The Desirability of Sleep

I am coming one night-time sleep short of screaming, “I NEED SLEEP!”.

Elisha woke up a total of 5 times from the time I put him to bed at 7pm last night to 7 this morning. And that included an hour of him being fully awake from 3am to 4am. I was exasperated and frustrated! He had finished nursing but he was uncomfortable. I checked his diaper and changed it even though it wasn’t very wet. I cradled and rocked him. That made him wail louder. 

Several days of having intermittent night sleep really got to me and I snapped. I plonked the screaming baby next to his daddy and asked him to help while I catch some needed winks. Roy promptly got up.  He did his best to soothe him back to sleep. He did so by first ripping off Elisha’s sleeping bag because he thought he was too warm. That didn’t work. Roy laid him on his chest as he sat up in our bed. Elisha wasn’t happy with the lack of movement.  Roy took him out to the living room to try the stroller and the rattle. Still, it didn’t work.

Elisha bawled even louder. That woke my father up. Grandpa came to the rescue of the poor baby’s father. Roy came back to bed, and we exchanged a few snappy words with each other. He snoozed within seconds, but I couldn’t. Not when I could hear my father doing flashcards with the baby at that hour. So I dragged myself out of bed, thanked my dad for helping out and took Elisha back into my arms. We went into the room and I rocked him till he slept. Thankfully, it took only ten minutes before he did.

Why has he been waking up so often in the night? Why was he up for a whole hour? Questions I have no answers for. I’m trying to set the feed-play-nap routines in the day and putting him to bed earlier.I am still using Shichida’s method of suggestion by whispering ALL benefits of sleep and how good he is at sleeping when Elisha rests. If such conditioning is not really helping him, at least it is helping me to keep positive. Maybe it is just a phase and he will get back to sleeping better through the night soon. Meanwhile, I celebrate every second of sleep I get.