S is for sleep
Sleep
What is that over-rated thing called sleep?
Something only the weak need? Yes in the eyes of my eldest son!
Sleep was not an issue when Little Man was a young baby, he started sleeping through at about 12 weeks old and was a dream.
At a year, he decided he had had his fill of sleep and stopped his daytime sleeps and his nighttime sleeping. He would go to sleep for about 3 hours and then think he had had enough and be awake through the night.
We tried everything - diet, meditation, sedation (he was one of the rare few who are not affected by the sedative), soothing bedtime routines, background noise, night light, no nightlife, door open, door shut, controlled crying, staying with him and each night a step closer to the door, doctors, health visitors, putting him in a bed at the age of 18 months, EVERYTHING.
Some mornings I would get up and do a mental calculation and I can't believe it now but I clearly remember days where I would think things were improving as I had had 2 hours broken sleep which was getting better than the previous 1 hour broken sleep a night.
I was a mess being so tired, I got to the stage where I would wake on the landing floor or propped against his door, I drove through red lights as they simply didn't register.
Nothing we did seemed to help his sleep pattern.
It simply boiled down to the fact, he does not need much sleep, neither did my husband for that matter until he hit 40 and old age has started to catch up.
He finally started settling when he was about 4, he still spends a great deal of time awake in the night but he stays in bed, doesn't generally disturb us, and tends to look at his books or have a little play and then drop back off again. I often hear him but can just roll over and go back to sleep.
Right now work is incredibly busy and I try and fit my hours round the boys and school hours, so this often means in busy periods getting up at silly-o-clock to get a full working day in so I am back to being a walking Zombie at the moment!
