07 June 2007

Who Needs Sleep, Part 3

I got my first sleep lecture last night. I get lectured a lot, mostly by Husband or my parents, but generally my lecturers are awake when they lecture me. Last night, Husband lectured me in his sleep. Since I was also asleep, my recall of the situation is a little fuzzy. I woke up sometime after 2 a.m. Husband said, angrily, "That blanket is like a centimeter away from his face."
Me: Whaaa?
Husband (throwing the duvet to the foot of the bed): Do you want something to happen to him?
Me: I'm really tired.
Husband: Would you rather be tired or have something terrible happen to him?
Me: I don't think I can get out of bed.
Husband: Something could happen to him.
Me: No, I'm serious. I don't think I'm physically capable of getting out of bed right now.
Husband: Snore...

So yeah. Baby's still in our bed. I was really encouraged a few nights ago when he had a series of doing very short stints in our bed and lengthy periods of sleeping in his swing. On Saturday night he slept for 5 1/2 hours in his swing, woke up and nursed, and went back in his swing until 9 a.m. I was delighted. He did something similar on Sunday night, and on Monday night his sleeping was a little more erratic, and he spent more time in my bed, but he essentially slept until 10:15. I like it when Baby sleeps late. It makes my day a lot shorter.
Well, we've regressed. Baby's moro reflex seems to be in overdrive. (Sidenote: I read the Wikipedia page I just referenced and the sentence that says, "in individuals with cerebral palsy, persistence and exacerbation of this reflex is common," and I'm now certain my child has cerebral palsy. I don't even really know what cerebral palsy is, but there's no way in hell I'm looking up its Wikipedia page. I don't need to get any more ideas.) Similar to what I observed the last time I was at my parents house, his arms just can't seem to rest. Neither can his legs. Eventually it wakes him up. We'd had so many better days, and he'd been sleeping for longer chunks in a designated place.
Yesterday morning, I noticed that he seemed to be trying to roll himself over while in his swing. This prompted us to start strapping him into his swing. Then he started startling every time we tried to put him down. We'd rock him or walk around with him or feed him until he went to sleep, then we'd put him down, and within five minutes he was awake again. Last night, he sucked down six ounces of soy formula, and I was certain he'd sleep for several hours, especially since he'd done it so many previous nights. He slept for two hours and forty minutes in his co-sleeper. He spent the rest of the night in my bed.
I don't want him in my bed. I don't need any more anxiety, and I'm not sure it's good for me physically. I am an active sleeper, but I'm trying to be completely still when he's in my bed so as not to disturb or hurt him. I wake up in severe pain when he's slept in my bed. And when Baby sleeps with us, I find myself weighed down with thoughts of all the terrible things that could happen to him. That said, being curled up with me is often the only way he will sleep, and I know he needs to sleep in order to be healthy and thrive. And I certainly want him healthy and thriving.
Tonight, he sucked down eight ounces of soy formula at 10 p.m., and I didn't put him in his swing until 12:15. That's after only sleeping for maybe two hours since 8 a.m. Husband even looked online to see if we should let him cry it out but determined that Baby is still too young. I don't know if I could have handled that anyway. I'm so anxious about warping him, and having my genes I'm already worried that he's going to struggle with anxiety and depression, so I want to make him as secure as possible. So we're still at an impasse with the whole sleep thing. My friend Trish told me that with a newborn things get better, but then they get worse before getting better again. I guess we're just in that getting worse stage. I hope we get to the getting better part soon.

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