A History of Marin's Sleep
or AKA Sometimes Sleeplessness Nights
or AKA The Night Nursling
or AKA Why Mama Acts Psychotic Some Days
According to Dr. Sears; the famous pediatrician,
attachment parenting advocate and father of 8 (I believe), says there are "sleepers" and "high needs sleepers". "Sleepers" go to sleep quite easily, usually at a very young age they start sleeping through the night. These are they type of babies whose parents have to wake them up to eat in the very early days. "High needs sleepers" are none of those things. Marin is a HNS.
Now if you are reading this and expecting a child or have not yet had children I highly recommend you read sleep books BEFORE you have sleep problems. (My fav.'s are Elizabeth Pantely's No Cry Sleep Solution books, they are very AP friendly and very baby friendly, meaning its the gentle way to improve your child's sleep behavior) If you do what I have done, read sleep books and articles after you realize you have a HNS then you have some real back tracking to do... and boy do we ever. So here's the scoop on our HNS.
When I was a brand new mother I nursed Marin to sleep every time, so her sleep association equals; "I am unable to fall asleep without nae nae". Also (according to Pantley) if a child falls asleep and a parent is with them at the time of sleep, if they awake and that parent is not there it really freaks them out. For example if you fell asleep in your bed and woke up on the kitchen floor you would be a bit freaked out because that's not how you fell asleep. I'm saying all of this because its important to know that Marin is not only a HNS but I have not given her very good tools to learn how to sleep.
HOWEVER there is hope, Marin has fallen asleep 2 times this week with Todd telling her stories, singing songs, and tickling her "arnst" (or arms if you don't speak Marin). We are all working very hard in this household to help Marin understand that she is very capable of falling asleep without mama and that she can fall asleep with dada and at some point by her self. As a mother 2 times is all I need to be singing a VICTORY song! Yeah Marin, Dadda and Mama for working so hard this week.
I guess the reason for this entry is because, well its what is on my mind. Also as I was watching my baby sleep the other evening I was thinking about how big she has gotten and that I have an almost two year old (she's just about to turn 20 months). I was thinking about how completely crazy toddlers are, and how much she wears me out some times. But ya know, no matter how crazy she is during the day, no matter how many developmental steps or leaps she takes she still looks like a little baby when she's sleeping. I came across a few pictures and wanted to post them.
Remember when Marin was a tiny newborn and would only sleep with a hat over her eyes! Also can you see the baby acne on her cheek. She's going to hate me for having these pictures.
This was taken before we knew the hat over the eyes trick so she's covering her own eyes. She's also sleeping very comfortably in our bed in my favorite p.j's., little scooters.
Marin's very favorite way to sleep, on mama's body in a sling. This was our favorite sling of all times, while we love and use the Ergo now, our wrap was by far the longest, most used and most comfortable sling for baby and mama too.
Well we are about to travel for a few weeks and so all of our hard work may be tossed out the window, but we are still trying to gently help Marin develop healthy sleep habits. This has been my biggest lesson in patience and trying to practice parenting Marin for who she is, not who I would like or want her to be, but still learning how to set boundaries. Heck, I sleep with two pillows, a blankie, a husband, only on my tummy diagonally across the bed-- maybe HNS are genetic! I'm sure this was not inherited from her father who sleeps in the same position all night, on the very edge of the bed because that's all the room he gets.
Marin and Todd picked up a big surprise while out one day. This is Marin's new water toy. We all love it.
Hey Mom I'm on a "big turtle!"
Mommy and Marin floating along.
Mairn learning to swim. This is her coming out of the water. She's very brave but not very good at floating yet.
Happy Birthday America! Marin and Parker went to their Thursday morning story time and Mrs. Wilma gave them these water bottle noise makers and pinwheel headbands. Then later in the day Marin and Parker did a paint project--see the painting behind her on the wall. This was done by dipping or dunking little toy balls into paint and then throwing them onto the paper.
This is how Marin smiles when we say "Marin smile for the picture"
and then this is how she protests smiling.
Ok to finish that sentince, "No matter how hard I try, its still a mess!"
