5 am


This little girl of ours has decided that the best and only way to sleep is in the arms of, or right beside, her mum or dad. Oh and contrary to popular opinion, apparently the day is a much, much better time to catch some zzz's than the night. Also, bassinets and cribs are completely unacceptable for this little girl. Only a grown-up queen size bed will do.

Up until a week ago Eve had a relatively nice sleeping schedule (for a newborn). She would take little naps throughout the day and evening until about 3 am. Then she would sleep for a solid 5-7 hours in her bassinet, which was absolutely wonderful. Sadly, these times seem to be at an end. Twice over the past few days Eve has stayed awake from 10 pm to 5 or 6 am. These nights have been filled with frustration and crying for both Eve and us. Well, John and I haven't actually cried but I've definitely come close. It's amazing how little patience I have left at 5am. The most difficult thing is that we are able to eventually get Eve to sleep when we hold her and rock her long enough, but she wakes up five minutes after we put her in her bassinet. 


Everyone tells new parents to sleep when the baby sleeps, but with Eve this advice is hard to follow because she only sleeps soundly when she's been held by us. We have found that the only way we can manage to get some sleep is for me to feed her in our bed, which will put her to sleep, and then to leave her in the bed with us. This still only works about half the time. We had been determined not to co-sleep but our resolve always seems to weaken at 5 am after a sleepless night. 


As difficult as these times have been for us, I have to say that a part of me (sometimes a very small part of me) loves that Eve needs one of us to be holding her or be right beside her in order to fall asleep and to stay asleep. I love that she finds so much comfort in being near to us. Also, when Eve starts to wake up in our bed at 5 am after falling asleep mere minutes before, sometimes there's an opportunity when I can pull her into my arms next to me and she quickly returns to sleep. In that moment I feel full of love and contentment, surprisingly even at 5 am.

Comments

  1. Beautiful. You wouldn't sleep alone either when you were a baby, but you often slept at night at least. At least for part of the night. I told your mother we should sell you to the gypsies, but she backed out at the last minute. Thanks for writing this. These memories will be precious soon enough. I hope you're keeping a journal. Big hugs.

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  2. Liam was the same way. We gave in and co-slept. I wish I would have enjoyed it more now that he doesn't need us as much. I read Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution and it had a lot of great tips. I still pull it out. She has a whole section on newborns.

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