Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

When I saw Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child recommended in Christianity Today, my interest was piqued. I haven't had a lot of respect for popular sleep theories, whether it was Dr. W. Sears and his family bed concept (not an easy way for Mike and I to get a good nights sleep) to Babywise that is based in bad theology and devoid of science. So I vowed to read one more theory and see what I thought.

Our family history of sleep goes like this. Ben came into this world and despite a traumatic birth figured out the eating and sleeping thing in no time and did everything very nicely. I remember my grandma commenting that she'd never seen a baby go down to sleep so easily. I remember thinking, Is that unusual? He was sleeping 8-9 hours a night at 5 months (uninterrupted), eating at 6 or 7 and going back to sleep until 9. We had no idea how good we had it.

Then we had Kyrie. First she couldn't figure out eating and was losing weight rapidly. Then when we solved that problem (with blood, sweat, and tears), she quit sleeping. And never really gained her footing with a normal sleep cycle. I just kept thinking she would grow out of it anyday and I had to be patient. At four, she hasn't.

Then we had Everleigh. Ev quickly figured out sleeping and slept through the night from 3-8 months. And then stopped. I assumed she was going through separation anxiety and it would be over in a few weeks. Then I thought perhaps it was teething, and it would be over soon. When she turned 1, I put this book on hold at the library.

And as I read it, I was struck by two things: 1) Kyri is the classic sleep deprived child. 2) Everleigh's problems are not about her natural sleep patterns but about her mother and a little bit too much coddling because she is my last baby.

Because Ev is the youngest and has less bad history, I decided to tackle her first. We set up the pack and play in Kyri's room three nights ago and moved her in there. Kyri never sleeps in her own bed anyway so she gladly moved down to the living room papasan chair. The book had prepared me for several weeks of wailing. She cried at the beginning of the night but I expected to be woken up 3 or 4 times like I usually am. At best we had Ev sleeping 10 hours at night. The first night she slept 11.5. Two nights ago she woke up once after we put her down and cried for a couple of minutes and went back to sleep. And slept 12 hours. Last night she slept 13.5 hours.

All to say that I recommend Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It is based in scientific studies and looks at the child's needs first (to develop good sleep habits) and then the parents (to get good sleep themselves).

We plan to tackle Kyri next and the strategies for a 4-yr old aren't nearly as fun. But I've started with a few things with Kyri already and seen small changes already. We have to get her in her bed which we hadn't been able to do when we didn't trust Evie not to wake her up all night long. Now I'm more concerned about Kyri waking up Everleigh.

We're on our way.