I recently had a conversation with a friend who said, “your boys and their sleeping!” Yes, I’ve had it easy. I’m grateful for that, but know how easy I’ve had it. That’s probably why it didn’t bother me when Quinten spent the first 9 weeks getting up a lot. Of course it’s a distant memory now that I’m back at work and he’s exhausted from his days.
The mommy heart and brain are mysterious things. Sometimes even ignorant. This weekend, I had a conversation with Quinten that went like this, “If you’re hungry at night you need to tell mommy. Don’t suck your thumb if you need to eat. Mommy will get up and feed you.” He smiled that adorable toothless, chubby cheek grin.
Ironically (or not), he woke up around 11 or 12 the next two nights. No problem. Weekends are made for sleeping in and I was actually happy to get another feeding in.
Then Sunday happened. At this point I can’t remember when he went to bed, but he woke up at 9:30, 11:30, 1:30, 3:30, and 6:30. After the first wake up I didn’t put him back in his crib because I was afraid he’d wake up Maximus. He recently figured out he has a voice and he can get VERY LOUD. Very loud. Thankfully most of the wake ups were just to nurse and he immediately went back to sleep. The 3:30 wake up was a different story! He was wide awake and talking and smiling! He’s cute, but I’m not into chatting in the middle of the night. I finally got him back to sleep at 4. And I went to work while he took a 2 1/2 hour nap at daycare in the afternoon.
Not surprisingly, Monday night we were a little anxious about the evening. To make things more interesting, Maximus woke up before 10. Then Quinten was up, too. Two crying babies and two exhausted parents who tried to go to sleep at 9:30. Yippee! I finally got Maximus back to sleep and then tried to figure out what was going on with Quinten. He nursed a couple of times and I thought he was ready to go back to bed. BUT. Every time we tried to put him down he would wake up screaming. UNTIL 12:30. I stood in my room swaying and bouncing until well after midnight. Every time I tried to sit down he would wake up. I finally figured out a very awkward way to sit on my bed and keep bouncing him. He fell into a fitful sleep for three hours while I bounced him about every twenty minutes when he woke up. At 3:30 I finally put him in the pack ‘n play. That was quite the night!
It was a hard couple of nights and even worse work days, but we made it through them. His sleep schedule appears to be back to normal and I’m trying to convince my body that it shouldn’t be more tired after a night of only one wake up.
My lesson learned? Babies are forever changing and you can’t predict what they’ll do next. Last week Quinten weighed 14.5 pounds. On Wednesday night he weighed 16 pounds. I’ll stop analyzing why he woke up. And wonder why I’m eating like a teenage boy. Quinten Growth Spurt: 1, Mommy: 0.
