It's the question every new parent is all too aware of "Is he sleeping through the night yet?" Everyone is excited about it and as a new parent bringing your little angel home from the hospital you anxiously await that glorious day when your baby randomly selects to give you a taste of grace and sleep through the night. But, what no one tells you is that there are a few caveats to this miraculous little moment.
Stipulation 1. Sleeping through the night technically only means sleeping between feedings for a minimum of 6 hours.
Maybe it's because a doctor coined the term, and they don't need much sleep, or because new parents in their extremely sleep deprived state willingly grasp to anything over a three hour break as a good night's rest. But to me...5 consecutive hours of sleep doesn't quite cut it.
Stipulation 2. They still wake up at 4 am.
If he eats one last time at 10:00 before we doze off--he's still waking up at 4:00 in the morning ready to party. That's 6 hours right mom? Yes, but when our snug monkey wakes up at 4:15 all smiles and bushy tailed, it doesn't matter so much.
Stipulation 3. There's not much you can do to control it.
Everyone swears by some secret system to get your baby to sleep through the night--heck, there are even books on it. But if you ask me, there's not much rhyme or reason to it. Some nights Linc will sleep in perfect peace for 6 hours, some he'll go 3 and then be ready to play--there's no real predictor. I'd like to think we had some contribution to the whole deal, but at this point, our little Tonight Show host is the dictator of when we sleep (I know, we're supposed to be able to control this right?)
Bottom line is, it really doesn't matter. I often catch myself determining a good day by how much sleep the snug's gotten the night before, but that's not the way to do it right? When I was holding him in the rocking chair yesterday-I started thinking about how fast he grows, and maybe it was because I was lingering on the edge of that state between sleeping and wake but I definitely felt a little emotional. God gave me this little man, and there will only be a few moments in the long run where he's this tiny little person who needs his parents for everything. He relies on us. We're all he's got, and he can't do squat (aside from some pretty tremendous poops) on his own. So I guess I'll take advantage of all this--even at 3am (someone call and remind me of this occasionally ok?)
It's faith like a child, it's total reliance. I wish I could have the same sort of dependence on God for everything I need. My little monkey is teaching me more everyday huh? And who says they don't do anything fun.
Oh, and if anyone needs to talk at 4:00 am...guess who's available.
