it's your turn

Parenting an infant is so often a two-steps-forward-one-step-backwards kind of deal.

In the first three months of his life, Drew never slept. Well, OK, he slept, actually a lot, but he didn't sleep in big chunks. He liked to generously spread his sleeping out over the entire day and night, making sure that one hour didn't receive too much of its allotted share of sleep, and also ensuring that he didn't fall into any type of predictable pattern which would enable his beleaguered parents to establish a napping routine for themselves. Rather, he wanted us continually alert to the fact that he MIGHT, at any given moment, wake up, at which point he would need one hundred percent of our attention immediately.

I remember crying at mattress commercials on TV, thinking, "THOSE people get to sleep. Why can't I?" I daydreamed about sleep. I hallucinated about sleeping. I fell asleep standing up and I fell asleep while breastfeeding (which just amazed Charles - "a baby is FEEDING on you and you can sleep through that? Wow"). When I was sleeping (in 15-minute increments), I dreamed about getting more sleep. When I returned to work, instead of going to lunch on my break, I went to my car and napped in the backseat for an hour.

At around four months, things changed. Drew started sleeping for longer periods of time at night. A few blessed nights he even gave us an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep. We were in heaven.

And then it all went horribly wrong.

This week, Drew has reverted back to waking up every two hours at night. Every. Two. Hours.

And when he wakes up, he's mad. Really mad. We have not yet been able to discern the source of his anger. One night, I thought it was due to the fact that he was soaking wet, but apparently my son does not mind laying about in his own urine, as when I began to change his diaper, he began lustily wailing and flailing in spasmodic rage. (Wailing and Flailing or Spasmodic Rage would both be excellent band names, for what it's worth)

And thus, Charles and I have begun a ritual that I promised myself we would attempt to avoid: the dreaded It's Your Turn dance.

"I handled the 2 a.m. wailing. It's Your Turn."

"Ohh, no. I handled both the 10 p.m. and midnight screaming torture. It's definitely Your Turn."

"But the 10 p.m. and midnight wakings were easy - he just wanted a bottle. The 2 a.m. debacle included a dirty diaper and a crib-sheet-changing."

Charles and I have brainstormed (which is really amusing to try to do when you're sleep-starved) and we've come up with the following reasons why our monster darling son might be regressing:

1. He's getting a lot more activity during the day now, since he's in a new room at daycare, and he's just trying to adjust.
2. He's teething. (no empirical data for this, but it's a great catch-all excuse for any disturbing behavior on the part of our baby)
3. He hates us.

I tell ya, I'm leaning towards number three, because when you're awake at two in the morning, covered in baby pee, you don't tend to feel particularly loved.

Comments

[Charles]

Maybe, he just hates you and I'm the innocent victim caught in the crossfire?

[ebeth]

i found that every time mc changed rooms in nursery her sleep would be off for about a week. :) so i'm sure that's probably what's happening with drew. hang in there!

[Amy]

Haha, Charles, you'd like to think so, wouldn't you?
Liz, thanks for the information - that's kind of what I really thought it might be, so it's good to hear that another mommy has had the same experience.

[Sam]

Just wait until he gets older...it gets worse.
Believe me.
Of course, mine still wets the bed and manages to sleep right thru it...I've never understood that.
This is why caffeine was invented. And informercials.

[Sam]

PS I think that babies do this on purpose so that we're too exhausted to catch on to the fact that they are growing.up.way.too.fast.