Babysleep (or lack thereof)

I feel like I’m writing a lot these days about baby sleep. I guess it’s because sleep is something I spend a lot of time thinking about … while trying to get C back to sleep.

I was talking to my mom yesterday about C’s odd sleep habits. Basically, as my mom pointed out, C can’t get herself to sleep without an adult, and if she happens to wake up before she’s ready to get up – which she does a lot – she has zero ability to get herself back to sleep.

I hypothesized to my mom that C might have that problem because we are so often there with her anyway. Maybe she has developed an attachment to having an adult nearby just to sleep; she is so used to having us there that she needs us if she wakes at all.

But my mom pointed out that she never had that problem with me or my two brothers. She obviously put us to sleep and then left the room, just as we do with C, and we apparently never had any problem getting ourselves back to sleep at night. And my mom pointed out that if we had ever cried, she would’ve come in a heartbeat – she would not have made us cry ourselves back to sleep. But my mom swears that when we started sleeping at night, we slept all night, and the only times she ever had to get up at night were when we were sick.

Yet C wakes several times every night and every nap, needing help getting back to sleep. I guess the wakefulness runs in Katie’s family. Thankfully, since it’s not one of my favorite parenting things, Katie is more than willing to lie down with C as much as she needs.

She’s a good mama, and the kids are lucky to have her.