It is pretty common for babies around 6-12 months to experience a deterioration in their sleeping habits. Teething, their bodies' need to practice newly developing skills like crawling and standing, and burgeoning separation anxiety conspire to keep them up at night. Oh yeah, and their parents. And let me tell you, it sucks.
I feel kind of guilty complaining about this, because for the first few months of her life, when most babies are having difficulty with the difference between day and night, and their sleeping is erratic at best, Baby Sister was an excellent sleeper. I am, of course, going to complain anyway, because I am tired. She was very reliable - she would go down about 7:30, wake at about 2:00 to nurse, go back down and sleep until about 6:30. It was beautiful. I guess I must have gloated about it or something - although I swear I have no recollection of that - because ever since the appearance of the teeth (she cut the first two in November, and it was over pretty quickly, but now all the rest, including her adult teeth and wisdon teeth, are all coming in at once) she just doesn't want to sleep. Instead of drifting back off to dreamland after nursing in the wee hours, she will pull her head back, look up at me, and say "Hi!" very charmingly and enthusiastically. It is significantly less charming at 3:00 AM than, say, 3:00 PM.
Well, I'll quit whining now. Anybody reading this who has kids knows what I am talking about. And anybody who does not yet have kids can sympathize, but not completely. I will just drink my coffee and daydream (not actually dream, because you have to be asleep for that) of better days.
|