Wednesday, November 14, 2012

On Sleep

Axel, 2012


There is really nothing interesting about other people's sleep patterns, but since you're here...

We've completely failed in our sleep training efforts. It's not that sleep training failed, per se, it's just that we never got around to trying it.

One week it was our trip to Seattle, and we didn't want to try to establish a routine only to have it undone by jet lag. Then it was going back to work, which made it hard to fathom my only interactions with Axel being staring at him on the video monitor while ignoring his screams. Another week it was, 'Let's try it Saturday night...oh, but Saturday night we're out and he'll be sleeping in his stroller and that's not typical, so...'

Basically we talk about doing it and then can't muster the nerve. So, for now Axel is up to eat pretty much when he pleases, like, say, 11 p.m., 2 a.m., 5 a.m. and again at 7 a.m., when he's up for the day. And next week we are off to Maine for Thanksgiving and a few weeks after that to the UK for the holidays, and he will be back in our room for both stints away from home. So. It seems we are at an impasse.

The funny thing is that he's actually a great sleeper. I know he can self soothe because he does so, perfectly, when we put him down for the night at around 7 and after each of his nighttime feeds. He is quite content to be put down awake for a nap and drifts off without much protest. We have even dispensed with the swaddle and the pacifier (mostly.) He will still sleep in his stroller or car seat if we take him out past "bedtime."

He just seems to like eating on a 24-hour clock. And teaching him otherwise has become that thing on my to do list that somehow never gets crossed off.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...