Sleeping Through the Night: The Gift of Slumber

Before Jonah was born, Sunday and I decided we didn’t want him sleeping anywhere near our bed.  Now there are those folks who have the crib in the same room where they sleep, and I’m not saying they’re crazy.  They are sleepy.  Having a baby in the same room where you’re trying to sleep is not a great way to sleep.

Obviously, her C-section complications threw that plan to the wind for a few weeks.   Sunday couldn’t bend over and pull him out of the crib.  As soon as we both thought Sunday could handle getting Jonah out of his crib, though, we threw him in there to sleep at night. 

A few lessons:

Lesson one:               You don’t lose as much sleep as everyone talks about. Hey, I’m in grad school.  I don’t sleep anyway.  Really, this is the big secret of having children:  there are those who want to have the worst story in the room.  You don’t have to live a private hell to have kids.

Lesson two:               Just because you don’t lose as much sleep as everyone talks about, that doesn’t mean that you have to punish yourself by figuring out ways to keep yourself up.  Jonah doesn’t have to go to school or work tomorrow, so figuring out a way to keep him quietwhile we sleep isn’t a bad idea. 

Lesson three:                        Baby monitors are terrible.  We hated them.  One ten minute period at about eleven at night, we tried it out, and I thought I was going to have to throw something or somebody out of the room.  That thing is so sensitive, it picks up every breath, coo, belch and brainwave that goes on in the room. Plus, our apartment is so small, it wasn’t like we couldn’t hear everything he did anyway.  It was cartoony how both Sunday and I were lying on our backs, staring at the ceiling, listening to Jonah snore.  (Yes, Jonah snores)

Aside from the lessons, Sunday and I have tried to be fair about who gets up and who sleeps.  Using an alternate, I-kick-her-to-get-up and then a She-kicks-me-to-get-up, we transitioned from feeding him in the middle of the night during this time period to him sleeping through the night.  I started bragging that I could only hear him if it was my turn to get up with him, but as soon as I said that to anyone, my ability to hear him in the midst of my unconsciousness left me.  I realized that, in the middle of the night I am not a father or a husband:  I am a-sleep. 

Regardless, Jonah began sleeping through the night during his second month, with hallelujahs echoing throughout the bluegrass.