Then, I open my eyes, and realize that tonight, this is my reality:
I'm tired. Not the "I've had a busy day and now I'm looking forward to crawling into pyjamas and sipping green tea while watching Netflix" kind of tired. I'm the kind of tired you ONLY get from repeatedly ping-ponging back and forth from crib to bed while attending to a rowdy infant kind of tired. The kind of tired that has your spouse holding a mirror under your nose as you stand mindlessly washing bottles at the sink, for fear that you've stopped breathing.
I teach child development. I stand in front of a lot of students and tell them that the typical infant sleeps from about 15 - 18 hours a day. I know the stats, I know the norms. And yet, here is my toothless beauty snubbing his nose at all the stats, laughing in the face of norms.
I KNOW I should be establishing good sleep hygiene right now. I KNOW that recent research into sleep in infancy shows that sleep patterns observed at 9 months tend to be the same sleep patterns observed once the child is pre-school age. I KNOW that he needs his non-REM sleep for growth and his REM sleep for healthy brain development. The problem is, it doesn't matter what I know...it matters what HE knows. And what he knows right now is that the "right" way to get to sleep is to be wildly bounced around to Xavier Rudd, soother perched ever so gently on the tip of his bottom lip, until he's solidly asleep...then, according to him, some sort of tele-portation process occurs where he somehow winds up in his crib, sometime in the middle of the night. At this point, he also knows with certainty that making a high-pitched shrieking noise will most certainly bring a wild-haired parent to bed-side to give warm milk and more rocking. So, what to do?
First, the self-flagellation. I have advanced studies in both behaviour management AND child development...how could I have done this? I already did this with my daughter, 14 years ago, except her addiction was me singing and her fists wrapped up in my hair. What was I thinking? But, wait...maybe, just maybe, he doesn't sleep as much as other infants do because I am TOO good a parent. Huh? Huh? Right? No? oh. Autostimulation theory of infant sleep theorizes that infants who are in an enriched environment with a lot of stimulation don't NEED as much sleep as infants in a more neglectful environment, because they are getting adequate amount of stimulation for brain growth while awake; therefore, their own brains don't need to stimulate new neuronal connections while they're asleep! YES!!! That MUST be it! Why? Well, okay, mostly because it allows me to save face...there is NOTHING better than a good rationalization.
But now, I've come to that humble stage of sleep grief called "acceptance." We've created this mess, time to figure out how to clean it up.
Researching how best to do this can be a trial-by-fire for couples. Luckily, we are on the same page (or more literally, on the same website). We already tried the family bed, and discovered that our little bear actually sleeps worse with us...which left us smarting with rejection, but we stoically marched onward.
We've decided to try a modified version of the Ferber method. This method is, to the gentle folk, called "progressive waiting" and to the hard-core, boot-camp types "cry it out." Those of you who know me will be laughing to yourselves, because I tried this once with my daughter a LONG time ago and lasted exactly 2 minutes, 11 seconds before crashing into the room, tears streaming down my face, publicly denouncing my right to be a parent and apologizing over and over again to a puzzled, no longer wailing, infant. Right now, those people will be calling their bookies, putting their money on Nikolai. :)
But we've made modifications about the times we're willing to wait and the conditions under which we put him down which should reduce a lot of unnecessary crying. And I hope, within a week or two, I can report to you that my little bear is hibernating through the night and actually napping during the day. So, lay your bets, people...I'll keep you posted. :)