... perchance to dream ... Part II

Way back in September I wrote about how hard it is to sleep when you are pregnant.  And I mentioned how unhelpful is was when people would tell me it would be worse when the baby got here.  They were right, of course.

Actually, it's the new BIG question: Is she sleeping through the night?  People ask you this from the start, despite the fact that newborns aren't supposed to sleep through the night.  They get hungry and need to be fed.  But still they ask.  And if you have to say "No." you feel as if you've already failed as a parent.  Which makes me suspect that most people just do what I sometimes do.  They lie.

I'd also like to point out that our cultural obsession with babies sleeping through the night ignores the fact that adults generally don't sleep through the night.  You wake up to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or just because of a bad dream.  Babies wake up for all those reasons, too, but they can't take care of themselves, so they need the adults in their life to help them.  By changing a diaper, feeding them, or just rocking them back to sleep.  It's sort of funny that we accept that babies need our undivided love and attention during daylight hours, but not at night.  Getting woken up at ungodly hours sure isn't fun, but it is part of the deal, I think.

Anyway, Maddie is doing well for an 8-week old.  She has good nights and less-good-nights.  She does sometimes sleep through -- from about midnight until 6 or 7.  But most times she wakes up at least once to eat, then goes right back to sleep.  The biggest challenge is getting her to go to sleep and stay that way.  Last night was one of those nights when nothing worked.  Preston finally gave up and brought her into bed with us.  It took her a bit to settle down and sleep, but she didn't wake up until after 7:30.  So it was a mixed bag -- I wish she'd been in her crib, but I'll take the 6 hours of uninterrupted shut-eye.