Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Sleep - the final frontier


Well, sleep challenges continue to vex us all here at Chez Oxenford. Last night Sophie was up at 2am again. This is probably the 5th or 6th time in two weeks of this early morning wake-up parties. These wake-ups last about 2 hours and even though she is clearly exhausted nothing will get her back to sleep until she is ready to sleep. So, we end up watching Baby Einstein videos or reading and eating cheerios. Honestly, Jim and I feel more sleep deprived now than the "dark days" when she cried and cried. According to the sleep experts in the many and various books we're reading, there are many possible reasons for these wake-ups including poor sleep onset associations, developmental milestones, separation anxiety, lack of schedule, bedtime too early, bedtime too late, possible readiness for nap elimination, teething, ear infections, temperament, alignment of stars, etc... So the answer - who knows. Who knows why. Or how long. We just have to wait and see and try to make modifications to the routines and see what happens, I suppose. We did have a couple of good nights there in a row without the wake-ups so there was some light at the end of the sleep deprivation tunnel for a little while at least. We'll keep you posted of course but in the meantime, keep sending us those good sleep vibes and prayers, ok??? Thanks!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jennifer - If you all are ever up at 4:20 am, drop me a line. That's happy hour at OUR house.

Funny how both girls are doing the exact same thing. Claire will have 4 or 5 good days of sleeping through the night, but then she'll wake up at exactly 4:20 (?!) ready to party.

Kiera said...

HAHAHAHA! Good job Sophie - it's our job to keep 'em on their toes!

P.S. Did you know that only approx 6 out of 24 infants / toddlers sleep through the night? Did you know that "sleep through the night" is defined by pediatricians as 5 hrs solid sleep?! That means if you go to bed at 8:00pm and get up at 1:00am, you have technically "slept through the night!"