The baby of the family Usurper has declared that sleep is for losers and she is having none of it. Her current routine involves going to sleep around 10:30pm if we are lucky, after midnight on a bad night. Waking for a feed in the early morning and then going back to sleep for a few hours. During the day she may have a couple of catnaps if we are lucky.
This in turn has lead to Little Miss the toddler and therefore ruler and supreme being of the house joining in the fun and openly declaring a going to bed boycott. This has lead to Little Miss looking far to haggard for an almost 3 year old, conversely the baby seems to be fine with it.
Usurper is a generally happy baby, and unless you are trying to put her to bed she doesn’t cry much at all. Maybe it is just her body clock and she is a night owl like dear old dad.
Wife on the other hand is not a night owl and is a person would given free reign would happily sleep for 10-12 hours a day (which she did when we first met). I have always got by happily on 5-6 hours, with one big 10 hour sleep about once a month, although as a sleep in is out of the question that hasn’t happened in years.
The upshot is we are living in a very tense and fragile environment at the moment, with a lot of walking on egg shells and frayed nerves.
That is for everyone except Usurper who seems to be oblivious for the chaos and disharmony she is inflicting on her world, a bit like George W now I come to think of it…….
The one highlight is that Little Miss is pretty much potty trained now and apart from the first 2 days there hasn’t been even the slightest accident. The need to do a poo in the potty does still however require a lot of ’self talk’ on her behalf for a good 30 minutes before the event. She wanders up and down the hall way telling herself that it is ‘ok’ and that ‘it’ll be fine’ and the clincher is always the phrase ‘When I do a poo in the potty I will get a treat!’ - when you hear that you know it is time to batten down the hatches because the time is finally upon us.
Maybe she can teach Usurper the knack of self talk?
Technorati Tags: toddler, daddy, potty training, baby, sleep
Hi ToddlerDaddy
Caleb, our 4 day old baby, has been waking every 30-45min; sometimes due to hunger, sometimes just for the heck of it. And each time he starts feeding, he knocks off to la-la-land after only a few gulps.
So, I fully identify with the lack of sleep induced tension at home. You can imagine what Mummee is going through- not having “proper” and uninterrupted sleep for a long time now. She not only hates me the man for putting her through the birth ordeal, she now can chew off anyone’s head. Lucky for me mother-inlaw is around to help out and deflect the bombardment like Neo with Agent Smith’s bullets.
And given Usurper is already 6 months old and yet there is still tension, is this something for me to (not) look forward to??
Oh, I understand your ordeal perfectly. You’ll need to go on a holiday somewhere that’s is in a timezone 3 hours ahead of where you are.
It worked for us when we went over to Australia for our holiday. These days the boys are asleep latest by 11pm! Before that Micah could stay up as late as past 1am! Our decision is, if they readjust to their old sleeping ways and we can’t take it anymore, we will go for another holiday in Oz or NZ.
Haha.. good excuse to get away!
Jlow - in my experience it doesn’t matter how old the child is, the tension in the house is directly related to the amount of sleep that is being achieved. Things that normally don’t matter at all can get you into all sorts of trouble - especially the classics like leaving the toilet seat up.
I am expecting a return to normal around 2010 - by which time I doubt I will even remember what normal was
Moomykin - I like your solution, maybe we just give up on adjusting the kids body clocks and move to where that body clock just fits in naturally with the working day!