sleep!

I ready to sleep on 2009,10.23

I haven’t had real sleep in a while. There’s always somebody waking me up, something waking me up, and everything.
Maybe i’ll try this later.

a fortune cookie told me to sleep more….too true..

I was a man then I became a beast. And as a beast I was small and unwanted. I tried to become great as a beast and that made the other beasts what to kill me. So finding no escape from the beast that looked like a man I tried to dig through a mountain. And in my fear I gave up my beastly form and was a man. Then no beast had power over me for I was wanted.

I haven’t been very active ‘round these parts lately. That’s essentially because I’ve been using all the mental clarity I’ve got to navigate my way around some very foggy, challenging and exhausting days and nights. My little one had his shots two weeks ago and had some yucky, yet expected, side effects from those (fever, loss of appetite etc). Then came the big bad. A horrible virus that has single handedly smacked us over the head and stomped on everything we’ve done to get Cullyn sleeping happily and soundly. He has two sore ears, a very red throat and swollen tonsils, an upset tummy and high fevers. He seems to be in pain most of the day and all of the night…very listless, yet unable to get comfortable enough to sleep for more than 20 minutes.

I feel so helpless, and so tired. And he is tired too…
And it makes me smile that he can still troop around and play with the cat’s paws and bash saucepans and giggle at his fingers when he wiggles them. Kids are amazing, the way they adapt and deal even in the midst of illness. I know that if I was as sick as he is I’d be a blubbering bedridden mess.

But what to do about sleep…?
I’m snatching what I can when he sleeps and sleeping upstairs with him for most of the night. Which is the only way while he is sick, and that’s okay.

When he feels much better (and when it’s been three weeks since his shots) I’m going to start the routine again. It was going so well and we hadn’t even gone all out with it yet. I feel optimistic thinking back three weeks when we were sleeping 11 hours a night. We can totally get there again. Right?

Oh I hope so.

The most important thing will be getting Cullyn sleeping in his cot for daytime naps (right now he is taking them in my arms exclusively) and to get him eating solids again (this virus has severely affected his appetite and patience to be spoonfed).

I’ve been super busy with this goal, and now the effort is really starting to pay off.
I just knew that Cullyn’s sleeping issues were related to the overall balance of his day, particularly regarding his solid food intake and his separation anxiety (not to mention his breastfeeding/sleep association), so I’ve been working hard to establish awesome eating habits and routines that mean he gets plenty of good food during the daytime hours.
He’s also been playing in his cot for 15 minutes or so each day which has resulted in him having happy associations with his sleeping space, and no longer crying out when he wakes up each morning (instead he just plays until I come get him).

I’ve been following steps and ideas in an utterly inspiring book (The Dream Baby Guide) which I have decided I am going to buy for every mother to be I ever come across. If you are having a baby, or already have a baby/toddler with sleeping problems, buy the book.
Seriously.
I haven’t implemented her full routine (we will once Cullyn has had his shots) and already he has gone from waking up every hour or so each night, to once (sometimes not even once) a night! I only wish I’d found the book sooner!

And as for me, all I can say is, 6 hour sleep stretches are pure bliss. I am reveling in dreams again, and waking up refreshed and ready to be the best mummy I can be…sleep is very very good for the soul.

Big smiles! :) :) :)

but I wanted to document that last night Cullyn (and thereby I) slept for two six hour stretches consecutively! (With only a little boobie feed in between at 2am)

Squeeeeee!!!!

Ah sleep. How I long for a reasonable ^ANY amount of ^{even semi-quality} sleep. I am just….beyond definable exhaustion right now.

So I am in the planning stages…a new approach to sleep will hopefully see the boy sleeping longer stretches. Without needing a bazillion breastfeeds. All night stretches? I’m giddy at the prospect.

And when the boy sleeps, the mother, she will sleep too.

I will usually get around 3 hours a night and then one night a week just havwe a recharging day where I will actually sleep for 8 – 10 hours. I’ve been told this isn’t healthy, but I get to do so much in the hours i spend awake that its hard to pass up all the activity to just lay somewhere, wasting my life away. hha. “I don’t sleep, cuz sleep is the cousin of death”
But I really should….

Another this is when I actually have enough sleep I have so much energy that people can’t handle it in every day situations.. haha

Here is my dillema:
Ever since I started highschool AP classes, my sleeping schedual has been entirely thrown off. During the school week I stay up on average until 3am (sometimes later), trying to finish all the homework assignments. (Now, I know it shouldn’t take me that long, but I am somewhat of a perfectionist, and I’m the type of person who would rather get a grade as low as a 68 than a 99 on an assignment- because that one point would drive me crazy). I make up for this by taking 2 hour naps immediatly after school, and then naturally the cycle continues. What’s worse is that during the weekends when I finally have time to catch up on my sleep, my body won’t allow me to do it because it’s used to staying up much later.
How can I get my sleeping patterns back to normal without sacrificing my grades??