it hasn’t always worked for me. I work full-time and I have an hour commute. By the time I pick up C and get home, it’s almost 6:30 pm. I want at least 20 minutes to snuggle with her before we start the dinner/bath routine. So while I have tried to get her in bed by 8pm this week…. yeah, hasn’t always happened. BUT… we have tried to let her sleep as late as possible this week…so… MAYBE, hopefully, she won’t be waking up at 5:30 every day this week. I’ll update you.
So what do you do about DST and getting your baby on a regular sleep schedule? Or what do you think about co-sleeping and sleeping soundly?
Here’s some links I found on sleep stuff:
i like the idea of putting your daughter to sleep a little early the week before DST. Nothing worse than getting up an hour earlier because of it! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome. I guess you don’t think about something like that until you have to… what did you do with your kids?
I LOVE that Samuel L. Jackson reading of the book!
The time change worked out well for us because my son was going to sleep too late, which made us late in the mornings. Now that it will be dark out earlier, I think bed time will be easier. I hope so, anyway…
HA! How’s it going so far?
It worked for two whole days. Sigh.
He’ll adapt! Right now I am having the opposite problem with my daughter… She won’t fall asleep until after 9, even if, like tonight, I put her to bed by 8. I’ve been sitting in her room for the last 1.5 hours trying to coax sleep into her…and she is finalllllyyy asleep!!!
I love this book too! There was also a reading of it here in Australia by Noni Hazelhurst, who is Aussies had grown up watching on a toddler show called play school – all happy, bouncy, over exaggerated fun, songs, dance, craft etc. So now as a parent, all grown up with children of my own, it cracked me up to listen to her reading it!
Haha, that’s awesome! Having someone like that read the book for you can make it that much better. Thanks for reading my blog!